Take Your Legislator to School Toolkit

Transcription

1 Take Your Legislator to School Toolkit

2 Table of Contents Overview...p. 1 Sample Planning Timeline......p. 2-3 Sample Agenda for Take Your Legislator to School Day.... p. 4-5 Sample Invitation to Legislator..p. 6 Student Survey....p. 7 Sample Questions for Legislator..p. 8 Sample Thank You to Legislator..p. 9 Evaluation.. p. 10

3 Take Your Legislator to School Day Overview Goal The ultimate goal of Take Your Legislator to School Day is to share what works in your school and what needs improvement. Your legislator represents YOU and should be making decisions that are best for your education. It is our intention that Take Your Legislator to School Day be a student-led activity. By working with Good Schools Pennsylvania to organize a day for your legislator(s) to visit your school, you will create an opportunity to use your voice and communicate your willingness to improve your school community with his/her support. Don t be afraid to highlight the needs of your school. Your teachers and administrators are providing the very best for you with the resources they have. If there is more that your school needs, your visiting legislator must learn this today so he/she can help to make those improvements. It may be helpful to communicate the purpose of this day with your superintendent to gain her/his support. Materials To help you make this day a success, Good Schools Pennsylvania has created the Take Your Legislator to School Day toolkit. For your convenience, you may also access an electronic version of the toolkit on our website. Teachers, it is suggested that you print a copy of the toolkit for each student participating in the planning of event for organizational purposes!

4 Suggested Timeline for Planning Take Your Legislator to School Day or L2SD Week One: Send letter to local Representatives & Senator inviting him/her to L2SD. Call Representative & Senators local office to introduce yourself and let them know you sent letter of invitation Begin discussing specifics of Agenda, i.e. times, locations, assignments of jobs, lunch discussion. Be flexible with the date. If the week of October 22 or October 29 does not work for your legislator, discuss a date that fits his/her schedule. Week Two: Send a friendly reminder to each legislator that you invited about the letter of invitation and your eagerness to have their participation. Begin advertising L2SD, including the date and name of the legislator who you have invited, and encourage everyone to mark their calendars! Students could be charged with making and distributing flyers/posters in hallways and homerooms, announcement made over school s loudspeaker or placed in the school s newsletter, etc. Copy and distribute the peer survey to students in effort to gather opinions on what they believe are the successes and areas needing improvement within the school. To use this tool, you will need to advertise (via school announcements) in advance in order to get participation from peers. Ask that homeroom teachers help in distributing and collecting the surveys. Confirm your agenda for the day and begin formally delegating responsibilities by committee: Refreshments and Lunch, Presentation of Academics/Extra Curricular/Sports, Meet and Greet, Tour Guides, Ask Your Legislator What s Up planning committee, etc. Send update of your progress this week to Principal via (c.c. your Good Schools PA contact). Week Three: If you have not yet received confirmation about participation, make phone calls to legislators offices. Emphasize that your school wants to plan for an enjoyable and productive day and requests confirmation from the legislator now! Don t be afraid that you are being a nuisance as long as you are using a friendly and professional phone voice, your persistence will be admired! When confirmation(s) is made with the legislator, get in touch with your Good Schools PA contact to schedule a time for him/her to meet with you in the near future. Meet with Principal to review tentative agenda for the day, tell which legislators will be attending, and discuss the Principal s participation in the day. Review peer survey results and develop talking points for the day based upon the input from students. This will allow for the voices of as many students as possible to be heard during the day of the visit. You can also incorporate the responses into the questions to be asked at Ask Your Legislator What s Up session. Prepare handout or other media source to give overview of academics/extracurricular/sports. Send update of your progress this week to Principal via (c.c. your Good Schools PA contact).

5 Week Four: Confirm that all committees have completed responsibilities. Make final determinations of who will facilitate, attend, and ask questions at the Ask Your Legislator What s Up session. Also determine set-up of room and if any audiovisual is necessary. PRACTICE the flow of the session. Rehearse it as if it were a play! Call Legislator s office to inform you will be sending the agenda for the day, copy of questions you will be asking at the final session, where he/she should go upon entering school, and any other items of importance. Make nametags for yourselves. Send update of your progress this week to Principal via (c.c. your Good Schools PA contact). TWO days prior to visit: Double check, confirm, and triple check that all tasks have been accomplished! AFTER the visit: Write thank you notes to the visiting legislator(s) for participating and mail immediately. You want the legislator(s) to know how important their participation was to you and the school. Mention your favorite part of the day and/or reiterate what you thought the most important thing the legislator should remember when making decisions in Harrisburg remember YOU are most affected by her or his decisions about schools. Lastly, Good Schools PA thanks you for all your hard work! Great job! Complete the Evaluation and return to your Good Schools PA contact so we know how to improve L2SD each year for you! Stay involved with Good Schools PA by letting your Good Schools PA contact know you re interested! There s a lot more that we all can do to ensure legislators make good decisions that promote strong schools.

