Parent groups and schools try a range of approaches to help parents with limited English skills feel comfortable on campus.

How do you get a message across to someone who speaks a different language than you? By getting creative. These parent groups took steps to help parents speaking English as a second language feel welcome at school.

Multilingual Leaders
Many parent groups arrange for translators at their meetings. When the PTO at the International Charter School in Pawtucket, R.I., meets, its leaders can often do this job themselves. The president, treasurer, and secretary speak four languages combined: Portuguese, Cape Verdean Creole, Spanish, and English. The PTO lists the languages spoken by each leader when providing their contact information to parents.

Parent Academy
In South San Francisco, parents at Sunshine Gardens Elementary started the state PTA’s School Smarts Parent Academy, in which moms and dads meet for two hours a week and learn how to be involved with their children’s education.

At the mostly Hispanic school, parents who might otherwise be too timid to take an active role in their child’s schooling learn how the public education system works and how to reach the school board and the superintendent. The academy also teaches leadership skills and how to communicate with your child about school. The school’s principal has reported a sharp increase in involvement with school events.

Language Lessons
At 11 schools in Salt Lake City, parents can take English-language lessons offered by the nonprofit English Skills Learning Center. The program stresses the importance of parents being involved in their children’s education. Parents learn English vocabulary used frequently in a school setting as well as how to join the school’s parent group and how to communicate with their children about their performance in school.

It’s hard to find a parent group that’s slowing down. This week we found groups running Creative Writing Clubs, Tricky Trays, House Tours and Safety Nights.

Now this takes dedication! The PTA at the Walker School in Clarendon Hills, Ill., is running a Creative Writing Club before school. More than a dozen children have joined and need to arrive at school by 7:45 AM for the 40-minute weekly. The idea is to give the children the chance to write in an easy, relaxed atmosphere.

Who said Tricky Trays were old-fashioned? They are actually pretty popular. The PTO at the Greenbrook Elementary School in Kendall Park, N.J., is going all out with a tricky tray event this Saturday offering prizes that range from $50 to $500. They are giving away a flat-screen TV, iPad 3, and Disney tickets, just to name a few hot items. PTO President Sabuha Din was quoted as saying what she loves is this event “gets the whole Greenbrook community involved.’’

We could all use some safety tips. The PTO at the Lackawanna Trail School District in Factoryville, Penn., is putting together a Safety Night to help families with a variety of concerns, from car seat safety to protecting kids online. The group is bringing in various law enforcement folks to provide parents with information.

Here’s a fun idea for a spring event: The Falls Church City Elementary PTA in Falls Church, Va., is planning a home and garden tour this weekend that will feature Victorian homes along with new eco-friendly houses. PTA volunteers helped decorate homes and will act as docents at various locations along the route. The tour, the group’s biggest fundraiser each year, benefits elementary schools in the district. The event typically brings in between $10,00 and $15,000.

One of the most popular search terms on ptotoday.com — all year round — is “dealing with difficult people.” Whether it’s the folks who always complain about what the parent group does but never seem to step up to help, or the ones who are willing to give their time but make everyone else’s life miserable in the process, these difficult people cause a lot of headaches among the leaders we talk to.

Some leaders worry that if they address the situation, they’ll make it worse. But an uncomfortable situation is unlikely to change (and may even get worse) if you don’t do something. If you’re faced with someone who is complaining nonstop about the spring carnival plans, for example, find a minute to pull them aside for a discreet conversation and ask them (kindly) what their concerns and worries are. Maybe they’re feeling overwhelmed and would like extra help. Maybe they’re afraid of screwing up a much-loved tradition. If you just get annoyed at the whining and vent to your friends and fellow leaders, though, you’ll reinforce your own negative feelings about the person — and never find out what’s at the root of the complaining.

These articles from our archives have more details about different situations you might find yourself in, and how to handle what comes up:

Dealing With Disagreements

How To Deal With Difficult People

How To React to Critics

We‘re building up an impressive list of parent volunteers in our Superstar Volunteers program, a joint effort by PTO Today and the Savings Bank Life Insurance Co. of Massachusetts (SBLI) that kicked off in January. Throughout this program, we’re selecting stellar parent volunteers from around the country and giving them well-deserved national recognition, along with a $500 donation for their school from SBLI!

