Blogs

October 10, 2016
A more-connected school with a MobileArq school directory

Forget Paper Directories, Wilton Schools are Going Digital & Mobile!

This article was reproduced with permission from  Heather Borden Herve, Editor of the Good Morning Wilton newspaper. By Heather Borden Herve, Editor, Good morning Wilton Wilton Public Schools are taking one more giant step forward into the technological era, as theParent Teacher Associations (PTA) in all four Wilton schools are taking the PTA directories and handbooks mobile. Say goodbye to the spiral bound paper books listing all the families with children enrolled in each school, and say hello to digital directories on a phone app. Hopefully launching in time for Meet the Teacher Day on Thursday, Sept. 1, the initiative was led by Nicola Davies, president of the Cider Mill PTA. She’s cautious about being over-excited even as other parents who’ve heard about the change think the idea is amazing. “I hope so, fingers crossed,” Davies says, looking ahead to next week’s launch and hoping it all goes smoothly. “It’s kind […]
August 11, 2016

Mobile School Directories and the ‘Go Green’ Movement in US Schools

Every year thousands of schools in states across the US continue to go through the grueling process of compiling and printing school directories for parents.   These directories include names and contact information of families, students and teachers and represent a valuable school resource for parents.   However, the print directories consume significant levels of paper and ink products, a ‘tradition’ that is at odds with the School’s mission to ‘Go Green’. The production and use of paper contribute towards significant pollution of our environment, affecting, air, water and land. Even paper recycling can be a source of pollution due to the sludge produced during de-inking (remove ink from the paper being recycled).  The increasing demands for paper consumption has led to deforestation of ‘old growth forests’, compounding the ecological impact of increased Greenhouse gas production and global warming. The digital directories represent an ideal ‘Go Green’ solution to the drawbacks of […]
March 19, 2016

How this school directory app and membership management software helped my district PTA?

This article was first posted on the National PTA Blog at http://onevoice.pta.org/?p=6784. Below is a case study presented by a Westport PTA President on how database software helped her district with a school directory app and membership management software. My name is Denise Baer, and I have been an involved PTA member for over 13 years. I have served on PTA executive boards in many capacities, including being elected PTA president twice. My town of Westport, Conn. has eight schools‚ Äîfive elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school. Each school‚Äôs PTA operates independently, but we work collaboratively through a town-wide PTA council. A longstanding challenge in Westport was how to manage our student, parent and teacher directory. Each school used their own software such as Microsoft Excel, Word or some combination. None of these systems interacted with the school databases, and there was no easy way to track […]
March 10, 2016

Find a family easily in your school!

As a parent, we meet other parents briefly at school events, class events, soccer, baseball and sports games and other extra-curricular activities. However,¬†connecting with them again, especially if you met them once only, is very difficult. You might remember a name vaguely although you recognize their face from previous encounters at the school. It takes a village to raise a child so the better you bond with families in your school or team, the easier it is to get playdates, arrange carpools and be a part of the community. We all agree that we are not all that good at remembering names and associating them with the many faces we meet at school. Greeting someone with their first name makes a huge impact and starts off conversations much better. Finding a family in your children’s school should not be that difficult. If you have an online school directory or school […]