Freshmen Orientation at High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school has a day for freshman where they go in and here about clubs, attend a pep rally, have lunch, meet other kids. It's sort of goofy with loud music, lights dimmed, kids roller skating in the hall, holding banners and welcoming the incoming students.

I walked into this chaotic looking, rowdy free for all fresh out of town with my incoming HS freshman (who knew not a sole at that school). I had been expecting this to be more like an Open House event where we saw classrooms, met teachers, got a look at the school - the same as middle school. I had no idea that the event was supposed to last all day. Nor did I have any idea that my son was supposed to go with the *extremely spirited* roller skating wild and crazy kids down one hallway, while I was instructed to go into a parent's conference where the parents were told to leave and come back in a few hours to get our kids.

It was about the strangest of introductions to a school that I could have dreamed up. If we had been warned ahead of time that would have been one thing...but it was a bit nerve wracking to just walk into that scene w/o warning. Made me really wonder about that school and WTH we had done to ourselves, lol. As it turns out, my son had fun and things were better organized than they initially appeared to be. For the second son at least I knew what to expect...

At any rate, by comparison, the orientation days at FCPS are boring and NBD at all. Your kid will be fine.

That sounds like an awesome freshman orientation.

What state was this?

Florida. It turned out to be a good ice breaker for the kids. Everyone was laughing at the goofiness of it all. I believe it was mostly a kid planned thing for other kids. Staff may have been there to supervise from afar but it was a kid led thing.

That is great!

I've got an easy going, laid back kid who rolls with it. He did fine . It was a jarring intro to the school for me, I will admit because we didn't know anyone there, we weren't familiar with the school district at all. We were just sort of thrown in and told to swim, lol. Which we both did.

For my second, it was a completely different experience. As he walked into the darkened hallway with music blaring, the older kids waving banners and greeting him.....a girl he knew ran up to him, grabbed his arm and asked him if she could walk in with him. It was super cute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school has a day for freshman where they go in and here about clubs, attend a pep rally, have lunch, meet other kids. It's sort of goofy with loud music, lights dimmed, kids roller skating in the hall, holding banners and welcoming the incoming students.

I walked into this chaotic looking, rowdy free for all fresh out of town with my incoming HS freshman (who knew not a sole at that school). I had been expecting this to be more like an Open House event where we saw classrooms, met teachers, got a look at the school - the same as middle school. I had no idea that the event was supposed to last all day. Nor did I have any idea that my son was supposed to go with the *extremely spirited* roller skating wild and crazy kids down one hallway, while I was instructed to go into a parent's conference where the parents were told to leave and come back in a few hours to get our kids.

It was about the strangest of introductions to a school that I could have dreamed up. If we had been warned ahead of time that would have been one thing...but it was a bit nerve wracking to just walk into that scene w/o warning. Made me really wonder about that school and WTH we had done to ourselves, lol. As it turns out, my son had fun and things were better organized than they initially appeared to be. For the second son at least I knew what to expect...

At any rate, by comparison, the orientation days at FCPS are boring and NBD at all. Your kid will be fine.

That sounds like an awesome freshman orientation.

What state was this?

Florida. It turned out to be a good ice breaker for the kids. Everyone was laughing at the goofiness of it all. I believe it was mostly a kid planned thing for other kids. Staff may have been there to supervise from afar but it was a kid led thing.

That is great!

I've got an easy going, laid back kid who rolls with it. He did fine . It was a jarring intro to the school for me, I will admit because we didn't know anyone there, we weren't familiar with the school district at all. We were just sort of thrown in and told to swim, lol. Which we both did.

For my second, it was a completely different experience. As he walked into the darkened hallway with music blaring, the older kids waving banners and greeting him.....a girl he knew ran up to him, grabbed his arm and asked him if she could walk in with him. It was super cute.

It sounds like the school also did a great job with separating the parents who showed up (no offense intended towards you) and sending them on their way.