6 Sample Agenda for Take Your Legislator to School Day NOTE: Because every school has a different start and end times, we have listed suggested activities and the time to be allotted for each. It will be your job to plug the activities into your school s schedule. Remember, this schedule may also depend upon how much time your visiting legislator is able to devote to the day. We encourage you to be flexible in the date for Take Your Legislator to School Day, as your legislator may only be able to visit on the days for which he/she is not in legislative session. SPECIAL NOTE: Given the busy schedules that legislators keep, sometimes he or she will send an aide in his/her place. You will need to make it very clear that, although you can be flexible with a date and time, you would like your legislator to attend this event in person. 1. Meet and Greet (30 minutes) a. Decide who/how many will greet the legislator at the door. Make introductions of yourselves, principal and any other adult present. b. Take the Legislator to a common area to review the agenda for the day and determine if there is anything specific he/she wants to see or do that may not be included in the agenda. If possible, provide refreshments (i.e. coffee & doughnuts). 2. Presentation of Academics, Extra-Curricular, Sports (30 minutes) a. Prepare a hand-out of the academic programs, extra-curricular activities and sports programs prior to the visit. Highlight specific items of success, especially if wanting to share recognitions, awards, new technology, etc. b. Share results of the peer survey that indicate any classes or activities that students would like to have available at the school that would contribute to their knowledge and success for entering the real world. You could even ask a student who made one of these suggestions to speak directly about it, emphasizing how the addition of the program/class would make a difference in her/his education! 3. Guided Tour of Building (30-40 minutes) a. Take your legislator on a tour of the school facilities. With each stop, be sure to highlight the things to celebrate BUT also make a point of highlighting areas needing improvement. For example, visit your computer lab and highlight the great programs, carpeted and air-conditioned room, but lack of space only accommodating students at a time or computers not being used because of cost of repair. b. Suggestions for areas to visit: regular classroom, science lab, auditorium, gymnasium, multi-media lab/library, cafeteria, etc. REMEMBER to highlight the best as well as things needing improvement! Use the information you received when surveying your peers as talking points. 4. LUNCH and Open Discussion or Activity (40 minutes) a. Whether ordering food from an outside venue or treating to lunch in the cafeteria, be sure that the food has been pre-arranged so time is not wasted. b. This is your time to be creative: Will you invite teachers to eat and meet with the legislator? Will you include students who want to share how they are making a difference in the school? How about parents or community members? Just remember the goal of the day and spend the time wisely.

7 5. Ask Your Legislator What s Up (1 hour) a. This is the culminating activity of the day. You have already provided your legislator with some questions that may be asked during this portion of the day. Invite a group of students representing all grades of the school, teachers, parents, community members etc. We suggest no more than 50 people in order to facilitate more casual discussion. One or two of you should act as the moderator to review with the participants the highlights of the day, introduce the legislator, and keep things moving along. b. Students in the audience should ask the questions of the legislators (see suggested questions). REMEMBER, questions should be focused on specific needs and issues of the school and how students and legislator can work together to resolve and improve. No whining, complaining or attacking only direct questions with a focus on moving forward. The moderator(s) will need to maintain this positive focus and intervene when necessary. 6. Conclusion (5-10 minutes) a. Thank your legislator for taking the time to participate. If possible, you may want to ask a student to present the legislator with a school-related gift (i.e. a T-shirt, pen or pencil). You could also take a group photo to later display in the school and also send a copy to the legislator as part of a thank you. b. Be sure to make a point of asking that he/she continues the relationship formed as a result of the day and convey your willingness to actively participate in improving education for your peers and all kids.

