Jan
13
How does your child’s school & PTO use your e-mail address?
January 13th, 2009 posted by
admin
Does your child’s school collect e-mail addresses from parents & families?
If so, how do they use the addresses that they collect? Do they send out school-wide updates? Monthly newsletters? Classroom only emailings (room parents, party planning, homework reminders)? Fundraising reminders? Requests for volunteers for events?
Does receiving email from the school/PTO make you feel more involved? Does it encourage you to be more involved, when you might not be otherwise?
What do you like getting from them? What do you wish you wouldn’t get?
mass emailing
doing the two week wait says:
January 15th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
my sons school didnt collect email addresses
JesusLovesYou says:
January 18th, 2009 at 12:49 am
My son’s school doesn’t do this that I know of, or at least not yet.
FLmom3 says:
January 19th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Our childrens’ school only collects e-mail addresses if you wish to give that info. They send us weekly volunteer news opportunities as well as info regarding upcoming fundraisers, etc… I do feel more involved because it allows me to choose which activities I wish to participate in ahead of time, as well as know what is going on around the school. We also get a monthly newsletter from the school that is sent home with the children. All our teachers have classroom websites so we are able to communicate with them via e-mail as well if we like.
Kim says:
January 19th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
For my son’s school you could sign up for a “list serve.” They use the e-mail addresses to send out reminders, etc.
For instance, so far this year, I’ve received notices like:
“Reminder that the first PTO meeting is on Friday in the school cafeteria.”
“Remember that this weekend is elementary school appreciation night at the high school football game. All elementary students will be admitted free. The game begins at…”
“Reminder that tomorrow there’s a pizza party during lunch for all the students who participated in the summer reading program. A permission slip will be sent home with your child. Please sign and return it so your child can participate.”
And “Notice: The school will be operating on a two-hour delay today due to thick fog.” (This notice was in addition to announcing it on local news stations, etc.)
We have not received any notices that I was unhappy to get — but I’m happy that we don’t receive messages for sub-groups that don’t apply to us (Girl Scout meeting was moved, Soccer practice is cancelled, etc.) I think those should have separate opt-ins.
We do not receive e-mail updates from his classroom, but I would be more than willing to opt-in for those, too!
OMGiamgoingNUTS says:
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:03 am
They don’t have it…period. My son’s teacher has our email address and that’s it. Our son’s school actually ‘calls’ us with announcements. I like this better than email. OR they snail mail us. Also the PTA has a newsletter that comes out monthly. (our son brings it home)Neat idea. I have a bad taste for our dear son’s school pta so I haven’t joined this year and don’t plan on joining.
~Biz~ says:
January 24th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Three school forms, from the school, school district, and PTA requested my email address. I also expressly gave it to the teacher to use.
No one uses it. All I get are paper flyers in the homework folder.
iam1funnychick says:
January 25th, 2009 at 2:47 am
I’ve signed up to have emails from the district - so I can stay in the know about district-wide stuff.
Classroom parents can get the email addresses at the beginning of the year and contact parents for classroom parties, etc. It’s just much more efficient. Many parents work and this way they get it almost immediately rather than a voicemail when they get home from work. Plus, you have a paper trail!
Volunteer coordinators use mass email (via yahoo groups, I believe) to contact those who have expressed interested so we know when massive amounts of volunteers are needed. Last week I got one stating they needed help for picture day. We could not have contacted every “interested” person by phone - it would be a hassle.
We have Wednesday folders that have information about upcoming events, etc. THey also contain flyers at times for various events put on by other people/schools (High School might have a cheerleading clinic). It equals to about 10-15 sheets of paper in a child’s folder. 90% of it is trash -I’m not interested in it or I am already informed about the goings-on at school, etc. I wish that we could opt for an electronic “Wednesday folder” so that paper waste would be cut down as well as the volunteer hours needed to stuff the Wednesday folders. I have 3 children at the same school - so that’s occasionally 15 sheets of paper (expense of copying, etc) x 3. That’s a lot to deal with!
Moon Shyne says:
January 25th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
last year all I received was requests for volunteering or donating things. I felt they could hve put the email system to a lot better use than they did. i would have liked to get school/class updates, pictures, (there was a picture section on the school website but they never had any on there) and stuff like that.
pussycat says:
January 26th, 2009 at 4:48 am
I don’t know where are you from, but I’m from Macedonia. Near Greece -Bulgaria….. So our education has not been so far until now. We don’t use mails to contact with school although I think that would be great idea. Getting informed about school staff, new ideas to be realized together with us parents, or just to get a better view of school activities. To be in a step with everything new is what we parents like, and that would be faster way. It is wonderfully. And if you do have any connections with education pls send us your idea to our Ministry department for education and socialization……he he
Actually I mean it