PTO Today

Hey football fans, are you doing the happy dance now that it’s “game on” for the NFL?  We sure are! That’s why we are super excited about Back to Football Friday! We’d like to invite you to share your NFL pride and build some serious school spirit by signing up for Back to Football Friday! Also, keep an eye out for the Back to Football Friday poster in the August issue of the PTO Today magazine and start building that spirit.  If you haven’t already registered your school to participate, be sure to register now at www.NFLRUSH.com/contest.

Here’s how it works:

• Once you’ve registered, start planning a Back to Football Friday celebration for Friday, September 9th! Invite your school community to get creative and show their NFL team spirit at the celebration… and get those cameras ready!
• After the celebration, submit 3-6 photos of your awesome event and answer the 3 questions in the entry form (each 100 words or less) to complete your submission before the contest closes on Thursday, September 22nd.
• Here’s the really cool part: the schools that showcase the most NFL pride have a chance to be one of 34 NFL PLAY 60 Super Schools. These grand prize winners will receive a $10,000 NFL PLAY 60 health and wellness grant* and an NFL team celebration that will include a NFL PLAY 60 ultimate gym class at your child’s school. Check out these photos of one of last year’s winning schools at their NFL team celebration.

What a fabulous way to start your school year out on a spirited note!

* Awarded in the form of a check made payable to the winning school.

For the list of the NFL Teams’ training facility or city center locations, please click here.

No Purchase Necessary to Enter. Registration starts 12:00:00 p.m. ET on 3/15/11, ends 2 weeks following the conclusion of the first 2011 NFL regular season game. Entry Period starts 9:00:00 a.m. ET on the day after the first 2011 NFL regular season game and ends 2 weeks following the conclusion of the first 2011 NFL regular season game. Must be a legal resident of the 50 U.S. or District of Columbia 18+ years and either a school Administrator, Teacher, PTA leader or PTO leader representing a public, state-accredited private school or vocational school with grades between Kindergarten and 8th. For the purposes of this Contest, a school Administrator is defined as a Principal, Vice-Principal, Dean, Superintendent or Health and Wellness Administrator. Void where prohibited. For complete details, click here for the Official Rules.
“NFL Team Celebration” prize consists of a visit to the school associated with the Grand Prize winning Entry for a portion of a school day by one or more cheerleader(s), mascot or NFL player(s).

Wow, can you believe that July is almost over? For some of you, August means the start of school. No doubt you are in the thick of getting your kids ready and working on organizing your PTO or PTA back-to-school projects and programs. For those of you who don’t start until late August or September, I bet you are already thinking about how to get more parents involved in the next school year – c’mon, admit it : )!

Speaking of parent involvement, thought you may be interested in a neat webinar that Shutterfly (one of our Back2School 2011 partners) is hosting!

Here’s the scoop:
Webinar Topic: Parental Engagement

Audience: Teachers, room parents, principals and district administrators

Date/Time: Tuesday, August 9, 2011 2:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00)

Webinar overview: “Strong parental engagement with their children’s classroom experience is highly correlated with successful learning outcomes, especially in earlier grades. But how can you build parental involvement in today’s world of busy and diverse families? This web seminar will explore a new program for improving the parent-school relationship called Classroom Connections Challenge from Shutterfly, which provides schools with Share Sites: free, private classroom websites for safely sharing information, photos, videos, calendars and more.”

For more information and to register for free click here.

Sounds like a terrific way to get geared up for the best school year yet!

Some new incentive programs have students earning benefits such as homework passes, gift cards, and even cash when their parents volunteer at school.

Parent Honor Roll

In a program launched by Petersburg (Va.) City Public Schools last fall, parents earn points for activities such as chaperoning field trips, attending workshops, and ensuring that their children follow the dress code. Credit can be received for a wide variety of activities, making it possible for working parents to participate.

Points are tallied each nine weeks, and if parents earn enough points, their children may be rewarded with an ice-cream party, gift cards, credit to the school store, or homework passes good for a one-time extension.

“By getting the students excited, we’ll get the parents excited, as well,” Kori Reddick, principal of J.E.B. Stuart Elementary, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Cash Incentive

In St. Louis, parent involvement is one requirement of a school’s program that rewards successful students with $300. To earn the cash, a student’s parent had to attend three fall PTO meetings, and students had to maintain 95 percent attendance and not be suspended.

Jefferson Elementary offered the cash to 25 new students who lived in three nearby apartment complexes. The incentives were provided by the company that developed the apartments. Plans are in place to expand the program to 125 students.

The weekend is here and I have gardening on the mind! It’s so refreshing to scan the recent parent group news and see so many articles about schools taking on gardening projects. In general, we are seeing a trend of parent groups taking a more active role in green school initiatives. This week’s article round-up speaks to the benefits of school gardens:

• Education grows with learning garden.
• Students learn life lessons through gardening.
• Kids learn about the importance of nutrition and gardening sustainability.
• Constructing a courtyard creates various sensory activities for the kids.

So, are you inspired? Is your PTO or PTA involved in a garden project? We’d love to hear about it.

If you are looking for other ways to make your school more green, check out these articles and tools:

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/825-how-ptos-are-going-green

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/689-fun-and-eco-games

http://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/826-greening-our-parent-group

http://www.ptotoday.com/sfn/SFN_gogreen_leader.php

Happy weekend and happy gardening!

