Reply to Current Hyde Addison Experiences?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We moved to Hyde this year (2nd grade) from our IB in Ward 6 and wish we had done it years ago. DD is “deeply feeling” and the environment has been so much more supportive. Academics are stronger and the teachers are a higher caliber. For example at Literacy Night (all DCPS seem to do one a year, as well as a Math Night) I attended and was expecting chaotic literacy games in the gym like our old school offered. What I found was the art teacher and specials teachers hosting “child care” with free pizza for the kids, so the parents could attend a few concurrent sessions of basically professional development. The ones I attended were on executive functioning and on this school wide effort to have the kids engage in productive conversations. Like how to listen and reflect and express yourself when yon disagree. It blew my mind.

PTA is active and raises a good about of money. Kids are diverse in all aspects - race, culture, economically. Facility is nice and was modernized in 2019. My biggest worry was drop off and pickup/parking, but they have a good system for drop off and pickups are staggered enough with aftercare I’ve never had an issue finding a place to park within 2 blocks (though if you’re IB maybe you can just walk).

It has been hard as OOB to figure out how to get kids together outside of school but we will keep working on that. [/quote]

I’m sure Hyde is lovely but the Literacy Night just sounds like a completely different event and not one that would be a good fit for my family. Honestly, if they didn’t communicate in advance that it was babysitting for kids rather than actually participating in activities, I would be annoyed. Different strokes, obviously.[/quote]

It’s not a good fit for your family that the school hosted a well-organized event that was fun for the kids, and also engaged the parents and gave them actionable information so they could support the school’s literacy instruction at home? You wouldn’t find it compelling that the teachers are masters of their craft and designed really great sessions to educate parents and make them feel like partners? You’d rather be in a hot loud gym fishing rubber ducks out of a bucket with phonemes on the bottom to match to a bingo card, as if that has lasting value to you and your kid’s literacy skills?

Ok.

[/quote]

Yea, I wouldn’t drag my kids to school for that event. I’d leave them at home and I’d be annoyed that they didn’t tell me the kids part of the event was glorified babysitting. Most HA families don’t live IB, so having kids at school late for an afterschool event is a big PIA.[/quote]

I would not be excited to attend glorified PD for parents — especially PD that wasn’t tailored to specific kids or parents. I feel like a very specific type of parent (obviously of an only or oldest) would brag about this as a school event.[/quote]

That’s fine, I just shared the information because I did find the event really great (obviously). There were about a dozen sessions to choose from, each done twice over two time blocks, so you could tailor what you attended based on your interests or your child’s age level (they marked them as being for PK-K, 3-5, all grades etc). I really felt like I walked away with deeper knowledge of what the school was doing school wide, and had some executive functioning development tips in handouts from that session. I had time to meet other parents in the sessions and in between that I hadn’t met before, as well as meet some of the teachers I may not have met otherwise (the ELA coach for example). I wouldn’t have had that calm focus time if all the kids were milling about trying to do puzzles or games, or demanding snacks while I was trying to listen.

You’re right that it’s definitely a unique group of parents, motivated to get a better public school experience for our children than what we found IB. If you’re happy with your current school, not sure of this discussion is worth your energy to read. [/quote]

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