open houses that didn't wow you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was expecting the wow-effect by vising the NW private middle schools last year in preparation for our son (currently in 5th grade, Ward 3) graduation from his elementary DCPS school.

None of the schools we visited (GDS, St Albans, St Patrick, Holy Trinity) impressed us, at all. We found several aspects which would have not worked for him or did not convince us (in addition to the $$$ tuition). We then went to take a look at Basis as some parents from our ES had great words about it, but almost immediately ran away (office style building, long commuting, no outdoor space, no creativity).

At the end of this process, we are unexpectedly but firmly convinced that the best available option for him is our feeder DCPS middle school, Hardy. We are trying to convince as many parents we can from our current 5th grade. I can see that there's still some prejudice around the school, albeit decreasing. All the families who went to visit and talked to Principal & teachers came back very impressed by it. I believe that more than 50% of families form our 5th grade class will attend Hardy.

This is great to hear!!

[Anonymous]

^^ +1 you seem very sincere and I wish your family and Hardy the very best.

[Anonymous]

+2

[Anonymous]

Very unimpressed by LAMB open house last year. I had heard such great things that I expected to be wow'ed but was totally underwhelmed.

We were accepted in April and then they wow'ed us with much more in-depth discussions, tours, and presentations. And DC is there now and happy....

Sum: I don't think LAMB tries very hard at the Open Houses. (I have seen better presentations at their PTA meetings.) I bet Mundo Verde is the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't made the open house rounds this year, but last year I thought 2 Rivers was nice, but there were so many parents and it was just too crowded. I didn't care for SWS.

My kid is at SWS and we love it. But their open houses, in my experience, are nutty. The (sweet) principal is always totally inaudible and the presentations come off as kind of pie-in-the-sky.

In reality, though, it is a wonderful place.

See, I was totally underwhelmed there. Wouldn't send my kid there. Teachers largely unimpressive.

[Anonymous]

I think what I can add for parents who are reading this, is you may feel "underwhelmed" at an open house or you may not like a teacher or principal (who is trying to talk to all 200 parents who are asking questions at the same time) however, if you do like the concept of one of these schools, or have heard good things and want to find out more, talk to parents, maybe try and find another time to go back (many schools are having winter holiday events over the next few weeks) and get a different feel for the school.

Good luck to those of you in the lottery this year, I hope you find the best schools for your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very unimpressed by LAMB open house last year. I had heard such great things that I expected to be wow'ed but was totally underwhelmed.

We were accepted in April and then they wow'ed us with much more in-depth discussions, tours, and presentations. And DC is there now and happy....

Sum: I don't think LAMB tries very hard at the Open Houses. (I have seen better presentations at their PTA meetings.) I bet Mundo Verde is the same way.

I was impressed by LAMB's open house. It was refreshing that it was in both English and Spanish .

[Anonymous]

It was refreshing that a Spanish speaking school had presentation in English and Spanish? Are the other Spanish school open houses not the same?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very unimpressed by LAMB open house last year. I had heard such great things that I expected to be wow'ed but was totally underwhelmed.

We were accepted in April and then they wow'ed us with much more in-depth discussions, tours, and presentations. And DC is there now and happy....

Sum: I don't think LAMB tries very hard at the Open Houses. (I have seen better presentations at their PTA meetings.) I bet Mundo Verde is the same way.

I was impressed by LAMB's open house. It was refreshing that it was in both English and Spanish .

I believe this poster is a troll. If the only thing refreshing about a presentation was that it was offered in two languages, I feel sorry for you. What about the content, and information they had to offer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very unimpressed by LAMB open house last year. I had heard such great things that I expected to be wow'ed but was totally underwhelmed.

We were accepted in April and then they wow'ed us with much more in-depth discussions, tours, and presentations. And DC is there now and happy....

Sum: I don't think LAMB tries very hard at the Open Houses. (I have seen better presentations at their PTA meetings.) I bet Mundo Verde is the same way.

I was impressed by LAMB's open house. It was refreshing that it was in both English and Spanish .

I believe this poster is a troll. If the only thing refreshing about a presentation was that it was offered in two languages, I feel sorry for you. What about the content, and information they had to offer?

I understand why LAMB is done in two languages but it was really hard to follow and took a long time because of that reason. This was exacerbated by the fact that there were tons of uncontrolled kids roaming around playing noisily. (We had our 2 year old with us too, but we actually kept him entertained and with us - he was looking through a book - rather than running around behind the presentation and shrieking while the parents just shrugged.... really, if you can't get your kid to play quietly you need to take him outside).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a parent who worked one of the open houses last year mentioned here, I'd love if you could be more specific in these posts re: the open houses so we (at least at our school) could work to try and improve our open house.

If there were specific things like "could use more information, or the tour was boring"

It would be so helpful. Thanks.

PP, what school are you from? Happy to be more specific if I went to the open house last year for the school.

