10 Ways to Share Notes from the Backpack with Your Community

January 12, 2023 By Leave a Comment

National PTA’s podcast, Notes from the Backpack is helpful resource to share with families in your community! Since its launch in 2019, the show has released more than 60 episodes on a wide variety of topics from raising a curious kid to navigating the transition to middle school. As PTA leaders, it’s important to show the value of PTA to your community, and this podcast can help you do so! Beyond including the link to the show in your e-newsletter, what more can your PTA do to spread the word?

    1. Up Your Social Media Game. If you already promote the latest episodes of Notes from the Backpack on your social media pages, consider asking your school or district to do the same! Become an official podcast promoter here to ensure you receive all the latest graphics and promotional language.
    2. Embed the Notes from the Backpack Podcast Player Onto Your PTA Website! State PTAs and District, Council, Region PTAs can embed the podcast player directly onto their website for easy access. Check out how Washington State PTA includes the podcast player as one of its key family engagement resources. Email NotesFromTheBackpack@pta.org to learn more about how you can embed the podcast player on your website!
    3. Share Episodes that Connect to Relevant Events. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, making it a great time to share our Healthy Minds Miniseries and Pride month is ideal for promoting Helping LGBTQ+ Youth Thrive.
    4. Encourage Families to Listen to Episodes that Align with your PTA’s Advocacy Goals. If your PTA is advocating for increased school budgets, then it’s a great time to share Money Talks: School Finance 101. If your PTA is working to change the school’s discipline policies, consider promoting The Truth About School Discipline in America.
    5. Use Podcast Episodes to Educate About Community Issues. When schools face serious issues like bullying or gun violence, hearing directly from a researcher can help the community get on the same page. If your school is launching a new Social and Emotional Learning program, then What is Social and Emotional Learning Anyway? can serve as a helpful introduction!
    6. Host a Podcast Discussion. Think of it as a book club, but instead of a book, the conversation centers on the key themes and ideas from an episode of Notes from the Backpack. Consider using an episode like Raising Kids Who Embrace Race to start conversations about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion or tie it to academics with an episode like Growing Great Readers.
    7. Integrate Podcast Promotion into Your PTA Programs. National PTA Programs provide access to engaging, educational and fun opportunities and the podcast can be a great supplement to these activities. If your community is participating in PTA Connected, encourage families to keep the conversation going with Social Media & Cyberbullying.  When it’s time for Reflections, hear directly from contest winner Julian Bass.
    8. Spread the word. Talk about the podcast when you’re catching up with parents at pick up, waiting for the PTA meeting to start, or socializing at a school event. Don’t forget to include the podcast as a resource in your workshops and trainings, too!
    9. Promote our Spanish Podcast episodes. If you have Spanish speaking families in your community, be sure they know about our Spanish podcast, Notas de La Mochila. We currently offer eight episodes in Spanish covering everything from cyberbullying to parent advocacy.
    10. Rate & Review the Show. Did you know that ratings and reviews help new listeners find our show? Open up the show on Apple Podcasts and leave us a rating and a note to share your favorite episode!
      Filed Under: Family Engagement, General, Membership, Slider Tagged With: , ,

      How PTA Leaders are Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth

      June 16, 2022 By Leave a Comment

      Across the nation, states are seeing a dramatic rise in anti-LGBTQ sentiment, and particularly anti-transgender legislation. LGBTQ+ youth need PTAs to help protect their rights and stand up to bigotry. As we celebrate PRIDE month, here are stories of PTA leaders who are using their influence to support and celebrate LGBTQ+ youth.  

      Celebration & Allyship in Round Rock, Texas 

      As students at Canyon Vista Middle School returned to school following the COVID-19 school closures, teachers noticed an increase in acts of bias including the use of slurs against LGBTQ+ students. To address this increasingly hostile environment and to help LGBTQ+ students feel supported, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club set out to host their first annual pride parade in 2021. PTA president Aidan Larson got involved, partnering with teachers and GSA sponsors, including Paige Crain, to create safer spaces for LGBTQ+ students in their school.  

