APS Kindergarten Info Night - Recording??

[Anonymous]

You just want to complain and the Kindergarten info night is just a pretext, yes?

Here's what you need to know about Kindergarten at APS:
1. Option schools exist, enter the lottery if are interested
2. You have a zoned neighborhood school if you don't want to go option. You can register in person or online.

There you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You just want to complain and the Kindergarten info night is just a pretext, yes?

Here's what you need to know about Kindergarten at APS:
1. Option schools exist, enter the lottery if are interested
2. You have a zoned neighborhood school if you don't want to go option. You can register in person or online.

There you go.

I guess I’d also like to understand the reading curriculum and use of iPads in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You just want to complain and the Kindergarten info night is just a pretext, yes?

Here's what you need to know about Kindergarten at APS:
1. Option schools exist, enter the lottery if are interested
2. You have a zoned neighborhood school if you don't want to go option. You can register in person or online.

There you go.

I guess I’d also like to understand the reading curriculum and use of iPads in the classroom.

Here you go. Looks like these will have the Q&A you are looking for: https://www.apsva.us/school-options/elementary-school-choices/elementary-school-info-sessions/

[Anonymous]

I seem to remember in-person kindergarten information night was just a gym full of parents and each school having a little table. It was hardly hard hitting information.

I do agree letting us know the presentation would be recorded and available at 6:30pm, instead of acting like it was a live meeting, would have be preferable. 6:30 is a busy time in our house.

But you are expecting too much from something that is aimed at people who are brand new to APS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You just want to complain and the Kindergarten info night is just a pretext, yes?

Here's what you need to know about Kindergarten at APS:
1. Option schools exist, enter the lottery if are interested
2. You have a zoned neighborhood school if you don't want to go option. You can register in person or online.

There you go.

I guess I’d also like to understand the reading curriculum and use of iPads in the classroom.

Once you know what school you are going to, you are free to contact the principal. It will be good for him or her to have a heads up that you are an incoming problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You just want to complain and the Kindergarten info night is just a pretext, yes?

Here's what you need to know about Kindergarten at APS:
1. Option schools exist, enter the lottery if are interested
2. You have a zoned neighborhood school if you don't want to go option. You can register in person or online.

There you go.

This. My 2nd is going to K in the fall, and I just wanted the lottery dates since we are at an option school. Got those, so it was useful but not required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they scheduelded it for 6:30 PM, but it was just a pre-recorded video? Did I miss something? Why did they have a posted time if it was just a canned presentation?

Am I being too cynical, and reading too much into this, or is APS trying to tell me something (ie be happy with your free childcare and you better like it, but your kid is not our priority).

From Duran's statement:

Two priorities for new year:

1) Equity for all students to positive affect educational outcomes
2) Engage with all families, to ensure families are engaged

Social-Emotional support and resources, so all students learn in a safe, healthy, supportive environment.

Between this presentation, hiring Duran (a former equity officer from FCPS), it feels like APS is focused solely on equity issues, and I worry my easy going, ready to learn kid will be left to her own devices while teacher and admin focuses on raising the SOL scores, feeding kids, and taking my kids academic outcome for granted.

I have an older kid in 4th grade, and his reading has always seemed behind to me, but teachers say he is fine and he just floats along, quite bored.

Also, GUESS which two elemetary schools are the only ones with PhD Principals... Dr Princpals may not be an indicator of quality, but it feels like an indicator of something.

You are way too cynical. If it was live, it would have been exactly the same. It was an information session not a Q and A. Having a focus on equity in a county like Arlington doesn't mean your kid will be ignored so the teacher can feed poor kids- that's absurd.

Yes, I am cynical. The pandemic burned us but even before that we felt like our kid was "fine" but a little behind. Like unable to read a book on their own, terrible spelling, seems bored at school. Reading is better now, but we hired a weekly tutor to work with her and though she is better, I feel like she is not where should be for a "good" school system. They still read books in class outloud rather than having assigned independent reading at home, and I remember reading a ton of books at this age?

You could take your kid to the library to pick out some books and have her read them at home. You don't have to wait for the school to assign them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I seem to remember in-person kindergarten information night was just a gym full of parents and each school having a little table. It was hardly hard hitting information.

