Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half day during preservice week seemed to work fine. This seems overkill

Looking at the activities planned for our sixth graders, a full day seems an reasonable amount of time. We have both academic and socioemotional rotations, plus a block with lunch and physical activities.

And every staff member has a role so there’s no inequity in workload between grades.

Wow what school? This would have been great for my 6th grader!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader reported that the full day was just too long for an orientation type day. Based on his report, it sounded like the activities basically matched what was done before (I have an 11th grader, as well), but that the time for each one was basically doubled. I agree and think that a half day is just fine for an introduction to a new school. I would think this is even more true for kindergarten students, who can better ease into the new environment with a shorter introduction, and 6th graders, most of whom have shorter attention spans than 9th graders. I do hope Dr. Taylor and the BOE consider this going forward. Everyone would have been better off to do orientation last week and to start this week off fresh with the first real day of school.

Strongly disagree re date. Doing it today allowed many families to take their vacations last week when child care and camp options have dwindled. That was such an annoying set up (and the date was never confirmed until very late in process).

DP. The date was always the Thursday before school started. It was optional -- families that preferred going on vacations could do it.

Anonymous wrote:I assume MCPS counts transition day as one of the 180 days of the school year even though my two kids had zero schooling offered to them.

They petitioned the state to count it, but thankfully MSDE said no.

My fourth grader starting CES went in today and liked it. Our neighbors who weren't in school today got to take an extra trip to see family. I wasn't sure about the transition day, but it was a success for us.

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. I was initially skeptical about the idea of a full transition day but I thought it went pretty well at my high school. It was way more relaxed than the first day with all the kids attending and it seemed like a nice introduction to 9th graders and new students. I also like that last week was all teacher prep and trainings rather than also a half day for transition students. I’m a believer now. Hope the kids also had a positive experience

I agree and I’m generally a bit of a hater with new policies. I noticed that the kids readily approached staff more than usual with general questions or asking for directions, and didn’t look terrified or overwhelmed. Usually they’re just a deer in headlights on the first day and trying to hide. This was a lower pressure way to meet the teachers and find their way around.

But both my kids entered different schools and had wildly different experiences, with one not even meeting their teachers or seeing their classrooms.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader reported that the full day was just too long for an orientation type day. Based on his report, it sounded like the activities basically matched what was done before (I have an 11th grader, as well), but that the time for each one was basically doubled. I agree and think that a half day is just fine for an introduction to a new school. I would think this is even more true for kindergarten students, who can better ease into the new environment with a shorter introduction, and 6th graders, most of whom have shorter attention spans than 9th graders. I do hope Dr. Taylor and the BOE consider this going forward. Everyone would have been better off to do orientation last week and to start this week off fresh with the first real day of school.

Strongly disagree re date. Doing it today allowed many families to take their vacations last week when child care and camp options have dwindled. That was such an annoying set up (and the date was never confirmed until very late in process).

+1 even for my kid who just had a 1 hr open house for ES he's returning to. The Friday is annoying with vacations and camps. If rather have that as a full week of summer and ease into the school week on Monday with the open house.

Teacher here. I was initially skeptical about the idea of a full transition day but I thought it went pretty well at my high school. It was way more relaxed than the first day with all the kids attending and it seemed like a nice introduction to 9th graders and new students. I also like that last week was all teacher prep and trainings rather than also a half day for transition students. I’m a believer now. Hope the kids also had a positive experience

I liked that my high school had the 9th graders attend an Extracurricular Activities Fair in the afternoon so they could be aware of the DOZENS of community building clubs and activities available to them at the high school level. Had we brought everyone together on the same day, these kids would likely not have had this opportunity. Sure, a lot of them sat in corners and socialized but many kids learned a lot about how they can fully maximize and enjoy their high school experience.

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader reported that the full day was just too long for an orientation type day. Based on his report, it sounded like the activities basically matched what was done before (I have an 11th grader, as well), but that the time for each one was basically doubled. I agree and think that a half day is just fine for an introduction to a new school. I would think this is even more true for kindergarten students, who can better ease into the new environment with a shorter introduction, and 6th graders, most of whom have shorter attention spans than 9th graders. I do hope Dr. Taylor and the BOE consider this going forward. Everyone would have been better off to do orientation last week and to start this week off fresh with the first real day of school.

Strongly disagree re date. Doing it today allowed many families to take their vacations last week when child care and camp options have dwindled. That was such an annoying set up (and the date was never confirmed until very late in process).

My 8th grader also reported it was a big waste of time. It was useful to practice riding the bus and walking through their classes which could have been done in 2 hours. No info about lockers, bi help getting my kid who is new to MCPS logged in to StudentVue or Canvas. The teacher said she didn’t have enough time to do it.

My kid’s counselor was the only one not there when all the other counselors came to lead their kids around.

Supposedly only 2-4 kids in each class. A group of boys already in trouble in the hallway and making up where they are supposed to be. DH said he wondered if they were even at the right school!

Every teacher said “we’ll do this all again tomorrow with everyone”. What a waste of time!

Great that the marching band and dance teams get excuses for more performances, but this should have been a half day last week like it’s always been. Today should have been the first rwal day of school

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader reported that the full day was just too long for an orientation type day. Based on his report, it sounded like the activities basically matched what was done before (I have an 11th grader, as well), but that the time for each one was basically doubled. I agree and think that a half day is just fine for an introduction to a new school. I would think this is even more true for kindergarten students, who can better ease into the new environment with a shorter introduction, and 6th graders, most of whom have shorter attention spans than 9th graders. I do hope Dr. Taylor and the BOE consider this going forward. Everyone would have been better off to do orientation last week and to start this week off fresh with the first real day of school.

Agree!!!

Seemed to go well for my kindergartener. He was excited to see the school, meet all the specials teachers, and it sounds like he got to do a lot of play and get-to-know-you stuff which I think would be a lot harder to fit in on a regular day (the kindergarten day is sadly pretty much packed full with academics, which I believe they are supposed to start even of day 1 of "actual" school.) I'm really glad he got a positive, "school is fun" first-day-of-school experience.

Anonymous wrote:I assume MCPS counts transition day as one of the 180 days of the school year even though my two kids had zero schooling offered to them.

Nope, it's a non-instructional day.

I assume MCPS counts transition day as one of the 180 days of the school year even though my two kids had zero schooling offered to them.

9th grader says the day was too long, it was boring, hates everybody in her class…