PTA Guide to Back to School

What does your PTA, PTO or school group do for back to school? Are you including the right information in your welcome back packet? Are you events engaging? Hear tips and creative ideas from leaders across the country to make your back to school, or new family welcome efforts a success.  

This show is brought to you by K-12 Clothing. K-12 Clothing is a PTA-Dad created business focused on providing high-quality school apparel while increasing access to educational resources through fundraising in schools. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/k12clothing

PTA and PTO Leaders: How To Make the Most of Your Summer

Your PTO or PTA has some excited new board members and fewer activities over the summer. Why not leverage the time to get ready for fall with these quick and easy tips. You won't have to invest too much time to make your PTA or PTO more productive. This episode breaks down two things you can do each month over your summer break.

This show is brought to you by K-12 Clothing. K-12 Clothing is a PTA-Dad created business focused on providing high-quality school apparel while increasing access to educational resources through fundraising in schools. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/k12clothing

The School Board and the PTA

School boards are responsible for setting the direction of a school or district. As a PTA or PTO leader whose mission is to advocate for our children, being involved with the school board is an important element of that advocacy. But how, where, when? This episode will give some background on school boards and how to work with them.

This show is brought to you by K-12 Clothing. K-12 Clothing is a PTA-Dad created business focused on providing high-quality school apparel while increasing access to educational resources through fundraising in schools. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/k12clothing

Tips for Combatting Pandemic Learning Loss

After each summer, teachers measure and address the summer slide - learning loss over the summer. But what about the “pandemic slide” where each student’s unique 18 month learning experience has left gaps in what they know and don’t know. How should teachers understand, measure and address this much larger, and more differentiated issue? Our guest today offers tips for teachers, administrators, parent teacher groups, and parents to help support our students over the summer and return to learning in the fall.

About Our Guest: Chris Hull, Co-Founder and CPO, Otus

Chris is the Co-Founder and CPO at Otus. Otus is the first edtech platform to centralize learning management, assessment, and data for educators, students, and families. Chris was named a “20 To Watch” Educational Technology Leader by the National School Boards Association. Otus serves 160 unique school districts with over 1,000,000 monthly users, and has grown revenue by 300% annually.

This show is brought to you by K-12 Clothing. K-12 Clothing is a PTA-Dad created business focused on providing high-quality school apparel while increasing access to educational resources through fundraising in schools. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/k12clothing

Rekindling Your Passion for Teaching: Where to Start with Curriculum Change

As the school year comes to an end, you may be struggling to find your passion for teaching. Or maybe the pandemic has shown you a better way to teach your curriculum. This episode is all about how to overhaul your curriculum and get buy in to do so. Our guest has some radical ideas on how he threw away his textbook and became an unconventional middle school teacher. 

About Our Guest: Jon Hinthorne, An Unconventional Teacher

Jon Hinthorne is fully committed to helping make our education system great, supporting young people to find a sense of purpose in life, and being unconventional while doing it. 

After falling in love with education in his first two years of teaching Spanish 3, 4, and 5 at Principia Upper School, he moved to Boston to join City Year Boston as a Corps Member working on a team of incredible young people in National Service. He was a tutor, after school leader, and mentor for 7th and 8th grade students in Mission Hill, Boston, MA. The next year he served another year as a National Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools Massachusetts.  

He then moved to San Jose, California with his wife to complete his CA Teaching Credential and worked at City Year San Jose for three years as a Program Manager. He also completed his Masters in Education from Webster University during that time. 

He fell in love with (PBL) Project Based Learning and decided to move to the central coast of California to start a family and work at another PBL school called Central Coast New Tech High School in Nipomo, CA.  

Jon has found his home on the California central coast and at CCNTH. He also composes and produces solo piano music which can be found on iTunes and Spotify. He currently lives in Arroyo Grande, CA with his two young boys, Mason and Jacob and incredible wife, Jenny.

