By Harsonica Bindra Staff Writer
Open House is an opportunity for teachers to introduce their class including the syllabus, class expectations, and fun facts about themselves to parents.
Parents spend ten minutes in each of their student’s classrooms. The time of the event is from 7:00 pm – 7:55 pm.
According to science teacher Ms. Halle Arnold, the main goal of Open House is “for parents to see and meet their [teen’s] teachers,” she said. “In my AP classes, the Open House is more centered on the AP test and what they need to do to prepare, while for other classes, it’s more about what I am excited about in the class.”
Even though Open House is a pretty short event, it does help with making connections between a teacher and a student.
Social studies teacher Mr. Shaun Rooney said, “It helps you get an idea of who their [students’] families are…catch up with the parents and ask how the student is doing.”
“I think an Open House is a really great opportunity for parents to see the environment and meet the teachers briefly,” said Ms. Arnold. “I really enjoy the end of my presentation conversations I get to have.”
At Open House, Mr. Rooney likes “to meet the parents/families of students. My only complaint is that it makes it for a day to be pretty long since I don’t get to go home in between when school ends and Open House begins, but overall, I enjoy it.”
To prepare for Open House, both teachers stated that they create slideshows to present to the parents. It allows them to organize their thoughts and cover all the information they need to share with parents. They usually organize them a week in advance.
In elementary school, teachers meet with each parent individually and for a longer time.
However, Ms. Arnold doesn’t “think it’s as necessary [to meet individually with parents since] it would take forever considering I have upwards of 75 students that I am dealing with as opposed to spending all my time with just one class.”
As for improvements, Mr. Rooney did prefer doing it on Zoom since “it made it far more convenient for parents because all they had to do was pop into Zoom, do their thing, listen, and if they are busy with other stuff, they can still join.”
Overall, this experience always ends on a happy note because of the next day’s moments. Ms. Arnold said, “It’s always fun to go back the next day [after Open House] and say ‘oh my god I met your parents,’ which is really lovely.”
The Panther Press 