Kindergarten Orientation love and hate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ours was good. We were greeted in the front, given a number of forms, packets for the kids, etc. then the kids were welcomed and taken back to a classroom where they went from center to centers (playdoh, blocks, letters, etc) where the teachers evaluated them. Parents sat in the back of the room and watched, or ducked out to go speak with the nurse or school admin. There was a seperate informational meeting/school tour for parents on another night. They also took pictures of all the kids, and my son was greeted by name by the principall on the first day of school.

I was recently at a meeting with the principal where she was discussing their class placement process, and she really emphasized how important that 'snapshot' they get of each child at orientation is when making up the class composition for the following year (which they do immediately after the orientation day). Basically, they're trying to balance ages, academic preparation, ESOL, quiet/boisterous personalities etc. in each class and orientation is their one window into that for the kindergarteners.

Clearly, not every school is using that time to determine classes. I think ESL and race are the biggest factors, btw, in determining that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow! These posts are making me more appreciative of our ES's program.

Hi,

Can you please share what your ES is doing?

I posted earlier. 19:27. It wasn't genius or anything, but it was a productive and effective hour.

Wow. 22:39 here. My kid was taken to see the classrooms and he said they played different games and he had a great time. In the meantime the principal, school nurse, and a few teachers did a presentation for parents about what to expect and opened the floor for questions. It was great.

Our K orientation was similar. Kids went into one classroom and played games (I think they said the teachers were trying to get a sense of the kids' abilities, but I'm not sure how much of that's possible in the short amount of time they had). The Principal and Assistant Principal met with the parents in another classroom and went through a typical day for a K child (schedule, along with what sorts of things the kids are working on right now). They also answered questions from parents (busing, lunch, testing, student/teacher ratios, etc. were covered). One of the ESOL teachers spoke very briefly, along with the school Counselor. After, we joined the kids in the other classroom and there were brief presentations from the PTA, a summer camp held at the school, and the before and after program.

It was really nice to see the classrooms and get a better sense of the school, since we have had little insight thus far. Overall, really positive experience. It's unfortunate others didn't have the same.

[Anonymous]

It was very important to my child to see where she was going to go to school for K. She is somewhat anxious and I am very glad we had the opportunity to go for orientation and for the one evening before school starts to meet her teacher.

[Anonymous]

Just finished our orientation. It was fine. We had previously attended a parent session and gotten forms to fill out then. We were supposed to hand in completed forms while kids went into the other room to do their thing, which consisted of a quick reading/letter recognition assessment, writing the name, listening to a story, and something else. Then, 5th graders took groups of 2-3 families on a tour of the school. After care group was represented, if there were questions. No PTO present. The principal was on hand to answer questions, too, but it wasn't really set up to have any sort of time. The K teachers were present but didn't do a good job of introducing themselves or drawing parents into a basic conversation.

IMO, it should have been structured a little differently so that kids were engaged first, and then have the *parents* move into the other room for paperwork, instead of having kids go into the paperwork room, be cornered for a picture taking (while lots of people are milling around), and then pulled away from parent into another room for the assessment. They also needed several more people and photocopiers available for all of the paperwork. And why, oh why, are you given DIFFERENT forms to fill out with very similar information to the forms you've already brought in?

On our way out the door, kids were given a couple of goody-items, which thrilled my kid. All in all, however, I think it was paced too quickly. All but one of the kids in our group were completely overwhelmed by it. I feel for the school, however, they're trying to do the best they can in a very short window. They had one day to get all the incoming kids processed.

[Anonymous]

^yes, mine got a pack of letter-cards that he was thrilled about!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow! These posts are making me more appreciative of our ES's program.

Hi,

Can you please share what your ES is doing?

I posted earlier. 19:27. It wasn't genius or anything, but it was a productive and effective hour.

Wow. 22:39 here. My kid was taken to see the classrooms and he said they played different games and he had a great time. In the meantime the principal, school nurse, and a few teachers did a presentation for parents about what to expect and opened the floor for questions. It was great.

Our K orientation was similar. Kids went into one classroom and played games (I think they said the teachers were trying to get a sense of the kids' abilities, but I'm not sure how much of that's possible in the short amount of time they had). The Principal and Assistant Principal met with the parents in another classroom and went through a typical day for a K child (schedule, along with what sorts of things the kids are working on right now). They also answered questions from parents (busing, lunch, testing, student/teacher ratios, etc. were covered). One of the ESOL teachers spoke very briefly, along with the school Counselor. After, we joined the kids in the other classroom and there were brief presentations from the PTA, a summer camp held at the school, and the before and after program.

It was really nice to see the classrooms and get a better sense of the school, since we have had little insight thus far. Overall, really positive experience. It's unfortunate others didn't have the same.

We might have attended the same presentation. Ours was exactly as described above, kids were also given little "summer prep" packets with flashacrds, numbers etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was very important to my child to see where she was going to go to school for K. She is somewhat anxious and I am very glad we had the opportunity to go for orientation and for the one evening before school starts to meet her teacher.

I agree it's important to go, even if your schools hasn't worked out all the kinks. DD did a "cooking" project with one of the teachers- fun for her, but I wasn't happy about them giving her all that sugar to take home. She told me the teacher asked her to count. DD can count to 100, but said the teacher asked her to stop when she got to 20. They also had her write her name and tell her bday and what she's most looking forward to in K. My biggest complaint is I thought the teachers could have done a better job with telling us about themselves. They didn't say anything except their name. I still am not even sure about some of the names. A PP with a little background on the K team members would have been helpful. I was thinking of requesting a specific teacher, but don't know enough to do that. Some did seem friendlier than others, but that's not enough to go on. There was no PTA or after school programs represented and that would have been nice. Everything did feel a bit rushed. No admin. present either--not sure why, but hard to imagine what was more important than this.