I do agree letting us know the presentation would be recorded and available at 6:30pm, instead of acting like it was a live meeting, would have be preferable. 6:30 is a busy time in our house.

But you are expecting too much from something that is aimed at people who are brand new to APS.

OP here. Thank you this is I think the root cause of my ire; we put it in the calendar, hurried through dinner, scrambled and rushed to... a recording. I think besides my latent cynism from other beefs (we need a 4th high school, our kids reading neglect, reading about the HBW fixed lottery) it just kind of put me over the top. Why pretend its a live event?

Honestly, sure its for new parents, but education is going through a tidal wave of changes; I also know APS is moving away from lucy calkins, and speaking to the new reading curriculum or honstly anything concrete about academics (you know the purported purpose of a school) would have been reassuring. Instead it was a nothingburger that touted equity again. We get it. We are trying to make things equal. And then what happens... we never get past that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they scheduelded it for 6:30 PM, but it was just a pre-recorded video? Did I miss something? Why did they have a posted time if it was just a canned presentation?

Am I being too cynical, and reading too much into this, or is APS trying to tell me something (ie be happy with your free childcare and you better like it, but your kid is not our priority).

From Duran's statement:

Two priorities for new year:

1) Equity for all students to positive affect educational outcomes
2) Engage with all families, to ensure families are engaged

Social-Emotional support and resources, so all students learn in a safe, healthy, supportive environment.

Between this presentation, hiring Duran (a former equity officer from FCPS), it feels like APS is focused solely on equity issues, and I worry my easy going, ready to learn kid will be left to her own devices while teacher and admin focuses on raising the SOL scores, feeding kids, and taking my kids academic outcome for granted.

I have an older kid in 4th grade, and his reading has always seemed behind to me, but teachers say he is fine and he just floats along, quite bored.

Also, GUESS which two elemetary schools are the only ones with PhD Principals... Dr Princpals may not be an indicator of quality, but it feels like an indicator of something.

You are way too cynical. If it was live, it would have been exactly the same. It was an information session not a Q and A. Having a focus on equity in a county like Arlington doesn't mean your kid will be ignored so the teacher can feed poor kids- that's absurd.

Yes, I am cynical. The pandemic burned us but even before that we felt like our kid was "fine" but a little behind. Like unable to read a book on their own, terrible spelling, seems bored at school. Reading is better now, but we hired a weekly tutor to work with her and though she is better, I feel like she is not where should be for a "good" school system. They still read books in class outloud rather than having assigned independent reading at home, and I remember reading a ton of books at this age?

You could take your kid to the library to pick out some books and have her read them at home. You don't have to wait for the school to assign them.

Do you have kids? Sure I can browbeat my reluctant reader to read, or read with her when I'm not working/cleaning/cooking/etc, but having the school set an expectation of reading on their own, having them accountable, as well as the peer pressure with everyone having read the book is a whole lot more motivating. Kids are different with teachers than with their parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You just want to complain and the Kindergarten info night is just a pretext, yes?

Here's what you need to know about Kindergarten at APS:
1. Option schools exist, enter the lottery if are interested
2. You have a zoned neighborhood school if you don't want to go option. You can register in person or online.

There you go.

Lottery schools? Haha. The only lottery school with an academic focus is ATS, and good luck getting into that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they scheduelded it for 6:30 PM, but it was just a pre-recorded video? Did I miss something? Why did they have a posted time if it was just a canned presentation?

Am I being too cynical, and reading too much into this, or is APS trying to tell me something (ie be happy with your free childcare and you better like it, but your kid is not our priority).

From Duran's statement:

Two priorities for new year:

1) Equity for all students to positive affect educational outcomes
2) Engage with all families, to ensure families are engaged

Social-Emotional support and resources, so all students learn in a safe, healthy, supportive environment.

Between this presentation, hiring Duran (a former equity officer from FCPS), it feels like APS is focused solely on equity issues, and I worry my easy going, ready to learn kid will be left to her own devices while teacher and admin focuses on raising the SOL scores, feeding kids, and taking my kids academic outcome for granted.

I have an older kid in 4th grade, and his reading has always seemed behind to me, but teachers say he is fine and he just floats along, quite bored.

Also, GUESS which two elemetary schools are the only ones with PhD Principals... Dr Princpals may not be an indicator of quality, but it feels like an indicator of something.

