Reply to Flora Singer v. Oakland Terrace v. Rock Creek Forest

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Reply to "Flora Singer v. Oakland Terrace v. Rock Creek Forest"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I recognize that poster up-thread who for years has been trashing Oakland Terrace every.single.time. it is mentioned.  I have always suspected a fired teacher or mental parent. They just can't let it go and it has been years.

I grew up in Silver Spring and so did my husband. We are both teachers (UMD for undergrad and GW for grad school, so truly locals!) .  When we started a family a few years ago we knew we would choose OT or Flora Singer.  OT won out due to the dual immersion language program.  We are hopeful the program will continue to Newport Mill MS; we will see what to do when that time comes.  We are fine with the DCC high school choices as husband and i are both products of them (Blair).  The IB programs are what we are looking for; it will be most convenient for us personally if our kids choose Einstein, though as proud Blair graduates, well, we would be beaming if our kids continued the legacy...[/quote]

I’m a new poster to this thread. I have a 1st grader at OTES and I have posted on 2 other OTES threads.  It is so interesting because as the poster up thread said, there are many of us with complaints about OTES. Both on this board and other parents I have spoken to at the school.  Yet every time these legitimate complaints come up, someone (maybe the same someone?) “recognizes” the poster as the crazy OTES poster and shuts it down. My first ever post on the last OTES thread got “recognized” by this person as “the same poster” with an ax to grind. It’s uncanny. Next time someone complains about OTES, watch for the immediate gas light.

So far for us OTES has been fine. Spanish immersion is a huge perk, but the poster above summed it up perfectly. There is very little parent interaction compared to experiences of friends at other schools.  It is hard to volunteer even if you flat out ask. There is zero communication from teachers or admin. We have grown used to it and our child is happy, so it’s basically fine. But there’s nothing wrong with wishing for a little more from our child’s school.

If people are thrilled with admin and teachers at Flora Singer, that is worth a ton IMO. [/quote]

Here’s what I find interesting: when parents seemingly care more about “cool” or “nice” teachers than “good” teachers.

And what impact does the admin have on parents? Are you just frustrated that you can’t volunteer? That’s weird. Why are you so pressed to be in the building during school hours? Unless you have a kid with special needs, you really don’t interact with admin.

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It's how you become involved in your community.  The more volunteer opportunities (usually outside of school hours) the more families you meet.  We like to be a part of our community, but the opportunities are harder to find at OTES.  The e-mail on Sunday is school wide and vague.  I have a number of friends who are elementary ed teachers elsewhere in MCPS and they update the parents in their class weekly or monthly about how the class is going.  My one friend up county gets a weekly e-mail from both of her kids' teachers about what the kids learned that week, the student of the week, etc.  OTES is not like that.  A good school, but not like that.  It's not off the wall to want to interact with your kid's teacher more than once a year at the parent teacher conference.  Hearing about what they are learning about and doing in class helps spark conversation at home.  If this stuff doesn't seem appealing to you it's because you have different preferences than me, and that's OK.  My response is information for people who may have similar preferences to me.  This is how the world works.  We won't all agree, but we can be respectful of other's preferences.  I'm certainly not writing nasty letters to the administration about this stuff.  We are happy enough at OTES.  But if someone asks for an opinion on OTES, this is my opinion.  Just like any other review, it may not apply to you if the things I'm talking about aren't things that matter to you.

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