First and foremost I have learned somethings as a Middle School mom myself.
1. E-mail- Many are back in the workforce and are hard to reach at home. I LOVE e-mail and have also found if I can "e" them the newsletter, requests from teachers, ideas for volunteering, etc. I get much better response than trying to catch them at a meeting.
2. Be specific- Instead of just asking for help or supplies, I list every eraser,pen, paper that a group of teachers may need. I learned this from watching my husband read e-mails. His service group would e-mail him often and the ones that would offer specific volunteer events he would read and calender, otherwise they were deleted as fast as he opened 'em.
3. We offer ideas how to help without having to spend the whole day at school or in the classroom. I asked around when my daughter was in 6th grade how I could help but was unable to be in the classroom due to the fact I had three little ones under the age of five! No. Now I can help in the library, some field trips, or even cutting out items for the class board in the hall.
4. Community projects are good. Many parents are seeing from others that a student's involvement in the community is also looked at for college. Great time to get the family thinking about how they can volunteer as a family, not just a PTO member.
5. The hardest reality is the "Been there, done that. I need a break." thinking or feeling from many. Not a d@mn thing you can do about these parents, BUT you can still offer communications and leave the door open. Meetings, soccer games, church, work, football, etc...our lives have gotten so busy maybe this is the one time to look more at how the PTO can encourage family participation, not just Mom and Dad.......
Welcome to middle school! My oldest is 13 and in 8th grade! Can't beleive it somedays and wonder how the heck I'm going to survive many days!! THen again my youngest is 2 SO THAT throws a wrench into anything
normal !!!
Hope this helps. You know 200 outta 900 is really awesome! I'm lucky if I see 5 outta the 400 we have! Yes really!!!!!
[ 08-25-2004, 12:40 AM: Message edited by: mykidsmom ]
