Parents as Partners Episode #53 October 15, 2012 Ignite Parents with Tracy Bachellier

Tracy Bachellier a parent in Stratford Ontario shared how the Avon Maitland District School Board worked with their Parent Involvement Committee to engage parents in a with an event called Ignite Parents. Tracy described how the event was created, organized and delivered to an audience made up of parents, teachers, administrators and community members. 

The full BlackBoard Collaborate is here.

About Tracy:

Tracy has been self-employed since 1998 and owns two small businesses together with her husband, Dean. She lives in Stratford, Ontario and is the proud mom of three children, Isobel (age 13) and twins, Evelyn and Stuart (age 11). Tracy holds a BA in English, an Honours BA in Psychology and she is currently a part-time student at Wilfrid Laurier University studying for her Master’s of Education. She is also the owner of a sustainable forest and you can often find her and her family playing in their woods near the shores of Lake Huron.

Tracy began in 2004 helping other parents and families navigate the education system by providing assistance, connections, resources, tools and information. Her passion for parent involvement and supporting families with their children’s education grew over the years. Tracy has served as Chair of Hamlet Public School Council, Co-Chair of Stratford Regional School Council (SRSC) and Chair of the Avon Maitland District School Board Parent Involvement Committee (PIC). She has been a part of many parent engagement initiatives including, WeTube: An Interactive Evening for Parents, The Parent Voice Website, several Parent Reaching Out Grants, and Ignite Parents.

Chat log:Oct 15, 2012 3:48:36 PM - PARENTS AS PARTNERS  

14:20 - Peggy George 

Just noticed you didn't have chat permissions @Jeannine. You have them now. 

15:03 - Peggy George 

Mondays are a busy night :-) 

15:51 - Peggy George 

dogs barking are a standard part of online sessions (and cats that type on keyboards) :-) 

15:54 - Peggy George 

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=310605 

16:17 - Maria Fisk 

Thank you, Peggy! 

16:24 - Peggy George 

Livebinders are so helpful to keep all of the resources together for one webinar. Love them! 

16:50 - Maria Fisk 

Yes! I started my own Livebinder after learning about them from Parents as Partners. 

17:29 - Peggy George 

If you tweet after the show and include the word Livebinders (like Livebinder is posted with recording link...) the Livebinder developers will retweet it and favorite it to their thousands of followers. Great way to spread the word. 

17:45 - Maria Fisk 

Hi Heather! Thanks for joining! 

17:50 - Peggy George 

Welcome Tracy!!!! 

18:07 - Peggy George 

Hi Heather. Great to see you! 

18:20 - Tracy Bachellier 

Thank you, honoured to be here! 

18:49 - Heather 

Thank you, glad to be here. 

18:50 - Peggy George 

A celebrity in our midst :-) 

19:28 - Peggy George 

we are so lucky to have you sharing with us!! 

20:02 - Peggy George 

love that quote! 

20:29 - Peggy George 

Jeannine be sure to select the Main Room chat to send your messages so everyone can see them 

20:47 - Peggy George 

Lorna used up all of Tracy's time introducing her :-) 

21:28 - Peggy George 

Just teasing of course!! There's so much to share about Tracy's incredible experience. 

22:03 - Peggy George 

How did all of those parents get the courage to stand up and present at Ignite Parents??? 

22:47 - Peggy George 

I went to Ignite Phoenix a couple of times and always left so excited about the great ideas shared! 

23:43 - Maria Fisk 

I'm impressed with those parents too! 

24:16 - Peggy George 

does the description "geek event" put people off at all? 

25:02 - Peggy George 

aha! you actually invited specific people to come and speak. Not just anyone who wanted to submit a proposal 

25:08 - Maria Fisk 

I think it's cool to be a geek these days. 

25:18 - Lorna Costantini 

http://igniteparents.ca 

25:43 - Peggy George 

I do too Maria :-) But most parents don't see themselves as geeks, let alone geeks standing up to present to other geeks :-) 

26:16 - Peggy George 

that's so impressive!! 

26:31 - Peggy George 

were the presentations recorded and posted? 

26:42 - Peggy George 

hooray! can't wait to listen to them! 

27:38 - Heather 

Does your school board own the logo and rights or can other school boards apply to Ignite to use it? 

