BTSN for high school - does anyone go?

[Anonymous]

At every school my kids have ever gone to (Bethesda ES, Chevy Chase ES, North Bethesda MS, Westland MS, Walter Johnson HS and BCC HS), BTSN has been mobbed by parents. My youngest is now a sophomore at BCC and every class had at least a dozen parents, much more for the high level AP classes.

Take an interest, why don't you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not to meet and greet the teachers personally. It's to see how the teacher presents - you can tell a lot from just a few minutes! I already know the AP Physics C teacher is going to be a problem this year. He's all over the place and unfocused, which confirms what my kid told me about him. We might have to get a tutor. Last year, I knew we'd have a problem with AP Computer Science Principles - the teacher was pretty bad and I could tell at BTSN. Luckily it was an easy class, and she just self-studied.

I have never missed a BTSN except when I was recovering from surgery.

Me again. And it's not all negative. I saw the APUSH and AP Calc BC teachers were both very competent. Thank goodness.

I guess I am not that good at reading people but I was wrong a few times. A teacher I didn’t see as a potential problem ended up being one and vice versa.
Sometimes I guess correctly though.
As for personally greet, I just want them to know that my kid has a parent who attends BTSN. And is not some clueless hack lol

[Anonymous]

High school teacher here - I teach mostly 11th & 12th graders and had 6 parents total at BTSN this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At every school my kids have ever gone to (Bethesda ES, Chevy Chase ES, North Bethesda MS, Westland MS, Walter Johnson HS and BCC HS), BTSN has been mobbed by parents. My youngest is now a sophomore at BCC and every class had at least a dozen parents, much more for the high level AP classes.

Take an interest, why don't you.

BTSN isn't equal to parent interest or engagement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At every school my kids have ever gone to (Bethesda ES, Chevy Chase ES, North Bethesda MS, Westland MS, Walter Johnson HS and BCC HS), BTSN has been mobbed by parents. My youngest is now a sophomore at BCC and every class had at least a dozen parents, much more for the high level AP classes.

Take an interest, why don't you.

+1 Do you really think that BTSN is empty with just teachers sitting around?

[Anonymous]

We went since it was our first kid and the school is new to us. It was so unbelievably poorly done that we ended up walking out. We had already been to a meeting about sports and a welcome event for freshmen and learned what we needed to there. Btsn was useless, but each school does it differently I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school teacher here - I teach mostly 11th & 12th graders and had 6 parents total at BTSN this year.

What do you teach?
Are you in a low-income school?

Those two variables will affect attendance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High school teacher here - I teach mostly 11th & 12th graders and had 6 parents total at BTSN this year.

We went to 2 different schools for our 11th grader (dual enrollment with Edison) and both BTSNs were well attended. At least 10 parents in every period/class, generally more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went since it was our first kid and the school is new to us. It was so unbelievably poorly done that we ended up walking out. We had already been to a meeting about sports and a welcome event for freshmen and learned what we needed to there. Btsn was useless, but each school does it differently I guess.

You didn't get a presentation by each of your kid's teachers? That's the only important event at BTSN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went since it was our first kid and the school is new to us. It was so unbelievably poorly done that we ended up walking out. We had already been to a meeting about sports and a welcome event for freshmen and learned what we needed to there. Btsn was useless, but each school does it differently I guess.

What school was it? HS or lower?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went since it was our first kid and the school is new to us. It was so unbelievably poorly done that we ended up walking out. We had already been to a meeting about sports and a welcome event for freshmen and learned what we needed to there. Btsn was useless, but each school does it differently I guess.

What school was it? HS or lower?

HS. So we aren’t new to MCPS, just new to the HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went since it was our first kid and the school is new to us. It was so unbelievably poorly done that we ended up walking out. We had already been to a meeting about sports and a welcome event for freshmen and learned what we needed to there. Btsn was useless, but each school does it differently I guess.

What school was it? HS or lower?

HS. So we aren’t new to MCPS, just new to the HS.

Name and shame the HS!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not to meet and greet the teachers personally. It's to see how the teacher presents - you can tell a lot from just a few minutes! I already know the AP Physics C teacher is going to be a problem this year. He's all over the place and unfocused, which confirms what my kid told me about him. We might have to get a tutor. Last year, I knew we'd have a problem with AP Computer Science Principles - the teacher was pretty bad and I could tell at BTSN. Luckily it was an easy class, and she just self-studied.

I have never missed a BTSN except when I was recovering from surgery.

Me again. And it's not all negative. I saw the APUSH and AP Calc BC teachers were both very competent. Thank goodness.

I guess I am not that good at reading people but I was wrong a few times. A teacher I didn’t see as a potential problem ended up being one and vice versa.
Sometimes I guess correctly though.
As for personally greet, I just want them to know that my kid has a parent who attends BTSN. And is not some clueless hack lol

I’m a teacher. I don’t think BTSN is the best representation of a teacher’s ability to work with your student.

1. Presenting to adults is VERY different than what we do all day. A teacher can communicate really well with teenagers but not parents.

2. Teachers are exhausted. For many, they are on hour 12-13 by the time you sit in their class. It’s hard to be at the top of your game after a day and a half of work.

3. Teachers are very frazzled. No matter how many times a school tells parents BTSN isn’t for personal concerns/questions, we still get many of them… and it’s usually when we need to prepare for our next set of parents.