On Sept. 4, Phoenix families were welcomed to Back-to-School Night, a night for parents to learn more about their students’ lives by experiencing a condensed version of a typical school day. The evening was carefully curated in order to allow parents time to ask questions about the curriculum and the Phoenix experience. 

The night started with parents going to their students’ advisory classes. For eight minutes, teachers offered parents a detailed overview of the advisory program, discussing topics like academics, available support, and resources throughout the school year. After advisory ended, parents were given a six minute passing period to navigate to their students’ first class.

Throughout the night, this pattern of an eight minute class and six minute passing period continued for all eight blocks. In each class, teachers would provide parents a brief summary of the curriculum throughout this school year as well as explain their lesson plans, grading policies within the classroom, and major milestones in the year such as unit tests and end-of-course testing.

As the night went on, staff members like history teacher Meghan Adair helped guide parents around the school and answer questions. In her own classes, Adair discussed her curriculum as well as provided parents with ideas on how to guide their students through this course. She wanted to make parents more comfortable supporting their students’ school lives. “[I try to inform them on] how they can support [students] at home because a lot of times we are, [as parents], pretty clueless, so I think it helps them to see what’s going on in class,” Adair said. “[My goal for Back to School Night is to] just kind of walk through a pretty intense college course, so they get a sense of what [students are] learning. Hopefully, it will give [students] some breathing room at home.” 

Parents like Adrian Wilkerson, father of junior AJ Wilkerson, came to Back to School Night with expectations from teachers regarding the class and what he can do to help his student. “A couple things I expect from teachers are an overview of the class, when tests will be, assignments will be, and just an overall expectation of the class,” Wilkerson said. “[We want to know how] to support him [and] see if there is anything we can do to help manage his time.I believe [Back to School Night] is a great opportunity to be face to face and see who the teacher is and be involved.” 

Parent Kumar Tangellamudi, father of sophomore Trijal Tangellamudi, echoed Wilkerson’s thoughts, emphasizing his desire to learn more about his students’ academic life and their needs. “[ I want to know] more about the curriculum and how they are assessing the students’ needs, [as well as] how they really want to help [the students],” Tangellamudi said. “So far it has been good. I’m coming out of precalculus, so [Ms. Presnetsova] is good – the way she [discusses] not only the current, but [also] how they are mentoring [students] to go farther.” 

Back to School Night offered not only just a tour of classrooms, but an insight into the lives of students. By providing a snapshot of school values like community and education, it was a chance for parents to experience students’ lives firsthand to get a sense of the environment that surrounds their children.