27:48 - Peggy George 

did you tell parents what kinds of topics you wanted them to talk about or could it be anything they chose? 

28:06 - Lorna Costantini 

http://www.youtube.com/v/xMyGh5PUdk0?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata 

28:08 - Jeannine St. Amand 

So happy that you did the videos - really helps to see an Ignite preso in action. 

28:15 - Lorna Costantini 

that is the promo video 

28:34 - Peggy George 

@ignite_parents on Twitter 

29:12 - Peggy George 

Heather had a question 

29:12 - Maria Fisk 

This sounds like such a great event! 

29:30 - Lorna Costantini 

Sorry Heather 

29:50 - Lorna Costantini 

I'll ask Tracy in a few min 

30:00 - Heather 

thank Lorna 

30:36 - Peggy George 

Livebinder link for tonight is here in case you missed it: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/310605# 

31:13 - Peggy George 

what a creative way to get someone so renowned to talk with the parents :-) 

31:16 - Lorna Costantini 

Wow 

31:50 - Heather 

How long did it take to plan this out? 

32:09 - Peggy George 

great gifts :-) were they donated? 

32:14 - Maria Fisk 

I love the bookmark idea 

32:24 - Heather 

Great bag 

33:13 - Peggy George 

Adam Flaherty? only in Canada or anywhere? 

33:47 - Peggy George 

I love the concept and would like to promote it but if we can't use that term that's a problem 

34:03 - Tracy Bachellier 

[email protected] 

34:32 - Heather 

What was the budget for this event? 

36:03 - Heather 

That's awesome. Did you have a lot of donations? 

36:08 - Peggy George 

so if someone wanted to host an Ignite Parent event they would have to contact Adam Flaherty for permission to use the copyrighted name? 

36:39 - Lorna Costantini 

I believe that is correct Peggy 

36:39 - Peggy George 

a lot of work for sure! :-) 

36:46 - Heather 

Thanks Tracy 

37:48 - Peggy George 

great job Tracy! 

38:57 - Peggy George 

it's hard to get pictures at Ignite events because everything moves so quickly :-) 

39:12 - Maria Fisk 

Stress - a great topic 

39:28 - Peggy George 

did you have a theme for the night or were presentations open to all topics? 

40:09 - Peggy George 

related to education and schools? not "learning" outside of schools? 

40:35 - Peggy George 

your theme 

41:03 - Peggy George 

it sounded like they had to relate to school and education 

41:21 - Peggy George 

thanks 

41:27 - Maria Fisk 

Learning 24/7 

42:15 - Peggy George 

sounds good 

42:22 - Lorna Costantini 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrQQkjLTS3Y&feature=plcp 

43:40 - Peggy George 

just started for me 

43:54 - Lorna Costantini 

ok I am at the min mark 

45:44 - Tracy Bachellier 

That's just a sample of one of our 12 passionate presentations at Ignite Parents! 

45:53 - Peggy George 

excellent! 

46:23 - Peggy George 

can't wait to watch the rest of it 

46:23 - Maria Fisk 

I'm back 

46:58 - Maria Fisk 

Super how he was explaining why he approaches math class as he does. 

48:03 - Peggy George 

being passionate about something is different than having the courage to stand up in front of a big audience to present! It's so exciting that you go so many parents willing to do that :-) 

48:03 - Maria Fisk 

How entriguing is "I sent them to school to get rid of them....now you want me involved?" 

49:06 - Peggy George 

Lorna, we should ask one of them to be a presenter for the K12 Online virtual conference next year :-) 

50:56 - Peggy George 

has that connection continued for people beyond the evening? 

51:15 - Heather 

What a wonderful event! 

51:39 - Peggy George 

what an incredible night! 

52:12 - Heather 

You are incredibly lucky to have that kind of relationship with your Board. 

52:21 - Jeannine St. Amand 

A couple... 

52:37 - Jeannine St. Amand 

Would you narrow the theme next time, or leave it as broad as education? 

52:59 - Jeannine St. Amand 

Is there anything you would change or advise against? 

53:33 - Peggy George 

were all of the people attending already involved parents or did it encourage more of them to get involved in schools? 

