First day raves and rants
We've heard from one family that had a dreadful first day experience with a child's teacher.
My daughter reported an excellent first day of her senior year at Chief Sealth.
Do you have a story to share? Everything good? Everything good enough? Something go wrong, but less than tragically? Something go tragically wrong?
Transportation
Class assignment
Teacher assignment
Schedule
Equipment
My daughter reported an excellent first day of her senior year at Chief Sealth.
Do you have a story to share? Everything good? Everything good enough? Something go wrong, but less than tragically? Something go tragically wrong?
Transportation
Class assignment
Teacher assignment
Schedule
Equipment
Comments
It does fly by.
-next year :-)
What exactly was the rough part and what exactly do you characterize as denial?
Ben
late.
Thurgood Marshall--runs like clockwork, great first day, great teacher, buses always very late the first while.
Sealth--schedule has turned into kind of a disaster, long waits to fix it, junior stressed out.
--3Kids 3schools
--TC
All in all though, I think the first day of school went really well at John Rogers. My 4th grader had a great day, and kudos to our new principal, Sara Mirabueno, and all the John Rogers staff and the PTA for a great first day!
-JR Mom
Sophomore at IHS had a very good start. She has a complete schedule and said that, as far as she remembers, every kid had a seat in all of her classes (unlike last year). Of course that could change given that tons of kids didn't seem to have complete schedules. I volunteered to direct people around in the morning and from the size of the line at the counselors' office I would say at least 60-100 kids had holes (some had no schedule at all). I'm guessing it really would have helped to have the computer system up on schedule.
There was massive confusion at enrollment at headquarters yesterday. I have heard from several parents that things were still being done manually and the phone system was not working.
I have a call into SPS to find out the status today.
-reader
The other schools seemed kind of disorganized, but not out of the realm. I think some new parents were a bit freaked out by this, but it always takes a few days to get the bugs worked out.
- Smoother
- southpaw
Green Lake Parent
If it continues to block you from reading the blog, let me know and I may eliminate it. There may be some bug that I just don't see.
The PTSA had a very well attended parent welcome breakfast up in the library and new parents were being shown the way.
My daughter loves her new teacher, she felt things were fun and organized.
I'm also confused about the comment above by "-next year" - There isn't a JAMS this year. It's my understanding that the JAMS planning principal has begun working on plans for the 2014-15 start of JAMS.
I believe that the JAMS planning group will, according to the time schedule put forth by the district, be established in the very near future.
~JAK-8 Parent
Maybe the 1st day glitches at JA K-8 were mostly at the middle school level?
My JA K-8 student (8th grader) told me that there were not enough seats for everyone in one of his classes, and that there were not enough seats in the cafeteria during lunch. Don't know how I feel about kids sitting on the floor for lunch. I hope things get smoothed out soon.
-Another JA-K8 parent
--TC
All around a win for Madison MS. I did not hear whether the new interim principal was out and about meeting the students (but then my child is not always the most observant). I think that is an important duty on the first day of schedule.
-Oh well
Lincoln mom
Families,
I want to reassure you that we are working around the clock, with additional staff, to resolve issues that some of our families are experiencing regarding enrollment or scheduling at their school.
We appreciate your patience as we respond to the demands of both increasing enrollment and our transition to a new student information system.
To assist with parent inquiries and concerns, we have set up a separate email – StartOfSchool@SeattleSchools.org – where you can send any questions you have. We will respond to them as quickly as we are able.
Thank you again for your patience, and we appreciate your understanding.
