Why doesn’t MCPS do a 6th/9th graders only first day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about 9th grade, but pre-covid there was definitely a day for 6th graders to go to an "orientation" right before the first day of school.

They have those in AACPS too, but they still have the first day reserved for 6th and 9th graders. Sometimes the older kids come in as mentors and help on tours and mentor freshman in their homeroom classes throughout the year. It’s good for college applications.

So you want a second 6th/9th graders only first day? Why not three or four?

An orientation right before the first day of school isn’t the same thing as a 9th grader or 6th grader only first day. Orientations are brief and mostly informational. The 9th/6th grader only first day in AACPS is more like an actual day of school where the bells ring and you see all your teachers briefly (20 mins), get tours of the building, have icebreaker activities, get a feel of the school culture, and get a feel of how school will be. You don’t get that experience when you’re sitting in an auditorium next to your parents.

MCPS does all of this just in a different way. In addition to the Thursday orientation, which includes everything you’re wanting, MSs have activities during the week before school starts for sixth graders such as picnics, time to practice using lockers, purchasing gym clothes, meeting home room teachers and counselors, etc. HS 101 is offered and it’s a week long sometime in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about 9th grade, but pre-covid there was definitely a day for 6th graders to go to an "orientation" right before the first day of school.

They have those in AACPS too, but they still have the first day reserved for 6th and 9th graders. Sometimes the older kids come in as mentors and help on tours and mentor freshman in their homeroom classes throughout the year. It’s good for college applications.

So you want a second 6th/9th graders only first day? Why not three or four?

An orientation right before the first day of school isn’t the same thing as a 9th grader or 6th grader only first day. Orientations are brief and mostly informational. The 9th/6th grader only first day in AACPS is more like an actual day of school where the bells ring and you see all your teachers briefly (20 mins), get tours of the building, have icebreaker activities, get a feel of the school culture, and get a feel of how school will be. You don’t get that experience when you’re sitting in an auditorium next to your parents.

Yes, that is what MCPS does for 6th graders and 9th graders on the Thursday before the first day of school. Without parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about 9th grade, but pre-covid there was definitely a day for 6th graders to go to an "orientation" right before the first day of school.

They have those in AACPS too, but they still have the first day reserved for 6th and 9th graders. Sometimes the older kids come in as mentors and help on tours and mentor freshman in their homeroom classes throughout the year. It’s good for college applications.

So you want a second 6th/9th graders only first day? Why not three or four?

An orientation right before the first day of school isn’t the same thing as a 9th grader or 6th grader only first day. Orientations are brief and mostly informational. The 9th/6th grader only first day in AACPS is more like an actual day of school where the bells ring and you see all your teachers briefly (20 mins), get tours of the building, have icebreaker activities, get a feel of the school culture, and get a feel of how school will be. You don’t get that experience when you’re sitting in an auditorium next to your parents.

That’s exactly what my HS student had on the Thursday before they started 9th grade. It was essentially the same schedule as a typical half-day teacher workday or whatever, complete with bus ride. The only thing missing was lunch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about 9th grade, but pre-covid there was definitely a day for 6th graders to go to an "orientation" right before the first day of school.

They have those in AACPS too, but they still have the first day reserved for 6th and 9th graders. Sometimes the older kids come in as mentors and help on tours and mentor freshman in their homeroom classes throughout the year. It’s good for college applications.

So you want a second 6th/9th graders only first day? Why not three or four?

An orientation right before the first day of school isn’t the same thing as a 9th grader or 6th grader only first day. Orientations are brief and mostly informational. The 9th/6th grader only first day in AACPS is more like an actual day of school where the bells ring and you see all your teachers briefly (20 mins), get tours of the building, have icebreaker activities, get a feel of the school culture, and get a feel of how school will be. You don’t get that experience when you’re sitting in an auditorium next to your parents.

Yes, that is what MCPS does for 6th graders and 9th graders on the Thursday before the first day of school. Without parents.

They literally go through their whole schedule in order, finding their classrooms and having 15 minutes or so with each teacher. Buses run as usual, so kids can practice before the first day. No parents.

