Wiki version of what happened at Lemon Road

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was not particularly "wowed" by Lemon Road during a recent visit. I'm sure it's a great school (as the ratings seem to indicate) but DC wil stay at base school for LLIV.

Good, less traffic on the road.

You mean one less child on bus. It's interesting that most LLIV kiddos are opting today at base.

Why wouldn't they when they'd be guaranteed a class under 20 for AAP.

[Anonymous]

But is it the same program? That's why I'm suspicious of our base LLIV regardless of promises to keep class sizes at or under 15 students. At a center, teachers are required to adhere to the program guidelines/curriculum and center teachers have the subject matter exerpetise that some at LLIV simply do not. Lemon Road for us!

[Anonymous]

Following up on the PP regarding training/subject matter expertise, etc, this is part of what convinced us to go to Lemon Road from our base school, even though we initially had no intention to switch. I also have a good friend who has a lot of insight about Lemon Road generally and the center specifically that was helpful and insightful into the teachers and administration. Also, my husband just showed up randomly at their door on the day decisions were due to look around and they gave him an hour guided tour of the school!

[Anonymous]

Did Shrevewood actually PROMISE to keep classes under 20? I thought it was just that the program was small. What if everyone eligible form Shrevewood picked LLIV, would they have more than 20 kids? What would they do then? 2 classes of 12 (or whatever size)?

[Anonymous]

When Shrevewood started the program, principal promised parents that she would not principal-place any level 3 students into the homeroom class. Occasionally, one or two was brought in for specific subjects. She wanted to entice parents to stay there instead of going to Lemon Road.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When Shrevewood started the program, principal promised parents that she would not principal-place any level 3 students into the homeroom class. Occasionally, one or two was brought in for specific subjects. She wanted to entice parents to stay there instead of going to Lemon Road.

Lovely.

[Anonymous]

When Freedom Hill was our base school, our child was assigned to Louise Archer for the AAP center, which involved an almost hour-long bus ride each way from where we lived. Our apartment complex was minutes from Haycock and Lemon Road. These changes were long overdue. An eight year old shouldn't be sitting on a bus two hours a day when there are schools closer. Of course people fight, because God forbid some "poors" from an apartment complex go to your school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Following up on the PP regarding training/subject matter expertise, etc, this is part of what convinced us to go to Lemon Road from our base school, even though we initially had no intention to switch. I also have a good friend who has a lot of insight about Lemon Road generally and the center specifically that was helpful and insightful into the teachers and administration. Also, my husband just showed up randomly at their door on the day decisions were due to look around and they gave him an hour guided tour of the school!

Could you please share your thoughts on the teachers at the LR center?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When Freedom Hill was our base school, our child was assigned to Louise Archer for the AAP center, which involved an almost hour-long bus ride each way from where we lived. Our apartment complex was minutes from Haycock and Lemon Road. These changes were long overdue. An eight year old shouldn't be sitting on a bus two hours a day when there are schools closer. Of course people fight, because God forbid some "poors" from an apartment complex go to your school.

Was your child one of the kids who switched from Freedom Road to Archer to Haycock to Lemon Road, or were you able to stay at Haycock? How did he/she feel about switching schools so many times? If you had it to do all over again, would you have still placed your child in the center schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Following up on the PP regarding training/subject matter expertise, etc, this is part of what convinced us to go to Lemon Road from our base school, even though we initially had no intention to switch. I also have a good friend who has a lot of insight about Lemon Road generally and the center specifically that was helpful and insightful into the teachers and administration. Also, my husband just showed up randomly at their door on the day decisions were due to look around and they gave him an hour guided tour of the school!

Could you please share your thoughts on the teachers at the LR center?

Sure--although this is my summary from the discussion I had with my friend about the AAP teachers in 4-5th grades. She said that they were very knowledgeable about the AAP curriculum and were uniformly good teachers. She also said that they were especially good at recognizing and adapting to different learning styles in children. They were adamant that they should be told if a child was frustrated by, or having difficulty with, homework assignments as they could always find a way to teach the problematic concept in a manner that would be effective for that child. She repeatedly mentioned the individualized treatment afforded every child. She also had general comments about the warmth and commitment of the staff and administration. Again this is second hand info from someone who had three children at Lemon Road. I will try to remember to post next year with a first hand account of our experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When Freedom Hill was our base school, our child was assigned to Louise Archer for the AAP center, which involved an almost hour-long bus ride each way from where we lived. Our apartment complex was minutes from Haycock and Lemon Road. These changes were long overdue. An eight year old shouldn't be sitting on a bus two hours a day when there are schools closer. Of course people fight, because God forbid some "poors" from an apartment complex go to your school.

Was your child one of the kids who switched from Freedom Road to Archer to Haycock to Lemon Road, or were you able to stay at Haycock? How did he/she feel about switching schools so many times? If you had it to do all over again, would you have still placed your child in the center schools?

This was right before they started switching kids. We actually moved during that school year to different pyramid with closer AAP center schools, because the long commute was just ridiculous, and we had a another younger child also about to head into the AAP Center, as well. I would absolutely put my kids in the center schools again. It's been better for them than their years before third grade.

[Anonymous]

Are LLIVs required to adhere to their neighboring AAP Center's curriculum? Are they identical?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are LLIVs required to adhere to their neighboring AAP Center's curriculum? Are they identical?

Nothing is identical - even between teachers at the same school.

The base curriculum for AAP and Gen-ed is the same across the whole county. AAP does more extensions within the curriculum. Gen-Ed can do extensions too- generally not as many. However, there are some schools that have adopted the entire AAP program (science and social studies mainly) to use in the Gen-ed classroom. What extensions and how the teacher teaches is different from teacher to teacher. Some are done by the entire AAP or gen-ed grade at a school and some are done in specific classes within a school.