Swanson - new cohorting system?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 to OP. My rising 7th grader had a hard year in 6th and is upset to learn none of her friends are in her group. I really wish they'd give schedules in advance. The kids are stressed, and middle school is rough socially, so giving them a heads up that friends may or may not be in the same math or specials by letting them have their schedules this week is one less thing to be surprised by on Monday morning. I'd love to hear from parents of older kids how these cohorts worked out. I can see the theory that it means you have a smaller group of classmates and therefore build relationships. It also runs the risk that you have at smaller schools of not having enough exposure to find your people if for whatever reason you don't really click with this smaller group.

Kids will be fine and adapt, I'm sure. Covid and all the drama at Swanson last year seem to loom large this year and I wish we could give kids as much knowledge as possible to tamp down stress levels.

Um, sounds like kids are already finding out "before Monday morning" they may not be together? And even without team names, the groupings would be the same. Kids were most likely "grouped" on teacher teams the past few years because that's how the schools generally operate. Nobody should have assumed they'd always be with whoever they became close friends with anyway. Parents can and should "tamp down" stress levels on their own. I honestly don't understand why this is such a thing with parents every year. They don't give out schedules earlier precisely for this reason - they don't need parents calling to request changes so Sally can be with her bestie, who may or may not even be her bestie by December. Maybe Sallie is better-suited for the Gorilla teachers/classes than she is for the Beavers her best friend is with.

As a parent of "older kids" - two middle schoolers now in high school - the cohort system is fine. The teacher teams are more important than peer groups which are often quite fluid through middle and high school anyway. It's also a way for kids to learn the names and faces of more of their grade level classmates, some of whom they may find in their high school classes. The more people they know now, the more likely they will have "familiar faces" moving forward. This is particularly helpful for middle schools that split into different high schools. And as previously mentioned, lunch is by grade level in middle school. They also have their same extracurriculars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 8th grader is grumpy about this change too, but I don't get what the big deal is. If the whole grade was mixing together like last year, you still might not have ended up in class with your friends either. I remember this change mentioned at the end of last year (maybe at PTA or School Board meeting?) as a way for the Swanson teachers to be able to better focus on addressing the kids who were causing the problems. For example, Taser Kid would have been assigned to a team of teachers who could have come up with a strategy to address his behavior collectively, and maybe it wouldn't have ended with a taser coming to school due to all the missed warning signals. Swanson was chaos last year in the 7th grade, so I am happy for the additional structure.

It is not a system devised in order to address the problem kids.
It is an academic system that facilitates teacher teams for collaboration, grouping kids for academic needs, creating a sense of a smaller community by attending most of your classes with some of the same kids, etc.
Don't blame it on taser kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still haven't gotten anything in the mail about this and my kid is anxious to find out what group they are in. I wish they would just post it to Parent Vue instead of relying on snail mail.

This happened to us last year. Call the school. They will tell you over the phone.

I agree it's absurd and also a total waste of money to be mailing them out.

Schedules are being posted to ParentVue this afternoon. Should be available now, as they were to go "live" at 3:30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still haven't gotten anything in the mail about this and my kid is anxious to find out what group they are in. I wish they would just post it to Parent Vue instead of relying on snail mail.

This happened to us last year. Call the school. They will tell you over the phone.

I agree it's absurd and also a total waste of money to be mailing them out.

Schedules are being posted to ParentVue this afternoon. Should be available now, as they were to go "live" at 3:30.

Op here. Nothing for my kid. Will check again later though, thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still haven't gotten anything in the mail about this and my kid is anxious to find out what group they are in. I wish they would just post it to Parent Vue instead of relying on snail mail.

This happened to us last year. Call the school. They will tell you over the phone.

I agree it's absurd and also a total waste of money to be mailing them out.

Schedules are being posted to ParentVue this afternoon. Should be available now, as they were to go "live" at 3:30.