You are way too cynical. If it was live, it would have been exactly the same. It was an information session not a Q and A. Having a focus on equity in a county like Arlington doesn't mean your kid will be ignored so the teacher can feed poor kids- that's absurd.

Yes, I am cynical. The pandemic burned us but even before that we felt like our kid was "fine" but a little behind. Like unable to read a book on their own, terrible spelling, seems bored at school. Reading is better now, but we hired a weekly tutor to work with her and though she is better, I feel like she is not where should be for a "good" school system. They still read books in class outloud rather than having assigned independent reading at home, and I remember reading a ton of books at this age?

You could take your kid to the library to pick out some books and have her read them at home. You don't have to wait for the school to assign them.

Do you have kids? Sure I can browbeat my reluctant reader to read, or read with her when I'm not working/cleaning/cooking/etc, but having the school set an expectation of reading on their own, having them accountable, as well as the peer pressure with everyone having read the book is a whole lot more motivating. Kids are different with teachers than with their parents.

Yes. We require our 1st grader to read independently for 30 minutes every night to earn things he wants to do like video games. It works for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they scheduelded it for 6:30 PM, but it was just a pre-recorded video? Did I miss something? Why did they have a posted time if it was just a canned presentation?

Am I being too cynical, and reading too much into this, or is APS trying to tell me something (ie be happy with your free childcare and you better like it, but your kid is not our priority).

From Duran's statement:

Two priorities for new year:

1) Equity for all students to positive affect educational outcomes
2) Engage with all families, to ensure families are engaged

Social-Emotional support and resources, so all students learn in a safe, healthy, supportive environment.

Between this presentation, hiring Duran (a former equity officer from FCPS), it feels like APS is focused solely on equity issues, and I worry my easy going, ready to learn kid will be left to her own devices while teacher and admin focuses on raising the SOL scores, feeding kids, and taking my kids academic outcome for granted.

I have an older kid in 4th grade, and his reading has always seemed behind to me, but teachers say he is fine and he just floats along, quite bored.

Also, GUESS which two elemetary schools are the only ones with PhD Principals... Dr Princpals may not be an indicator of quality, but it feels like an indicator of something.

You are way too cynical. If it was live, it would have been exactly the same. It was an information session not a Q and A. Having a focus on equity in a county like Arlington doesn't mean your kid will be ignored so the teacher can feed poor kids- that's absurd.

Yes, I am cynical. The pandemic burned us but even before that we felt like our kid was "fine" but a little behind. Like unable to read a book on their own, terrible spelling, seems bored at school. Reading is better now, but we hired a weekly tutor to work with her and though she is better, I feel like she is not where should be for a "good" school system. They still read books in class outloud rather than having assigned independent reading at home, and I remember reading a ton of books at this age?

You could take your kid to the library to pick out some books and have her read them at home. You don't have to wait for the school to assign them.

Do you have kids? Sure I can browbeat my reluctant reader to read, or read with her when I'm not working/cleaning/cooking/etc, but having the school set an expectation of reading on their own, having them accountable, as well as the peer pressure with everyone having read the book is a whole lot more motivating. Kids are different with teachers than with their parents.

Yes. We require our 1st grader to read independently for 30 minutes every night to earn things he wants to do like video games. It works for him.

Oh, your 1st grader. Gotcha. Talk to us in 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they scheduelded it for 6:30 PM, but it was just a pre-recorded video? Did I miss something? Why did they have a posted time if it was just a canned presentation?

Am I being too cynical, and reading too much into this, or is APS trying to tell me something (ie be happy with your free childcare and you better like it, but your kid is not our priority).

From Duran's statement:

Two priorities for new year:

1) Equity for all students to positive affect educational outcomes
2) Engage with all families, to ensure families are engaged

Social-Emotional support and resources, so all students learn in a safe, healthy, supportive environment.

Between this presentation, hiring Duran (a former equity officer from FCPS), it feels like APS is focused solely on equity issues, and I worry my easy going, ready to learn kid will be left to her own devices while teacher and admin focuses on raising the SOL scores, feeding kids, and taking my kids academic outcome for granted.

I have an older kid in 4th grade, and his reading has always seemed behind to me, but teachers say he is fine and he just floats along, quite bored.