Sincerely,
José Banda
Superintendent
Seattle Public Schools
My 3rd grader rode the bus home every day last year (as a 2nd grader) uneventfully. This year we have a different driver and today (the first day my kid rode the bus home) the driver motioned he wanted to talk to me and told me my kid had been too loud, and had said something inappropriate and then got sent to sit in "bus jail" as a result. It seemed like the behavior must have been a really big deal for him to come down off the bus to tell me about it. I was quite surprised (kid does not normally get in trouble at school) and it was noisy with the bus running so I didn't ask for more information or anything. So now I'm just wondering if this is unusual. I'm not saying my kid is perfect but the behavior (kids version of it FWIW) doesn't sound that out of the ordinary or any worse than what went on last year. It sounds kind of typical bus hijinks/teasing maybe (not that I condone that).
I am just worried what is going to happen with riding the bus if we got off to such a bad start on the first trip of the school year. Is my kid's bus behavior really that bad? Is the bus driver really strict or intolerant? I'm not opposed to strictness if it is reasonable. Maybe the driver just wants to nip it in the bud, I guess.
However, I worry my kid will never be able to be "good enough" on this bus - they are kids, after all, at the end of a long school day and so I expect there will be a certain amount of noise/energy etc and it makes me wonder if this driver has unrealistic expectations.
So I'm interested in thoughts/experiences of other more seasoned parents both in terms of varying bus driver attitudes/discipline and whether you have had to deal with your kids bus behavior (and how).
On a positive note- it was on time (much better than the first week last year!)
Bus Fuss
The teacher he had last year apparently got RIFed, and two teacher "resigned" (left the district?) in August.
This does not thrill me.
I think its okay and important for bus drivers to have strict limits (safety!)and I think its smart for drivers to establish this most strongly on day one. AND all students need to be treated fairly and the drivers consequences need to be respectful and good for children.
I can't comment on your child's behavior. I wasn't there. I do know there can be a real fine line between bullying and teasing. Was the recipient enjoying it? If not, I appreciate the bus driver intervening.
If I was told my child was put into "bus jail" I would be angry. I think linking a consequence for a child with jail (and particularly children of color) is loaded, potentially harmful and inappropriate.
ny
If it was an emergency situation then perhaps you could have called security. I think they would have a direct line to transportation.
me
If it was an emergency situation then perhaps you could have called security. I think they would have a direct line to transportation.
me
It's not just a slow start like some schools have (i.e. to let the new 6th graders in middle school or 9th graders in high school have the first two hours at school by themselves), but rather no school at all! No, these kids sit at home all day and then spend a good amount of time on the second day of school doing the things that should have been taken care of on the first day (fixing holes in schedules, learning ground rules with 6 new teachers, finding their lockers etc.).
I don't understand how the district allows some schools to be so openly out of line with state education rules and requirements.
Just wondering?
Now I know that the schools can give out short-term passes to a different bus, so if you can't get through to Transportation, go to your school's office.
HP
One odd thing: he needs a study hall and I can't figure out if they exist at Ballard. He signed up for what we thought was one, but apparently it is an actual class that is designed to include some study-hall time. It is called Our Cultural Heritage, and while it is probably interesting what he really, really needs is study time during the day with NO course content. Anyone had their kid in something like that at BHS?
His online schedule lists eight classes (he takes six daily), but I expect after SPS resolves the urgent and critical issues of transportation, school assignation, et cetera I won't get messages about his "phantom courses." He knows what his courses to attend, thankfully.
Yes, it's appalling that there are backdoors to our childrens' data, and there appears to be no way to plug up those leaks.
Here's the problem: we talk about it, complain about it, and nothing whatsoever happens. How can this problem be fixed?
I think the only chance we have is if parents can be mobilized in numbers. Perhaps teachers as well, since in some systems their personal and professional data is distributed as well. How to mobilize? Via heavy duty education about what's happening in the world of big data, and how it can be harmful to our kids throughout the balance of their lives.
Melissa has mentioned more than once that she is working on a post or white paper on this topic; I'm really looking forward to reading it. Perhaps if it grabs the attention of enough people we can meet as a group to discuss how to tone down the oversharing. At that point I think it would be helpful to create a formally-named group. Hey, if all the dozens of astroturf groups can do it, we can too!