Don't be too hard on yourself. For most of us it's all 'on the job training' and it's a steep learning curve!!! Having some teacher reps on your team may help with this sort of thing. They should be able to recommend the best practices for any projects or events that depend on teacher assistance.

I'm sorry all of your hard work didn't pay off. But now you know and your next event is sure to be a success!

It also helps to know what they classroom systems are. Some teachers only send papers home once a week, usually on friday. Therefore, most announcement flyers need to go home at least a week before the event.

And I agree with the others that any items that need to go home should be presorted and in the teachers' mailboxes before the start of the school day. Many teachers just pop in to check mail once or twice a day, usually first thing in the morning and then on their way out.

Thanks for the advice, Its my first year and I had just figured if I put them near the mailbox with a note asking to pass them out it would be alright.

Sorry to hear it was a flop.

Like most of the others, our PTO flyers are always precounted/sorted and placed in each teachers mailbox to go home with students.

That way they don't have to go looking for what they should be sending home with kids and taking time to count it all out. They usually are stopping into the office quickly on the way to/from "Specials" without the students.

If teachers are used to having the papers they are asked to hand out in their mailboxes and sudedenly they are in the workwroom that is just not fair to the teachers.

Have a system, stick to it and keep communicating with the teachers.

I go in early in the morning as soon as the door opens and make my copies, the pre-sort them according to how many students in the class and then put them in each individual teacher's mailbox. I do mornings as our teacher usually check their mailbox before school and then at lunch.