Also, GUESS which two elemetary schools are the only ones with PhD Principals... Dr Princpals may not be an indicator of quality, but it feels like an indicator of something.

You are way too cynical. If it was live, it would have been exactly the same. It was an information session not a Q and A. Having a focus on equity in a county like Arlington doesn't mean your kid will be ignored so the teacher can feed poor kids- that's absurd.

Yes, I am cynical. The pandemic burned us but even before that we felt like our kid was "fine" but a little behind. Like unable to read a book on their own, terrible spelling, seems bored at school. Reading is better now, but we hired a weekly tutor to work with her and though she is better, I feel like she is not where should be for a "good" school system. They still read books in class outloud rather than having assigned independent reading at home, and I remember reading a ton of books at this age?

You could take your kid to the library to pick out some books and have her read them at home. You don't have to wait for the school to assign them.

Do you have kids? Sure I can browbeat my reluctant reader to read, or read with her when I'm not working/cleaning/cooking/etc, but having the school set an expectation of reading on their own, having them accountable, as well as the peer pressure with everyone having read the book is a whole lot more motivating. Kids are different with teachers than with their parents.

Yes. We require our 1st grader to read independently for 30 minutes every night to earn things he wants to do like video games. It works for him.

Oh, your 1st grader. Gotcha. Talk to us in 3 years.

I mean, he's read the whole Key Hunters series and your kid apparently can't read a book on her own, soooo....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So they scheduelded it for 6:30 PM, but it was just a pre-recorded video? Did I miss something? Why did they have a posted time if it was just a canned presentation?

Am I being too cynical, and reading too much into this, or is APS trying to tell me something (ie be happy with your free childcare and you better like it, but your kid is not our priority).

From Duran's statement:

Two priorities for new year:

1) Equity for all students to positive affect educational outcomes
2) Engage with all families, to ensure families are engaged

Social-Emotional support and resources, so all students learn in a safe, healthy, supportive environment.

Between this presentation, hiring Duran (a former equity officer from FCPS), it feels like APS is focused solely on equity issues, and I worry my easy going, ready to learn kid will be left to her own devices while teacher and admin focuses on raising the SOL scores, feeding kids, and taking my kids academic outcome for granted.

I have an older kid in 4th grade, and his reading has always seemed behind to me, but teachers say he is fine and he just floats along, quite bored.

Also, GUESS which two elemetary schools are the only ones with PhD Principals... Dr Princpals may not be an indicator of quality, but it feels like an indicator of something.

You are way too cynical. If it was live, it would have been exactly the same. It was an information session not a Q and A. Having a focus on equity in a county like Arlington doesn't mean your kid will be ignored so the teacher can feed poor kids- that's absurd.

Yes, I am cynical. The pandemic burned us but even before that we felt like our kid was "fine" but a little behind. Like unable to read a book on their own, terrible spelling, seems bored at school. Reading is better now, but we hired a weekly tutor to work with her and though she is better, I feel like she is not where should be for a "good" school system. They still read books in class outloud rather than having assigned independent reading at home, and I remember reading a ton of books at this age?

You could take your kid to the library to pick out some books and have her read them at home. You don't have to wait for the school to assign them.

Do you have kids? Sure I can browbeat my reluctant reader to read, or read with her when I'm not working/cleaning/cooking/etc, but having the school set an expectation of reading on their own, having them accountable, as well as the peer pressure with everyone having read the book is a whole lot more motivating. Kids are different with teachers than with their parents.

Yes. We require our 1st grader to read independently for 30 minutes every night to earn things he wants to do like video games. It works for him.

Oh, your 1st grader. Gotcha. Talk to us in 3 years.

I mean, he's read the whole Key Hunters series and your kid apparently can't read a book on her own, soooo....

Sure...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You just want to complain and the Kindergarten info night is just a pretext, yes?

Here's what you need to know about Kindergarten at APS:
1. Option schools exist, enter the lottery if are interested
2. You have a zoned neighborhood school if you don't want to go option. You can register in person or online.

There you go.

I guess I’d also like to understand the reading curriculum and use of iPads in the classroom.

Those will vary by school and teacher. You'll get more info on this and can ask specific questions at back to school night in the fall.