Meeting with Principal before kindergarten - key questions to ask?

[Anonymous]

I'm a principal in FCPS, and this talk that meeting with the principal guarantees that your kids will get the worse teacher or that you'll be branded a troublemaker is just utter nonsense. Come on.

My colleagues and I meet with prospective parents throughout the year and welcome their input and questions. We get that many kindergarten parents are brand new to public school and what happens on a daily basis. I have put twins together at a parent's request because that was what the parent felt would be best, and I had no other information to suggest otherwise. There's no law that says they should/shouldn't be together. I trust that parents have their child's best interest at heart, and I've seen it work in many classrooms. If there's a problem that comes up with the twins being in the same class, then we'll work together to fix it. It's so much easier to figure out to solve those problems when we've ALREADY established a good working relationship. For me, as a principal, to discount parents because they want to meet is just stupid and makes my job a whole lot harder.

OP--go ahead and make your appointment. Share your questions and your hopes for your children at the school. The more comfortable you feel at school, the easier your kids' transition to kindergarten will be. As a mom of a first grader, I know that this is an exciting chapter you are about to begin next fall. Best wishes to you and your family.

[Anonymous]

We have twins in a MoCo public school and our principal and the teachers have been nothing but supportive throughout their early education. We kept them together in K and first and they are now separate in second. They have asked already to be together again next year but we'll wait until closer to Spring Break to figure out what's best. The principal is always willing to chat with us about our preference and has honored our request each year. Our teachers have had input along the way, too, and gave great recommendations about what we should do. The schools DO care about your kids -- ignore the posters who are telling you not to get in touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our school it seems like requests for special meetings like this assure you of getting the worst teacher. I would email the principal just about the aspect of putting them in the same class. Or perhaps talk with him/her at the K orientation. Definitely don't bring up the reading abilities thing. There will be other kids at or above yours, so nothing to note there.

I'm the K teacher who posted earlier. The bolded here is just ridiculous. Do parents really believe this? Trust me, administrators and teachers have much more important things to do than to stick it to some pushy parent by giving their child "the worst teacher."

OP, now that you've clarified, I would still bring this up at orientation and then follow-up with a meeting. Of course the admins do not have time to meet with 100 parents, but I know at my school I have met with prospective/future parents on occasion, with an administrator. It's not the rule, but certainly not uncommon either. You have valid questions, and especially if you are framing it as a request for their advice, the principal will meet with you.

Again, I'm going to say that the principal will likely say it's best to separate them. Be prepared for this, and do your own research in advance. I have been teaching K for 7 years, and prior to that I taught half-day Pre-K for several years. In Pre-K, we occasionally had twins and they could not be separated because there was only one morning class and one afternoon class. Of course, we made it work, but for the most part I saw two siblings who played only with each other and resisted making new friends, as well as usually a "dominant" twin. In one instance, I had brothers who dressed exactly alike and had temper tantrums when one of them had to be taken away from the group for assessment or went to the nurse or went to time-out, etc. It was a real process to help them develop their own independence. In kindergarten, I would not have had the freedom of time and curricular demands to work on that as much. At home, I'm pretty sure these boys were "the twins" and never expected to be different children. I think this scenario is probably what most teachers/admins assume will happen when twins are kept in the same class. This is only based on MY experience, however, so your mileage may vary. As I said, keep an open mind and do some research in advance.

But don't bring up the reading thing--irrelevant

[Anonymous]

01/02/2013 22:48: Would you mind telling us what school you are at?

[Anonymous]

22:48 here...Bells Mill Elementary in Potomac.