Adapt one of these models to fit your school and community.

You hold a Technology Fair. Invite the Senior Center and have students demonstrate how they access and use the Internet. Have a group of students deliver personal invitations.

Invite elected officials for term-project presentations. Have each student invite and host one official. Follow with a Q&A session led by the principal or the teacher.

Plan "repeat performances." Your art show for parents is at night, but make it available for a Chamber breakfast meeting. Call your Chamber in September to get on the schedule for their April board meeting. Ask your parent club to provide coffee and treats, or if you're at a high school, have the cooking class prepare and serve breakfast, complete with nutrition information.

Expand the Career Fair beyond presentations by local business people, to include a one-class shadow where each guest attends a class with a student. Finish with an "exit poll".

You hold a Volunteer Recognition Tea this time of year. Ask each volunteer to bring three guests from the community who don't have children in school. Have testimonials from your outstanding volunteers about what they enjoy about volunteering and from your students on why they like having volunteers work in their classes.

Hold a student debate during a Rotary luncheon meeting with the Rotary members scoring the debate. Ask the students to debate local or school issues. Contact the program chairman in September to get on the schedule.

Invite a church group to hold their meeting at your school and sit in on a classroom lesson. Divide them into small groups with each group visiting one class to observe a math lesson or a science experiment - some normal learning experience. Gather them in the library for tea, cookies and questions about what they saw.