<p>S finally got the enclosures from the AA mailing. S signed up for the vision thing and it’s biz casual- Wow, the dress code- long pants & shoes. It will be a little hot for long pants. School policy of shirts tucked in. This must be a regional thing. No one tucks anything in up here. Even for the uniform at S’s private school the polos didn’t need to get tucked into the khaki’s. No one wore any long shirts. In offices, unless you are wearing a suit or are 40+ you don’t tuck.</p>
<p>I don’t think he has a weeks worth of biz casual. I wonder if it’s too late to switch to the Educational Outreach. I’d rather not send down or have to purchase all those extra clothes or think about him struggling to dress every day for the first week of school. Didn’t think about this at all. I’m not complaining, it makes sense. We just never considered it. I was thinking nice shorts & polo or nice T. S never looks slobbish and I understand the need to dress appropriately, just didn’t plan on a week of Biz casual. He won’t wear a polo or button down without a T-shirt under and it’s going to be very hot for 2 layers and long pants. Oh well. Maybe if I send him down with some things on hangers… Great, something new to obsess about this week!</p>
<p>The tucking in is a dress code thing here in TN; and if the pants have loops they have to have a belt on. No hats in the building, no hoods on jackets. No visible piercings besides earrings, no visible tattoos, no distracting hair colors. </p>
<p>Is the vision thing all week? Last year I thought the kids who did that only did it for part of the week & then they did the work at the school. It will be hot but he’ll be indoors at the school. He can always throw a load of laundry in mid week if he doesn’t have enough without buying new.</p>
<p>Yeah, S looks pretty clean cut- no earrings etc. He wears a belt, mostly because he’s so skinny- ha ha. But we do not tuck up here, so that will be interesting. I think it was all the pics of the kids in shorts, untucked tees and flip flops from the AA website that threw me. Maybe it won’t be every day, I will have to find out. I also need to make sure he actually got his first choice. It’s just something else to stress about. The list of things he has to do before he leaves in 2 weeks is just crazy.</p>
<p>The dress code is definitely a regional thing. Here in the PNW, people dress much more casually; one can wear shorts to the opera and lawyers go to court wearing jeans and a North Face jacket. I was also surprised that people in the south look negatively upon tattoos on anybody and long hair on guys as both are very common up here. </p>
<p>See if you can get your son to wear polos and dress shirts without a t-shirt underneath. Also consider that there are many types of collared shirts that work well in heat (eg polos made of moisture-wicking polyester fabric). While you can’t probably convince them that nice jeans do qualify as business casual (</p>
<p>I do remember last year that they weren’t supposed to wear shorts while doing the landscaping & painting at the school. And it was HOT! D complied day 1 but noticed that others were wearing Tempo shorts. By Wednesday she was too. But she wasn’t doing the vision screening; I can see that having a different dress code.</p>
<p>Some of the schools students will be working at have dress codes and Alabama Action participants are expected to follow them. It appears that Focus First has higher standards of dress, no pun intended.</p>
<p>There are 2 “kinds” of AA going on this year. 1 is the more traditional school project, and the other is the vision screening (and primarily indoor gig I hear). My D is doing the school project, and her letter stated shorts no more than 5 inches above the knee, no strappy tops, no offensive slogans on Ts, etc. The vision screening may be a nicer setting a thus require a bit nicer attire. She was hoping that the running shorts, Ts and flip flops would be OK, but now she needs to plan otherwise. Maybe as the week goes on the rules become more relaxed as others have alluded to. But if you’re inside in a quasi-clinical environment doing these vision screenings, I can see why they might want a bit nicer look for the students.</p>
<p>The letter also stated, for those going to the school projects, the clothes will get dirty. For D, all of her shorts that meet the 5" rule are nice shorts. We are planning to go shopping for some cheap shorts.</p>
<p>The Focus First students are allowed to wear jeans, so I don’t think that the dress code is particularly onerous for them. They aren’t allowed to wear flip flops, skirts, or dresses. The tucked in shirt requirement seems to apply specifically only to the Educational Outreach students, who have to comply with the school dress code – but in most areas of the south, tucked in shirts would be the norm for men in most business environments, so the guys will probably want to tuck in their shirts if they are doing Focus First as well. </p>
<p>Does anyone know how to determine whether the students got their choice of assignments? My daughter selected Focus First as her first choice – and applied fairly early, but placement in that program is limited and if she is going to be working in the Educational Outreach project, like BamaMomof3, we need to do some shopping for cheap shorts before we leave for Alabama. (It may be time to pull out her old high school PE shorts which definitely didn’t make the cut as “college clothes” and measure their length!)</p>
<p>Ah, I misread that a bit- I thought school dress code was Bama. Business casual definitely isn’t jeans in any office I’ve been in, so a little confusing. As long as S doesn’t need a clean pair of ironed khakis everyday I think he’ll be ok. Five polos is 4 more than he was planning on taking- ha ha. Ok, no longer stressing and don’t have to buy anything, good.</p>
<p>YIKES!!! There’s a dress code? First off, we had no enclosures with the letter and have not had an opportunity to call the AA office. We’ve been out of town and are just looking at all the mail. Does anyone know about the medical forms and other information that was suppose to be in the envelope with the official letter? When did you recieve the enclosures?
Thanks!</p>
<p>BLM:
Letter was dated July 12, 2011 for AA.</p>
<p>My D received 6 pieces of paper in her mailing.
letter of greetings
syllabus UH103-001
tenative agenda
what to bring
liability waiver
emergency medical info
Remember to read “The Cathedral Within”.
Says you will be graded but doesn’t say if it’s P/F or letter grade so I don’t know.</p>
<p>BamaLacrosseMom: After calling the Honors College, the enclosures arrived at our house in Texas within two days. </p>
<p>According to MyBama students in the class receive letter grades, not P/F grades.</p>
<p>The dress code is fairly simple – for my D, the only issue will be finding shorts that are long enough that she doesn’t mind getting dirty/paint splotched if she ends up in Educational Outreach instead of Focus First. </p>
<p>Here is what the letter says about dress for each of the programs:</p>
<p>Educational Outreach Students: Work clothes and tennis shoes. (Don’t forget – Alabama summers are hot and these clothes will get dirty!)** Please remember that we will be working with young children and want to model most appropriate behavior and dress. In order to respect the school dress codes, please do not wear any of the following items: t-shirts with inappropriate slogans/logos, tank tops/spaghetti strap shirts, revealing clothing, shorts more than 5" above the knee, hats. Also please note that due to school policy, all students must have shirts tucked in at all times.</p>
<p>Focus First Students: Business Casual clothes (You will need to dress appropriately for visits to the vision screening center – jeans or slacks and a nice shirt or top are fine. Do NOT wear skirts, dresses, shorts, or flip flops.) </p>
<p>All student participants: Casual clothes for social activities, notebook for class notes and journal entries, Action Card (This will be your acces to the Student Recreation Center, Libraries and Dining Locations, etc.)</p>
<p>So the waiver and the emergency medical form, are they supposed to bring it to check-in on Sunday I presume? And we don’t know which group of AA they are in until they get there?</p>