I would like to see the articles that were posted to the teachers and parents to help close the communication gap. Would you send them to me? Thank you, we have a huge problem with that and I would really like to work on that this year. Melinda

Thanks Brooks! Communication gap is exactly what I was referring to (had to explain that when they are so supportive of everything we do, but it still exists).

Ahhh, the question of the century. How to close the communication gap b/n parents and teachers.

Our teachers claim the parents that need to show up at the conferences are the ones they would like to talk to most. Sadly some parents have minimal involvement with their children, some parents with working schedules aren't aware of how to increase their involements, and some parents are just terrified of teachers. I was the latter at one time, surprising enough and when I talked to a teacher about the gap she said that she was nervous to talk to parents. So my mission...to close the gap. Still working on that too. I did come up with a volunteer program which I offered tips during training sessions and in newsletters, webpage, hand outs, etc. I also would put articles on the bulletin board. The PTO is the voice of many, speak loudly and clearly and this should help some. Ask the teachers what they expect from parents and parents what they expect from teachers and put them together. It is a work in progress.

Our teachers help us out by making sure fundraisers are passed out to the students and orders/money is returned, along with weekly pta papers. They do a volunteer appreciation celebration, they volunteer at our spring festival, work with parents and students on Earth day, 100% of them join the PTA, and come up with their own fun/learning events like chess club, 4th grade cruise to nowhere, 4th grade sleepover, 2nd grade reading club all of which parents help out.

With the exception of the 4th grade sleepover, chess club, and the festival all the other events are during school time. I don't think teachers should be expected to do much outside of school time. I don't expect my husband, who works from 8 - 5 every day to go back to work at night (unpaid) and do something else.

Our Principal is our liason at the meetings and she will bring up anything the teachers want us to help out with unless they go through their room parent first. Our parent volunteers and teachers have been working together at so many things for so many years that it takes a question like this to make me realize how much we work together. Thanks!

I guess I did not get across what I was looking for - sorry about that. Our teachers and administrative are very supportive and they do come to meetings, events, etc. I am not looking for more involvment (volunteering that is) but for them to open up on issues they have that the PTO could help with. An example would be that we have a poor turnout for parent/teacher conferences. Why? Don't know. But, if they teachers would bring this up, we could possibly figure it out and possibly find a way to increase the particpation. I am looking for how to get them to "open up" more with us. They are very supportive of us, and alway's there, but I think we can do more for them. I hope this is more clear.

We have the principal and vice principal on the executive board, though they really don't seem to do much. We have 1 teacher rep. She reports back to the other teachers what happened in our PTA meeting, and personally runs 1 after school program per grade(each program lasts one or two days). Other than that, our teachers do very little--field trips are almost non- existent. My group (not the PTA--we're a nonprofit raising money for a playground currently) has spoken to our principal about this, as one of our goals after the playground is to have a running budget to do things like fund field trips.

If your principal sees the need, it's really up to him/her to get the ball rolling, including involving himself in activities and programs. People will follow where led. Keep communicating with your principal--I don't know if your situation is like ours, but it was uncomforatble for us to say, "the teachers seem to have little interest in being involved outside their clasrrooms," but we did get that out, and the principal said she will look at it.

Bertha is right, she is lucky that her teachers are incredibly supportive, but she sells herself short. I know her, and see what a tremendous job she does, and she's instrumental in the success of her school. My philosophy for getting teachers involved in my school right now is to just keeping the group and our projects and activities out there in the public eye, and we're trying to involve them more (i.e. with our cookbook, we sent them a personal letter asking them for a "celebrity" contribution, since it would be fun for any child that has them or ever had them to see their contribution). We expected greater response, but we DID get SOME, and we brought this up to the principal, and she said she would ask them for more.

Hope some of that helps!