Friday, July 06, 2007

Meet and Greet

My oldest child has been going to the same school since Kindergarten.  I have been to many meet and greets at this school.  This year is a first.  The school is one of the elementary schools converting to YR for the first time.  The teachers where all very nice and the school looked great.  Just one thing though,  the class rooms looked bare.  What do I mean by bare?  There was no personalization of the class room for the teacher and her class.  There was the occasional poster with the children’s names on them but the rooms by and large seemed to be bare. 

In the years past teachers have had the opportunity to personalize their room for the year.  They would create work stations for reading, math and writing.  They would have a book corner for quiet or private reading.  There would be more supplies lined up in the bookcases.  Not this year.

As I understand it, the teachers are working out of fairly large carts that are mobile.  These carts have all the items that they would need for the school year with areas to keep their supplies and the children’s records.  These are made to be mobile because every time the children track out they will be coming back to a different classroom.  We put the question of how will the children know where to go when they go back after break and the teachers where all very reassuring that the “children will know where to go”. 

I am in support of the YR conversion but this does seem to be one of those things that would be an inconvenience.  It’s not an inconvenience to me or my children but for the teachers.  Imagine teaching in one classroom for up to 9 weeks and then you track out.  The teacher must then pack up her fairly large, and I imagine heavy, cart with all those items from the last nine weeks and have them moved to their new room.  I sure do hope that someone helps them move them.  I really do understand why some teachers would not like this part of year round.

And what happens when they go back?  I understand that they will know where they are going before break but does this room change also cut into their track out time.  Do the teachers have to leave later than the students and arrive before they get back to organize the new classroom?  And where on earth will they store these large carts while the room they were in is now being utilized by another teacher and class? 

If you are a teacher currently experiencing these problems, please let me know how this will work or how it is going for you.  I’m sure people are concerned about retaining good, qualified teachers but will YR cause problems with retention?  I sure hope not!

Hi Sheryl:  I’m going to be blogging as the “Support Traditional” opinion, and I look forward to keeping up with your blogs as well.

During “Meet the Teacher” day yesterday I also noticed how bare the walls were.  My 2nd grader has the same teacher that her brothers both had, and the first thing that struck me when we walked into the room was that the old Rainforest Theme was almost non existent.  I realize that the teachers will have to pack up their belongings every 9 weeks in order to free the classroom up for the next class, but it made me a little sad to see that all of the time and effort she used to put into decorating the classroom wasn’t going to be done anymore.

I will be working on getting my blog up and running soon, and look forward to continued dialog with you during the coming months.

The meet and greet at Pleasant Union was held on June 11th - only a few days after the school year ended.  It was very obvious that, although the teachers were trying to make the best of it, they were not as prepared as they usually are at the end of the summer when the normal “meet the teacher” event happens.

I know you can never make everyone happy, but I thought June 11th was way too early to meet our teacher.

I think that is something that hurts no one and helps to maintain good comunication with others.