How does your school do preview night/open house?

[Rock'n Robin]

As I mentioned in the teacher thread, I am not looking forward to the open house in the district where I live. It's called "preview night" here and it is 2 days before school starts. I don't have any problem with that, but all of the schools are on the same night! The high school (DD#1, 9th grade) is from 4:30 to 6:30. DD has 6 teachers including the choir director, plus another one second semester that I know from HS and should stop and say hello. After that we go to the junior high (DD#2, 6th grade). This one is from 5 to 7 PM. 7 teachers (she is in both choir and band). Then lastly to the elementary school (DS, 3rd grade). 5:30 to 7:30. At least they are selling some dinners for the parent's association and DS only has one teacher, although we know all of the "special" teachers and the administrators since we have already been parents here since DD#1 was in 1st grade.
It is doable--even though the HS is on the complete opposite side of town from where we live (it wasn't built when we moved to this house). But I feel sorry for people who have more kids--I know one woman who has 8 kids; 5 are still in school, 2 in HS, 2 in middle, and one in 4th grade. She is a widow now and has to get through all of this in these alloted times. I can't imagine.
Where I work, every school has a different open house night. Ours (the HS) is next Tuesday, the day after "preview night" luckily. It used to be later in September but now they try to get it out of the way earlier. One reason for this is so when parents say "how is Susie doing?" we can truthfully say everything is A-OK because we don't really know Susie yet and haven't done anything major. Open house isn't conferences, although some parents try to make it that way. We also use a modified schedule now--instead of a leisurely stroll around the building, there is a "schedule" to follow where you have to make a speech every "period" to the parents who attend and they follow their child's schedule around the school. I much rather liked the come-and-go-as-you-please style of open house.
So what is the usual where you are?
Robin M.

 

[golfgal]

In our old district it was usually on the Tuesday before school started, so a week before school started usually. It was an open house style usually from 4-7. All the schools in town did that on the same night. We only had 2 schools to go to so not a big deal.

In our new district the elementary and middle schools have a back to school day. It is on this coming Tuesday and school starts the following Tuesday. For the middle school it is from 11-7. The kids can spend any or all of that time at school. During this time they bring their school supplies, set up their lockers, meet their teachers, get school pictures taken, buy supplies that you can only get from the school, band books, assignment notebooks, yearbook orders. You can also have your calculators and gym locker lock engraved for free that day. They also get all their computer sign-on's and what ever else they need for the first day of school. I think it is a great set-up.

For the high school they only have a formal program for the 9th graders and new students to the district. This is also this coming Tuesday but it starts at 7PM. It starts with a show from the marching band --we will FINALLY get to see their full show in full uniform!. Then the parents go to the auditorium and the kids go to the student center for their various information sessions. The parents meet up with their kids later and meet teachers, etc.

On Wednesday-Friday the kids in the middle school and high school can also be in the building to work on finding their classes, etc. The teachers aren't available but it is a good way for the new kids to feel more comfortable with the school before it starts.

 

[tw1nsmom]

Our school does back to school night after school has already begun. It really bothers me to not be able to meet my kids teachers until a couple weeks after they're already in their class. The district staggers the nights and some schools meet the teachers even later (up to a month).

 

[golfgal]

Our school does back to school night after school has already begun. It really bothers me to not be able to meet my kids teachers until a couple weeks after they're already in their class. The district staggers the nights and some schools meet the teachers even later (up to a month).

We used to have that and then the Catholic school started doing their back to school night before school and then the public school followed suit. The public school found they had close to 100% attendance before school started but only about 70% after school started. It is a great way to do this and parents and teachers make an instant connection.

 

[makinorlando]

My DDs school has a "meet the teacher" day the week before school starts. This time is during the day, lately 8:30 - 10:30am. This is a open house type of time where we take in school supplies, and find the classroom, meet the teacher, and get hit up by the PTA and other activities as you walk through the corridors!

The week after Labor Day (DD has been back in school since 8/7), they have back to school night, different nights for different age groups - where we hear from the teachers as a group about the curriculm for the year, school activities, etc, and then we go to individual rooms for a little "talk" by the teacher. They do different grades different nights (at least at DD school) as there is VERY limited parking... (the person who designed and engineered the parking/driveways should have been fired... but that's another story!)

 

[KelNottAt]

For us, HS BTS night is Thursday before school starts. For my middle schooler, BTS night is during the first or second week.

The elementaries and middles that feed into our HS do a good job of coordinating BTS night. They set it up so that there are no overlaps or conflicts.

It can take nearly 3 weeks get through all the BTS nights in own town since the the elementaries only do one grade per night. When my kids were in elementary, I loved it that way. No rushing, no crowded parent mob scene, both parents can come together or one can stay home to baby sit, etc. I've heard it really helps parents of large families get through the schedule.

 

[pigletz]

We don't have ours until about a month into the school year. All of the schools have a different night so parents don't have to run around the district to make it to all of the schools. Now parent teacher conferences is a different story. We don't have day conferences and our conferences are not scheduled. After the first quarter the entire district has conferences on the same day from 2-5 and 6-8. After the third quarter we have them on two different days from 5-8 on both days. The fact that the parents can just drop by means schedualing is a nightmare. It's not so bad in the middle and high schools because if the teacher is busy with a parent you can just go to another teacher and then come back. I often have parents who wait to talk to me but then have to rush off to make it to the high school or one of the elementary schools. What makes things worse in our district is that the seventh grade is housed in two different elementary buildings until we can move into our new building. It's not unusual for a parent to have one in high school, one at the eighth grade trailor, one in one elementary building for seventh grade and another younger one in a different elem.

 

[froglady]

DS's school has an open house about a month into school, and conference day at close of midterm marking, usually just before Halloween.

On open house, we follow their bell schedule and go from classroom to classroom for 10-15 minutes per class. The teachers give an overview of the year, class rules, etc. No individual issues are discussed.

On conference days, you sign up for a certain 3 hour time period. They request that parents who can possibly make it during the day do so, and leave the evening slot for situations where neither parent can come during the day.

The teachers sit at tables set up in the larger buildings (gym, cafeteria, library) according to subject grouping. Math/Science in one, Liberal Arts in another, etc Then you are alloted 15 minutes with each teacher. There are chairs set up to sit a wait your turn. I've found that going to the resource people at the beginning leaves a shorter wait for the core teachers.

 

[DaisyD]

Ours scheduled the meet the teacher the day before school starts at 2:30 in the afternoon. School open house is different and happens after school starts and during the day so that you can sit in on the class and watch kids. Back to school night is entirely different too and happens at night at 7pm.

 

[Blondy876]

My school has a 'meet the teacher' and a 'back to school' night. When it is changes every year. This year our "meet the teacher night" is on the 5th. Our students don't start until the 11th. "Back to school night" will be sometime in early October.

At my dd's school the "meet the teacher" and "back to school" night are the same thing. The PTA holds it's first meeting of the year at 6 then at 6:30 the parents are dismissed to go to their child's classroom.

 

[aprilgail2]

only the grade schools have back to school night, there is none in the Jr or Sr high school.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

All of our stuff is after school starts. Elem dd does have a drop your stuff off prior to school starting, but that is it.

DD's High School meet & greet is this week. You follow the schedule of your child. It would stink if you had more than 1 teen.
Thank goodness for email, at least!!!

Elem dd's orientation was last week. They do just 1 grade at a time. A formal meeting of the 4th grade team and the principal is done in the cafeteria. They discuss the rules and other stuff.
Then we are dismissed to the teacher rooms and your teacher explains her stuff.