      Their activism wasn’t free of pushback. Historically, the environment had been hostile, with educators opposing the use of rainbow safe space stickers in their school. Paige and the other sponsors didn’t let that stop them. With the PTA working hand in hand with Paige and the GSA, they marched forward with their plans to host the celebration. 

      The 2021 Pride parade was a success, engaging folks from across the school district and a variety of exhibitors. The team had recruited a variety of partners including the Texas Freedom Network, Out Youth, and a local church who came to distribute pride flags. While families from around the district showed up, there was not universal support. 

      To ensure the 2022 Pride parade could take place without issue, the PTA again partnered with the GSA. Aidan also met with the school principal to show support for the GSA’s ideas for Pride week.  

      When a neighboring middle school PTA promoted Canyon Vista’s Pride parade, not only did executive board members voice their opposition, several resigned due to their discomfort. The PTA president stood her ground, understanding the importance of supporting LGBTQ+ youth. She even managed to find a silver lining to the situation. “It was a lot of pushback,” she shared, “but I think the important part is [that] it made room for people to see that this is what PTA is, and finally, maybe a place that we can be a part of — not a high school girls club.” 

      Listening to LGBTQ+ Youth in Lynbrook, New York 

      So often students are talked at, by parents, teachers, and coaches, and we forget how important it is for us to take time to listen. Ivy Reilly serves on the Lynbrook High School PTA and received a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) grant from National PTA’s Center for Family Engagement in 2022. She also worked to ensure LGBTQ+ youth thrive by offering them an opportunity to share challenges, barriers and concerns of being identified as part of the community. Ivy decided to focus on the LGBTQ+ community after noticing that many students transitioned during the COVID-19 quarantine. She wanted to make sure that LGBTQ+ students and transgender students in particular, were being supported by the PTA. 

      Ivy coordinated with the school administration and the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) advisor to speak with GSA members. She approached the first conversation with a learning mindset. She knew she didn’t have all the answers and that she might not phrase everything correctly, but she didn’t let the desire for perfection stop her. Instead, she saw engaging students as a learning opportunity. “My job is to learn from you so I can help you,” she told them.  

      Most of the conversations revolved around ordinary teen issues from extracurricular activities to homework, highlighting the commonalities LGBTQ+ students share with the wider student population. But occasionally more serious issues arose, including a child worrying about if their parent was embarrassed of them because of the way they look, and another student worried about their family sending them to conversion therapy. 

      These conversations have motivated Ivy to work on getting LGBTQ+ resources added to the district’s website. She informed the principal about some of the needs that arose from these conversations. She’s also hoping to bring Challenge Day to the Lynbrook community to help build bridges of understanding at the high school. She shared that she remains dedicated to using the PTA platform to support LGBTQ+ youth. “Our goal is to take care of the kids,” she said. “Maybe we’ll get to the parents later, when they’re ready, but the kids need our support now.” 

      What can you do? 

      If these PTA leaders have inspired you to start advocating for LGBTQ+ youth, there are lots of things you can do to get started! Explore this map to find LGBTQ+ community centers near you, and consider partnering with them on programs, services or events. You can also connect with your school’s GSA. If your school doesn’t have one yet, help create one!  

      For more ideas and inspiration, visit www.pta.org/LGBTQ for more resources, including an LGBTQ+ glossary and our podcast episode featuring leaders from the Human Rights Campaign.  

      Filed Under: Every Child in Focus, Family Engagement, General, Health and Safety, Slider

      Essential Tech for Better Family-School Communication

      September 24, 2021 By Leave a Comment

      Technology has been changing our lives so quickly that it is hard to keep up! In the past decade, more teachers and administrators have begun using online gradebooks, apps, texting services, and full-service learning platforms and student information systems. Technology is powerful—it can help families support their students’ learning by sharing upcoming due dates, events and progress. Many platforms even provide nudges, ideas and activities for families to extend learning at home. Teachers, too, use these platforms to get to know their students and better differentiate their instruction based on what they learn from families.  

