The Arts in Education Committee coordinates Patton Arts in Education Day, an all-day festival of musicians, visual artists, and performing artists, to name a few. This year's event will take place in October. Parent volunteers are needed for everything from hosting individual artists to assisting children in classroom art projects. In addition, any parents who would like to volunteer their own special artistic talents (or those of friends or relatives) are encouraged to do so.

Art's Day is March 12th this year. If you are interested in helping contact Sherry for more information.

Track and Field Day is a school-wide event held in the spring that everyone loves. The Committee Chair works with the P.E. Teachers to coordinate volunteers for this event. Parent volunteers serve as judges, help with set-up and clean up, provide baked goods, secure donated goods, and staff the concession stand. Whether you enjoy popping popcorn, pitching tents, organizing lane judges, or serving snow cones, there is a role for you during Track and Field Day.

Destination Imagination is the largest �membership-based� creative problem solving, processoriented, International Program. Teams of students accept one of five open-ended challenges and showcase their results at a regional tournament in March.

The teams cannot accept influence from anyone that is not on their team! What the students learn through the journey and completing a project on their own is the reward!

For more information about Destination Imagination go to : www.idodi.org or contact Laura Walton at laurawaltn@aol.com or call 892-2980.

Stay up-to-date with all that is going on in Patton Elementary. The newsletter will be created each month and be in a Calendar format and will include important information regarding our school. You can get the newsletters in paper form, have it e-mailed to your inbox through the PTA Yahoo Group or download a current or archived copy from this page.

The Directory Committee is responsible for producing a student directory for parents, students, and staff members in early fall. The directory is a quick and easy resource for administrative phone numbers and for staying in touch with your child's classmates. Volunteers are needed to gather the information for the directory and do data entry.

PR Committee: Promotes Patton's events, news and accomplishments within the neighborhoods and general Oak Hill community.

Stay up to date with all the Patton Elementary information by joining the Patton PTA Yahoo Group. Important information will be e-mailed directly to your inbox. You will receive the weekly Newsletter, Volunteer requests, up and coming events and many other items directly realting to Patton.

To sign up, just click the button below:

This school year our Principle and PTA President hope to host 2 coffee chats. One in the fall and one in the spring. We are excited to sit down with the parents of Patton and discuss any issues that come up.

This committee is responsible for updating Patton�s marquee with current school events.

This committee�s purpose is to beautify the outdoor areas of our school. No landscaping knowledge is required to serve on this committee. The volunteers get together, roll up their sleeves to dig in the dirt, weed, plant flowers and anything else that is needed to maintain the flowerbeds and trees around our campus.

Volunteers meet in the PTA workshop to provide a most valuable service to teachers. We laminate, copy, color, cut, bind, and make die cuts, along with other special projects. We play with scissors and glue and sometimes crayons! Talk about free stress relief.

This work helps the teachers tremendously. The PTA Workshop traditionally operates every Tuesday from 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. (or sooner, if the work gets finished earlier!) beginning in September. However, the time and organization of workshop can be adjusted to best meet the needs of its volunteers. If you have an hour or the entire day, every week or one month in the school year, or even just every now and then, you're invited to come join this volunteer group.

We're big fun and it's a great opportunity to meet and visit with other parents, meet and visit with other teachers, make new friends, and help the staff spend time with their students, not the copy machine!

It's a "low stress big payback to the school" volunteer opportunity and besides the free coffee, there's frequently baked goods!!!

Email or call me for information, to sign up or just c'mon down when you can,

Volunteering in the library is a great way for Patton Parents to be directly involved with the students.

Our Librarian is Norma Stovall and she is constantly on the lookout for GREAT volunteers. As library volunteers, our goal is to promote reading so our children can discover the world of books and become literate members of society.

In order to do this we need your help for an hour or two each week (more if you can spare). Generally you will help the kids pick and check out books and discharge and shelved books once returned. Other jobs you may be involved in include decorating for the seasons or holidays throughout the year, creating displays that coordinate with the kids' school projects and helping with the Book Fair. If you want to be involved in your child's learning, get a feel for their day and interact with their teachers and friends, this is the perfect avenue.

On-the-job training is provided; no previous experience is required to help in the library. You may volunteer on a regular or project-related basis. Any amount of time you can give makes a difference and is appreciated. Feel free to contact Kambra Allen at kallenpe@yahoo.com for details.

Thanks in advance.

The Projects and Goals committee determines how best to allocate the PTA fundraising proceeds. The Patton PTA has a 20-year legacy of supporting Patton financially and has played a vital role in giving Patton its reputation as a school of excellence. Since 1999, the Patton PTA has supported our school with donations for projects and support totaling over $ 100,000.

The Project & Goals Committee meets with Mr. Stevens early in the school year, and reviews the Campus Improvement Plan, to understand Patton�s annual goals. The Committee works with Mr. Stevens to develop the guidelines, a timeline and process to ensure equity, balance, and focus on the greatest needs across all grade levels. The PTA has established a budget for the 2009-10 school year Projects & Goals Committee that will support grade level projects, a school-wide project, and special areas requests. Funding request forms will be made available to faculty or staff through the PTA.

The 2008-09 Patton PTA provided funds through the Project & Goals Committee for Bluebonnet Books, an outdoor science learning center, schoolwide performances, grade level instructional materials, and more. Prior funding support has included an outdoor school marquee, gym scoreboard and timer, new library bookshelves, playground shelters and benches, the electronic screen on stage, the popcorn machine and the large PTA copier. These large ticket items continue to benefit students for many years. Fundraising revenue from the school carnival, Love Your School campaign, and other PTA efforts provides the monies needed to support basic needs and enrichment opportunities. Your participation in these fundraisers directly supports our students and teachers at Patton. For more information on the Patton PTA Project & Goals Committee, contact Amy Jones, 288-5928 or at ajones@oconnellrobertson.com

This chairperson is responsible for reporting to the membership on educational issues being discussed by the AISD School Board, the State and/or National PTA, or the Texas State Legislature when it is in session. Volunteers are needed for this committee for occasional photocopying of important information to go home with students and in-school publicity of important issues (posting notices, hanging posters, etc.) affecting our children�s education.

This committee oversees the candidate selection for the Patton PTA scholarships. We award current Patton teacher and administrator scholarships for continuing education and four scholarships for graduating AISD high school seniors who who are going on to college and who attended Patton Elementary for at least one year.

The applicant's for the student scholarships are scored on academic achievement, extra-curricular activities, financial need, and an essay.

We are using the AISD scholarship application. The application can be downloaded from the AISD web site at http://www.austinisd.org/academics/scholarship/aisdscholarshipapp.phtml

Additional help with the application process is also available through the counselors at Austin and Bowie High Schools.

All applications must be RECEIVED, fully completed, in the Patton Elementary School office by the close of business on Thursday, April 1, 2010. Patton Elementary is located at 6001 Westcreek Dr, Austin, TX, 78749.

To be considered a complete application, the AISD form must be signed by the applicant, a parent, and a counselor. It also must be accompanied by the applicant's sealed transcript, GPA, class rank, and a one-page essay.

All applications will be scored by our PTA scholarship committee and the four winners will be presented with their scholarships at the May Patton PTA general meeting. For 2010, each scholarship is in the amount of $500.

The T-Shirt Committee is responsible for taking orders for the school t-shirt, placing the order with the supplier, distributing and selling the t-shirts to the students, faculty and staff when they are delivered. This committee also coordinates the student contest to design the school t-shirt for the following year.

The goal of this committee is to provide students with an opportunity to memorialize their yearly experience at Patton. Volunteers can help weed out pictures from the online source (pattonyearbook@gmail.com) and load them onto the web design page responsible for printing the yearbook. They can take pictures, help recruit corporate sponsors, help sell, help organize the payments for deposit, or with the layout design. This committee also organizes the class photographs and information for the publishing company, in addition to coordinating sales and distribution of the printed yearbooks.

Teachers, Parents and Room Parents: Please submit your Patton Elementary event, field trip and class room photos to me at pattonyearbook@gmail.com (photos only, no correspondence) in .jpg format. Give me your name, phone, photo details--teacher, what are kids doing date photo take, event or field trip name, and grade level. If you are having trouble emailing them to me with your email program consider setting up a gmail account at google.com--it's free and doesn't limit the size of the photos you send as some email programs do. You can then log into your email account online, not through Outlook, so it won't slow your computer down. Photo CD's can still be submitted attention YEARBOOK COMMITTEE, but please try to submit them digitally.

If you are interested in volunteering on the yearbook committee, please email me your Name, Student's name, Teacher and grade along with a daytime phone number.

We love to show our Patton teachers how much they are appreciated. The Hospitality Committee will do this by arranging two or three luncheons during the school year for the Patton staff. Parent volunteers are needed to help with planning the food and putting together the treats. The committee meets as a group two or three times during the year for planning purposes.

Read Naturally is a fluency-building program that we�ve used successfully at Patton for several years. It helps students recognize words quickly, and improves their reading rate so they can focus on comprehension. Seeing a boost in a child�s skill and confidence is the best motivation imaginable. We need volunteers who are willing to work with students in 1st -5th grades for at least 30 minutes twice a week. This small amount of time yields incredible benefits. If you�re ready to be instrumental in a child�s literacy, volunteer now! A short training session is provided.

This program will help take those beginning readers and make them more confident and have a life long love for reading and learning. What an opportunity the Read Naturally Volunteers have in making a difference in these kids lives.

Please contact your teacher to let them know that you wish to volunteer for their class. Or contact Gwen Zucker for more information.

Read Naturally Coordinator

The Read Naturally Program is a highly successful, nationally recognized reading program that helps students develop reading fluency. Children spend 30 minutes once or twice a week reading with volunteers, listening to a tape and charting their progress through timed reads. Students and teachers love the program.

Duties
• Facilitate Patton's Read Naturally program in the 1st 2nd and 4th grades.
• Recruit and train* parents and other volunteers
• Coordinate with teachers and parents to establish a reading schedule
• Maintain copies of reading materials and supplies

The current coordinator would be happy continue in the role of training parents, if the new coordinator would like. Please feel free to contact Gwen for more inforamtion

Thank you for your interest in assisting your child's teacher. Over the course of the year, you will help your teacher with:
- Informing parents of upcoming events that require parent assistance.
- Encourage parent participation, coordinate activities and provide feedback to the teacher.

Room Parents are the "go-to" person for their teacher. They are not the "I will do it all" person-- try to enlist a few co-room parents that can help shoulder the load.

We all lead busy lives- but you will find this experience rewarding and worth every minute you can dedicate to it!