No we don't have any sort of folder that goes home with the kids. I might just suggest that to our Principal(who is wonderful!).
The parents say that they don't get the fliers because the kids loose them on the way home. A lot of our parents do not look in the backpacks.
We are trying the meeting sitting in a circle with name tags.
Thank you to everyone that replied! [img]smile.gif[/img]
We are trying something new this year. Speakers at the meetings. The first one is Escape School... all about abductions. People are very excited. This speaker children are also invited so babysitting shouldn't be an issue. Next, we have a woman from the Attorney General's office coming to speak about Internet safety for kids. She is actually one of those people who gets on line with our kids in chat rooms. She looks for predators and shows lids how easy it is to lure them into a possible bad situation. This is for adults only but she brings with her state police. It is very official. I am going to talk all of this up at Back-to-School Nights next week.
Since our meetings are generally only the board members, our Pres is going to try having all of us in a big circle.
Yes, we have a "Monday" folder also. What I did today, since we are having our First Parenting Program, is that I used those laser printer labels and printed 600 labels as a "Reminder". Hopefully the teachers will stick one on each kid. I think if there is alot of stuff in the Monday folder, it will overlooked, so I always do a backup (another flyer, stickers, etc). We also put the info on our outdoor marque. If your meetings are always on the 3rd Thurs for example, you can announce that and hopefully people can put it on their calendars way in advance.
You could also try some "get to know each other" games(check out some of the other postings for ideas). As for not being in front of your audience--this might make controlling the meeting a bit difficult. Our first meeting we have all the board members sit up front with big name tags so parents can get to know who's doing what then after that they just mingle into the audience. I stand up front and make sure I make eye contact with as many people as possible as I conduct the meeting. Have an agenda so you can make sure you cover everything you need to and try to keep discussion short and on topic. I have found that the parents really appreciate having an organized, efficient, and usually short meeting. It shows them that you realize their time is valuable and you're not going to waste it on unneccesary things. Have a great meeting!!
I'm curious as to why the parents do not get the flyers that are sent home - via the classroom teachers.
Do your teachers have a Monday or Friday folder that they put all the parents information, and students paperwork into - so that the parents have a folder to extract all the paperwork from?
If not, what is the manner that the teachers use to make sure the parents see the students weekly papers?
Also, have you considered having a simple website - with information that the parents can check each week - these do not have to be fancy - only informative.?
It sounds like you are taking a positive step in a good direction - so that the parents do realize that there is a meeting, and that they are asked to attend - to help be involved with the things at the school that help their childrens education and learning environment.
Hello!
My husband and I were elected Co-Presidents of our PTO.
We want to have a relaxed meeting to where parents don't feel like it's a lecture. Do we have to sit in the front of the room with all the parents on the other side? Can we mix into the group and just have a fun meeting?
We really need to get the attendance back up at our meetings. What is a good way to get people to come and stay?!
We have door prizes that will be handed out and refreshments will be provided.
We are so nervous about the turn out of our first meeting and want to do things right.
One problem that we have is that we send home fliers about meetings but then parents say that they don't get them. This year we are handing fliers personally to the parents as they drop-off and pick-up kids at school.
Is there anything else that we can do besides hope that this goes well?
Thanks for reading
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