Reply to ludlow-taylor

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "ludlow-taylor"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]My kid is in preK now, so I'm only familiar with the ECE program, but here goes:

--Both years my daughter has had *excellent* teachers. Her classrooms have been calm places where kids could focus on learning. I've picked up some great parenting tactics from observing her teachers.

-- I love the Reggio Emilia influence. (LT ECE is not full on Reggio, they say it's "Reggio-inspired.") I think it's a great approach for ECE, where kids are really at the mercy of their physical/mental/emotional development as far as when they're able to learn what. It can be disconcerting for type A parents, though -- you really have to relax and trust that your child is going to learn what s/he needs to learn, when s/he's ready to learn it. I had some very favorable exposure to Montessori, which I think made it easier for me to buy into Reggio (even though the philosophies are actually not that similar).

--The ECE teachers work as a team to come up with a great variety of field trips over a two-year period. (The PS/PK classes go on field trips together.)

--It's a small school. There can be downsides to this as far as resources, but in a smaller community everyone can know everyone else. (Google Dunbar's number.) It seems like just about every adult in the building knows all the kids by name.

--The kids in the older grades are just -good- kids. In the interactions I've observed, they're really fond of the ECE kids. Just one example: there's a 3rd grader we kept seeing on the bus, and now every time she sees my daughter she comes over and gives her a hug.

--They have a relatively new playground and the kids get a lot of outside time, which is good for kids in general (and a necessity for my own kid's mental health).

--The aftercare program offers a lot of good options -- PS & PK have Joy of Motion on Mondays for free and Powertots and soccer on tuesdays & thursdays for an additional fee; there are way more options (tennis, cheer, martial arts, and a lot more) for the older kids. It's also a DCPS aftercare program, so it's on site and inexpensive. And I like both of the adults who manage the aftercare program.

--Officer Powell is wonderful -- it seems like by the second day of school in August she knows every student (and everyone in his or her extended family) by sight. As upsetting as the Sandy Hook school shooting was, one thing I *didn't* worry about was whether my kid would be safe at LT.

I will say I am probably on the low-maintenance side as DC parents go. I don't particularly care about bells and whistles outside the classroom, I don't mind a run-down building (though LT is getting renovated this summer), I don't require much in the way of ongoing communication with my kid's teachers. I can definitely see how more high-maintenance parents might find the school environment frustrating -- and I would encourage high-maintenance parents to steer clear, because I really like the homey, relaxed feeling the school has now. :)

[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics