What is the difference between an American school and a Ukrainian one: personal experience

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As in Ukraine, parents communicate in the American school with four main groups: the school administration, teachers, the parent committee or association, and other parents. But in the American school it is possible to do without chats in Vaybera, public discussion of other children, collecting money for gifts to teachers and many other things familiar in Ukrainian schools.

You and other parents

We have no chat in vibera. And it is very difficult to imagine. And many friends in Ukraine want to recommend him to disconnect and cross himself.

None of the parents discuss anywhere else other children. There would be to deal with their own. What is shown at the end of the first series of “Little, Big Lie” is a bit exaggerated.

If you have a question about the behavior of a particular child - call his parents directly (there is a school-wide directory with addresses, phone numbers and emails). And be prepared to receive the same call to your address.

If you want to be friends with someone from school - be friends, invite them to your home or go to them, play weekends at the playgrounds, jump on trampolines.

If you want to benefit the school, go to volunteer at the school or join a parent association and be actively involved in school activities. There you will meet other parents.

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You and the school administration

The school administration office is located on the ground floor near the entrance - in a transparent office; the director is sitting there. Is it the same at your school?

Head teacher (Principal) meets children near the entrance to 08: 00 before the start of the lesson, and the children give him a salute. At the same time he says: "It is the best day today !! Welcome to school". Believe me, he does not check who is late, he really greets children. He also escorts children to buses after school and checks that all children leave / leave. If you want, you can come to him to talk. With a high probability, he will know the name of your child (at a school of 1500 people). In general, the director was the first person whom I met by chance when choosing a school for Sonya, and he personally gave me a tour of the school in July ...

Once a week on Sunday in 19.00, a call from the school comes to me on the phone, where the recorded voice of the director tells the school plan for the next week. We listen with the whole family. If we cannot accept the call, a voice message is left, which is then duplicated by email. A simple solution…

Every day in the morning 08.10-08.20 parents receive an email that reminds you of what will be at school today, what additional activities, what trips. In the same email, the administration sends one ridiculous fact about the Day in history and some weird (strange) fact about the bottom.

School has a project AskPrincipal — once a week, the director answers questions that children send him by email or leave in the box in the administration. The children learned a lot of interesting things about the director - he can be very frank.

By the way, if a child forgot something at home (lunch box or sports uniform), then you bring these things to the administration, and they call the student through the teacher - mobile phones for children are prohibited at school. At all. From the word “in general” - even during breaks and lunch. As a result, children's phones are left in lockers for the whole day: from 08.00 to 15.00. You can only contact your child during school through the administration. There have never been any problems with this. But my daughter has already forgotten why she needs a phone.

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You and teachers

In elementary school, children have a 1 teacher, as in Ukraine; only every year this teacher will change. There are separate teachers who specialize in first grade; there are which - on 4's; when we said that we had the same teacher for the whole elementary school, we were “reasonably” noted that such a teacher should study very, very well over 5 years of children, their strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, children will know their teacher ...

There are many teachers in high school, just like in Ukraine. Getting to know them took place in several stages: at the beginning of September, several Getting to know each other days were held - one evening - separately for newcomers throughout the school (we have 500 new students out of 70 people); separately - for students of the entire 7th parallel (not only beginners - all students); separately for foreign students throughout the school (we have students from 60 nationalities). All with pizza, music. There were teachers at each of the events - you could get to know them; There should also be a separate international day, when children come in their national clothes and cook national cuisine.

In September, an all-school teacher-parent meeting was also held. 19.00 has announced the beginning. Each parent was given a school card in advance, in which room the teachers and their time slots will be located. At school there were volunteer students who helped with navigation. And the carousel began. For each teacher there were 15 minutes. You could come to any time slot for him during the 2 hours. During these 15 minutes, the teacher talked about what he / she plans to teach your child this year and in more detail this semester; specifically described the topics that will be studied, talked about their requirements for assessment - they can be different for each subject.

Exactly after 15 minutes, the bell sounded and the headmaster’s voice reminded me of the need to move to another office. Can I ask questions at such a meeting? Not. At such meetings, teachers tell, rather than answer questions. All the more about your child.

The meeting was supposed to end in 21.00. And ended in 21.00. Because everyone is planning their time - teachers, parents, volunteers, and the police, who guard the school.

Want to know how a particular teacher teaches your child? Welcome to the open lesson. More precisely - on the day of open lessons. This is a day during which you can go on any lesson from 10.00 to 13.00 and on the chairs at the end of the class, attend ordinary lessons. I was. As my daughter says, this history lesson was no different from others. I liked it, but I will have to tell about it separately - it was very entertaining.