I posted above about the family that showed up. I think that the teachers were taken aback by them attending and so actively derailing the presentations, and did not want to embarrass the kids. I asked my kid if the teachers tried to encourage them to leave, and he said they did but the parents did not take them up on it. He said that the parents would come in and introduce themselves, and the teachers would respond with some sort of "Nice to meet you. I look forward to seeing you at Open House." But the parents would take a seat and stay.

I think that if the teachers had a formal send off room to send them to it would have been much easier for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why can't kids use their lockers? I went to a large school in FCPS and used my locker between most classes. What changed? We had actual books then too.

1. Everything (including most text books) are online. Many MS and HS teachers also make video tutorials of the day's lesson for the students to watch online. It's ALL online.

2. Remember having time back in the day to get between each class in MS and HS? At a leisurely pace? Well that no longer exists. Seven minutes is now three minutes, or whatever. The time to get to the next class might mean sprinting depending on the class. There's no time to go to your locker between classes to put things away and grab other stuff for the next two classes. Nobody wants to be tardy. You have to carry it all with you.

3. Old people used lockers. There right up there with rotary phones and fax machines. Lockers are going the way of the dodo.

[Anonymous]

^^ They're right up there...

[Anonymous]

Kids don’t use lockers. Mine is a junior, has never been to his locker. Occasionally, he leaves stuff in the band room lockers.

[Anonymous]

There is no time to go to lockers anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is customary that if you go with your child, your child will be identified for the next four years as "That kid whose mommy went to orientation."

Lol.

There was a poor kid who attended my kid's freshman orientation whose parents (mom & dad) PLUS 2 younger siblings (young elementary and older elementary) attended as well.

Dad asked a lot of questions. Mom beamed and tried talking to other 9th graders to find kids who lived close and might have shared interests. Older elementary sibling was chatty and tried to act cute and impress the teenagers. Little sibling was cute, but still.

The poor kid (according to my kid) looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.

My kid ended up moving through several classes with the family, so mom kept trying to strike up conversations with him. "Hey look Junior, here is Larlo again. Let's sit here. Larlo, what activities are you doing? Hey Junior, Larlo has your same history class. Larlo, why don't you exchange numbers so you two can hang out before school starts."

The poor poor kid! He was the only kid in all of freshman orientation with a parent there. My son said the teachers kept trying to encourage his parents to leave but they just were not picking up what was going on.

He had no noticeable special needs, and according to my son never showed any signs of being special needs, aspergers or social difficulties the entire year. He was just a little shy and quiet, but otherwise just a regular, nice kid. However, 3 years later he is still known as the kid who brought his parents and siblings to freshman orientation.


Don't be that parent OP.

Let your kid navigate freshman orientation on his own. It will be better for him, and also let the teachers do what they prepared to do (which is not interacting with parents)

Seems really odd that you would know all of these specifics/exact conversations that happened if you weren’t there. Seems like way too much detail. Little sibling was cute? Mom was “beaming”? Your son really told you that? I’ve raised four boys and I have a hard time imagining a 14 year old boy saying stuff like that.

Something is off here. Sounds like this is a situation that happened only in your mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is customary that if you go with your child, your child will be identified for the next four years as "That kid whose mommy went to orientation."

Lol.

There was a poor kid who attended my kid's freshman orientation whose parents (mom & dad) PLUS 2 younger siblings (young elementary and older elementary) attended as well.

Dad asked a lot of questions. Mom beamed and tried talking to other 9th graders to find kids who lived close and might have shared interests. Older elementary sibling was chatty and tried to act cute and impress the teenagers. Little sibling was cute, but still.

The poor kid (according to my kid) looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.

My kid ended up moving through several classes with the family, so mom kept trying to strike up conversations with him. "Hey look Junior, here is Larlo again. Let's sit here. Larlo, what activities are you doing? Hey Junior, Larlo has your same history class. Larlo, why don't you exchange numbers so you two can hang out before school starts."

The poor poor kid! He was the only kid in all of freshman orientation with a parent there. My son said the teachers kept trying to encourage his parents to leave but they just were not picking up what was going on.

