Parent Tips
Tips and ideas from elementary and middle school parents:
Miraloma Elementary School uses Evite to sign up touring parents in order to:
- Reduce the number of calls to the school office
- Manage the number of people who can sign up
- Allow families to sign up at their convenience instead of having to call during school hours
- Download names and easily create a sign in sheet
- Send reminders to those who signed up with additional information (i.e. directions, parking, etc.) or upcoming events (Harvest Festival, Car Wash, etc)
Jose Ortega Elementary School’s Greening Committee increases awareness about where real food comes from. It as:
- created a community edible garden of out of wooden boxes on the corner of the play yard
- used grant money to purchase a greenhouse kit
- space outside of classrooms are used by students to plant seeds
- the school janitor, who was previously a farmer, lends his passion and skills, feeling more connected and invested in the school community
A Google Group for School Webmasters. After launching the school website at Miraloma, Ottilie Cools received numerous questions from parents at other schools, asking how she built the website. In response, she started a Google Group for webmasters. To date, the group has compared notes on moving from static to more dynamic websites, e-newsletters, online school directories, online volunteer signup options, shared discovered URL changes on the SFUSD sites, and more. This group is open to all webmasters and others who work on school based web applications. To join go to http://groups.google.com/group/schoolweb and click "Apply for membership" (it's free of course).
Lafayette Elementary School has a Stop, Drop and Go volunteer program to make drop-off easier. 3 parent volunteers work a 20 minute shift each morning. 1 person directs traffic. 5 Cones are set up to create a drop-off zone. 1 person directs traffic to "move forward". The remaining parent volunteer and 1 staff volunteer open car doors and direct children through the Auditorium door to the school yard.
Sherman Elementary School has an idea to help ease the burden of school auctions. The schools auction team is looking for a school willing to swap workers to help with check-in/check-out for their Auction night. They will send a team to your school to help with check-in, check-out and whatever else makes sense if you are willing to work theirs! They are willing to train a team to use their auction software. It's a win-win for both schools: besides helping with capacity, schools learn best practices from each other.
Flynn Elementary has a clever idea to benefit their school. The theme is “Cut Hair, Not School Budgets”. They have teamed up with top SF stylists from Zindagi and Ginger Rubio salons for a Cut-a-Thon. Hair cuts are half the price and include bubbly beverages and treats.
Everett Middle School is focusing on teaching social justice to its students through many activities and programs. Teachers are encouraged to analyze the curriculum and teach it with a social justice slant. In November they hosted a week-long peace week. Peer mediation groups handle most of the day-to-day student conflicts. A strong and active gay-straight alliance is in place. The school also focuses on the power of words through a positive language program. Cultural events such as Dia de los Muertes are celebrated and in February, African American history month is commemorated through shows and assemblies.
Starr King and Jose Ortega parents gathered advice from current parents on what worked and what didn't when it came to uniforms to help incoming Kindergarten parents get their children ready for the start of school. Please read their tips and advice on uniforms (pdf).
Alvarado Elementary emails a 2-page FAQ doc to all the tourists the day before the tour. (They use socialzr to get people to sign up, and then grab the emails from there.)
The 2-page document is really just a tour script, cleaned up a bit so it's not as complicated. That gives people time to digest information about the school and sharpen their questions.
If you have a great tip or idea to share about your school please let us know by contacting PPS at info@ppssf.org
Parent Involvement video
See our Parent Involvement video, produced by PPS and Baseball Rodent Productions. Featuring interviews with parents, BOE Commissioner and Education Advisor to the Mayor (and former PPS-SF Executive Director) Hydra Mendoza. For a copy of the video, please contact PPS at info@ppssf.org or (415) 861-7077.