In elementary school, bullying might take the form of taunts on the bus or the playground. As kids get older, bullying can mean sending harassing text messages or posting embarrassing material on a social networking site. At every age level, PTOs and PTAs are working to prevent bullying and educating parents about how to respond when it does happen.

Elementary School

Many parent groups use interactive assemblies to get anti-bullying messages across to young students. In Cherry Hill, N.J., the Joyce Kilmer Elementary PTA sponsored an anti-bullying program that had BMX bike tricks. The Short Pump Elementary PTA in Henrico, Va., brought in a weight lifter for a program on the topic.

Elementary PTOs also work to educate parents about bullying issues. After its school district implemented a new anti-bullying policy, the PTA at Salisbury (Mass.) Elementary held a parent workshop to explain it. Speakers included the school social worker and a representative from the school bus company. The PTA provided free baby-sitting to allow more parents to attend.

Middle School

Middle school bullying programs often shift the focus to Internet safety and cyberbullying. The Wayland (Mass.) Middle School PTO addressed issues related to bullying at many meetings this school year. Parents learned about state anti-bullying legislation, received advice from local police officers on handling cyberbullying, and heard tips from the school technology specialist. The PTO also added links to Internet safety resources on its website.

Another middle school group, the West Jackson Middle School PTO in Jefferson, Ga., gave parents advice on what to do if their kids view objectionable content online or visit online gaming sites.

“A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.”  ~Author Unknown

Teacher appreciation is top of mind for PTOs and PTAs this time of year. Year after year, we are amazed by the energy and creativity that groups put into thanking their teachers.  This is why we are so excited to tell you that we’ve teamed up with Febreze for a teacher appreciation give-away.

To celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week, parents have the chance to nominate the teachers who have inspired their children now through May 6th. After National Teacher Appreciation Week (May 2 – May 6), one teacher will be chosen as a winner and receive the “Teacher of the Year” title and a $5,000 cash prize to put toward classroom supplies or a classroom makeover!

Here’s how you can spread the word to your friends and other parents at your school to encourage families to nominate their favorite teacher for the Febreze Teacher of the Year:

• Download the Febreze Teacher of the Year Award flyer to send home to moms at your school.
• Download the Teacher of the Year Award web graphic and post it on your school or PTO website – be sure to link it to www.facebook.com/febreze.
• Cut and paste the following copy into your next newsletter, email, or to your website:

Nominate your child’s favorite teacher for the Febreze Teacher of the Year!

Help your children recognize their favorite teachers by nominating them for the first-ever Febreze Teacher of the Year Award! To celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week, parents have the chance to nominate the teachers who have inspired their children. After National Teacher Appreciation Week (May 2 – May 6), one teacher will be chosen as a winner and receive the “Teacher of the Year” title and a $5,000 cash prize to put toward classroom supplies or even a classroom makeover! Nominate your favorite teacher at www.facebook.com/Febreze now through May 6th!

How cool would it be to see your child’s teacher or a teacher at your school win $5,000? Talk about a morale booster!

Want to get a celebrity for your next fundraiser? It helps if you’re located in an entertainment mecca. 30 Rock actress Jane Krakowski didn’t have to travel far from the set of her TV show to headline a Manhattan PTA’s fundraiser in January. The “Reading, Writing, and Cabaret” benefit featured Krakowski performing a cabaret show. The event raised money for the PTA at P.S. 84, the Lillian Weber School for the Arts.

You can stream movies and TV shows online. Why not parent group meetings?

Parents at three Staten Island, N.Y., schools will soon be able to do just that. Thanks to a funding allocation from the area’s city council representative, the schools’ PTA meetings will be broadcast live and recorded for replay online. Parents won’t be able to participate in the meetings online, but they will be able to watch or replay them later.

Talk about an amazing rate of return! The Merrill Middle School PTA in Des Moines, Iowa, gave 210 6th graders $1 each, and in just 32 days, the students had used the seed money to raise an additional $8,151.

For the project, called “Dollars Doing Good in Des Moines,” students were told to find a worthy cause to help with their dollars. They created their own projects to raise money and could choose which charity to donate it to.

One student made and sold bracelets, while a group of classmates held a bake sale. Another group hosted a garage sale to benefit an animal shelter and successfully solicited a corporate donation. Impressive!

Funds from the project were divided among 64 charities. The total amount donated, including the original seed money, was $8,361.

Does your parent group have anything planned for Earth Day? If not, think about borrowing one of these great ideas.

Eco-Fashion Show

Students modeled clothing they created from recycled materials at an environmental assembly organized by the PTA at Samuel Staples Elementary in Easton, Conn., for Earth Day 2010. The PTA’s Green Task Force planned the event, which included a student play about taking care of the earth.

Beach Cleanup

Blue Point (N.Y.) Elementary students spent a day at the shore with their families in September, but they were too busy picking up trash to lie on the sand. The PTA-sponsored cleanup, which took place at a local beach, was tied to the International Coastal Cleanup initiative. The group picked up 170 pounds of trash, including 1,373 cigarette butts and 215 bottles and cans.