In our house, right now we are ranging from puberty to potty training all under one roof! SO with that said...
I love the suggestions from venzamom! We too are K-12 and what we do is work with the student council to put together events that will be "cool". :cool:
Right now one of the more popular is our skating parties that we hold. It's even a fundraiser (shhh the kids don't know!) for the PTO, in return for the roller rink we tell the kids (aka advertise) the rinks different events. Have even had a great responce from new parents thanking us for a great place to send their tweens and teens skating (it's clean, remodled, up to date rink is a welcome change from the 'old' hang out spot).
On some levels, we even have the students "work" for us and they in return earn volunteer/community service marks or something for their work.
Like venza said, talk to the teachers etc and see what needs are there. If it starts by helping chaparoning (sp) a field trip (as parents or through the PTO cordinating parents)...it's a start!
Okay, I have a tweener that sometimes looks like Tammy Fay Baker and an overdone poodle...hopefully it's all experimental! :eek: Our PTO is for the entire school so middle and high schoolers are part of our planning too. We have found that sometimes they do like the "juvenile" stuff, just changed a little. We have holiday parties for them, except instead of being in the classroom, we have them all together during their snack time. It's more of a come and go and they get a snack, a drink, and a treat bag. Older or not, that treat bag is so important. We do general fundraising at our school: a carnival, cookbook sales, P.E. uniform sales, and so on. But our older students are involved in organizations and we help coordinate their fundraisers. They have a chili cookoff, international food fair, lock-ins, dances, beach day and so on. Some of these are break even events with the chili cookoff and the food fair actually making money. The STUCO sponsored a door decorating contest at Christmas with the only prize being recognition and that was a hit...sometimes it's just about bringing a group together and then bringing them into the limelight! The events planned for the middle school tend to be more team building type events...this group can be so disjointed and so confused about where/how they fit in. Talk to the teachers and get guidance as to what they think would work. Work along side the student organizations and help them get the ball rolling. Good luck in whatever you do, this is a very important group (age-wise) and I wish you all the best! :cool:
Oh my goodness. First you take on the often thankless task of running a PTO. Now you want to understand what makes tweens and teens tick? While members of this Forum frequently strive to do the impossible, you may have set too lofty a goal!
Let's see, they don't want to be seen as babies, but somehow clothing with Spongebob and Tweetie Bird are hip. Girls want to wear makeup and look older - but with hair up in multiple pony tails looking either like a two-year old or a Peekinese. They are thrilled to finally have dances - and spend most of the night playing with balloons and glowsticks.
Maybe that is what is wrong with some of these middle school age kids, they need more juevenile activities. Thank goodness I don't have to do those years over!
I was looking for activities for my rec class. The older kids I have are small groups but I got some pretty good ideas from www.educationworld.com. You may want to surf that site. They do have links just for middle grades. Maybe that will help. I think that is the site that has a link called "How to handle parents" or something to that effect.
First, let me say that I have had no experience at the Intermediate School level. That said, I can only suggest the following:
You said that you reluctantly took the position, and that implies that no one else really wanted it (am I correct in that assumption?). That right there says no one should be laughing at anything you suggest! No one else wanted to step up to the bat, so shut them down. Politely of course...lol...
As for what to do as far as fundraising? I would suggest that you go through past records of the types of fundraisers the school has done, choose the top 3 successful ones, vote for two of them and waa laa! there are your fundraisers for the year.
Keep in mind that any fundraiser (even the 'juvenile' ones) will work as long as the prize program is age appropriate. Instead of a rootbeer float party (these kids are a bit too old to be bribed with that) or a pizza party (OMG! how much pizza can a boy of this age eat? Maybe your whole budget...lol...), try getting the local Dairy Queen or McDonalds to donate food and drink prizes, the bowling alley to donate a few games, the movie house to donate a few free movies, etc. Your local Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc. will also be winners in the prize area ($25 gift certificates work great at any age!).
I was PTO president at the elementary level for a couple of years. Now I reluctantly took over the position at the middle school level. This is my first year at middle school and I have so much to learn about how different attitudes are here. I have actually had people laugh at some of my ideas because they are too juvenile. Help! Anyone have experience with getting middle school moms and kids involved in PTO events, fundraising, generating excitement or anything else that might help.
