2 School Open Houses at the Same Time

[Anonymous]

My 7th grader's Open House is at the same time as my 10th grader's. DH is out of town, so I don't have back-up that night. Which one would you choose? I feel like I should go to the middle school and meet 7th grader's teachers for the first time. But 7th grader does fine at school. OTOH, 10th grader only has 1 repeat teacher this year and is definitely the student who needs more hands-on assistance with organization and time management. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

At which school do you have a pretty close relationship with another parent who has a child in a lot of the same classes as your child? Skip that open house and go to the other one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 7th grader's Open House is at the same time as my 10th grader's. DH is out of town, so I don't have back-up that night. Which one would you choose? I feel like I should go to the middle school and meet 7th grader's teachers for the first time. But 7th grader does fine at school. OTOH, 10th grader only has 1 repeat teacher this year and is definitely the student who needs more hands-on assistance with organization and time management. Thoughts?

Go to the older student's open house if they need more hands on management. If the 7th grader does fine in school, you don't need to meet their teachers since you'll (hopefully) not be having much interaction with them.

[Anonymous]

10th for sure. Follow up with another parent or the teacher for the other one.

[Anonymous]

I just went to my kids' middle school and high school open houses (different nights). I got more out of the high school one, really, and since your high schooler needs more support, I'd show up there. Several H.S. teachers had us fill out sheets about our students, which could be helpful in your case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just went to my kids' middle school and high school open houses (different nights). I got more out of the high school one, really, and since your high schooler needs more support, I'd show up there. Several H.S. teachers had us fill out sheets about our students, which could be helpful in your case.

Would you mind sharing the schools? I feel badly now that I missed our HS BSN. I attended middle school open houses for years and didn’t get any real info so since I had conflicts this year, I decided to just skip 9th grade. My son has SN and now I’m wondering if I missed an important opportunity to provide the teachers with helpful info.

[Anonymous]

10th grade for sure. You've already done 7th. You're 10th grader has more needs. And, at least in MCPS, 7th grade has parent teacher conferences and 10th does not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just went to my kids' middle school and high school open houses (different nights). I got more out of the high school one, really, and since your high schooler needs more support, I'd show up there. Several H.S. teachers had us fill out sheets about our students, which could be helpful in your case.

Would you mind sharing the schools? I feel badly now that I missed our HS BSN. I attended middle school open houses for years and didn’t get any real info so since I had conflicts this year, I decided to just skip 9th grade. My son has SN and now I’m wondering if I missed an important opportunity to provide the teachers with helpful info.

DP I've got 3 kids, 2 of whom have IEPs (SNs). Please do not use BTSN as an opportunity to provide more info about your DS. That's not what it's for and there's usually not enough time. Limit yourself to introductions and giving them your contact information. Then, follow that up with an email which can start with "It was so nice to meet you at BTSN! Here are some things about Larlo that you may find useful.......".

I get that you may not get much out of BTSN but I figure the teachers are doing it for my benefit and the least I can do is show up. Having done them for over 12 years, I understand that I'm in the minority. For those teachers that I couldn't meet because of multiple kids in the same school or two BTSNs at the same time, I email my regrets ahead of time. I typically prioritize new teachers of my kids with IEPs. My kid without an IEP is lower maintenance.