Parent Involvement Linky Party

*The discussion is starting to get really good, and we'd love you have you join in! What do you do at your school or in your classroom to help encourage parent involvement?? What amazing things have you seen happening?? Link up and share your ideas. I've already got some new ideas to try next school year!

Here's what I've been doing:
*Classroom blog and email updates
*Friday Folders
*Meet and Greet
*Sign-ups for volunteers
*Volunteer Calendar

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Parent involvement

Donut Diva asked a GREAT question about parent involvement on my back to school night post. Just in case you didn't see this, I thought I'd share!

 Donut Diva said...

Just wondering how do you fund the ice cream social and how do you get the word out. Our meet and greet is district wide from 11 - 1 the day before school starts it is a terrible time.
What other things does your school do to involve parents and families. I am student council advisor and trying to think of some new ideas.
Heidi

Awesome question! Here is my response:

Our wonderful PSO (parent-staff organization) helps fund our ice cream! They even help run the event!! Our event is only for our school (so we can set the time) usually from 5:30ish-7:30ish if I remember correctly. that way parents can come after work. Our school sends out a letter to incoming families a couple weeks before the event to let them know who their teacher is, info on the meet and greet and first day of school. I think they might also do an automated reminder as well the night before.
We have a secretary that speaks spanish, so she translates over a wireless signal to headphones for parents who need translation. It's great!!
Parent involvement definitely can be a continuous battle, but I've found that connecting through email (and finding out email or paper preferences) has helped a lot! I use my classroom blog to update parents, but also send email/note reminders about anything important. We also have a bi-monthly newsletter that goes out with information on all events/school news. The front office secretary makes and distributes this, and it can either be delivered to the students class or by email depending on preferences.

Wow, there are lots of ideas! Maybe this is a new idea for a linky party :)

These were just a few ideas I could think of, but am SURE there are many more!! What kinds of things do you do to connect with parents?

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