Idea Bag

  • My Tip of the Week: Laugh a Little

    Yes, there is humor in the fact that we're crazy enough to get angry when we see a box top in someone's trash can. The horror!

  • How to Organize Your Digital Event Photos

    Are you the designated historian of your PTO or PTA? Or maybe, you are simply the person who happens to have a knack for photography and brings your camera to all the events. Either way, you are left with the task of organizing all those photos. And often (not always!) if you were blessed with the creative gene, you didn't get the organization gene. If you fit into that category, sorting through and organizing those digital photos can be down right daunting. Can you tell that I speak from experience? So, I recently did a little research on best ways to organize photos and thought I'd share what I learned.

  • My Tip of the Week: Create a Strong Volunteer Interest Form

    Starting to think about getting more volunteers next year? One important first step is how you ask parents to express their interest. A well-done "volunteer interest form" (here's a sample) is an important part of that process.

  • My Tip of the Week: Get Parents To Pledge 2 Hours of Help

    Starting to think about back to school and getting parents involved? One of the best approaches I know of for increasing involvement is our 2 Hour Power pledge program.

  • My Tip of the Week: Create Programs that Impact Student Achievement

    PTOs and PTAs build school community in many important ways. And research shows that this alone can help students and teachers succeed. But do you do anything that directly impacts student achievement?

  • Parent Groups in the News Round-up - 8/28/10

    Hope everyone had a great week. Thanks to those who replied to my Facebook request and sent along article links! Here's the top-line of the most interesting articles of the week.

  • My Tip of the Week: Thank Volunteers Early

    Volunteer appreciation isn't just for spring. Not at all. Sure, a well-organized, larger volunteer thank-you effort is great, but it's actually way more important to build a year-round culture of thanks in your PTO or PTA.

  • PTO Today Rock Stars: Barb R & Rachel

    Woot! Excited to be putting up our very first "Rock Star" blog post. I will doing these periodically to feature the best content from PTO Today Rock Stars in our message boards. Here are two incredibly helpful posts from two terrific community members.

  • Parent Groups in the News Round-up -- 9/10/10

    Found a mish mash of interesting articles this week! Lots of things for you to ponder over the next week.

  • Video Blog: The Importance of an International Night

    Wouldn't it be great if our PTOs, PTAs and school events had equal representation from every ethnic group in our schools? But, it's harder than you think, isn't it? Language barriers and cultural differences often prevent many families from connecting to the school community. This week Tim talks about an event that is a great starting point for reaching out to minority groups at your school and forging new connections.

  • Parent Groups in the News Round-up 11/19/10

    What family fun nights does your school do? We'd love to hear about them in the blog comments, on our message boards (add your ideas to the family night ideas thread) or on Facebook.

  • Video Blog: How To Get More Dads Involved in Your Parent Group

    Have you tried to get more dads to be involved in your PTO with little success? Tim gives a dad's perspective of why more fathers are not jumping into the parent group volunteer fray and offers some simple, practical suggestions on how to engage those dads and turn them into active volunteers.

  • Get Those PTO Tasks Done Efficiently

    It's that time of year. New Year's resolutions abound. One of my resolutions is two-fold: 1) to figure out how to be more efficient with my volunteer gigs so I can 2)lead a more balanced life and enjoy my kids.

  • My Tip of the Week: Steal This Email

    Before we sign off for the year, I thought I'd write an email for you to use for the New Year. Please feel free to steal it or edit it to make it your own

  • Parent Group in the News Round-up 10/15/10

    No shortage of inspiration in this week's news. Here are my take-aways from this collection of articles:

  • My Tip of the Week: Take Steps to Emphasize Healthy Practices at Your School

    As you know, it doesn't take much for parents to talk themselves out of attending your events or getting involved at school. A new obstacle I started seeing last year was flu fears canceling or hurting PTO and PTA family events. Ugh.

  • My Tip of the Week: Sign Up for Healthy Product Samples

    If your group hasn't signed up for our early 2011 "Healthy School Kids" program yet, you should.

  • Date Book: Parent Involvement Day

    Parent Involvement Day 2010 is Nov. 18; here are some ways to tap into the parent power at your school.

  • Parent Groups in the News Round-up 12/17/10

    This news round-up can be summed up into two categories; parent groups thinking outside the box and parent groups doing good. Hope you'll find a nugget of inspiration somewhere.

  • My Tip of the Week: 3 Fun Ideas for PTOs and PTAs

    No real theme this week -- I just thought I'd highlight three of my favorite crazy ideas from PTOs. Fun is good. Can you make one of these work for your group?
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