It's the most important meal of the day, and yesterday Suffield Middle School students and their families shared it with teachers.
"The reasoning for the morning breakfast is for students and parents to engage with teachers in a non-academic setting. By building personal relationships, students, parents and teachers can be more comfortable communicating (with each other)," said teacher Mario Carullo.
Each semester, the blue and white teams for seventh grade divide the class in half and send out invitations to students and their families. In this way, everyone gets to interact in the school setting.
Parent George Peroulakis joked that he attended "for the free donuts" but really apprecited the chance to see his son, Nick, interact with the staff and students.
"It's nice that they do this," he said of the faculty. "It shows you how much the teachers and faculty really care about the kids."
"Seventh graders are at an incredibly impressionable age," explained Carullo. "So we try to be positive role models outside of the class and emphasize the importance of a school-home partnership to parents. The teachers learn a lot about the students' hobbies and interests, especially from the students who are typically shy and do not share as much in class."
"If the student is comfortable in our classrooms, he can let go of their inhibition and focus on their academics," Carullo added.
