Anonymous wrote:Well as a parent, I did learn some info even if it was a little long and can understand why admin would want to reach the largest audience it could. I guess I expected some "BS" at a back to school night. Really though this is one of the least of my concerns. Do you like your parents complaining about every little thing that you do as well?

Do you see me blaming the teacher?

It's not the teacher's doing. It's the district.

At our MS, only a five-minute live speech by the Principal, then straight to classrooms in our DC's class-order, so 1st period teacher first, and so on. It was fantastic and the time flew by.

Well as a parent, I did learn some info even if it was a little long and can understand why admin would want to reach the largest audience it could. I guess I expected some "BS" at a back to school night. Really though this is one of the least of my concerns. Do you like your parents complaining about every little thing that you do as well?

Anonymous wrote:Based on the OP's comment, I think it's entirely appropriate to read a preschool book to parents. Seriously you are complaining about a 15-20 minute video that you thought was boring and too long? I'm sure that attitude will go over well over the next 12 years of your child's schooling. Practice what you preach.

OP here. And teacher. So I have a pretty good "bureaucratic B.S." meter. Thanks.

Based on the OP's comment, I think it's entirely appropriate to read a preschool book to parents. Seriously you are complaining about a 15-20 minute video that you thought was boring and too long? I'm sure that attitude will go over well over the next 12 years of your child's schooling. Practice what you preach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We didn't have any videotaped message at ours at all (elementary school). I liked the whole going-green thing too (teacher's presentation available electronically but no 'handouts'.)

OP here; this was elementary school. We got handouts as well as the videotaped information about the handouts. So not only was it not green, it also insulted our intelligence, IMO.

I haven't had back to school night yet, but at kindergarten orientation the principal read a preschool level book to the parents...so I'm pretty much expecting them to insult our intelligence.

At Kindergarten orientation the children are there with you. Did the principal read the story while the kids were with the parents or had then already gone off to visit a room? Totally appropriate for the principal to read the story if the kids were there. But if they were not-thats a bit strange.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We didn't have any videotaped message at ours at all (elementary school). I liked the whole going-green thing too (teacher's presentation available electronically but no 'handouts'.)

OP here; this was elementary school. We got handouts as well as the videotaped information about the handouts. So not only was it not green, it also insulted our intelligence, IMO.

I haven't had back to school night yet, but at kindergarten orientation the principal read a preschool level book to the parents...so I'm pretty much expecting them to insult our intelligence.

Anonymous wrote:We didn't have any videotaped message at ours at all (elementary school). I liked the whole going-green thing too (teacher's presentation available electronically but no 'handouts'.)

OP here; this was elementary school. We got handouts as well as the videotaped information about the handouts. So not only was it not green, it also insulted our intelligence, IMO.

We didn't have any videotaped message at ours at all (elementary school). I liked the whole going-green thing too (teacher's presentation available electronically but no 'handouts'.)

We had to endure a long and boring message about supporting the high school booster club. Zzzzz....

I didn't mind ours, either. They made it fun and entertaining.

Ours was short. Fifteen minutes max with video of Zulaga, principal and PTA president, then off to the classroom. I sat through it twice since we have two nights of BTS. Was much better than many I've been to and I appreciated that they started right on time as well.

Anonymous wrote:They didn't do that at ours.

Lucky!!

They didn't do that at ours.

...bureaucratic videotaped message in the beginning? Just let the teachers talk! That whole 20 min of video could have been accessed at our leisure on the Web. Instead I was practically snoozing through "In this box at the back of your child's progress report is where you'll see comments..." I went through school already, I can read, I can figure out the progress report.

And even if I had difficulty, there was already a handout right in front of me. I know none of this is up to the teacher but why do the higher-ups think this is necessary?? What a waste of the beginning of Back-to-School Night, with otherwise wonderful teacher presentations.