      While technology can help to create strong family-school partnerships, families and schools need to think strategically to make the most of these tools. As families navigated virtual learning during the pandemic, the power of technology (and its limitations) took center stage. Many have stepped up to the challenge, but there is more work to be done and several ways that you can help! 

      Work with your school administrators to complete a Family School Communication Mapping Tool.

      Many parents and caregivers—especially those who are new to the school—may not be sure where to go to get information. This tool will help families know how to stay up to date on all of the latest news and announcements, as well as grades and personal reports on their child. Be sure to translate your tool into other languages so that it is accessible to all families. 

      Assess the accessibility of your school’s platform(s).

      Are all families able to easily access your school’s communications platforms? It doesn’t matter how many features your platform has or how much quality information teachers are sharing, if families can’t access it. Talk with your school administrators about ways you can make your school’s platforms easier for everyone to use. The following questions can also help you and your leadership team start to think through accessibility. 

      • Does your communications platform translate messages into your families’ primary languages? 
      • Does your communications platform offer speech-to-text, text-to-speech, or other accessibility options? 
      • Does your communications platform require families to sign up or are they automatically opted in? 
      • Is your communications platform easy to navigate via a mobile device? 

      Ask your principal or superintendent to provide an opportunity for families and teachers to provide feedback on its family-school communication platforms. 

      National PTA has released a discussion guide for education system leaders to help them gather feedback from the community. These conversations can help to inform leaders’ decisions around family-school communication technology. If you are worried your principal or superintendent may not be willing to host a focus group, consider inviting them to a PTA meeting instead, and use the discussion guide to spark discussion at the meeting. 

      If you are interested in learning more about family-school communication technologies, National PTA’s Center for Family Engagement has created an entire toolkit in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers, the School Superintendents’ Association and the Consortium on School Networks! Check it out at PTA.org/FamilySchoolTech. 

      Filed Under: Communications, Education News, Family Engagement, General, Slider Tagged With: , ,

      New Tools to Advance Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

      June 10, 2021 By Leave a Comment

      National PTA is committed to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) but what does that look like in action? To answer that question, we partnered with 14 local units to test out new DEI strategies which led to the development of three new tools, the Diversity Profile, the Facilitator’s Guide, and the Action Plan Template. If you’ve already reviewed the Local Leader Guidance for DEI and are wondering what next steps you should take, read on to explore our latest tools! 

      Diversity Profile 

      Who lives in your community? This may seem like a simple question, but answering it well requires an in depth understanding of the families at your school. Our Diversity Profile Template will walk you through important demographic questions about your community. Questions like: what religions are represented? What is the racial demographic breakdown of your community? What is the median household income?  

      After finding out that information, challenge yourself to think critically: Does your PTA board and membership reflect your community? 

      Facilitator’s Guide 

      If you notice that there are voices missing, it is time to figure out why. How can you create a more inviting PTA that offers leadership opportunities that draw in all members of your community? Our Enhancing DEI Facilitator’s Guide offers step by step instructions for hosting a listening session where you can learn more about how families want to engage with the school and the PTA. The guide includes a meeting agenda complete with questions you can ask families to better understand their experiences and reimagine your PTA in ways that better meet everyone’s needs. Most of all, these conversations are opportunities for intentional relationship building with families who you may not typically interact with! 

      One of the grantees shared that their use of the facilitator’s guide really made an impact: “Even though we needed to conduct our listening sessions on Zoom in order to be COVID-safe, our virtual introductions to new-to-PTA parents are already starting to blossom into real-life relationships now that our school has reopened.” 

      Action Plan 

      Listening is an important first step, but you can’t stop there. After you listen to families, the real work begins. How will you address their concerns, answer their questions, implement their ideas?  