He had no noticeable special needs, and according to my son never showed any signs of being special needs, aspergers or social difficulties the entire year. He was just a little shy and quiet, but otherwise just a regular, nice kid. However, 3 years later he is still known as the kid who brought his parents and siblings to freshman orientation.


Don't be that parent OP.

Let your kid navigate freshman orientation on his own. It will be better for him, and also let the teachers do what they prepared to do (which is not interacting with parents)

Seems really odd that you would know all of these specifics/exact conversations that happened if you weren’t there. Seems like way too much detail. Little sibling was cute? Mom was “beaming”? Your son really told you that? I’ve raised four boys and I have a hard time imagining a 14 year old boy saying stuff like that.

Something is off here. Sounds like this is a situation that happened only in your mind.

+1 exactly my thought.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school has a day for freshman where they go in and here about clubs, attend a pep rally, have lunch, meet other kids. It's sort of goofy with loud music, lights dimmed, kids roller skating in the hall, holding banners and welcoming the incoming students.

I walked into this chaotic looking, rowdy free for all fresh out of town with my incoming HS freshman (who knew not a sole at that school). I had been expecting this to be more like an Open House event where we saw classrooms, met teachers, got a look at the school - the same as middle school. I had no idea that the event was supposed to last all day. Nor did I have any idea that my son was supposed to go with the *extremely spirited* roller skating wild and crazy kids down one hallway, while I was instructed to go into a parent's conference where the parents were told to leave and come back in a few hours to get our kids.

It was about the strangest of introductions to a school that I could have dreamed up. If we had been warned ahead of time that would have been one thing...but it was a bit nerve wracking to just walk into that scene w/o warning. Made me really wonder about that school and WTH we had done to ourselves, lol. As it turns out, my son had fun and things were better organized than they initially appeared to be. For the second son at least I knew what to expect...

At any rate, by comparison, the orientation days at FCPS are boring and NBD at all. Your kid will be fine.

That sounds like an awesome freshman orientation.

What state was this?

Florida. It turned out to be a good ice breaker for the kids. Everyone was laughing at the goofiness of it all. I believe it was mostly a kid planned thing for other kids. Staff may have been there to supervise from afar but it was a kid led thing.

That is great!

I've got an easy going, laid back kid who rolls with it. He did fine . It was a jarring intro to the school for me, I will admit because we didn't know anyone there, we weren't familiar with the school district at all. We were just sort of thrown in and told to swim, lol. Which we both did.

For my second, it was a completely different experience. As he walked into the darkened hallway with music blaring, the older kids waving banners and greeting him.....a girl he knew ran up to him, grabbed his arm and asked him if she could walk in with him. It was super cute.

It sounds like the school also did a great job with separating the parents who showed up (no offense intended towards you) and sending them on their way.

I posted above about the family that showed up. I think that the teachers were taken aback by them attending and so actively derailing the presentations, and did not want to embarrass the kids. I asked my kid if the teachers tried to encourage them to leave, and he said they did but the parents did not take them up on it. He said that the parents would come in and introduce themselves, and the teachers would respond with some sort of "Nice to meet you. I look forward to seeing you at Open House." But the parents would take a seat and stay.

I think that if the teachers had a formal send off room to send them to it would have been much easier for everyone.

Oh, the parents were invited to show up. We had our own conference to attend where we got some info. It was a full house. But most of those parents had some familiarity with the school, unlike me who was a complete newbie. For my second, I knew the ropes and knew what to expect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is customary that if you go with your child, your child will be identified for the next four years as "That kid whose mommy went to orientation."

Lol.

There was a poor kid who attended my kid's freshman orientation whose parents (mom & dad) PLUS 2 younger siblings (young elementary and older elementary) attended as well.

Dad asked a lot of questions. Mom beamed and tried talking to other 9th graders to find kids who lived close and might have shared interests. Older elementary sibling was chatty and tried to act cute and impress the teenagers. Little sibling was cute, but still.

The poor kid (according to my kid) looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.