Their stories are so inspiring we’d like to give our Superstar Volunteers to date another shout out because it’s National Volunteer Week (4/15-4/21)! And the good news is we’re not finished! We still have several Superstar Volunteers to select now through the fall and each will receive a $500 donation for their school from SBLI! (If you’d like to nominate someone, please tell us a bit about this person on our Nominate a Volunteer page.)

Our newest Superstar Volunteer is Audrey Covello of Schererville, Ind.,who has boundless energy to give to Forest Ridge Academy. Covello has the typical modesty of many volunteers, saying the school deserves credit for creating such a great environment for the children. But plenty of parents and teachers say Covello is selfless, often showing up at events and helping out even when her own children are not involved.

Audrey Covello joins a list of Superstar Volunteers that now includes: Ed Bala of Fayetteville, N.C., Lynne Millar of Tracy, Calif., Cathi Knickrehm of Oak Park, Ill., Gary Parkes of Woodstock, Ga., Jeanette Tanafranca of Troy, Mich., Joanna Bradshaw of Fort Meade, Md., and Sunnie Robles-Schmidt of Santa Rosa, Calif.

You can read all the Superstar Volunteers profiles to date here.

Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School receives a $500 donation from SBLI .

And if you know a volunteer at your school that deserves “Superstar” recognition, you can submit a nominee at our Nominate A Volunteer page.

Pictured at right are students from the Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School in Fort Meade, Md. receiving a $500 donation from SBLI to honor local volunteer Joanna Bradshaw’s “Girls Rock’’ program, which is dedicated to building self-esteem and encouraging physical fitness in young girls.

Congratulations to all these great volunteers – and all our future winners!

With Teacher Appreciation Week just a few weeks away (May 7-11), we thought it might be helpful to provide a roundup of articles, tips, and ideas, as well as some free files to download from our File Exchange.

Now, we know some of you have your Teacher Appreciation plans well mapped out and ready to go. But we are guessing there may be a few folks out there still looking for ideas or even just starting to put your ideas together.  No worries! Some of the best events and gifts come together beautifully in the last moment, right?

So, just for the sake of argument, say you are one of those last-minute types. You might want to take a look at our teacher appreciation article designed just for you. It has some fun and easy ideas, such has having students make cards for teachers.

This article also mentions the very popular (and quick to put together) gift known as The Candy Poem. You can download a copy of it from our File Exchange here.

Also on the File Exchange, you will find a few dozen more Teacher Appreciation files to download that you can use in putting together gifts. One amusing one is the Priceless Lunch Duty card, which is a “gift card’’ for teachers giving them a pass on lunch duty for a day. Of course, it requires a volunteer parent to take the shift!

Another quick turn-around suggestion gives teachers a similar pass for recess. This is a simple and easy one, but it will certainly be appreciated. Read our Tim’s Tip on this idea.

If you check out our Message Boards, we have an entire forum set up on Teacher Appreciation topics.

One example is an exchange with a parent doing a sports-themed Teacher Appreciation celebration. Another exchange offers ideas for a garden party themed luncheon and includes menu ideas (salads).

Also, our Idea Bag section on our site is loaded with ideas submitted by parents. One terrific suggestion is to send a thank-you to the kids whose parents help out, saying you appreciate them letting the school borrow their mom or dad.

Finally, once you’ve wrapped up your events on the week of May 7, you can scan this article for ideas for next year!

Have a great Teacher Appreciation Week!

Late last month, we wrote about the upcoming inaugural National Bike to School Day, which is sponsored by the National Center for Safe Routes to School, and will be held on May 9. The group has now opened registration for this event. Groups and individuals can sign up. It looks like parent groups could turn National Bike to School Day into a great community event that gets kids outside and focuses on safety issues. Considering the May is also Physical Fitness and Sports Month, as well as Family Wellness Month, this event could fit nicely with some bigger get-healthy goals.

