Here are ten basics for you about how we run our program:
1) Please read and sign your child’s planner DAILY. We sign it each day after we work on filling in the homework assignments your child needs to work on. If your child got homework, but already completed it, we still have your child write the assignment in so you can see what he or she is getting assigned at school.
2) You will get a weekly emailed newsletter that looks like this, only not as long as this one due to the beginning of the year necessities and information sharing. Please email your child’s homeroom teacher for general questions or their respective subject teacher if it’s a subject specific question.
3) Mailgrams come home on Thursdays. Please return the Mailgram envelope on Friday, including the “guts” (items that needed to be returned to school). That means Thursday night is parent homework night. PLEASE let us know (with a note in your child’s planner or an e-mail) if you need to have two households that need to receive weekly information (newsletters, mailgrams, etc). We will send home duplicates of all mailgram contents if needed. We encourage parent involvement and want you all to have access!
4) We will have a bunch of things for your to sign/fill out for your child right away. There's a movie slip, a library interloan slip, and a sheet to tell us about your child. Please return these in a timely manner.
5) If your child has a late assignment, s/he will receive a note in his/her planner about it. Our expectation is that you will assist with reminding said child for completion of the homework with that reminder.
6) One time throughout the year we hold what is called an ‘interim’. An Interim is a time where we “drop” our core classes and study a topic in great detail. These topics will have the core subjects infused throughout. Interims have become something that students really look forward to, learn a lot from, and hold with them in their memories for a long time. We are changing things up this year and haven’t nailed down our topic just yet. We’ll keep you informed!
7) Please do not allow your child to cross the street (even if it’s just to get to your car) when it’s not in a designated crosswalk. These little people are hard to see after school when everyone’s in a rush to get home. Buses are especially hard to see around. Please keep your eyes peeled when picking up your kids. Glendale Street is a fairly easy street to use for drop-off and pick-up; it includes a crosswalk with a safety guard too!
8) When visiting Odyssey, you must sign in at the office. For safety, it is school policy that everyone is signed in upon entry into the building. If you are walking around the building without a name tag, a staff member will most likely stop you and ask if you would please stop in the office to get one and sign in. Thanks for helping to keep our building a safe place for our students! If you are picking up your child after school, please do not come up to the classroom to wait for them. Parents are to wait in the foyer by the office, or designate a spot outside to meet.
9) We welcome parent communication. We view teachers, students, and parents as one big team. We have found that it always works out best when everyone is communicating – there are no questions then and everyone is on the same page. Please do not hesitate to email any of us with a question or comment, or make an appointment for a mini-conference. Although we may not always know the answer and most certainly don’t have a miracle cure, but we will do our absolute best to find a solution that works for your child. We are here to help!
10) Please call the office to report that your child will be absent when they are sick or if you are on vacation (not during interims please!!!). The office needs a direct contact so they can ask the necessary questions. An email to us is not enough.