Open Class Day!

I am so sorry that I have been very slow to blog this month, but this entry will attest, I have been very busy with one of the most important events in a Hogawon's school year.

I recently had my "Open Class Day" at school. This is a day where the parents of the children enrolled at a private academy get a chance to see how their money is being spent. Being that I teach the youngest age- I got off a lot easier than the rest of my co-workers. I knew that anything my kids could show their parents would be more than they knew before they started at LCI- so I was in good shape. I have a feeling if you were able to read the blog entries of my co-workers regarding "Open Class Day," they would be using very hateful and ugly words to describe it.

At the end of the day "Open Class Day" will make or break a school's financial future for the next year. A bad impression will lead to a bad reputation and as anyone in business understands, a satisfied costumer has no voice next to an unhappy one. I am sure you can guess that this lead to some anxiety within the school.

I spent four full weeks preparing for the 60 minutes that the parents were in my classroom. We were "required" to have our classrooms in tip-top shape! You are probably wondering why they didn't already look great? Well, due to the fact that the school goes year round..we dont have the luxury of using a summer break to prepare our classrooms for the following school year. I ended the school year in one classroom on a Friday and started in a new one on Monday. This school is closed on weekends and holidays. I had access to my classroom for the first time 30 minutes before my first class arrived on the first day of school. Piles of junk filled all the shelves, and drawers. The walls weren't decorated with ANYTHING pleasing to the eye, or anything that would actually help my kids learn or help me be an effective teacher. I spent weeks just cleaning and organizing my classroom using my 5 minute breaks between classes and staying after when I could. That did not even include making decorations. Needless to say, when "Open Class Day" rolled around, most of the classrooms needed a lot of work.

Here is the catch, I teach from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm straight with an hour for lunch and 5 minutes in between classes. I have 2 hours of paid prep a week and that time is filled correcting essays, writing weekly reports, and preparing for classes. In order to decorate my classroom for "Open Class Day," I stayed after school for almost 3 weeks straight until 9:00pm when the school closes and then proceeded to take work home until I finally got to bed around 2am; only to wake up and start all over again the next day. I think you can see why I have been inconsistent with keeping my blog up to date.

"Open Class Day" was a secretly rehearsed play that we worked on for a month. The parents were not allowed to know that every question asked, every hand raised, and every sentence used was practiced repeatedly until the kids were blue in the face. Because the parents weren't supposed to know we were rehearsing, we had to cover the same amount of material as we usually would in class. Trying to manage our regular class load, and try and rehearse for our "performance" at the same time was extremely stressful. It was chaotic, ineffective, unproductive, and caused a lot of tension within the office.

When the big day finally rolled around my little 5 year old kids impressed the heck out of everyone. Even though I had a few criers in the middle, and 3 bawling at the end and for the rest of the day because they had to say good-bye to their parents, it was to be expected. Every single kid showed their parents that they can sit in their chairs, follow directions, raise their hand and use full sentences, ask questions correctly, sing songs, understand stories, and so on. Did I really teach them all of that? It was a "WOW" moment for me and the parents. It was the first time I was really able to look at my class from an outside perspective and realize that all the English they know is from me. It was a very proud moment, and one I never thought I would live to see. I never thought I would make it through that very first month with them; I wish you all could see them now.

I was one of the only classes in the school that received no complaints after "Open Class Day!" Every single parent was shocked by how much their kids knew and understood. I would never want to go back and do it again, but I think for my class it was worth it (I can't say that for all of the classes).

Once again, I apologize for my delay in blog posts- but I hope this helps you understand a little of what I have been up to!

I just found out I will be back in MN last weekend in August and I look forward to seeing each and every one of you! I think it is finally appropriate for me to say...See you soon! :)

Cheers,

Shauna