Building More Parent Friendly Schools

As my wife Dr. Su Amodeo and I travel around the country teaching workshops on parent and community involvement we have started collecting the signs that school's post on the front door, where parents and students enter. We use them extensively in our workshops when we talk about creating more parent friendly schools. As educators and parents, we need to be very careful when we post messages on the front door of our schools, as this is the first impression parents have of the school. Signage that casts a negative image of the school or subtly discourages parents from entering the school can create an atmosphere of mistrust before the visitor even enters the building. Below you will see an example of the kind of negative signage were talking about. Take a look at your schools sign. Is it negative, positive, neutral? Try rewriting the sign so that it has a more friendly tone yet still conveys the message desired. If your goal is to attract more parent and community involvement to your school. It begins at the front door.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Chuck and Su Amodeo are the authors of "Reaching the Hardest to Involve Parents" teacher/parent training manual. To learn more about their training visit their site at : www.lighthouseeducation.us

NOTE: You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to chuck@lighthouseeducation.us