The major final project for the School - Community Relations Class was to create a Parent Handbook. I was in a group with Chris Coffeen, Meaghan Loughlin, and Noah Zogas, all of Anchorage.

The handbook is intended to serve as an easy-to-navigate guide for parents at our fictional school, a resource to help them get acquainted and comfortable with the school and getting involved in their childrens' educations. It detailed the six standards of parental involvement and also invited students to six events called "action plans", one corresponding to each standard, to assist parents of this (fictional) school in becoming informed / involved / connected in the six areas.

To view our Parent Handbook in GoogleDocs, click here.
You can also view the slideshow on the Goal 7 main page.



Below are some of (Mt. Edgecumbe Principal) Bernie Gurule's comments on our project:

General Comments:
"Excellent from start to conclusion. Wonderful handbook and final project. Easy to maneuver through patters and format is inviting. Your team has accomplished the goal of the class. 300 points. A great deal of work is apparent in this project. Thank you :)."

Specific Comments:
On our Table of Contents: "Easy to Follow - straight forward"
"Great Idea to incorporate proverbs & reflections on every page."
Our use of statistics: "Great overall coverage + information to get parents hooked"
"Attractive format"
"Action Plans I - VI - simple - concise - not too overwhelming - parents would like this approach"
"Research on benefits parents-students-school very convincing"
"Nice tough on every action plan is the concerns (roadblocks) [and] detours (solutions)"
On Action Plan IV: Volunteering: "Very inviting"
With regards to our theme of Alaskan animal pictures throughout: "Theme of animals taking care of their own sends a powerful message"

Selected comments on our group presentation (in the format of one of our action plans):
  • very good description of elements of standard
  • "We are not telling you how to do your job as parents - we are here to support your efforts" - Excellent
  • Excellent idea for "Flyer" with invitation and information about public service project (Action Plan)
  • Good use of community people, student volunteer
  • Food Break followed by continued video of what service project could look like - very good.
  • invitation for community to give school ideas
  • Great tag-line "Good for School, Good for Community"
  • Great [funny] lead-up + hook to public: "I want to make Chris [our phenomenal example of student volunteering] less special."
  • Excellent conclusion and tie-in to next meeting -> get students to get parents involved.
  • Very enjoyable presentation Good frlow from one activity to the next - 150 points [100%]