8 September XX, 2007 Honorable FIRST NAME LAST NAME ADDRESS CITY, PA ZIP Dear Senator OR Representative : On behalf of the students of Sun Valley High School in the Penn-Delco School District, and in partnership with Good Schools Pennsylvania, the Student Council would like to invite you to take part in Take Your Legislator to School Day and visit our school during the week of October 22, 2007 OR October 29, By participating in Take Your Legislator to School Day, we are hoping to establish a relationship between our school community and local lawmakers who make decisions about schools on our behalf. In order for you to be most informed when making such decisions, we feel that it is extremely important that you meet and understand the people and schools you represent. A visit to our school will help you gain insight into our many successes and challenges as a public high school in Pennsylvania. We have already created a tentative agenda for your visit. Our plans for the day include: a short meet & greet and presentation of the primary academic, extra-curricular, and sports activities that Sun Valley High School offers with the members of Student Council; a guided tour of our building; small group discussion over lunch; and a forum in which selected students can ask you questions. Your presence is vital to the success of Take Your Legislator to School Day. Please seriously consider spending a day with us so that we can get to know and learn from each other. We understand that you have a busy schedule, but we would like to have you present to make the most out of this day. Please do not send a staff member in your place! MR. JOHN DOE, the faculty representative for Student Council, will followup with your office to begin making arrangements for your visit. If you have any questions or require additional information, you may contact him/her at XXX-XXX-XXXX or johndoe@sunvalleyhigh.edu. Thank you. Sincerely, Sun Valley High School Student Council Penn-Delco School District NAME, President NAME, Vice-President NAME, Secretary NAME, Treasurer

9 Student Survey NAME GRADE HOMEROOM If you would like the opportunity to share your questions or concerns with our local representative/senator on Oct. please indicate below: YES, I would like the opportunity to talk with the Legislator. Please contact me! Please take a few minutes to answer the following questions in preparation for Take Your Legislator to School Day on October XX, Your honest and thoughtful comments are appreciated. 1) If you could choose to have more academic programs, what would they be and why? 2) If you could choose to have more extra-curricular activities, what would they be and why? 3) If you could change one thing about your school building, what would it be and why? 4) As a student, do you think you share a responsibility in changing things for the better at your school? If so, how?

10 Sample Questions for Your Legislator Note: These are suggested ideas for questions that you could ask your visitor. The actual questions depend on who your elected official is, who is present in the audience, and what you want your overall message to be. Remember: No negative attacks allowed! Try to keep your questions focused on working towards positive goals. 1) What is your vision of the public education opportunities that should be available to every student, and what will you do to accomplish those goals? 2) What would you do to strengthen PA public schools? What would you do for our school district specifically? 3) What do you think are the greatest successes of this school district? What do you see as needing improvement? 4) The business community constantly reports that it needs workers with higher skills than our schools have traditionally produced. What resources do you think our schools need to meet this new challenge of preparing all students for success in a career or college? 5) How will you incorporate what you ve learned during this visit into your decisions concerning education? How can we continue to work together to improve our schools?

11 October XX, 2007 Honorable FIRST NAME LAST NAME ADDRESS CITY, PA ZIP Dear Senator OR Representative : Thank you for participating in Take Your Legislator to School Day at Sun Valley High School. My classmates and I were very impressed that you took the time to meet with us to learn about our school and talk about how we can work together to make it even better. I enjoyed serving as your guide for a tour of our school and showing you where my favorite class meets the computer lab. Not only is it air-conditioned, but it is a place where we learn important computer skills. Unfortunately, there are only enough computers for each class to meet once per month. Imagine how much more prepared we d be for the workforce if we had the resources to attend computer lab more frequently! I know that you have a lot to consider when making decisions in Harrisburg. I hope that when you are making decisions about schools you remember Take Your Legislator to School Day and the students at Sun Valley High School. Strong schools are important to everyone, especially us! Thank you. Sincerely, NAME, 11 th Grader Sun Valley High School Penn-Delco School District

12 Take Your Legislator to School Day EVALUATION Please take a few minutes to fill out the following evaluation. Your feedback is important to us and will help us better plan for and implement similar events in the future. School: School District: Visiting Legislator(s): Date of Visit: Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statements: Strongly Agree 1) In my opinion, Take Your Legislator to School Day was a success Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree 2) The toolkit created by Good Schools helped me/my school plan and implement the day ) The visiting legislator was receptive and had enough time to visit with students ) Good Schools staff played an integral role in planning for and implementing the day. 5) I believe this was a valuable way to begin developing a relationship between my legislator and school community Please answer the following questions: What was the most exciting part of the day? What was the most challenging part of the day? Are you interested in becoming more involved with Good Schools Pennsylvania? If you are an educator, please provide your contact information. Name: Address: If you are a student, please contact us via our website at Please send completed evaluations to: MAIL: Good Schools Pennsylvania 6757 Greene Street, Suite 310 Philadelphia, PA FAX: (267)