All Faculty Meeting Notes, 5/4/16
· Amanda did a Best Practice on Engaging and Learning Through Games
· Kristin and the topic of developing policy and/or preference for engaging visiting students.
Ø There may be situations where a classroom visit is absolutely necessary and other situations where they are less necessary.
Ø Kristin tends to defer to the parents in terms of visits, scheduling, etc. While there may be situations where we need to be flexible, there are other situations where we can establish procedures that support classroom needs.
Ø Kristin asked the following questions: What are the teacher preferences for student visitors? What are guidelines that can emerge for next year’s admissions program?
Ø The suggestion was made that we could streamline classroom visitors by having one day a week for visiting students. Another suggestion was made to have a visit for part of a day, rather than for a whole day, since some of our present students can be very energetic and over-stimulated by the presence of visitors.
Ø For MS and HS, all day works well for the visiting process. Visitors can get a lot more variety in the course of a day.
Ø HS can have one day visits. The suggestion was made to give them one day advance notice to talk about upcoming visitors in centering.
Ø For HS, and MS, visits should not be on a day when there is Mysteries council or Gender Mysteries.
Ø In K/1, the first visit can be one hour. The second visit can be for ½ a day or for a full day. The number of visits at one time would be dependent on the expectations for developmental observations and note-taking.
Ø In Pre-K and HS, advance warning can help students understand why students are coming and then leaving in the course of the day. Younger students ask: where did the visitors disappear to during the day?
Ø For K student/visitors without parent perpetration, the magical thinking construct is that they are now joining this class, rather than visiting this class. This needs to be clarified by parents prior to the visit.
Ø Kristin made the request that she be in the loop with connecting links to multiple schedules. *Megan will make sure the schedules are shared with her.
Ø The request was made to limit visitors—particularly, close to a break, to IRPs, and during the last week before parent conferences. A request was also made to avoid Mondays and Fridays.
Ø Several people mentioned the possibility of Wednesday visits, since the school week was in the flow, and there is an early adjournment.
Ø A request was made for a Day-of sheet for visitors to fill in consistent information prior to having the parents leave OCS. What contact info do we need to get from families? This sheet might have: emergency contact info, medical/ allergies and phone #, pick-up plans, room for teacher notes.
Ø A suggestion was made that this sheet outlines the procedure for decision-making process so that parents are not expecting long conversations with teachers about observations, outcomes, etc.
Ø Kristin requested a script for what those families need to bring for K-12: snack, lunch, water, and closed-toed shoes.
