Reply to K orientation was a big let down.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Oh, that sounds terrible. Ours was much better! The kids did a series of activities in the classroom (like a scavenger hunt where they had to locate the cubbies, flag, bathroom, etc.) while the teacher talked to the parents about kindergarten. It wasn't necessarily the classroom or teacher the kids were really going to be assigned to, although in our case it turned out to be the one.

[b]Although - that was in the fall right before school started. There was a kindergarten meeting in the spring that was more perfunctory - the kids went off with some teachers while the parents sat in the library, filled out forms,  watched a short video and heard from the principal, etc. They seemed to do aquick assessment of the kids while they were away from us[/b].[/quote]

Why does anyone think it is a good idea to separate 5 year olds from their parents in a place where most of the kids have never visited??? I'm a principal and they did this before I arrived. I shut that down right away. Parents visit classrooms WITH their child so it is a positive experience.

As for the "assessment" I pay teachers to make home visits in August. A child can change a lot between spring and early fall. And besides, there's not much real information you're going to get in a large group setting. [/quote]

Principal Dear,

What's wrong with separating the kids from their parents?  If a child is THAT attached to his/her parents at 5, which is rare, I'll add, then the child hasn't had much exposure.

And who has time to make 75 home visits?  We have three K classes at my children's school - sometimes 4, depending upon enrollment obviously.  I have no idea from where your pot of gold comes, but that's quite a bit of money to dish out and an inconvenience for teachers.  Furthermore, if this IS the case, I would hope that these "visits" would be done in pairs, as not all children come from happy, stable homes.

Ours started off with some paperwork.  As someone in the field, it's much more efficient to take the paperwork THEN instead of hounding parents those first few weeks. Furthermore, in some highly impacted schools with quite a bit of transience, keeping track of enrollment is much more difficult.

We then took a tour with our children and later completed paperwork with the guidance counselor, nurse and ESOL teacher while the kids were on their own classroom tour.  I hardly think that separating them from their parents for 30 minutes is abuse.

Dear God, woman!  Get over yourself.

[/quote]

Fair Poster--
Our first goal with kindergarten orientation is to build relationships and show that school is positive, caring place. Some kids struggle with separating from their parents. It's just where they are at that moment. Like it or not, we will be working with the child, so it's important that we start off on the right foot.  And we gain very little from separating children from their parents, so why do it? We can give the parents the information they need, everyone can visit classrooms with current students, and there are no tears. Students are engaged in learning activities, meaning no babysitting videos.  It's a win-win.

As for the home visits, we have 4 classrooms at our school. Believe it or not, teachers look forward to this visit because it helps them build the classes and go into the first day with a leg up on what their students' needs are. They are adamant that we continue this practice. Yes, they do go in pairs with our parent liaison, and they pick which day they go. We divide the grade up by where the students live so that visiting is easier. Each visit takes about 15 minutes.  Not every home will get visited because some kids are still registering. As for paying teachers, we are a Title 1 school, so we do have funds for events exactly like this. It is a way to build the home-school relationship.

You have a super day PP, and bless your heart!

--signed,
Dear Principal[/quote]

I am with the PP - it's absolutely fine to expect a 5 yr old to go off for a little while with another group of 5 yr olds and a teacher.

FYI - private school admissions, the expectation for children the year before K is they will show up to an admission for K play date and easily separate and go off with an adult they have never met for an hour or so with a group of other children.[/quote]

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