Resources and Programs

• Kids First is a turn-key program that gives students and families insight into the daily lives of those with unique abilities, such as autism, dyslexia and ADHD.
• National PTA provides a wealth of resources and activities for both Family Engagement Events such as School Safety and Parent Guides to Student Success, as well as School Programs like Healthy Lifestyles or STEM + Families.
• Online Safety:
  • Netsmartz
    
    • They offer age appropriate internet safety and cyberbullying student and adult presentations that you download and present on your own.
  • Smart Talk
    
    • Smart Talk includes a great toolkit for coaching parents and students on online safety and citizenship.
• Carolyn Brown’s Hey Dude, Nice Shoes. The Where, What, Why, How and Who of Bullying. Carolyn is a PTA Mom from Round Rock ISD. She has presented at LAUNCH several years and specializes in online safety, bullying, and spreading kindness. Carolyn can be reached by email at carolyn@carolynelaine.com.
• Maestro en Casa - In partnership with the MATT Foundation, Texas PTA offers this basic English course for student’s families. During a six month course, participants take classes in their children's schools to learn not only the language but how to face common situations and the vocabulary to master in the topics of the six sections of Home Teacher: Housing, Health, Finance, Labor, Education and Citizenship.
  
  • Classes are free and taught by a parent support specialists or volunteer teachers. At the end of the program, parents participate in a graduation ceremony and receive their diploma from the superintendent, with the satisfaction of having better communication tools and, many of them, with the motivation to continue their studies.
  • Please contact Texas PTA if you are interested in bringing Maestro en Casa to your school or district.

Tips For Hosting a Successful Program

Outlining a promotion plan is the first step to success!

Ways to promote your event:

• Share calendar event invite with anticipated guest list and/or add to school calendar
• Generate fliers
• List on your school and/or PTA website
• Social media; Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, chats/blogs, etc.
• Bulletin board announcement
• Promote at local meetings or events leading up to your presentation date
• Parent pick-up line announcement board
• Sidewalk chalk messages
• Email blasts (every two weeks beginning 6 weeks out)
• PTA/school Newsletter
• Get sponsors or other schools to cross promote and create win-win incentives; i.e. meal with presentation, prize give-a-way, etc.
• School Marquee announcement
• Contact local newspaper/radio/tv for press release and list as a community service announcement
• Word of mouth and phone canvasing

Remember when creating content about your event, your goal is to persuade and generate a response!

• Make it special
  • Use terms like “only” (example: This presentation will only be offered once this year!)
• Stress the benefits and associate value to attending
  • Continuing education credit for teachers!
  • Improve communication with students/kids/peers
  • Keep current on trends
• Repetition and frequence
  
  • Social media can be used more frequently than email promotion
• Quality matters
  • Color selections
• Minimize overly wordy announcements