Thoughts from Escambia County School District's Open House 2015-2016

Last night many of our district's schools held their open house event.

I attended the open house at West Florida High School.  Several things caught my attention at the open house--most notably how well the event was attended.  As is typically the case at WFHS, I'd estimate that 50%-70% of the school's population was present.  Additionally, there were many 2-parent attendees per child; several of the classes became standing room only affairs.

The teachers were pleasant and well prepared, and most of the classrooms had a sign-in sheet where parents could leave their contact information.  Additionally, every teacher stressed the importance of attendance--one teacher went so far as to say "your child's success depends upon his attendance; attendance is the number one key to success"

Every class had contact information for parents, a way to allow parents to directly contact the teacher.  This was very helpful and most of the parents were writing this information down.

Google Classroom was the big star of the night.  Nearly every classroom and every subject has an online presence on Google Classroom.  Several teachers encouraged the parents to log in to Google Classroom to see what is happening in the class.  More than one teacher spoke glowingly of Google Classroom as compared to Moodle.

A big part of what made the open house extra-successful was the parents being present in large numbers.  One teacher, elated at the attendance, stated wryly "At the last school I worked at, we had only 2 parents attend the open house, only 2."