Spring activities are underway and volunteers may be feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the work that needs to be done. Here are few stories in the news this week that you might find uplifting:

Talents shows: If you are about to run a talent show, chances are you are a little stressed. So, imagine how the show organizers at one elementary school in Bettendorf, Iowa, must have felt when, immediately following a rousing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’’ number, a little boy went on stage to share his talent: presidential trivia. But instead of bombing, this little guy stole the show with ad libs and a funny puppet routine. Hopefully, the Thomas Jefferson Elementary School Talent Show story will inspire you!

Walking, Running to Raise Funds: Many PTOs are organizing walk-a-thons and 5K walks at this time of year. The parent group at Ridgeview Elementary School in Gray, Tenn., just held its annual “Raptor Run,’’ raising $5,000. The PTO posted a video of the event, and seeing the kids chugging along the track will make you smile. The group reports it will use the funds for new playground equipment and supplies for teachers.

Helping Students at Science Fairs: Parent volunteers from the high school and middle school in Nordonia Hills, Ohio, stepped up to help students win a slot in the state-wide Science Olympiad competition that will be held later this month. The parents had pitched in to help the student in previous years, but this year they also had to take over for paid faculty advisors who had been lost to budget cuts.

Who says you can’t teach character? Turns out, many PTOs and PTAs are focused on helping kids learn how to help others. This week, we found a great story about Summit Middle School in Johnson Iowa where the PTO held a Community Day. The PTO coordinated visits from several community service and nonprofit groups to give the students an opportunity to learn about how various programs work. For example, the Animal Rescue League did a presentation and the kids helped out by filling baggies with cat and dog food. Pretty simple stuff. But a great way to expose kids to community service.

So, we posted about character-building programs on our Facebook page and heard back from many parents, including Gary Parkes, a co-president of the PTA at Carmel Elementary School in Woodstock, Georgia. Parkes was justifiably proud to tell us his school is a Georgia State School of Character for 2011-2013 and a finalist as a National School of Character. The students and staff have worked on a variety of service projects; from twice-yearly blood drives and donating gently used stuff animals to collecting snacks for troops overseas.

Parkes was also recognized earlier this year as one of our SBLI Superstar Volunteers for the work he’s done on behalf of Carmel Elementary.

This month, we published an inspiring story about parent groups helping kids develop social awareness. One parent, Sabrina Coughlin of New York City, captured this issue beautifully when she talked about the service programs at her child’s school.  “I think it’s something that can’t be done in small gestures,’’ Coughlin said. “It is best learned in a steady diet of small gestures.’’

So here’s to baggies full of dog food and gently used stuffed animals. Here’s to building character, a little bit at a time.

Tell us about the community service programs at your school. We’d love to hear about them!

Does your school have a playground? Did you have one installed a few years back? Has anyone given it any thought or review in the past couple of years?

If you’re thinking of adding a playground or replacing an existing playground, our Playground Yellow Pages are a great place to start your research.

But if you have a relatively OK playground, I hope your group will still take the time to give it a spring review. Maintenance and upkeep and upgrades are a frequently overlooked part of making sure your kids have a great, safe place to play. You can make your playground last far longer — and ensure that your kids have a better environment for those key play times — with budgeted maintenance or even a selected upgrade or two, as opposed to a full-blown new build.

What should you be looking for when checking the playground? Check out these links to start:

How To Inspect Your Playground

National Program for Playground Safety

We love, love, love school playgrounds. And we love them more when they’re safe and tons of fun for the kids. Taking the time for an annual spring playground checkup is well worth the effort.

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Sponsored by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition, the goal is to encourage all Americans to make physical fitness and healthy eating part of their everyday lives. Here are a few ways parent groups can take part.

Fitness Night: Organize a family event that includes fun group exercise, a healthy meal or snack, and a health fair with representatives from organizations such as the YMCA and the local hospital. Emphasize the many different ways to get fit.

Taste Test: Organize a small farmer’s market at school, inviting local growers to show off their crops. Prepare kid-friendly dishes using the fresh ingredients. Demonstrate easy ways to serve healthy foods, such as dipping sauces for veggies.

Walk On: Sponsor a low-pressure competition to see which class can log the most steps over the course of the month. Lead daily walks around school grounds. At the end of the month, encourage students to sign a contract promising to keep up their fit habits.