54:09 - Jeannine St. Amand 

It is hard to convince parents they have something interesting to say... but we must keep trying :) 

54:47 - Peggy George 

it can be very intimidating because sometimes the technology doesn't work and their slides don't involve automatically or they jump ahead faster than they should 

55:23 - Peggy George 

whenever you use technology there can be glitches but it's such an exciting event! 

55:48 - Peggy George 

has that connection continued for people beyond the evening? 

55:59 - Lorna Costantini 

http://parentvoice.ca 

56:29 - Lorna Costantini 

PIC = parent involvement committee 

56:44 - Jeannine St. Amand 

I would love to see you do an Ignite presentation too Tracy ... such great passion comes through. 

57:15 - Peggy George 

is the PIC only parents or does it include teachers/admins too? 

58:30 - Peggy George 

thanks! that sounds very similar to our school site councils which can be chaired by parents, teachers, anyone on the council. 

58:38 - Heather 

Off topic, but how long has your Board had a social media policy? 

58:48 - Peggy George 

I love that all of the stakeholders are involved 

59:15 - Peggy George 

very helpful description! thank you! 

1:00:06 - Peggy George 

social media has changed a lot in the past 4 years 

1:00:27 - Peggy George 

has the policy needed to change to reflect that? 

1:00:38 - Heather 

That's awesome, we don't have one, so we are not able to use Twitter/Facebook etc on our PIC 

1:01:16 - Jeannine St. Amand 

I often use AMDSB as an example of partnership - lots of good stuff happening. 

1:01:42 - Heather 

You are about to become my poster child for social media. 

1:01:53 - Peggy George 

many school administrators are afraid they will be attacked by critical parents publicly if they allow social media like Facebook 

1:02:40 - Peggy George 

if that happened under your policy how would it be handled? 

1:03:02 - Peggy George 

you are such an amazing model for us!! 

1:03:15 - Maria Fisk 

Yet there are such potential benefits of social media for student learning and school climate. As we know. Tough for many to think about. 

1:03:32 - Peggy George 

thanks 

1:04:13 - Peggy George 

there was a huge group of parents/teachers in our area (few years back) that actually created a website to criticize the school board and try to get board members recalled 

1:04:37 - Maria Fisk 

Thank you, Tracy! Thank you, Lorna and Peggy! Thank you Heather and Jeannine! 

1:04:50 - Peggy George 

we would all LOVE to have a parent leader in our schools like Tracy!!!!! 

1:04:58 - Peggy George 

thank you so much Tracy! 

1:05:14 - Maria Fisk 

I second @ Peggy George! 

1:05:34 - Heather 

Thanks Tracy, this was great. 

1:05:39 - Peggy George 

can't wait to share the recording of this session with colleagues 

1:05:40 - Tracy Bachellier 

[email protected] 

1:06:03 - Jeannine St. Amand 

It was really good to hear you tell your story Tracy - nice to have a voice to go with your twitter avatar :) 

1:06:05 - Peggy George 

come back for another presentation Tracy :-) you have so much more to share! 

1:06:53 - Peggy George 

Mon. Oct. 29-next show-same time? 

1:07:00 - Maria Fisk 

yes, same time 

1:07:02 - Peggy George 

Smackdowns are so much fun! 

1:07:03 - Jeannine St. Amand 

Thanks you Lorna, Maria, and Peggy - fun as always. 

1:07:13 - Maria Fisk 

This will be my first smackdown! 

1:07:16 - Heather 

sounds like a virtual ignite event 

1:07:27 - Jeannine St. Amand 

That means I must get out and get a new headset ... smackdown is on! 

1:07:30 - Peggy George 

tech tools for parents? 

1:07:36 - Peggy George 

defnitely Jeannine! 

1:07:50 - Peggy George 

:-) 

1:08:02 - Peggy George 

yes 

1:08:16 - Peggy George 

website, tool, resource to get parents more engaged 

1:08:23 - Peggy George 

sounds terrific! 

1:08:41 - Peggy George 

I sure hope I can come--I'm scheduled for jury duty that day :-( 

1:08:49 - Tracy Bachellier 

I look forward to it, thanks again everyone, it's been an honour to share Ignite Parents with you! 

1:08:50 - Jeannine St. Amand 

Big news out of Ontario ladies ... you were likely busy but you better check when you sign off. 

1:09:14 - Jeannine St. Amand 

Good night. 

1:09:16 - Peggy George 

good night all! Thanks to all of you!