      Another grantee shared their own DEI goals, “The first thing we want to do is have a workshop for new PTSA leadership and committee chairs (and anyone else interested) on culturally responsive skills. We want to improve outreach and communication and be sure that our meeting agendas speak to issues that are relevant to all families and that our meetings are conducted in ways that are inclusive.” 

      Our Enhancing DEI Action Plan Template provides a structure for you and your board to plan next steps like these. Remember to keep families in the loop as you continue your planning! The action plan is a great way to re-engage the families you listened to. Ask them to weigh in on the draft and make additions or edits. These new strategies and initiatives will be most successful if they are co-created by the PTA board and the rest of your community! 

      For more guidance on how your PTA can use these tools, watch our webinar, ”Turning Your Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion into Action” and keep up with our latest resources at www.pta.org/diversity!  

      Filed Under: Advocacy, Communications, Education News, Every Child in Focus, Family Engagement, General, Membership, Slider Tagged With: , , ,

      National PTA Demystifies School Funding

      February 11, 2021 By Leave a Comment

      Do you feel intimidated by issues related to school funding and education finance? You are not alone. We surveyed parents and caregivers around the country and many shared that they feel clueless and frustrated by how difficult it is to find basic information.

      In fact, less than a third (32%) of participants agreed they have a general understanding of how their child’s school district uses its funding. Even fewer (29%) agreed they know where to find information on school funding in their community.

      School funding is too important of a topic for parents to sit on the sidelines. Families’ voices are critical to ensure that school budgets reflect a community’s needs and priorities for our students. With that in mind, National PTA has released several resources to help PTA leaders to learn more about school funding.

      Listen to our podcast episodes featuring Dr. Marguerite Roza, Director of the Edunomics Lab.
      In Money Talks: School Funding 101, Dr. Roza offered practical guidance on how families can stay informed about their school district’s financial decisions and how they can advocate for the priorities they care most about. In our COVID-19 bonus episode, she shared how the pandemic has impacted school finance and she advises how advocates can adapt during this challenging time.

      Read our answers to the most frequently asked questions related to school funding.
      Are you curious where the money for your child’s school comes from? Are you wondering who makes the decisions about how dollars get spent? Our guide to Understanding & Advocating for School Funding will provide those answers and more.

      Register for our upcoming webinar, Understanding Families’ Perspectives on School Funding.
      National PTA partnered with five council PTAs in Florida, Texas and Washington to learn more about families’ perspectives on school funding. After talking with more than 150 parents, we are ready to share our findings with you. Join us Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 8:00 p.m. EST to learn: 

      What do families actually know about school funding? What areas do they feel are adequately or inadequately funded? And what are the implications of this for PTA leaders’ work advocating for all children?

      Join us for a presentation of these research results and learn directly from a panel of PTA leaders about their own experiences advocating on issues related to school funding. Register now.

      Let’s raise our PTA voice for better school funding and education finance! You can find the complete list of tools and resources mentioned here at PTA.org/SchoolFunding. All of these resources, including the upcoming webinar, are also available in Spanish.

      Rebecca Bauer is the Family Engagement Specialist for National PTA.

      Filed Under: Advocacy, Communications, Education News, Family Engagement, General, Slider Tagged With: ,

      Transforming Family Engagement in High School

      November 20, 2020 By Leave a Comment

      Even during a “normal” school year, engaging parents and caregivers of high school students can be challenging. As kids get older and more capable of organizing their own school and extracurricular lives, families often wonder what role they should play in their teen’s education.

      Research demonstrates a clear drop off in participation: 92% of parents of K-2 students attended a parent-teacher conference, compared to only 58% of parents of high school students. Similarly, while more than half of parents of K-5 students volunteered at school, only 32% of parents of high school students did the same.

      But… participation is only part of the story of what family engagement looks like during the high school years, when families’ roles shift to coach their teen and support them to be responsible young people who drive their own learning and success.   

