On September 17 we launched our virtual Middle School Open House. The open house usually provides an opportunity for parents to come to school and meet their child’s teachers. It became clear early in the school year that this annual event we all look forward to was going to look a little different this year. Taking our traditional open house event and turning it into a successful virtual event was truly a team effort! The entire middle school staff approached this new challenge with positive attitudes and great determination to provide our parents with a chance to meet the staff and to learn about the curriculum their children are learning. We developed a program that combined live presentations and pre-recorded videos.

Teachers prepared slide-shows and rehearsed presentations to ensure clarity, quality of information, and appropriate length. Behind the scenes, our communications team worked hard to create a fun invitation with all the links needed for parents to enjoy the live event, the recorded event, or the pre-recorded material. They also helped us determine the type of conferencing tool that would work best and worked to set up the needed technology in order to provide the type of sessions desired.

The middle school office was converted into a studio and greetings, opening remarks, and information were shared by the Principal, Assistant Principal, Counselor, and Chaplain with all of the parents tuning in. Next, the grade level teams introduced themselves and shared about their classes with the parents of their students. The third segment of the event included pre-recorded presentations from our various elective teachers which could be viewed immediately following the grade level presentations or from a menu of options. Parents took advantage of the opportunity to submit questions either during the live event or through a question form afterward.

We are thankful we were able to have this opportunity to interact with our middle school parents. Because of the pandemic, connecting in person is difficult. We are blessed with excellent technology and wonderful people who are determined to use that technology to the best of their abilities to connect and to share what is happening in the YISS Middle School.