John Eaton Open House - Wed. 10/22 9:15

[Anonymous]

There will be an open house for prospective parents at John Eaton elementary school next Wednesday at 9:15.
Please come to learn about Eaton, meet the principal, hear from parents, ask questions and tour the school.

Wednesday. Oct. 22nd
9:15- 10:30
School Library

John Eaton Elementary
3301 Lowell St. NW
202 282-0103-main office

[Anonymous]

friendly bump...please come if you are interested in eaton.

[Anonymous]

Did anyone attend this morning? I went, though I'm now soaking wet from the walk.

What a cute school. It reminds me of the school I went to for elementary, which was also a historic building making use of limited space. The classrooms all seemed bright and cheery and the kids looked really engaged. The after school programs sounded really robust and I liked the elective hour that they offer the 4th and 5th grade students.

I was also happy to hear (as an IB parent) that they were able to accommodate all IB families who wanted PK4 spots as well as 2 or 3 (the registrar couldn't remember off the top of her head) OOB families.

[Anonymous]

I attended as well and was also impressed. It was my first time in a DCPS (except for voting!) so maybe I'm naive, but I thought the building was just fine and much nicer than I'd expected.
The Student Council representatives were a bit unbelievable (but apparently uncoached?!) and I would have liked to hear a little more frank discussion of issues: How much testing do the children do? What skills are they expected to come in with? What sorts of issues do students struggle with/what personalities traits seem to struggle there?
I guess nobody wants to get into those issues, but those that I would have liked to spend more time on. The array of after-school activities and field trips did sound pretty great.
Your thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I went, too. I thought the school would be fine for my kid, but I wish they had talked more about academics and less about after-school and enrichment activities. The kids seemed coached--if not by the school, then by the parents. (One fourth grader said his favorite part of the school was "the academic experience." Just didn't come off as authentic to me.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went, too. I thought the school would be fine for my kid, but I wish they had talked more about academics and less about after-school and enrichment activities. The kids seemed coached--if not by the school, then by the parents. (One fourth grader said his favorite part of the school was "the academic experience." Just didn't come off as authentic to me.)

Fair enough. On the other hand, I was impressed that the kids were so well spoken and articulate in a room full of strange adults. The same little kid announced he was the parlimentarian of the student council....I definitely didn't know that word at his age.

I wanted to ask more about the math curriculum. I know "common core" is the standard, but I don't truly know what that is having never seen it in action.

[Anonymous]

Agreed -- though I guess it's our fault for not asking better questions. The problem was that the video and the cute student council kids (who were definitely well-spoken and articulate but also seemed completely coached) left very little time for real questions on academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed -- though I guess it's our fault for not asking better questions. The problem was that the video and the cute student council kids (who were definitely well-spoken and articulate but also seemed completely coached) left very little time for real questions on academics.

Yes, that did take up quite a bit of time. But almost all the questions that followed from the parents were about the before and after school programs and enrichment and during the day enrichment. When those questions kept coming there really wasn't any time left for anything else.

Still, all that said, I left being excited about my child attending and hope we get a PK4 lottery spot for next fall.

[Anonymous]

Someone asked about academics, curriculum, and automomous status, and they seemed to blow off the question.

I thought it was weird that we weren't allowed to go into classes. It may have just been the parent leading my tour, though. Also surprised the principal didn't at least duck in to say hi. Seemed like a different kind of open house from the others I have attended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went, too. I thought the school would be fine for my kid, but I wish they had talked more about academics and less about after-school and enrichment activities. The kids seemed coached--if not by the school, then by the parents. (One fourth grader said his favorite part of the school was "the academic experience." Just didn't come off as authentic to me.)

Fair enough. On the other hand, I was impressed that the kids were so well spoken and articulate in a room full of strange adults. The same little kid announced he was the parlimentarian of the student council....I definitely didn't know that word at his age.

I wanted to ask more about the math curriculum. I know "common core" is the standard, but I don't truly know what that is having never seen it in action.

Lol! I was the parliamentarian at eaton years ago!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Someone asked about academics, curriculum, and automomous status, and they seemed to blow off the question.

I thought it was weird that we weren't allowed to go into classes. It may have just been the parent leading my tour, though. Also surprised the principal didn't at least duck in to say hi. Seemed like a different kind of open house from the others I have attended.

Must have been your tour leader, since we went into many classrooms.

Agree about the principal. First open house I've been to where the principal didn't participate at all.

[Anonymous]

We went into a bunch of classes too -- maybe more than I really needed to see.

[Anonymous]

do people like the principal there? will there be more OOB spots open in early grades if some of the IB families now look at other options since no longer a Deal feeder?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:do people like the principal there? will there be more OOB spots open in early grades if some of the IB families now look at other options since no longer a Deal feeder?

I think your best bet is in K. The PK4 has two classes, every other grade has 3 classes. There are 32 PK4 slots and 75 K spots which leaves roughly 43 spots to be filled in the K year, maybe a few less if they withhold a couple spots in anticipation of some new IB children having moved into the area. The school is less than 40% IB already, seems like plenty of spots for OOB students.

[Anonymous]

The Eaton Principal had a medical emergency and our Vice Principal is stepping in. The school has been well set up so it has not impacted operations. We are hoping he will be back next year.

As for math that has been a significant focust for a while. The text books they are using is the GO Math program. Parent funding enable a math coach that allows small group learning with some accelerated options for kids that need it.