get involved! part 2

Parental Involvement: No Child Left Behind requires schools to develop ways to get parents more involved in their child's education and in improving the school. Contact your child's school to find out how you can get involved.

source:
Facts and Terms Every Parent Should Know About NCLB


suggestions for parent involvement from Steve H:

1. Bake cookies for the PTO fundraiser.

2. Make sure your child gets his/her homework done even though it's a silly waste of time. Do not swear in front of the children.

3. Make sure your child has a proper place to study with a big table and lots of art supplies.

4. Answer questions, but do not help with your child's homework. (Yeah, right!)

5. Bake more cookies.

6. Make sure that your child eats a good breakfast. If you don't, we can use that as an excuse.

7. Make sure that your child goes to the dentist. You don't want toothaches to interfere with learning.

8. Don't be poor.

9. Attend the really important (15 minute slot) parent-teacher conference where you can find out about issues that have been going on for months.

10. If you have more things you want to talk about with the teacher (like what you found out in your 15 minute time slot), then you can take time off from work to fit in a meeting at 3pm.

11. Go to town meetings to support their agenda (more money).

12. Join a school improvement team where you can talk about really important things like bus safety and healthy foods for hot lunch. (Oops, that's the school committee's big job.)

13. There's no need to help the school with union issues like seniority, bumping, and competence. Those are contract issues and we all know how there is no conflict between what benefits the teacher and what benefits the student.

14. Bake more cookies.

15. There is also no need to help with the curriculum. They are the college-trained experts in their own opinion.

16. Encourage after-school activities, like tutoring.

17. Make sure that learning gets done.

18. Be part of the(ir) solution, not part of the problem.


"Thank you for your input, we'll take it from here."


suggestions for parent involvement from Kathy Iggy:

19. Donate gift baskets for the carnival.

20. Donate raffle items for the carnival.

21. Help at Market Day and take orders for overpriced food items.

22. Go to "student-led" conferences with your 1st grader where nothing at all is accomplished. Nod politely.

23. Donate food and gift items for teacher appreciation day.

24. Don't ask too many questions about standardized tests. Nod politely at the non-answers you receive.


suggestions for parental involvement from Paula V:

25. Take an active role in your child's education by ordering educational workbooks and materials for use at home.

26. Volunteer in your child's classroom at least 2-3 a week. Never question the teacher or provide input.


suggestions for parent involvement from Lynn G:

27. Don't get divorced.

28. Chaperone field trips to the same places they visited last year (and the year before that).

29. Keep a list of classroom supplies included on your regular shopping list: kleenex (must be antibacterial), wipes (also antibacterial), paper towels, ziplock baggies, party supplies. Send these things in weekly.

30. Sew costumes.

31. Purchase a long list of school supplies at the start of each year, many of which will never be used.


suggestions for parental involvement from Susan S:

32. Take secretarial courses so that you can keep up with all of your child's various projects, notes, research, packets, etc., since he will be developmentally unable to do so himself.

33. Attend all Parent Math Nights so that you can learn why everything you were ever taught was wrong.

34. Bookmark many homeschool sites so that you may fill in the gaps created by your school's new (fill in the blank) program.

35. Memorize where all of the Kumon, Syvan, and Huntington sites are in your immediate area should your patch-the-gap method fail you, or you become a victim of hard drive failure, whichever comes first.


suggestions for parental involvement from Doug Sundseth:

36. Ask all your co-workers to buy things they don't need or want at unreasonable prices so that the school can keep 15% of the sale price.

37. Buy soup from the approved soup company and save the labels so we can get a few pennies toward buying new computers to replace the old computers that did nothing for your children's education. Because computers are good and stuff.

38. Vote for school bonds, always, and without asking for details. It'll help. Really. No, don't ask why it will be different this time.

39. Bake some more cookies. But in the name of all that's holy, don't let your children eat them or we'll report you for child abuse.


suggestions for parental involvement from cranberry:

40. Come in to school during work hours to admire the children's projects, as uncritical admiration of arts and crafts is the royal road to a good education.


suggestions for parental involvement from Barry Garelick:

41. Never say "good bye" when you leave a parent teacher conference. Say "We respect you!" And don't take their nose in the air and back turn personally.



so.... I don't get why nobody said set up a Yahoo list so you can complain about your school district in public.


get involved!
get involved! part 2