GBW PTA - No Math Club and Science Olympiad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our MCPS middle school, the science teachers run it and usually get enough parent volunteers to coach some events and host practice/study in their homes, with snacks

Yes, I believe that in middle school at FCPS, teachers are involved, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our MCPS middle school, the science teachers run it and usually get enough parent volunteers to coach some events and host practice/study in their homes, with snacks

Yes, I believe that in middle school at FCPS, teachers are involved, too.

Same with DCPS middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I just don't get parents who decline to volunteer and help out but then seem to resent and/or want to micromanage the parents that do volunteer and are doing things to benefit all the kids in a group. Not everyone wants to or can volunteer, but parents should at least be appreciative of the parents who are willing to put in the extra time to make activities available for kids.

There are lots of takers out there-especially people who are angling for any advantage for their own kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our MCPS middle school, the science teachers run it and usually get enough parent volunteers to coach some events and host practice/study in their homes, with snacks

Yes, I believe that in middle school at FCPS, teachers are involved, too.

I think in FCPS, middle school teachers get paid extra to run clubs. (At least, I hope they do!). At the elementary level, its all parent volunteers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Probably because the big glut of students who had parents who were extremely involved have all moved on and are in 7th grade now. I know quite a few of them no longer have kids at GBW anymore.

This is why Sangster stopped fielding a Science Olympiad team a few years back.

The kids whose parents organized and coached all moved to middle school and the team folded after that.

Those teams take a lot of parent involvement. If no one from the younger grades moving up wants to step up and run things, organize and coach, then it is impossible to keep the team going.

OP, if you want to be responsible for running the team and organizing/coordinating coaches, talk to your PTA and see if you can get a faculty advisor. You might be able to restart the team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Probably because the big glut of students who had parents who were extremely involved have all moved on and are in 7th grade now. I know quite a few of them no longer have kids at GBW anymore.

This is why Sangster stopped fielding a Science Olympiad team a few years back.

The kids whose parents organized and coached all moved to middle school and the team folded after that.

Those teams take a lot of parent involvement. If no one from the younger grades moving up wants to step up and run things, organize and coach, then it is impossible to keep the team going.

OP, if you want to be responsible for running the team and organizing/coordinating coaches, talk to your PTA and see if you can get a faculty advisor. You might be able to restart the team.

And regarding the comment about parents coaching, on the Sangster team every kid who participated had to have a parent willing to coach at least one event. That was a stipulation for joining the team. The kids signed up before the parents. Several families peeled off after the meeting when parents found out they had to commit to coaching. Every interested kid whose parent agreed to coach made one of the teams.

Perhaps if your school makes this a requirement for participation you will be able to able to help the issues mentioned above with parents.

[Anonymous]

at some point, the math club at GBW had that stipulation that parents must be willing to do a couple hours of volunteer work per month.

HUGE problem with parent participation in everything at GBW. It is beyond frustrating.

[Anonymous]

What is the reason for this?

[Anonymous]

There are problems with parents ruining it for everyone. Also, science olympiad is supposed to be run by the school and a teacher, not a pat, so everything is fair

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I just don't get parents who decline to volunteer and help out but then seem to resent and/or want to micromanage the parents that do volunteer and are doing things to benefit all the kids in a group. Not everyone wants to or can volunteer, but parents should at least be appreciative of the parents who are willing to put in the extra time to make activities available for kids.

same thing with rec sports teams

[Anonymous]

many schools run the math competitions with their teachers, even in elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

GBW did the right thing stopping these clubs. They were out of control and parents were obsessed with competitions, but don't care about the PTA and what it does at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GBW did the right thing stopping these clubs. They were out of control and parents were obsessed with competitions, but don't care about the PTA and what it does at all.

YES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our MCPS middle school, the science teachers run it and usually get enough parent volunteers to coach some events and host practice/study in their homes, with snacks

Yes, I believe that in middle school at FCPS, teachers are involved, too.

Nope, not universally true in all of FCPS. One year recently our MS had zero teachers involved in any direct coaching and one staffer (not a teacher) was the administrative person for Science Olympiad at the school. Parents did all the coaching for the events. But no parents would have meant no SO at our MS. Things change year to year and school to school. Parents should not assume that extracurricular programs will be run by teachers.

SO is a great program and is also very time-consuming for students and coaches, so not all teachers are going to have time to commit to it. It's great if teachers can be advisers but that should not be assumed. It really does need active parents. At HS level, kids run things pretty much themselves but in ES and MS, parents need at a minimum to help with transport and, for some events, coaching.

SO rules do not say that SO must be touched only by teachers/school staff. There must be a school "team coach" or adviser, usually a teacher, who is liaison with the SO organization and assembles the teams, but the school is not required to have only teachers as coaches. Coaching can range from just ensuring kids make time to meet together, to doing more instructional types of coaching. A lot depends on the specific event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are problems with parents ruining it for everyone. Also, science olympiad is supposed to be run by the school and a teacher, not a pat, so everything is fair

Why do you say science Olympiad is supposed to be run by the school/a teacher? What about a parent volunteer makes it "unfair"? Ours has always been run by parent volunteers.