[Anonymous]

^ pretty sure they don't want hundreds if parents requesting specific teachers

[Anonymous]

Of*

[Anonymous]

Ours was super well-organized and helpful. We have a pre-K child and we greatly appreciated getting a chance to see the school, hear from the principal, get a tour, have our daughter meet the teachers, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow! These posts are making me more appreciative of our ES's program.

Hi,

Can you please share what your ES is doing?

I posted earlier. 19:27. It wasn't genius or anything, but it was a productive and effective hour.

Wow. 22:39 here. My kid was taken to see the classrooms and he said they played different games and he had a great time. In the meantime the principal, school nurse, and a few teachers did a presentation for parents about what to expect and opened the floor for questions. It was great.

Our K orientation was similar. Kids went into one classroom and played games (I think they said the teachers were trying to get a sense of the kids' abilities, but I'm not sure how much of that's possible in the short amount of time they had). The Principal and Assistant Principal met with the parents in another classroom and went through a typical day for a K child (schedule, along with what sorts of things the kids are working on right now). They also answered questions from parents (busing, lunch, testing, student/teacher ratios, etc. were covered). One of the ESOL teachers spoke very briefly, along with the school Counselor. After, we joined the kids in the other classroom and there were brief presentations from the PTA, a summer camp held at the school, and the before and after program.

It was really nice to see the classrooms and get a better sense of the school, since we have had little insight thus far. Overall, really positive experience. It's unfortunate others didn't have the same.

Interesting. It sounds like we might be at the same school because this was exactly what happened at ours. However, I didn't think it was really a good use of time. The presentation on a typical day for K was only mildly interesting and could have waited until back to school night. And the camp presentations were just sales pitches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, minimal benefit to kids offset by huge inconvenience to working parents. Think the whole concept is dumb and just about getting parents in the door so schools can get teacher allotment.

Getting the correct teacher allotment seems like a more than minimal benefit to the kids. Or would you prefer an enormous class because parents registered their children after all the money was gone?

^This.

I didn't go because I wasn't wasting half of a personal day on it, so I sent my DH who works from home. His synopsis of the event was that it was nice, but our DC is going to be bored next year because he already knows most of what will be taught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, minimal benefit to kids offset by huge inconvenience to working parents. Think the whole concept is dumb and just about getting parents in the door so schools can get teacher allotment.

Getting the correct teacher allotment seems like a more than minimal benefit to the kids. Or would you prefer an enormous class because parents registered their children after all the money was gone?

^This.

I didn't go because I wasn't wasting half of a personal day on it, so I sent my DH who works from home. His synopsis of the event was that it was nice, but our DC is going to be bored next year because he already knows most of what will be taught.

A lot of kids go in knowing how to read and do basic math. Don't assume your kid will be bored--if it's a good teacher.

[Anonymous]

If you don't like the way orientation was done, then speak up and tell the school what the problem was and offer another way of doing things. You can even do it anonymously. You could make things a lot better for the parents of next year's incoming class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow! These posts are making me more appreciative of our ES's program.

Hi,

Can you please share what your ES is doing?

I posted earlier. 19:27. It wasn't genius or anything, but it was a productive and effective hour.

Wow. 22:39 here. My kid was taken to see the classrooms and he said they played different games and he had a great time. In the meantime the principal, school nurse, and a few teachers did a presentation for parents about what to expect and opened the floor for questions. It was great.

Our K orientation was similar. Kids went into one classroom and played games (I think they said the teachers were trying to get a sense of the kids' abilities, but I'm not sure how much of that's possible in the short amount of time they had). The Principal and Assistant Principal met with the parents in another classroom and went through a typical day for a K child (schedule, along with what sorts of things the kids are working on right now). They also answered questions from parents (busing, lunch, testing, student/teacher ratios, etc. were covered). One of the ESOL teachers spoke very briefly, along with the school Counselor. After, we joined the kids in the other classroom and there were brief presentations from the PTA, a summer camp held at the school, and the before and after program.

It was really nice to see the classrooms and get a better sense of the school, since we have had little insight thus far. Overall, really positive experience. It's unfortunate others didn't have the same.

Interesting. It sounds like we might be at the same school because this was exactly what happened at ours. However, I didn't think it was really a good use of time. The presentation on a typical day for K was only mildly interesting and could have waited until back to school night. And the camp presentations were just sales pitches.

At ours, the "typical day" presentation was held earlier in the year. Not sure I liked splitting it up because it meant two half-days for me -- and our kid was applying for EEK, so at that time there was no guarantee that this would be relevant to us. On the other hand, without the kids, the environment was more relaxed and quiet, and the parents were able to ask questions and get quality time with the teachers and admin. Still, it would have been nice to have had *all* of the forms available then, so we could have had less to do the next time...parents could have been in and out quickly if not for having to fill out the forms the second morning.

But the 2d morning was well-run. All the kids were greeted at the door, and there were folders of forms ready for the parents, a copier by the door so they could collect copies of documents right there. There were teachers and helpers to play with the kids, and admin were on hand to answer questions. I am not sure what other parents or children did there, but since we were applying for EEK, the testing was done at this time.

Overall, it was pretty painless -- a couple of hours out of the office two different mornings. Our child saw friends at orientation, and is excited to go (passed EEK testing), which is the important thing. Already sees the school as "my school"!