My kid ended up moving through several classes with the family, so mom kept trying to strike up conversations with him. "Hey look Junior, here is Larlo again. Let's sit here. Larlo, what activities are you doing? Hey Junior, Larlo has your same history class. Larlo, why don't you exchange numbers so you two can hang out before school starts."

The poor poor kid! He was the only kid in all of freshman orientation with a parent there. My son said the teachers kept trying to encourage his parents to leave but they just were not picking up what was going on.

He had no noticeable special needs, and according to my son never showed any signs of being special needs, aspergers or social difficulties the entire year. He was just a little shy and quiet, but otherwise just a regular, nice kid. However, 3 years later he is still known as the kid who brought his parents and siblings to freshman orientation.


Don't be that parent OP.

Let your kid navigate freshman orientation on his own. It will be better for him, and also let the teachers do what they prepared to do (which is not interacting with parents)

Seems really odd that you would know all of these specifics/exact conversations that happened if you weren’t there. Seems like way too much detail. Little sibling was cute? Mom was “beaming”? Your son really told you that? I’ve raised four boys and I have a hard time imagining a 14 year old boy saying stuff like that.

Something is off here. Sounds like this is a situation that happened only in your mind.

Or maybe I changed details

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids don’t use lockers. Mine is a junior, has never been to his locker. Occasionally, he leaves stuff in the band room lockers.

So your kid walks around with their instrument all day?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids don’t use lockers. Mine is a junior, has never been to his locker. Occasionally, he leaves stuff in the band room lockers.

So your kid walks around with their instrument all day?

No—that’s what the band lockers are for. But mine is drumline, so he doesn’t carry anything anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is customary that if you go with your child, your child will be identified for the next four years as "That kid whose mommy went to orientation."

Lol.

There was a poor kid who attended my kid's freshman orientation whose parents (mom & dad) PLUS 2 younger siblings (young elementary and older elementary) attended as well.

Dad asked a lot of questions. Mom beamed and tried talking to other 9th graders to find kids who lived close and might have shared interests. Older elementary sibling was chatty and tried to act cute and impress the teenagers. Little sibling was cute, but still.

The poor kid (according to my kid) looked like he wanted to melt into the floor.

My kid ended up moving through several classes with the family, so mom kept trying to strike up conversations with him. "Hey look Junior, here is Larlo again. Let's sit here. Larlo, what activities are you doing? Hey Junior, Larlo has your same history class. Larlo, why don't you exchange numbers so you two can hang out before school starts."

The poor poor kid! He was the only kid in all of freshman orientation with a parent there. My son said the teachers kept trying to encourage his parents to leave but they just were not picking up what was going on.

He had no noticeable special needs, and according to my son never showed any signs of being special needs, aspergers or social difficulties the entire year. He was just a little shy and quiet, but otherwise just a regular, nice kid. However, 3 years later he is still known as the kid who brought his parents and siblings to freshman orientation.


Don't be that parent OP.

Let your kid navigate freshman orientation on his own. It will be better for him, and also let the teachers do what they prepared to do (which is not interacting with parents)

Seems really odd that you would know all of these specifics/exact conversations that happened if you weren’t there. Seems like way too much detail. Little sibling was cute? Mom was “beaming”? Your son really told you that? I’ve raised four boys and I have a hard time imagining a 14 year old boy saying stuff like that.

Something is off here. Sounds like this is a situation that happened only in your mind.

Or maybe I changed details

So you're admitting to lying?

[Anonymous]

Mclean HS has freshmen orientation on 08/24 @1:30pm until 3pm I think. After that, they will have Mclean HS day from 3-6pm on the football field followed by the football game @7pm.

My kid will go to the freshmen orientation by himself. I'll meet him @3:30pm for the Mclean HS day at the football field. I do NOT want to go with my kid to the orientation. He is at HS now, not ES or MS. Save him from embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

Out school in FCPS invites the parents and expects them to come. Information sessions are separate- one for parents and a separate one for kids. Hundreds of parents attend every year.