      So what actually works when it comes to engaging families of teenagers? How can we ensure that family engagement embodies the 4 I’s of transformative family engagement—inclusive, integrated, individualized and impactful—even amidst the challenges brought on by COVID-19? We spoke to two high school principals to find out.

      Dr. Samuel Rontez-Williams, principal of Rayville High School (Louisiana) talked about making family engagement more inclusive and integrated…

      It’s important to make genuine efforts to check in on students and families and see how they’re coping right now.

      Due to Rayville’s hybrid learning schedule, students don’t have classes on Fridays, which makes it a perfect opportunity for teachers to reach out to them and their families. Teachers at Rayville High focus on intentional relationship building by reaching out to families about when something positive happens in class, sending birthday messages, and doing small things that remind students and their families that they care about them as people. In addition to these check in calls, teachers also utilize these flexible Fridays to offer one on one tutoring and other supports.

      By high school, students can play a role in encouraging family engagement.

      Dr. Rontez-Williams relies on his students to help get their families excited about participating. The most successful events are ones where students are engaged, involved and showcased. For example, rather than offering a curriculum night, where teachers run through what students are learning, Rayville High School hosts an academic game night where teens enjoy competing and families can cheer them on. Academic game nights are a great example of family events that link to learning in school.

      But what if you don’t even have reliable ways to reach parents? Immokalee High School (Florida) has more than 1,900 students, and the community is comprised of 41% migrant populations. With families moving around so much, principal Ms. Clara Calderon has developed strategies to make sure they’re doing their best to reach everyone. She emphasized that it is essential to focus on strategies that are individualized and impactful.

      Offer personalized assistance. 

      Immokalee High School is fortunate to have a 1:1 device program which ensures each family has a device and internet that they can use to communicate with the school. However, even if a family has a device and internet access, Ms. Calderon noted that it is not unusual for families to need help establishing an email address. A great deal of information comes out via email, so she makes it a priority to get families connected. If a family doesn’t have an email account on file, non-instructional staff will offer personalized support that is tailored to the needs of the family, instead of sending out impersonal instructions in the mail or hosting a webinar.

      Establish a regular touchpoint and track who is engaging (and who isn’t).

      As a way of staying connected with the community, every week Ms. Calderon sends out an e-newsletter in English, Spanish and Creole. But she doesn’t just hit the send button and hope for the best.Instead, she measures her success by running reports and identifying families who are not receiving emails. Her routine data collection informs her which families are getting the information they need and which families she needs to find other ways to connect with.

      Ultimately, at the high school level, parents, teachers, administrators and students need to work together. Ms. Calderon summed it up nicely, saying “The more we see ourselves as part of the same team, the better off the child will be.”

      As families and schools continue to work together, PTA is here to support. Get more tips on family engagement at the high school level in our new podcast episode, Surviving Quarantine with Your Teen.

      Filed Under: Education News, Family Engagement, General, Slider Tagged With:

      Enhancing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Your PTA

      January 23, 2020 By Leave a Comment

      How do you improve your PTA’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in a meaningful way? Roger Minott Sherman Elementary PTA, in Fairfield, Conn., has a few valuable tips—they received a 2019 Jan Harp Domene Award for implementing several strategies to help their community embrace and value diverse perspectives. Discover a few of their keys to success below to get started in your community!

      Make It Easier for Families to Be Involved

      PTAs can diversify their membership by removing some of the barriers that prevent families from engaging. All families care about their child’s education, but some have more time and more resources to attend events and meetings. Instead of asking families to shift their schedules or miss work to attend, find ways to bring the information to them.

      Sherman Elementary PTA found success by…

      • Shifting PTA meetings from midday to nighttime
      • Livestreaming PTA meetings for parents and caregivers who weren’t able attend in person
      • Providing more updates for families on the school website and via email blasts
      • Offering scholarships for PTA memberships and for admission to events and programs


      Go Beyond One-Time Events About Diversity

      Issues of diversity, equity and inclusion should be topics for ongoing discussion. While PTAs can begin to improve their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts with a specific event or series of events, like a multicultural night or a social justice book club, the ultimate goal should be to naturally embed these conversations and initiatives into everyday life.