[Anonymous]

Here are my impressions from last year's open houses:

TWO RIVERS

LIKES - I liked that the students gave the tours. I was very impressed with the young tour guides. I also loved their honesty to our questions... especially their frustration with a lack of play space.

IMPROVEMENTS - I wish that an adult had come as well because the kids were good, but couldn't answer all of the adult questions. We stood outside some of the rooms and watched.


SWS

LIKES - I liked the tour and seeing the kids who seemed extremely happy and engaged. I liked seeing the art projects and the teacher who described their approach to art.

IMPROVEMENTS - I wasn't impressed with the Powerpoint presentation. Parents who are visiting multiple schools are trying to determine how the schools are DIFFERENT. Show us how you are different that other schools, not pictures of kids doing the same things that kids at other schools do. The presentation would be better if the principal got a dynamic parent (or teacher if possible) to talk about their personal experiences.


MUNDO VERDE

Likes - I went during the morning and requested a personal tour, which I got. The person showing me around was great and passionate about the school. I got a good feeling about the school primarily because of her personal descriptions. Positive personal stories definitely leave an impression!

IMPROVEMENTS - I would have liked to go into the classrooms. I didn't like the building at all. I didn't really understand the "green" thing. I saw the garbage project, but wanted to understand more about how being "green" translates into education.


CAPITOL HILL MONTESSORI

LIKES - I liked the Montessori method and the teachers seemed good.

IMPROVEMENT - I didn't like the presentation. I didn't gather any new knowledge about the school from it. Most of the info presented was on the website or was just photos of the kids. Also, no one was directing parents during the tour and it was a bit chaotic.


INSPIRED TEACHING

LIKES - I liked the class tours where I was given a few minutes in each class to observe. I gathered a lot from just watching the teachers and kids in action. I also liked that the principal gave the tour and she seemed very competent.

IMPROVEMENTS - Although I had a good feeling about the school, I didn't get a good sense of what they focus on - meaning what my child would be doing during the day. Seeing more examples of how a child interest translated into a classroom project would have been interesting.

APPLETREE - LINCOLN PARK

LIKES - the principal/lead teachers giving the tour were informative, but the most impactful was watching the students in the room.

IMPROVEMENTS - other than reducing the number of parents per tour I'm not sure what to improve; I saw from the classroom tour that it wasn't the right fit for my child, but I thought the tour was good (though cramped)


FYI... The school that we got into is not one of the schools on this list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very unimpressed by LAMB open house last year. I had heard such great things that I expected to be wow'ed but was totally underwhelmed.

We were accepted in April and then they wow'ed us with much more in-depth discussions, tours, and presentations. And DC is there now and happy....

Sum: I don't think LAMB tries very hard at the Open Houses. (I have seen better presentations at their PTA meetings.) I bet Mundo Verde is the same way.

I was impressed by LAMB's open house. It was refreshing that it was in both English and Spanish .

I believe this poster is a troll. If the only thing refreshing about a presentation was that it was offered in two languages, I feel sorry for you. What about the content, and information they had to offer?

Not a troll. Sincere. I feel sorry for you right back.
I thought it was refreshing to be at a presentation where the parents who speak Spanish as a first language were treated on an even playing field with everyone else . It felt like walking the walk on being dual language. It was also nice to hear the quality of the Spanish - since I have heard Spanish at some schools is not up to par. So what if it took a little longer. What would the alternative be? Segregated open houses? It is a dual language school it was nice to have a dual language open house.

The open house I went to last year also was informative about the curriculum about the professional development for teachers etc.

Just because someone has a different opinion from you does not make them a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very unimpressed by LAMB open house last year. I had heard such great things that I expected to be wow'ed but was totally underwhelmed.

We were accepted in April and then they wow'ed us with much more in-depth discussions, tours, and presentations. And DC is there now and happy....

Sum: I don't think LAMB tries very hard at the Open Houses. (I have seen better presentations at their PTA meetings.) I bet Mundo Verde is the same way.

I was impressed by LAMB's open house. It was refreshing that it was in both English and Spanish .

I believe this poster is a troll. If the only thing refreshing about a presentation was that it was offered in two languages, I feel sorry for you. What about the content, and information they had to offer?

Not a troll. Sincere. I feel sorry for you right back.
I thought it was refreshing to be at a presentation where the parents who speak Spanish as a first language were treated on an even playing field with everyone else . It felt like walking the walk on being dual language. It was also nice to hear the quality of the Spanish - since I have heard Spanish at some schools is not up to par. So what if it took a little longer. What would the alternative be? Segregated open houses? It is a dual language school it was nice to have a dual language open house.

The open house I went to last year also was informative about the curriculum about the professional development for teachers etc.

Just because someone has a different opinion from you does not make them a troll.

Your original post had no substance. Duh, it's a dual-language school.

[Anonymous]

Hello nice person making cogent and thoughtful points about the value of a real dual language open house which does not privelege english over Spanish. Thanks for your thoughts and please ignore the rude and culturally incompetent person who keeps calling you a troll. The rest of us understand your point perfectly well.