*** CANCELLED ***

Purpose & Objectives: To provide teachers, school leaders and parents an opportunity to become more engaged in school happenings by providing a LIVE feed to monthly Home & School Meetings using free, user-friendly web utilities that can be used on any platform.

Outline: Anymeeting, CoverItLive, Ustream, Google+ Hangouts will each be used to share various options schools have in engaging their families from remote locations.

Each participant will leave with knowledge, resources and documentation on how to set up their own Web Home & School Meeting 2.0.

Participants will use cellphone to "text" questions onto the screen during the presentation, the same way parents and staff submit questions and comments during the Home & School Meetings.

Supporting Research: Dr. Joyce Epstein is a leading researcher in family engagement efforts. This effort attempts to translate her work using today's social networking technologies. (eFACE)

Epstein, J. L. (2011). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Second Edition. Boulder CO: Westview Press.

Epstein, J. L. et al. (2009). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action, third edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Presenter: Joe Mazza is a current doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania working toward his degree in Educational Leadership. His dissertation topic involves studying the impact principals using social media have on home-school partnerships. He is the current principal of Knapp Elementary School in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.