The chaos that occurs during morning drop off triggered a long conversation at the January 2008 Council meeting. There’s a lot more to say, so this topic is here to record ideas and concerns.
Morning drop off is problematic. Historically, parents, teachers, and students could mingle in the morning — this was part of the community-building culture that helped define H2. Over time, what with the move to narrower premises, and with the time constraints on teachers, this morning rubbing of shoulders is no longer possible. We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water, but something needs to change as the current situation has several problems.
We need to identify our intentions and work out a plan from there. At the January 2008 council meeting, the following bits were noted in the minutes. Please pitch in the comments below. This on-going issue needs all our voices.
Staff had a 15-minute discussion about it this morning. Kathy says there’s still a lot of chaos. The idea there’d be a club.
- we’re open to do anything as long as it doesn’t increase teacher supervision.
- Does the staff have ideas?
- We talked about what it used to be. We have alternate spaces which could be used. The library is a place for that on the 2nd floor. On the 3rd floor, we’ll look at an alternate room, because the classrooms cannot be used because the teachers need their classroom. There is supervision on the 3rd floor as it is.
- Is the space in the library too small to also have the older kids there.
- It doesn’t work when you have to drop your clothes up, go down to the library, and back up.
- We discuss whether outside is good enough. We clarify access parents/teachers and parents/parents is an important piece for us.
The problem on the 3rd floor is how cramped and unwelcoming the place is.
- Since the reality of teachers not being available is here now, and since the “culture” we want to promote is of parents talking to parents, why not do it outside?
- Observation: Parents hang out when the kids are younger and less when they’re older. What if the kids w/o parents stayed outside.
louise · 17. January 2008, 15:36 · #
every year a little bit more of this valuable piece of hawthorne community building/culture is eroded due to many different reasons- the end result is always less interaction with teachers and the community in general
oh the days when we could go into the classroom at 8:45 am and sit with the kids and read!!
do new folks realise how many schools do not let parents in the door at all in the morning (about 95%!) and what a great thing this is -when else do you get to see your child’s teacher, the principal, etc if not for an appointment?
so it is not just parents talking to parents. more access to teachers in general might mean that parents might be willing to be flexible or let go of the morning tradition but until then i would support whatvever we can do so that we do not all end up outside.
in the good weather more folks are outside anyway- cold/yucky weather does not endear anyone to stand around community building/networking.
when we had the room last year it was great as we also saw our child’s teacher at least 1 or twice a week in a time period that allowed some conversation so let’s try for that
Louise
7 years and counting at Hawthorne
parent of grade 5 and 3