      Sherman Elementary PTA did just that. They began their diversity, equity and inclusion work by implementing a “Diversity Day.” The following year they expanded to hosting a “Diversity Week” and moving forward, they plan to have diversity programming throughout the year. Through this programming they will…

      • Ensure all children and their families are represented in the curriculum. Sherman Elementary PTA’s Diversity Week embedded activities related to different cultures, traditions and ethnicities throughout the curriculum, including in-class conversations, story time, art projects and more. As Sherman Elementary PTA works to expand their efforts beyond Diversity Week, they are collaborating with the librarian to ensure that children have access to diverse books all year round. They are also working to build a library display to include materials relevant to the variety of themes covered during diversity week including ability, gender, culture and more.
      • Create opportunities for cross-cultural exchange. Since their school’s student population is 86% white, it was essential to look beyond their school walls to help facilitate relationships between different races and cultures. Sherman Elementary PTA plans to establish a pen pal program with a neighboring school district to promote understanding between cultures.
      • Elevate diverse voices and stories to help the community understand new perspectives. At Sherman Elementary PTA meetings, volunteers presented on topics that were relevant to them—speaking to their own experiences around family diversity, differences in ability, and more. Moving forward, the PTA is eager to invite guests to speak at school-wide or grade-level assemblies to speak further on these and other issues.

      Has your school, district or state PTA taken steps towards creating a more diverse, inclusive and equitable community? National PTA is now accepting applications for the 2020 Jan Harp Domene Diversity & Inclusion Award. Learn more and apply now!

      Authored by Rebecca Bauer, National PTA Staff

      Filed Under: Communications, Slider Tagged With: , ,

      What Parents Really Want: Strategies for Family-School Communication

      December 6, 2019 By Leave a Comment

      Communication between teachers and families varies in frequency and method, from emails, texts and apps to old-fashioned notes. It can be hard to keep track of everything! Even when effective systems of communication are in place, sometimes they only include feedback about children’s academic performance and neglect to address students’ life skills. We set out to find out how families are collaborating with teachers to help children thrive socially, emotionally and academically.

      Getting an inside look

      Earlier this year we launched the Transformative Family Engagement & Whole Child Learning grant* and partnered with Austin Council of PTAs, Lake Washington PTSA Council and Pinellas County Council PTA to discover what family engagement strategies are working in schools today and where can we improve.

      Throughout the summer, National PTA partnered with these PTAs to facilitate eight focus groups (six in English and two in Spanish) with a total of 116 participants that represented diverse socioeconomic, racial and cultural backgrounds.

      Our listening sessions intentionally included an oversampling of families of color to elevate the voices of families who have not always been included in these conversations. See the chart for a complete racial demographic breakdown.

      The results from these community conversations revealed a variety of findings, including three major takeaways.

      1. Families want a greater focus on the whole child.

      We asked participants, “What kind of adult do you want your child to be?” and families consistently responded with traits like responsibility, respect, motivation, leadership, financial literacy and social skills. The findings made it clear that parents understand there’s more to education than grades and test scores. They care about their children becoming healthy, happy adults and good citizens, and they believe schools can do a better job at helping to accomplish this.

      Parents would like schools to focus more on whole child development by:

      • Emphasizing the development of research and study skills
      • Focusing on emotional intelligence, social skills and bullying prevention
      • Offering more opportunities to engage in extracurricular activities and additional recess time
      • Focusing less on standardized testing and more on curriculum and lessons that are relevant to the real world

      According to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a whole-child approach to education includes a focus on children’s social-emotional, identity, academic and cognitive development, as well as their mental and physical health. Learn more about this approach in, “What is Whole Child Education?”

      2. Families want more intentional relationship-building.

      Families believe that student-teacher relationships are important to their engagement in whole-child learning. They appreciate regular, proactive, positive and timely outreach that is specific to their child.