[Anonymous]

They usually have an orientation.

[Anonymous]

When my older DD went to Blair there was a day only for 9th graders that was separate from Orientation. Orientation was the Thursday before school started. This was on a Monday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know about 9th grade, but pre-covid there was definitely a day for 6th graders to go to an "orientation" right before the first day of school.

They have those in AACPS too, but they still have the first day reserved for 6th and 9th graders. Sometimes the older kids come in as mentors and help on tours and mentor freshman in their homeroom classes throughout the year. It’s good for college applications.

So you want a second 6th/9th graders only first day? Why not three or four?

An orientation right before the first day of school isn’t the same thing as a 9th grader or 6th grader only first day. Orientations are brief and mostly informational. The 9th/6th grader only first day in AACPS is more like an actual day of school where the bells ring and you see all your teachers briefly (20 mins), get tours of the building, have icebreaker activities, get a feel of the school culture, and get a feel of how school will be. You don’t get that experience when you’re sitting in an auditorium next to your parents.

This absolutely happens the Thursday before the first day of school in moco. Buses run on am early dismissal schedule and the students run through all classes. Are your kids just not old enough to have experienced this yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They’d have to pay the teachers an extra day?

Maybe they could balance this out by giving the central office fewer bonus holidays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’d have to pay the teachers an extra day?

Yeah, but it would be worth it. Freshman would get a day to learn the building, test out their schedule, make friends from the other feeder schools, and engage in meaningful activities before the upperclassmen come back. I could especially see something like this being useful for 9th graders entering DCC high schools.

Even colleges do the same thing. Freshman generally move in a day or two before the upperclassmen do.

But why is it preferable to have them do all of those things without upperclassmen present? I don't get it.

[Anonymous]

At our MS, TPMS, they did a special orientation day for 6th graders. Well, it was more like 3-5 days where kids could sign up to walk through their classes and sit through some orientation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our MS, TPMS, they did a special orientation day for 6th graders. Well, it was more like 3-5 days where kids could sign up to walk through their classes and sit through some orientation.

SSIMS had something similar, on selected days over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They do this in Anne Arundel County. The first day at a middle school will only have 6th graders, and the first day at a high school will only have 9th graders. The upper grades in the middle and high schools return the following day. This allows for the middle and high schools to engage in special activities with their 6th/9th graders, take them on tours of the building, informational rotations, team building activities etc, and gets the newbies acclimated to the school before the bigger kids come back the next day.

They do this in MCPS too. The only difference is that it happens on the Thursday before school starts and it's a half day instead of a full day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our MS, TPMS, they did a special orientation day for 6th graders. Well, it was more like 3-5 days where kids could sign up to walk through their classes and sit through some orientation.

SSIMS had something similar, on selected days over the summer.

Eastern also had some days over the summer for an overall orientation to the school, but kids didn’t know their schedules at that point.

The Friday before school started, they did another day for 6th graders and new students with the full bus routes, go through your schedules in order and meet all your teachers, etc. 8th graders on hand to help navigate hallways and answer questions. I’m pretty sure every MCPS school does something like this for 6th and 9th graders the week before school starts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They’d have to pay the teachers an extra day?

Yeah, but it would be worth it. Freshman would get a day to learn the building, test out their schedule, make friends from the other feeder schools, and engage in meaningful activities before the upperclassmen come back. I could especially see something like this being useful for 9th graders entering DCC high schools.

Even colleges do the same thing. Freshman generally move in a day or two before the upperclassmen do.

But why is it preferable to have them do all of those things without upperclassmen present? I don't get it.

I'm answering as a high school teacher, and as a parent of kids who went to orientation, although none of us are in MCPS.

It's nice for 9th graders to have a chance to learn to navigate the building when the halls aren't super crowded, and the only older students are ones who were particularly chosen because they are kind and helpful. At transitions in many public high schools the halls are so crowded it can be hard to see the room numbers on the doors, and many schools don't have intuitive numbering systems.

It sounds like MCPS does this, which is great. My kids and my students have benefited from those days too.