I had my high school sons open house last night it was very beneficial. The open house was run like one of our students typical day. We ran through the classes the same way they would, were given the same amount of time to get room to room, very much an eye opener. Announcements were made during the same class periods they would be during the day ect. Each teacher gave a course description and what was expected of the student, showed us the textbook or materials used, had sign up sheets to set up conferences, emphasized the need for parents and teachers to work together, ect. Many of the teachers stayed after the open house closed to listen to parents concerns. I got to speak to 3 out of 5 of my sons teachers. I found out that the special ed director had not provided my sons IEP to his teachers yet. No, I did not get mad at her when I realized the sure volume they were talking about. There are over 2,000 students in this school so I am sure there are a lot of special ed students. The teachers were happy I talked to them about both my sons and my concerns. His intergrated science teacher was especially pleased since she had taken 50 % of one of his grades because he had only completed 1/2 the assignment. When I explained to her about his CAPD and that he had missed the oral part of the instruction, she understood. My son went to school early this morning so she could help him with the assignment and to prepare for the quiz he will have today. His Lit teacher said that after his unit on study skills, he actually teaches reading. He says he realizes some kids have never really been taught and don’t assume just because they are in his class which is regular ed they can read. I spoke with his resource room teacher who said she would be sure to give his IEP to his teachers today. She agreed with me that my son has very unique spelling and would emphasize this to his regular ed teachers. Since he also has a reading disability she is getting his books on tape for him. I think this type of open house is very beneficial, it did not take alot of time (each “class” was 10 minutes) but got a lot accomplished. We as parents came away with a better prespective of what BOTH out students and teachers go through each day. I have much more respect now that I see what the teachers, school, and students are up against.
Re: Open House
On behalf of all teachers-thank you for showing up at Open House. All of those teachers spent time preparing handouts, course outlines, etc. Not to mention doing an Open House after a day of teaching-long, long hours at the workplace. It helps a great deal when parents respond.
Re: Open House
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the nice remarks. I am sitting here on a Sat. reading Ldonline bulletin boards before I go to school. Yep, you heard right, school. We just had our week of teacher work days and I am still not ready even though I worked a day before this week putting up my bulletin board. I have been very busy inservicing the ESL department on Phono-Graphix. I am acting as a consult for them because they have to teach reading and noone knows how. What is really great, is that their new department head is so excited with PG that she is going to get all the data that I need to present to our district at the end of the year. The school also made a mistake and put sped students in the reg reading program instead of mine so I had to try to make all the schedule changes. Some I couldn’t so I have to pull those kids out of their reading program and teach them decoding, there goes my planning periods for the first semester at least. My room is a mess and there are file folders all over the place. I also had to meet with my team teacher as well as calling parents of my caseload and introduceing myself. Tomarrow, I will be putting together my first syllabus as well as writing my’ passports’, the schedule and accommodations of our students to the reg ed teachers. They will receive the objectives of the students at a later date. This has been a very busy week but when you are a sped teacher, you expect it. I am really excited this year because I may, through ESL, get PG in our district. As they say, ‘there are more ways to skin a cat’. Our county has the open house like the one you are talking about in a few weeks. Thanks again for the nice words!
Very good post, Lisa! We have that kind of open house at our high schoool, too. It sounds like you made the best of the opportunity! Thanks for being understanding about the special teacher not having distributed the IEP yet. It does take time to get everything done at the beginning of the year. I hope your son has a great year!
Janis