      Beginning the relationship with a positive note or phone call home was a very effective way to build a trusting relationship. They also cited the frequency and timeliness of teachers’ communication as very important.

      Families want a variety of ways to communicate with their child’s teacher. Our conversations revealed there is no “best” way for teachers to communicate with families, what really matters is establishing a personal connection. One participant praised her child’s teacher, “If my son did something good, something amazing, she emailed us immediately [to share] … so, she was very responsive, and we were very appreciative of that.”

      As participants thought about teachers they have struggled to collaborate with, they cited opposite characteristics. Parents and caregivers grew frustrated when teachers only provided generic language like “everything is fine” or when they reported issues long after an event occurred. One parent shared, “After our child has gotten a D or an F [in your class] is not the time to tell us [there is an issue] …Tell us after the first test so we can be a partner with you and help you.”

      3. Families want systems change to improve family engagement in whole-child learning.

      Throughout the discussions, participants acknowledged how hard teachers work, how much they have on their plates, and how they cannot create these changes in family engagement and whole child learning alone. Parents and caregivers agreed that, in order to get the resources and individualized attention they want for their children, bigger system level changes need to take place.

      Their ideas for enhancing the education system overall included:

      • Increasing teacher pay
      • Enhancing teacher training, particularly around cultural competence
      • Having more teachers / smaller class sizes

      The PTAs in Austin, Lake Washington and Pinellas County are taking these findings their local leaders to develop action steps to strengthen family engagement in their communities. To stay up to date with their work and other news from the Center for Family Engagement, subscribe here.

      *The Transformative Family Engagement & Whole Child Learning grant was made possible by the support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

      Rebecca Bauer is the family engagement specialist with the Center for Family Engagement at National PTA.

      Filed Under: Family Engagement Tagged With: , ,

      Why Should You Listen to the New PTA Podcast?

      September 24, 2019 By Leave a Comment

      From PTA flyers and permission slips to handwritten updates from your child’s teacher, every day your child comes home with notes in their backpack. How do you keep track of everything that’s going on? With limited time, it can be difficult to figure out where to invest your energy, when it comes to engaging your child’s school. That’s why we launched Notes from the Backpack: A PTA Podcast!

      Each 30-minute episode offers frank advice and ideas from researchers, parents, educators and other experts. Guiding these conversations are our hosts, LaWanda Toney, Director of Communications, and Helen Westmoreland, Director of Family Engagement, who are both mothers navigating their own parenting journeys.

      The podcast answers those questions you have always been wondering but weren’t sure who to ask, like:

      What questions should you be asking to make the most of your child’s Parent-Teacher Conference? We turned to Luz Santana, Executive Director of the Right Questions Institute to provide her expert opinion.

      What should school discipline look like at your child’s school and what does restorative justice even mean? Former Secretary of Education John King sheds light on why so many students get suspended and where we go from here.

      Is it possible to avoid wanting to tear your hair out when trying to help your child complete their homework every night? Researcher Steve Sheldon offers evidence-based tips for making the most of homework time, without the stress.

      How can you possibly help your child navigate the world of hormones, crushes and frenemies now that they’ve entered middle school? We chatted with school counselor Phyllis Fagell, who will provide concrete strategies for making the most of your child’s adolescent years.

      Notes from the Backpack covers all of these topics and more, providing you with the practical information you need to make the most of your child’s school experience.

      So how can you learn more about this new resource and start listening? Visit PTA.org/BackpackNotes for a full list of the episodes we have released so far, and more information about the podcast. You can also listen or download on all major podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Leave us a review to let us know how we’re doing!

      We want you hear from you on social media! Engage with other parents in conversations around the topics we discuss on the podcast and share your own thoughts, advice and parenting anecdotes on social media using #BackpackNotes.

      Filed Under: Communications, Education News, Family Engagement, Slider Tagged With: