{"id":397812,"date":"2023-08-24T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=397812"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"1st-day-of-classes-went-smoothly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/1st-day-of-classes-went-smoothly\/","title":{"rendered":"\u20181st day of classes went smoothly\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first day of the 2023-2024 school year last Tuesday went smoothly, according to CNMI Public School System Education Commissioner Dr. Alfred Ada yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

Citing reports from teachers after the first day of classes, Ada said that many were \u201cvery ecstatic about returning to school. It\u2019s because of having new students and the new high quality instructional materials that we are implementing this year. So, the teachers are pretty excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that principals reported that \u201cup to the last minute they were making sure that we are ready to open the doors for our students\u2014and for the most part I would say everyone opened with enthusiasm and positive vibes.\u201d<\/p>\n

To combat the anticipated traffic due to road construction throughout Saipan, PSS implemented a new bell schedule for middle schools, from 8am to 8:30am, and for high schools, from 8:30am to 9am. The elementary schedule still starts at 7:30am.<\/p>\n

With the later start time of classes also comes the later end time. Ada said that interscholastic sports competitions would have to start at a later time than usual, but that there will still be sports throughout the school year.<\/p>\n

Ada added that they might implement \u201cbefore-school\u201d programs instead of after-school programs as high school classes end at 3:45pm.<\/p>\n

He said they will try to entice students who come to the campus early to begin their school club meetings and other extra-curricular activities in the morning before classes start. With the new class schedules, there would be no time for students to \u201cmess around,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

As for the fast-paced advancement of technology and learning in the 21st century, PSS strives to evolve with it, but also ensures that they still teach the basics, which are reading and math.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also changing with the times. A lot of our lessons, our apps, or our daily activities\u2014most of them are toward the digital arena,\u201d said Ada. \u201cHowever, we still have to teach the basics of reading and math. Even if technology is there, the one thing we cannot change is the human connection\u2014the social piece. \u2026My philosophy in education is the social aspect\u2014all means all\u2014everybody is inclusive, everybody learns together, everybody grows together, and that\u2019s what K-12 is all about. \u2026Student success and student safety is very important.\u201d (Leigh Gases)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dr. Alfred Ada<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first day of the 2023-2024 school year last Tuesday went smoothly, according to CNMI…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}