{"id":2910,"date":"2022-12-16T14:15:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T19:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=2910"},"modified":"2022-12-16T14:15:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T19:15:35","slug":"newborn-angels-arrive-in-time-for-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/newborn-angels-arrive-in-time-for-the-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Newborn Angels Arrive in Time for the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lauren Shin Staff Writer and Sara Solimani Opinions Editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mrs. Appel and her baby, Juniper
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Nothing\u2019s better than spending the end of the year with your loving family, and River Hill teachers Mr. Jesse Childress and Mrs. Caroline Appel would agree. Mr. Childress and Mrs. Appel shared their experiences of having a new child and the glory, as well as struggles, that come with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Childress, a math teacher here at River Hill High School, recently returned from his two week long paternity leave after the addition of a baby boy to his family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every one of his AP Calculus BC students would know that his anticipation leading up to the big moment could not be contained: \u201cHe asked us for ideas for naming his kid,\u201d shares senior Tiffany Liu, a student of Mr. Childress. \u201cI thought Isaac was a good name but [Mr. Childress] named him Arthur.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Childress shares an interesting insight regarding teachers and their struggles of naming a baby: \u201cWe didn\u2019t name him after any particular person but it\u2019s difficult when you\u2019re a teacher because after a long time of teaching, every single name reminds me of somebody. I wanted a name I don’t have any negative association with. My wife and I both liked Arthur; it\u2019s not totally common but also not obscure and strange or rare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this transition from being a teacher to a full-time parent and back can be tough. Even though Mr. Childress gave his students a heads-up months before taking his leave, \u201cthe difficult thing was that it\u2019s unpredictable so I didn\u2019t know exactly when I would be out. I just had to keep reminding my students like, \u2018Oh I might not be coming back next Monday\u2019 over and over again.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also mentions that the school system allows teachers to leave for up to six weeks, but teachers know that students depend on their presence. \u201cI know no one\u2019s teaching my class so there\u2019s a certain responsibility and pressure to put up with. I was able to return shortly after, but I can\u2019t imagine what the women teachers feel when they have to recover,\u201d says Mr. Childress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As expected, Mr. Childress\u2019s absence had a large impact on his students, as senior Adam Bahrain shares. He says that \u201cthe transition from him being gone and us just doing AP practices every day to him coming back and going straight into a new lesson was horrible. It was so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Childress acknowledges this by admitting, \u201cIt was a little bit challenging because students mostly didn\u2019t remember what they weren\u2019t doing before. And I came back to like 200 emails, so the first day back was like the first day of school all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, I feel pretty comfortable because we have a nanny at home and she\u2019s terrific. My wife and I are definitely more rested this time around because when my first was born in April 2020, which was when we were first in lockdown, so it was a struggle teaching online and caring for the baby, but it was nice I was able to be home and help out this time,\u201d shares Mr. Childress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another teacher that can relate would be Mrs. Appel, who teaches art and photography. She recently came back from her maternity leave since the birth of her baby girl, Juniper. Mrs. Appel\u2019s first day back was on November 16. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She reveals that the reason behind her baby\u2019s name is because, \u201c[her] whole family loves nature, and Juniper is also the name of a tree and a bush. The tree\u2019s common name is an eastern red cedar but the scientific name is juniperus virginiana and it’s a native tree to the Maryland area so we love the name Juniper. I also just love the sound of it, like I even just liked the sound of the name June, but by itself it didn\u2019t feel like the right name,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her students are definitely excited to finally have Mrs. Appel back in the school and can\u2019t wait to see her again. Some students have been long awaiting her return and are relieved that she\u2019s able to teach class again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Micah Hostovitch, a junior in her Photo 1 GT class, says, \u201cThe class definitely wasn\u2019t as vigorous without her here, but I\u2019m looking forward to more in depth instruction concerning photography,\u201d Adding on, J Nguyen, a sophomore in her art 2 GT and photo 1 GT class, expresses, \u201cI like Ms. Appel [being back] since she seems more passionate about photography and art,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mrs. Appel mentions her experience returning to school after not being in the building until recently, and comments, \u201cIt is so weird coming back to school in the middle of the school year\u2026 I was really anxious about coming back mid-November because I had been home the whole time and I knew I had never met probably 90% of my students before,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it was hard having to learn all of the new faces so far into the year, she did enjoy having the time off to spend with her newborn.\u201cI can\u2019t even express how important it is to have this extra time with my baby to take care of her and to get to know who she is as a person and to be able to grow together,\u201d Mrs Appel voices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking such a long time off from school can be hard, but it can also be relaxing to be able to spend time with family. Regardless, Mr. Childress and Mrs. Appel are happy to finally be back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lauren Shin Staff Writer and Sara Solimani Opinions Editor Nothing\u2019s better than spending the end of the year with your loving family, and River Hill teachers Mr. Jesse Childress and Mrs. Caroline Appel would agree. Mr. Childress and Mrs. Appel shared their experiences of having a new child and the glory, as well as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/unnamed-1-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2910"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2931,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions\/2931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}