The Ohio PTA Voice

Monday, June 10, 2019

Keeping Kids Safe in an Online World (June 17th event)

Town Hall: Keeping Kids Safe in an Online World

Learn how predators are working together to prey on children online and how to talk to your children about internet safety.

Monday, June 17 at 6:30p

Lakewood Public Library, 15425 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, OH 44107

Our panel of experts:

U.S. Attorney: Justin Herdman
FBI Special Agent in Charge: Eric Smith
Cleveland Metropolitan Schools Psychologist: Bill Stencil
Moderated by Spectrum News 1 OH's Lindsay Oliver

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Make Connections at a STEM + Families littleBits Invention Night

Sourced: National PTA: One Voice Blog

Posted: 05 Jun 2019 10:29 AM PDT

SPOTLIGHT: Hollin Meadows PTA (Alexandria, Va.)

This post is part of a series authored by local PTA leaders sharing their stories as STEM + Families littleBits Invention Night winners. These real-world experiences shed light on how an individual PTA planned and hosted their event, including lessons learned and practical advice.
If you are looking for a way to get your school community involved in a meaningful, engaging and fun activity, consider hosting a National PTA Invention Night sponsored by littleBits! This event allows students and families to make so many connections—both the science kind and the personal kind!
We recently hosted an Invention Night at our Title 1 elementary school in Alexandria, Va., and it was an overwhelming success, with over 250 attendees! Because we are an extremely diverse school community, we promoted the event in multiple languages and multiple formats including fliers, social media, ads on our in-house news program and personal invitations. We also prepared several videos, some in both English and Spanish and some featuring our PTA event lead volunteer and our favorite teachers, to give a teaser about the cool inventions the kids would make.

These various outreach efforts allowed us to spread the word to more of our families and to make them feel welcomed, included and excited about the event from the outset. Our principal and teachers supported our Invention Night with announcements in the classrooms, school-wide email updates and tweets, in addition to being active participants during the event. We also invited our student alumni, neighbors and larger school community to volunteer. Due to these efforts, our attendees were reflective of our community, representing families from all grade levels, backgrounds and languages.
Having hosted weeknight events before, we know that feeding our families a full, free dinner is extremely important. Parents took the night off from cooking, knowing that their families would enjoy a wholesome Noodles & Co. meal—veggies included! We set up the event in the cafeteria, using the cafeteria line to serve dinner. Families ate in a designated section and once they’d finished, moved to the part of the cafeteria where the kits were positioned.

Because we had so many attendees, families paired up to work on the kits. This allowed families to meet other families and have a natural, shared experience as they worked together. Some families had challenges downloading the app or the specific invention instructions, so the cafeteria was abuzz with families sharing information and advice. It was beautiful to see new relationships forged and for families to collaborate and contribute their unique strengths to the group’s efforts.
Kids and parents alike were clamoring for more time with the kits, so we would definitely love to host another Invention Night! With events like these we are empowering not only future STEM professionals, we are empowering families and communities! Wow! Imagine the possibilities…

Take Action: Learn more about how your PTA can host a STEM + Families Invention Night

About the Guest Contributor, Eileen Gorman: Eileen Gorman is the PTA President at Hollin Meadows Science and Math Focus PTA in Alexandria, Va.

Disclosure: littleBits is a Supporting Sponsor of National PTA’s STEM + Families initiative. The local PTA spotlighted in this blog was a winner of the 2018-2019 STEM + Families littleBits Invention Night. The author was not compensated for this blog post and the author’s opinions are their own.

Monday, June 3, 2019

National PTA Launches STEM + Families Fellowship Program

ALEXANDRIA, Va., (May 31, 2019)—National PTA is pleased to announce the creation of a fellowship program for its STEM + Familiesinitiative. Through this program, funded by Bayer, graduate students will help develop interactive science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) experiences that engage entire families.

“Engaging families together in STEM experiences is essential to support every child’s success in STEM and inspire the next generation of STEM professionals,” said Jim Accomando, president of National PTA. “Our new fellowship program will help increase family engagement in STEM by giving families activities they can do together at home. We are grateful to Bayer for its support.”

STEM + Families is a national effort to engage entire families, inspire interest and support student success in STEM with experiences at school, at home, in the community and through digital learning. Bayer is the presenting and founding sponsor of the initiative with additional support from founding sponsor Mathnasium and supporting sponsors ThinkFun and littleBits.

Since the launch of STEM + Families in 2016, nearly $500,000 in funding, products and materials has been awarded to PTAs across the country to host events for students and families that feature fun and meaningful hands-on STEM experiences. The fellowship program will support and enhance the learning experiences at these events with new activities students and families can do and discuss together at home.

“We are excited to bring graduate students and National PTA together in support of STEM education outreach,” said Sarah Toulouse, executive director, Bayer USA Foundation. “The fellows will have a unique perspective on engaging students and families in fun STEM-focused activities and on bringing them together to talk about jobs in STEM fields.”

“We are pleased to build on our STEM + Families initiative with the launch of our fellowship program,” added Nathan R. Monell, CAE, National PTA executive director. “The program will enhance our efforts in showing students and families how much fun STEM can be and the many education pathways and STEM careers available to them, which is important to help children realize their full potential and ensure the long-term economic success of our nation.”

About National PTA

National PTA® comprises millions of families, students, teachers, administrators, and business and community leaders devoted to the educational success of children and the promotion of family engagement in schools. PTA is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit association that prides itself on being a powerful voice for all children, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for public education. Membership in PTA is open to anyone who wants to be involved and make a difference for the education, health, and welfare of children and youth. For more information, visit PTA.org.

Bayer: Science For A Better Life

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to benefit people by supporting efforts to overcome the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development, and the Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2018, the Group employed around 117,000 people and had sales of 39.6 billion euros. Capital expenditures amounted to 2.6 billion euros, R&D expenses to 5.2 billion euros. For more information, go to www.bayer.us.