Exciting Open Houses

Our Miller-Driscoll Open Houses this week had a new and innovative dimension. Teachers used Smart Boards and Power Point presentations to add polish to their friendly "Getting To Know You" talks. The teacher collaboration at each grade level was so powerful that all parents received a consistent, integrated message of hope and high expectations for the year ahead--as well as all the essential information about school and classroom operations. One teacher expressed her appreciation for the opportunity to work in close proximity to her colleagues as enabling her to share on a level the teachers had never come close to in the past. All the teachers were very proud of the appearance of their classrooms.

Mrs. Jensen-Gerner, Mrs. Pearson and I loved meeting all the parents. We enjoyed the Open Houses as much as the teachers and parents. Each Open house night was uplifting, happy and cheerful.

I asked the teachers to give me one word to describe their impression of Open House from the faculty perspective. One teacher described the happy hum of excited parents while another thought the evening was calm and lovely. Some teacher comments:
Wonderful
Hopeful
Enthusiastic
Exciting
Interested
Smiles
Cooperative
Smooth
Successful
Energizing
Informative
Enlightening
Curious
Inspiring
Supportive
A couple of additional comments:
The BEST
Supportive parents
Technologically advanced
Parents played with Smart boards
Nodding heads in agreement
A GOOD night
Rare opportunity to meet parents
Parents vested in education
Shared Message

The phrase I thought described Open House most succinctly was written by one teacher, who said that Open House is "The Doorway to our Parent Partnership."
Thank you to the Tecce Family, Deb Bucklan and Jeff Busch, who welcomed all our parents with smiles, distributed our new Handbooks and sold our great Spirit Gear.