Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A paid consultant can help you with some of the strategizing. There are some schools that disproportionately take kids who apply early decision. There are schools that don’t like certain high schools. There are schools that won’t take kids who are overqualified because they know from past yield numbers that these kids are unlikely to matriculate. There are schools that are by-the-numbers, and schools that really have the bandwidth and interest in considering a student as a whole. Then there’s second early—in-the-know kids might choose to have a second-early decision choice if their first choice rejects them. Some kids need to get creative about scholarships to make early decision a worthwhile gamble. These are all just examples, but not everyone is savvy. I am a school counselor and can give this type of advice, but not because of any specialized training or grad school course or PD in MCPS. I know my colleagues wouldn’t be able to do the same, though they certainly have strengths in other areas that I lack. This isn’t meant to be a boast—I just took a personal interest in the topic, maybe because I find it a fun challenge to figure out the system—to the extent possible, it’s pretty broken. Anyway, the college and career counselor can guide groups at a time but there’s just one person and no way they can give individualized help to 350-500 graduating high school seniors.

How do you feel about the required counselor letter for seniors? It seems like such a joke. My DD (rising senior) has spent 5 minutes total with her counselor as he signed her class schedule 3 times.

Counselor here that you're addressing. I personally "interviewed" my students to ensure I wrote as positive and thorough and personal a recommendation as possible, but I would agree that teacher recs are likely far more substantive. But this is what schools want, so please encourage your children to get to know their counselor. One misconception kids have is that they need to have a problem to see us. Our whole day is often putting out fires, and we love to just chat and be a source of support for students who simply want to know and have another trusted adult in the building. Even if we leave the school and don't end up writing their recommendation letter, it's always a positive for students to feel a connection with a range of educators.

LOL - We can't even get ours to return an email. You will be served at MCPS if your child is a star or troubled. The rest of you must fend for yourselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.

That’s an excuse — they’re getting your emails.

When person #1 told me that she didn't receive my email, I didn't at first believe her because my email had the message as sent. I didn't receive any notice that the message bounced like I do if I Cc my child's MCPS email address.

After multiple emails went unaddressed, I contacted the RT. The RT told me that there's an email glitch and the problem had been raised to Mrs. Heckert's attention but MCPS doesn't know how to fix it.

I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt particularly if two employees are telling me that there is an IT problem that is not their fault. Could be BS but then a third employee in a different department told me the same thing.

Make sure these are the same email address you have listed in the contact information forms. All of that gets entered into the MyMCPS teacher intranet. The intranet is different from the teacher/parent/student myMCPS portal.
Ok. I was told my email didn’t go through by a principal— not at Churchill — and then he said something when we spoke that he only could have known if he HAD received my email. I prefer someone just say it fell by the wayside, but whatever. If there is a glitch the. MCPS should be making it a priority to fix it. Huge numbers of parents have gmail—those need to get through.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.

That’s an excuse — they’re getting your emails.

When person #1 told me that she didn't receive my email, I didn't at first believe her because my email had the message as sent. I didn't receive any notice that the message bounced like I do if I Cc my child's MCPS email address.

After multiple emails went unaddressed, I contacted the RT. The RT told me that there's an email glitch and the problem had been raised to Mrs. Heckert's attention but MCPS doesn't know how to fix it.

I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt particularly if two employees are telling me that there is an IT problem that is not their fault. Could be BS but then a third employee in a different department told me the same thing.

Make sure these are the same email address you have listed in the contact information forms. All of that gets entered into the MyMCPS teacher intranet. The intranet is different from the teacher/parent/student myMCPS portal.
Ok. I was told my email didn’t go through by a principal— not at Churchill — and then he said something when we spoke that he only could have known if he HAD received my email. I prefer someone just say it fell by the wayside, but whatever. If there is a glitch the. MCPS should be making it a priority to fix it. Huge numbers of parents have gmail—those need to get through.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.

That’s an excuse — they’re getting your emails.

When person #1 told me that she didn't receive my email, I didn't at first believe her because my email had the message as sent. I didn't receive any notice that the message bounced like I do if I Cc my child's MCPS email address.

After multiple emails went unaddressed, I contacted the RT. The RT told me that there's an email glitch and the problem had been raised to Mrs. Heckert's attention but MCPS doesn't know how to fix it.

I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt particularly if two employees are telling me that there is an IT problem that is not their fault. Could be BS but then a third employee in a different department told me the same thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.

That’s an excuse — they’re getting your emails.

Anonymous wrote: I don't know any teachers that have voicemail, so I'm not sure what that's about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.

The MCPS spam filter will black some emails from reaching the teacher. Especially if you have a weird email address.

Very true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.

The MCPS spam filter will black some emails from reaching the teacher. Especially if you have a weird email address.

Very true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.

The MCPS spam filter will black some emails from reaching the teacher. Especially if you have a weird email address.

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.

Anonymous wrote:I have been told by several members of Churchill staff that emails from outside MCPS don't make it into their MCPS email inbox. Kind of makes parent /teacher communication difficult but no answers as to whether or not MCPS is going to fix the problem.