Open House

New building.  New staff and teachers.

Same PTA.  Same parents.

Last night was our first Open House at the new building, where we talked and listened for two hours with various teachers and friends.  The auditorium presentation was a pep rally, laughable really as the principal and assistant principal said more than once that there were no problems with the buses.  Well, the bus company and I would disagree since my kids are getting home 25 minutes later than last year, on the same route.  And while I appreciated the intro to the Common Core, there couldn't be much substance (I'm studying the Common Core and its issues and am not ready to weigh in with an opinion yet.)

The grade-level meeting was good, with the teachers laying out the different curricula and goals.  Connecticut has signed onto the Core, but we don't know if the kids we'll be taking the test in our town this spring.  New spelling program--which they're slowing down on some because it's harder on the kids than they expected (I was surprised both of mine got them all right, truthfully; they were  hard words.)  The writing program is the same and thus familiar from last year.  And math.  Oh, math.  That's new. I forget what else, except Sis's teacher was talking about the advanced words the kids know and mentioned one student who used forlorn, and she looked right at me.  Yep, checked with Sis today--she'd used forlorn to answer how a person in a story would feel.  Good for her!  Proud mom moment.

I did have a question about what the kids miss when they're pulled for strings practice.  And basically it can be anything . . . and the child is responsible for what she misses.  "How can a third grader learn what he's missed?" I asked.  Not much of an answer besides it's challenging to schedule pull-out times.  Oh, well.  I'm sure it works out.

Then we went to the classrooms, with Mama going to Sis's first and me to Bud's, as per their requests.  There were unnamed descriptors on the desks for us to guess where our child was.  Pretty easy with sushi, kung fu, and Percy Jackson as well as bunny, vet, and Harry Potter!  Both teachers were upbeat and kind, taking a moment with us.

We also met the specials teachers--both strings teachers, both music teachers, the art teacher, and the PE teacher.  With the music teachers who will be teaching recorder we talked about how Bud loves musicals.  One of the teachers promised to see if he can write "Music of the Night" for recorder.  And I told them I could still play "Star Wars" on the recorder 35 years later!  With the art teacher, we discussed Kandinsky and my museum career--and apparently today she called Sis "Sis Kandinsky!"  He's the first artist they're studying.  And I asked the PE teacher why they don't go outside--it's a time issue to corral them outside--"and we can do everything inside."  I guess.  We only had PE inside when it rained.

And that was the night.  Two hours of school.  Should be a good year.