This show is brought to you by K-12 Clothing. K-12 Clothing is a PTA-Dad created business focused on providing high-quality school apparel while increasing access to educational resources through fundraising in schools. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/k12clothing

Injecting Fun Into Your School Auction

Whether in person or online, all school auction chairs agree that keeping the audience engaged and entertained leads to a more successful auction. One of the easiest ways to do that is to hire a professional auctioneer. If you consider that a professional only takes about 2 minutes to auction an item and a non-professional takes 5, for a 15 item auction, that is the difference between 30 minutes and 75 minutes for your live auction. This means that with a professional you can either auction more items in the allotted time or have a shorter auction with a more engaged audience. But where do you start if you are considering hiring an auctioneer and what are important qualities to look for? Or what if you really want to be the auctioneer yourself, what can you learn from a professional? This episode features a professional auctioneer, a Colorado champion auctioneer, sharing her tips for school auction chairs, PTA or PTO leaders, and other school auction committee members. 

About Our Guest: Halie Behr, Fundaneer

Halie Behr is an accomplished, auction professional with a passion for the nonprofit and fundraising industry. She is a 2010 World Wide College of Auctioneering graduate and now a World Wide instructor, teaching students the craft of bid calling. Halie competed and won her first ever auctioneering competition in 2013- the International Junior Auctioneering Championship cementing her love for competition and the auction industry. Since then she went on to obtain her BAS (Benefit Auction Specialist) designation from the National Auctioneers Association and graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Science in Event and Hospitality Management. Behr is the current reigning Colorado State Champion and is on the Board of Directors for the Colorado State Association. Celebrating over ten years in the auction industry, Halie sells automobiles at Dealers Auto Auction of the Rockies and owns and operates Halie Behr, Fundaneer LLC, performing fundraising auctions all over the U.S. to support the needs of nonprofits and schools. 

This show is brought to you by K-12 Clothing. K-12 Clothing is a PTA-Dad created business focused on providing high-quality school apparel while increasing access to educational resources through fundraising in schools. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/k12clothing

Planning and Executing a Successful Hybrid School Auction

Much like the rest of the educational system, the school auction has changed dramatically over the past year. If you’re an auction chair or parent teacher group leader wondering where to start with your online or hybrid auction or how to be successful on the day of, this is the episode for you. We will talk to two auction experts about online auction technology, how to shop for auction technology and how to be successful on the day of your auction.

About Our Guests: Simon Wells, Xcira and Roger Devine, SchoolAuction.net

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How to Run a Successful School Auction: Tips from an Auction Chair

Calling all school auction chairs, leaders, and volunteers. Auction season is in full swing so we are bringing you a multi-year auction chair who will share her top tips for a successful auction. Hear how you should structure your committee, top selling items, and what you should and shouldn’t do on the day of your auction.

About Our Guest: Christina Linezo, Auction Chair and Realtor

Christina is a mom of three currently living in Orinda, California. She is heavily involved in her children’s schools and has volunteered and participated in multiple ways - serving in various board positions, as Room Parent, volunteering in the classroom and on field trips, and organizing and leading a variety of class and all-school events, social opportunities, and fundraisers - including the school auction! She is a former educator herself, with a BA in Arts Education. Christina worked at a Children’s Museum in San Francisco with K-12 students and also designed and implemented their Early Childhood program. She has since transitioned to a successful career as a Realtor in the beautiful San Francisco East Bay. 

This show is brought to you by K-12 Clothing. K-12 Clothing is a PTA-Dad created business focused on providing high-quality school apparel while increasing access to educational resources through fundraising in schools. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/k12clothing

Teacher Personal Finance: Overview of Personal Finance Considerations

Are you a teacher staring at your recently filed taxes wondering if you have the right strategy? Do you want to know more about the nuances of your 403b plan? You are in good company and this episode will give you four quick tips, specific to teachers from a teacher who is an expert in personal finance.

Here are some resources to check out after the episode:

• https://www.403bwise.org/
• https://www.choosefi.com/

About Our Guest: Rob Phelan, Maryland Math Teacher and Founder of the Simple Start Up

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