Thank you! Different MS, but my kid’s schedule is there now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 8th grader is grumpy about this change too, but I don't get what the big deal is. If the whole grade was mixing together like last year, you still might not have ended up in class with your friends either. I remember this change mentioned at the end of last year (maybe at PTA or School Board meeting?) as a way for the Swanson teachers to be able to better focus on addressing the kids who were causing the problems. For example, Taser Kid would have been assigned to a team of teachers who could have come up with a strategy to address his behavior collectively, and maybe it wouldn't have ended with a taser coming to school due to all the missed warning signals. Swanson was chaos last year in the 7th grade, so I am happy for the additional structure.

It is not a system devised in order to address the problem kids.
It is an academic system that facilitates teacher teams for collaboration, grouping kids for academic needs, creating a sense of a smaller community by attending most of your classes with some of the same kids, etc.
Don't blame it on taser kids.

Okay, but I am telling you that it was presented in the meeting that they were bringing back the teams due to all the disciplinary problems at Swanson last year. Not for any academic reason.

[Anonymous]

Mine just says “class schedule data not available for this school”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schedules are being posted to ParentVue this afternoon. Should be available now, as they were to go "live" at 3:30.

What school is this referencing? This is a Swanson thread, and the letter in the mail said they wouldn't get them until Monday. Just checked and nothing in ParentVue yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still haven't gotten anything in the mail about this and my kid is anxious to find out what group they are in. I wish they would just post it to Parent Vue instead of relying on snail mail.

This happened to us last year. Call the school. They will tell you over the phone.

I agree it's absurd and also a total waste of money to be mailing them out.

Schedules are being posted to ParentVue this afternoon. Should be available now, as they were to go "live" at 3:30.

Thank you! Different MS, but my kid’s schedule is there now.

Which school?! Not helpful if you don’t give more info.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine just says “class schedule data not available for this school”.

Same for WMS

[Anonymous]

My kids are in college now and they had these cohorts when they were at Swanson. The benefit is that the teachers on a given team do collaborate to some degree - your kid won't end up with a math, science, and English test all on the same day - and the teachers can talk when there is a student have issues in one class to see if that's a problem in other classes. The downside is if kids are on different teams than their friends, they won't have any core classes with them. They still have lunch together and could have electives together. At W&L they still do these cohorts for 9th grade (called learning communities, or something - just designated by #). I think it does help a big school feel smaller since they often see the same kids in their classes.

[Anonymous]

Have any other Swanson families NOT gotten a letter yet? It seems like we are the only ones. Guess I will have to call tomorrow if still nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in college now and they had these cohorts when they were at Swanson. The benefit is that the teachers on a given team do collaborate to some degree - your kid won't end up with a math, science, and English test all on the same day - and the teachers can talk when there is a student have issues in one class to see if that's a problem in other classes. The downside is if kids are on different teams than their friends, they won't have any core classes with them. They still have lunch together and could have electives together. At W&L they still do these cohorts for 9th grade (called learning communities, or something - just designated by #). I think it does help a big school feel smaller since they often see the same kids in their classes.

+1. We used to joke about which animal she would get every year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still haven't gotten anything in the mail about this and my kid is anxious to find out what group they are in. I wish they would just post it to Parent Vue instead of relying on snail mail.

This happened to us last year. Call the school. They will tell you over the phone.

I agree it's absurd and also a total waste of money to be mailing them out.

Schedules are being posted to ParentVue this afternoon. Should be available now, as they were to go "live" at 3:30.

Thank you! Different MS, but my kid’s schedule is there now.

Which school?! Not helpful if you don’t give more info.

Sorry – HB. Until yesterday afternoon, it just said “class schedule data not available for this school.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schedules are being posted to ParentVue this afternoon. Should be available now, as they were to go "live" at 3:30.

What school is this referencing? This is a Swanson thread, and the letter in the mail said they wouldn't get them until Monday. Just checked and nothing in ParentVue yet.

I thought it was a districtwide email via SchoolTalk. Maybe it was school-specific. Too bad, 'cause I thought it was actually a good idea for schedules to be posted at the same time systemwide for a change.
Sorry if I provided incorrect info.