How to find out what the teacher thinks about your child? Twice a year there are special days on which you can sign up in advance and discuss your child specifically for 10-15 minutes. Think this is not enough? It is better for you to prepare questions, since the teacher will be ready - our classroom in elementary school has a separate folder for Sasha. She calmly told about the main successes, achievements, development zones, showed individual works, all assessments, explained them - all in the folder. After 7 minutes we had nothing to discuss, and we had to laugh it off, and another family stood outside the door - exactly in time. After quitting from such a teacher, wings grew and pride rose for a child who had not spoken English a month ago 2. What else do you want from a teacher?

And if you can not wait to ask something before the next official meeting? Write letters to teachers. All emails of teachers are on the school portal (where grades are). If I send a letter to my teacher in the morning at 07.00, I’m likely to get an answer before 08.00. If during the day, the answer is likely between 16.00 and 18.00. In a pinch, tomorrow morning. But no one will answer during the lessons. Most often, the copy of the answer will be the head teacher who coordinates this parallel.

Once we received a letter from Sasha’s school on the day when we asked a question written by hand and brought to us under the door of the house. The teacher apologized for not being able to answer the email, as there was no internet at school, so she wrote by hand ... that day, and someone brought it to us.

Can I meet with the teacher at another time? Not. What for? If suddenly it will be very, very urgent (it is difficult to imagine why), then you just need to contact the administration.

What if the teacher wants to talk to you? In 1 class, Sasha has a folder in his briefcase. If the teacher wants to send some message, she will put a letter in this folder or send it by mail. Similarly, teachers in the Sony school can write us a letter if they have any questions - either by email or leave comments on the school portal in the parent section.

We received all grades of children by mail in official letters, although we can see them online every day.

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You and Parent Association (PTA)

RTA is the main one in the school. Perhaps she is more important than the director (so films about this are true). There is no separate parent committee in the class as the concept of class is very vague as children go to different lessons with different children.

PTAs organize out-of-class sports and intellectual activities at school. How? You come to association meetings, you are given a long list of possible courses, and you vote for them. Want robotics, debates, extra math or science - vote and create coalitions with other parents. If you want a new sports field (we have 2 basketball fields, football, for American football, tennis courts - this is all at school, and openly outside the classroom for all children) - come, offer, do calculations, create coalitions, vote. And there will be a new playground.

In elementary school, the PTA decides whether to hire additional assistants to assist teachers in class. Parents make such decisions.

PTA is engaged in fundraising. How? First, membership fees to the association. Secondly, others donationswhich parents can do; PTA representatives will meet you at the organization of any school event and will be asked to buy cookies. They also organized a charity marathon among students - then in an elementary school they collected XX thousand dollars. This goal everyone knew. One of the school staff promised to dye her hair green when she reached her goal, and dyed it. Another PTA organized a book fair, the money from which went to need schools. The concert, which put the students (real concert) also brings money.

Last friday was bingo-nightwhere hundreds of hours 2 families played bingo. One of the parents was leading. Children volunteers delivered pizza. Other volunteer children pulled balls out of the drum. And more children collected plastic bottles of water and disposed of. I think that in the PTA arsenal there are also 100 and 1 fundraising methods ...

PTA organizes career days - every week on Fridays, one of the parents comes to the school to talk about their profession and their career path. Children are delighted. For example, last week, a journalist, a Pulitzer Prize winner, spoke about the most interesting interviews he took in his life, including from Barack Obama. And so every week - one of the parents comes. It is worth saying that in our school and kindergarten in Kiev, teachers also did something similar (at least, I spoke in the kindergarten and in the school), but this looked more exception than the rule.

PTA does not raise money for gifts to teachers. Nobody collects at all. PTA reports the spent budget officially and attracts auditors who confirm their budget.

Needless to say, PTA constantly writes letters ... every day.

In general, at the beginning of school, we were told that the success of a child at school depends on the success of the school-student-parent cooperation triangle. Not that this is new to me. But honestly, I was always proud that I never did lessons with Sonia at school. Similarly, parents never studied me in my childhood. During Sonya’s 6 classes, I attended parent meetings twice. I haven’t checked Sonya’s diary for a long time either - for us, grades aren’t the most important thing, especially when my daughter is studying perfectly.

But the thing is different. It's not about the estimates. And in engagement. If a child-student sees that his parents are also involved, then he / she will not try anymore. If you do a history project together, draw your family tree, study the geography and culture of Zimbabwe together, encourage the child before try out softball or basketball, then the neural connections within the family become more diverse. Well, at least in our case.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Five features of American schools that will surprise immigrants

Mom's experience: what impressed me about American school

How to transfer a child to an American school

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