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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The SMOB proposed that schools should invite parents to send their kids from any grade that day. They could still participate in the activities even though they wouldn't be new to the school. Staff said they are going to have a committee formed to iron out these kind of specifics of how transition day will work by March.[/quote]

Except that would defeat the purpose of it being a transition day.  At which point it should go back to just being a transition/orientation half day for secondary schools.  Many of which were already doing this the Thursday before school opened.[/quote]

+1 Exactly. I like the idea of a required transition day. All of DD's schools did that and it was really helpful.  [/quote]

+1 My child started K this year and I was not impressed that:

- Some elementary schools offered a day for incoming K students to visit the school in the spring, and others (including ours) didn't
- The "Open House" the Thursday in August before school was for all students and was super chaotic and not particularly helpful

We have friends out of state and their schools actually let incoming K students visit the school on multiple days in the Spring before they start. In one of the MCPS schools that did do a Spring orientation for incoming K students, they got to participate in a lesson with a teacher. I didn't go to MCPS until high school but when I did, in the late 90s there was a transition day for 9th grade.

This is doable and good for students and families. Lately, MCPS has been very combative towards parents and families. I haven't gotten the sense CO GAF about kids. They just want to do whatever is easier for them. It sounds like Taylor is challenging this attitude and I hope he succeeds.[/quote]

Everyone from parents, to teachers, to CO is asking why does this need to be a whole day, and why does it need to move to Monday?  The reason MCPS was trying to stop the K orientations in the Spring is because it required currently enrolled K students only to be off a day or two so that the K teachers could focus on incoming students. This impacted families. The only other alternatives proposed where a) use an existing non-instructional day as the K orientation days, which then takes away from that day being for teachers or b) do it after school hours which again impacted teachers.  So its not the CO does GAF about kids, its that they are trying to balance everyone's needs.

Which is why the orientation half-day on the Thursday prior to school made sense logistically.[/quote]

Other school districts manage things like spring orientation for K students just fine. From an educational perspective, the gains from doing a spring orientation in terms of supporting this critical transition are much greater than what the current K students learn in one day. But you idiots just throw up your hands and say it's too hard! Wahhhh.

All of this whining is testament to why MCPS is in decline.[/quote]

What educational benefit comes from a bunch of K students going to school for one day with no other students???  Seriously it’s just a long playdate with their classmates.  And if it’s soo beneficial why can’t they do it on the Thursday before school starts?

Also, MCPS managed spring orientation also, but they were responding to community concerns that have continually been brought up.[/quote]

Sorry you don't understand early childhood. For a kid it is the difference between spending the summer anticipating going into a building they've never seen before with no idea what it will be like, to having some frame of reference. Previewing transitions is not some wacky thing that someone made up, it's a real thing that really helps little kids. Btw, MCPS can't just claim they are "responding to community concerns" every time they make a terrible decision. Learn to be the grownup in the room, FFS.[/quote]

Again what is the educational benefit?  Kids are going to anticipate going to school  regardless if they’ve seen the school months earlier, days before, or not at all.  Neither example will change how a kids learns their ABC’s or numbers.[/quote]

When little kids are stressed, they don't learn as well, and they're more likely to be disruptive which interferes with other kids' learning as well.  Giving kindergarteners as smooth a transition as possible, making them more likely to have positive feelings about school and positive relationships with their teachers, absolutely has an educational benefit. I have no opinion on whether a full-day Monday transition day is the best way to do that, but there is a legitimate educational benefit to doing the transition well.[/quote]

There is little to no learning going on in K for the entire first week of school.  It’s about learning rules, routines, getting to know the other kids, teachers seeing if there are any immediate issues they see.   [/quote]

The transition day isn't about making the first week of school easier and more successful for kindergarteners.  It’s about making the whole year easier and more successful for kindergarteners.[/quote]

So now one day of transition is going to make the whole school year better but the entire first week of transition doesn’t do that??? Why not just give K a separate school.[/quote]

Exactly- it won’t. It will be chaotic for kindergarten especially. No patrols to monitor the kindergarteners on the buses on their first day. Throw a bunch of children new to school in a bus alone with no aide and no patrols to help sounds like a disaster. Nevermind behavior issues, they won’t know which stop to get off in the afternoons either. During the school day they’ll be the only ones eating in the cafeteria or playing at recess only to be hit with 500 or sometimes 800 more students the very next day. How confusing for five year olds. This decision is definitely being driven by people who don’t understand small children [/quote]

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