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Another woman and I are room parents for K1's pre-K class. The school PTA held a meeting yesterday for all the room parents to discuss our responsibilities. They were a little fuzzy about our duties because this is the first year for a new school. The responsibilities were largely planning parties/gifts for the teachers (not holiday parties for the class but things like teacher appreciation week and a birthday party for the teacher), making decorations for school events, and coordinating participation by the other classroom parents but ultimately we get to do "whatever we want to do". For the time being, the only specific assignments we have are to contact the classroom teacher to ask what sort of help she wants, distribute "favorites" questionnaires to the teachers (to learn about her preferences for the aforementioned gifts and parties in her honor), distribute the teacher's response to the questionnaire to the classroom parents (so they know how to suck up to the teacher), and make a sign for our class's participation in the upcoming Trunk-or-Treat event.
My co-room parent and I have been talking. Neither of us feel comfortable with shaking down other parents for money. We don't know any of the other parents and do not want to make presumptions about how they spend their time or money. However, since it's a peer model program in a public school, we do know that at least half of the children in the classroom have some sort of developmental delay. Generally, parents of kids with special needs may be budgeting for medical care, occupational therapy, etc. in addition to the usual expenses that households with small children require. Also, since enrollment in the pre-k program is entirely elective, we feel safe assuming that the parents are invested in their children's education and will want to be included in some manner even if they cannot contribute money or leave their work to participate.
Ultimately, aside from whatever the PTA asks us to do, our primary goals are to be helpful to the teacher, to be involved in our children's classroom, and to facilitate the creation of a community among the classroom parents. To that end, we are brainstorming about ways to get to know the other classroom parents quickly, without forcing them to attend awkward "get to know you" events that require babysitters or time away from work. We are thinking, perhaps when we distribute the teacher's response to her "favorites questionnaire", of sending a "getting to know you" survey to the parents asking about them, their kids' interests, any special skills/interests that the parents can contribute to the classroom, and their expectations.
Is this an awful idea? If it's not an awful idea, what sort of questions should we ask? We don't want to pry but we think it would be really beneficial to know people's professions, hobbies, interests, languages, expectations....
My co-room parent and I have been talking. Neither of us feel comfortable with shaking down other parents for money. We don't know any of the other parents and do not want to make presumptions about how they spend their time or money. However, since it's a peer model program in a public school, we do know that at least half of the children in the classroom have some sort of developmental delay. Generally, parents of kids with special needs may be budgeting for medical care, occupational therapy, etc. in addition to the usual expenses that households with small children require. Also, since enrollment in the pre-k program is entirely elective, we feel safe assuming that the parents are invested in their children's education and will want to be included in some manner even if they cannot contribute money or leave their work to participate.
Ultimately, aside from whatever the PTA asks us to do, our primary goals are to be helpful to the teacher, to be involved in our children's classroom, and to facilitate the creation of a community among the classroom parents. To that end, we are brainstorming about ways to get to know the other classroom parents quickly, without forcing them to attend awkward "get to know you" events that require babysitters or time away from work. We are thinking, perhaps when we distribute the teacher's response to her "favorites questionnaire", of sending a "getting to know you" survey to the parents asking about them, their kids' interests, any special skills/interests that the parents can contribute to the classroom, and their expectations.
Is this an awful idea? If it's not an awful idea, what sort of questions should we ask? We don't want to pry but we think it would be really beneficial to know people's professions, hobbies, interests, languages, expectations....
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