It’s not the first time the PTO has used humor to make a point. Last fall we wrote about the group’s great communication efforts in our article Send a Powerful Message. One way the group reached out to parents made a big impression–a Letterman-inspired list of the top 10 reasons parents should come to meetings and join the PTO!

Don’t worry if the holiday snuck up on you. The NEA has some cool electronic greeting cards your kids can email to their teachers. As an added bonus, the teacher’s name will be included on what’s being called the nation’s largest teacher thank-you card. (You can snail mail your own cards to be incorporated into the giant card, too.)

Today’s also a good time to think about ways your parent group can appreciate teachers all year long. Be sure to check out our article on this topic, Teacher Appreciation Done Right, which has great ideas on how to do just that.

The parent group wants to pay for classroom aides to help teachers out, but it’s against the school district’s rules. Although the parents have the best of intentions, paying for school employees raises questions about the equity and reliability of the funding. So what’s a PTO to do? We explore the issue in depth here.

“I don’t do this for the recognition. I do this because it gives me time to spend with my kids, it teaches them to give back to the community, they know I’m involved in their school and I can’t put a price on the pride I see in their faces.”

What about you? How would you change this sentence to describe your own motivation?

What can parent groups do to reach out to these moms and dads? Has your group found effective ways to involve parents that juggle two or three jobs to keep food on the table?