Back to school is here and the topic of Bullying in schools in on everyone’s mind. We now know that exclusionary discipline harms children and communities. In this blog-post I share some useful tools that I learned at a recent conference that focused on Restorative Justice Discipline for schools.

Leveling the educational playihg field for all students regardless of their zip code is what Common Core Standards are deemed to provide. But we will need the support of our parents to truly initiate these standards in our states.

With the increased use of technology, social media, and apps for just about everything in our lives, there is a limit to what technology can do to foster real family engagement in schools. While the apps developed for family engagement are impressive, do they really engage anyone?

Stereotypes of parents hinder parent engagement work! We must see people like we want them to see us: as people with thoughts, feelings, emotions, hopes and dreams.

In June, we spent an hour on #PTchat talking about whether Awards Assemblies were best for all kids. We agreed it was good to recognize students for all they do, but one takeaway highlighted how difficult it is for some students to be a part of the audience when year after year, their names are NOT the ones called, even if they made great strides during the school year.

Join us on this week's #PTchat as we take a look at the research on creating and building a home-school partnership, while sharing examples what this looks like in today's schools.

This week’s Parent-Teacher Chat on Twitter focuses on “home visits” made by educators to engage families. Virginia Supt. Dr. Steve Constantino and Iowa Principal JimmyCasas will join us as experienced resources for this discussion.

Not sure how to Connect with Parents or even why it's a good idea? Research over decades shows it works. Better grades/test scores, better attendance, and more likely to graduate. Yet we still resist. Why?

As social media continues to expand its global reach at an astronomical pace (460,000 new registrations per day on Twitter), parents are taking note. 80% of those 460K sign-ups are between the ages of 18-35 - the age of many of our elementary school parents here in 2012.

The new school year is here. It's time to meet your new families and begin developing that strong home-school partnership to lean on throughout the school year. Back to School Night is oftentimes your first impression to set the tone for a fantastic school year.