Q: Our PTO needs more volunteers. You'd think that the chance to contribute to their kids' school would get people through the door, but turnout is stagnant. How do successful PTOs keep volunteers and continue to recruit new ones?

A: The folks at online resource PTO Today know why people raise their hands to give their time and talent -- and why they burn out.

"Studies show that people are motivated to volunteer for six reasons," says Tim Sullivan, president of PTO Today. "Sure, people want to make a difference in other people's lives and to support a particular organization. But personal motivations drive the decision, too. Folks volunteer to learn something new, grow professionally or personally, meet new people and feel better about themselves."

When PTO presidents hang out the "Volunteers Welcome" sign, Sullivan advises showing would-be recruits what's in it for them. Research by Claremont Graduate University psychology professor Allen Omoto finds that the more you align your activities with a volunteer's interests, the more people you'll get and the more productively they'll pitch in.

Sullivan says to keep these recruiting tips in mind:

-- Don't "guilt" people into signing up. Instead, promote how it benefits them. It's more effective to say, "You'll learn new skills, meet new people and get to know your child's teacher better," than, "We need all parents to show up!"

-- Enlist a volunteer coordinator. This person organizes volunteers' time, explains clearly what the task and time commitment is and why it matters.

"Choose a networker who connects experienced volunteers with new ones, makes newbies feel comfortable and lessens the 'social risk' some folks perceive when joining a new group," says Sullivan. "This person invites parents who need to get comfortable before they volunteer to school social events." (If you have non-English speaking parents, make sure to recruit a bilingual coordinator.)

-- Match volunteers' jobs with interests. Sullivan suggests using a Volunteer Interest Survey that allows potential volunteers to decide how they might use their talents and time in ways that will benefit the PTO. (Find a survey template to tailor to your group at PTOtoday.com/magazine.)

"If someone is interested in volunteering because it will help her meet people, assign her to the school's Welcome Committee to orient new families," suggests Sullivan. "If another can only work on your website at night, great!"

-- Have worthwhile work ready. "Nothing kills volunteer spirit like showing up and having nothing to do," warns Sullivan. "Make sure that from day one, your new recruits are engaged in purposeful activities."

-- Broaden your scope. "Sure, parents are your natural constituency, but reach out to seniors, youth groups and persons with disabilities," says Sullivan.

-- Make it easy to stay involved. This might mean providing childcare, offering meals and snacks or giving virtual work arrangements.

-- Remember to reach out. Don't rely on email blasts, fliers in backpacks or Facebook pleas. "Contact folks, one-on-one," says Sullivan. "A Gallup report shows that people are four times more likely to volunteer when someone from the organization personally asks them to come on board." (For more information, go to PTOToday.com.)

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: Our daughter, a high-school sophomore, is smart but highly emotional, distractible and melts down when things aren't perfect. We're working with her school counselor to help her focus, prioritize and achieve her high expectations. We don't want her on attention-deficit drugs. He suggests that she could benefit from mindfulness training. What is it?

A: Psychologists define mindfulness as the nonjudgmental awareness of experiences in the present moment. Some call it learning how to regulate our inner compass.

While mindfulness techniques such as meditation have been around for thousands of years, in the last few decades scientists have begun to study their effects on our well-being.

Research shows that learning to be mindful can help adults reduce stress, manage pain, shorten migraines, get better sleep and control unproductive emotions. More and more cardiologists encourage heart-surgery patients to learn meditation as part of recovery. Some dietitians add "mindfulness training" to weight-loss programs.

The scientist who brought mindfulness into medicine's mainstream is Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and founder of its Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society.

Kabat-Zinn's work has inspired educators to include mindfulness training in social-emotional learning curricula.

"Any stressed-out parent who has read Zinn's book, 'Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting' (Hachette, 1998), has thought, 'Kids ought to be learning this stuff in school,'" says New York educator Miriam Kahn. "Teaching a class how to calm themselves with their breath can reduce stress, promote mutual respect and de-escalate discipline problems."

Several studies show the potential benefits of mindfulness practices for students' physical health, psychological well-being, social skills and academic performance, writes Emily Campbell, research assistant for education at the University of California Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center.

One published recently in Developmental Psychology describes how a program called MindUP taught fourth- and fifth-grade students to practice mindfulness. Over a four-month period, they improved their behavior and social skills and even got significantly higher math scores than the control group.

Richmond, California, teacher Jean-Gabrielle Larochette realized that the many minutes he spent getting kids to settle into the school day ate into their precious instructional time.

"We tell kids to be quiet, calm down, stay on task, regulate and make good choices, but we're not teaching them how to do that," he says.

A mindfulness practitioner himself, Larochette taught them the focused breathing techniques he used daily. The results were so compelling that he founded the Mindful Life Project (mindfullifeproject.org) to expand the program to area schools.

A program offered by the nonprofit group Mindful Schools (mindfulschools.org) promotes practices that help students pay attention, build empathy and self-awareness, improve self-control and reduce stress. Research has shown that after six weeks of training, student behavior can improve significantly in those areas and that the gains can be sustained with a few minutes of daily practice.

Will mindfulness training help your daughter? It may be worth a try. If you can't locate a qualified local trainer, find well-recommended resources by Kabat-Zinn at mindfulnesscds.com. Or consider a free eight-week online university course from the Greater Good Science Center called "The Science of Happiness." Enroll at greatergood.berkeley.edu.

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)

Q: Our daughter's high school is offering an online literacy workshop for parents, so we can help teach kids how to use the Internet for homework. However, my daughter knows way more than I do; she's on Instagram and other sites a lot. Why is the school offering this?

A: Just because she's social-media savvy, it doesn't mean that your daughter knows how to choose the best websites for her research report on the early days of the U.S. space program; nor how to distinguish among accurate sources on diet and nutrition and those with a point of view to push.

A recent study released by the New Literacies Research Lab at the University of Connecticut shows that, despite the fact that today's teens are digital natives -- strong in social networking, texting, video and gaming, they are incredibly weak when it comes to using the Internet to gain new knowledge, says Donald Leu, the lab's director.

The ability to read on the Internet to learn information is a critically important new area for schools to teach, Leu says.

"There's a big difference between online reading and offline reading," he explains. "Online reading isn't simply taking a passage from a book and putting it on a computer screen."

Online reading is using the Internet to read, evaluate and learn new information -- skills that students need in an increasingly digital world.

Leu calls these new literacies "online research and comprehension" skills. They include:

-- Reading to answer questions and solve problems. This means knowing how to effectively frame or define a search or a question.

-- Reading to locate online information. This means teaching students how to query search engines and quickly scan sources for relevancy in a sea of information.

-- Reading to critically evaluate online information. "Kids tend to use the first hit they get when they research a subject, without thinking about where the information is coming from and whether there is a vested interest involved," says Blanche Warner, a library manager in Naples, New York.

-- Reading to synthesize vast amounts of information. Once, students took notes from print sources on index cards. Now students have multiple media formats to research -- from YouTube videos to slideshows to online journals. It takes practice for students to make sense of varied information on a topic and to use it effectively.

-- Reading and writing to communicate online information. Leu wants students to "become well-versed in communicating in multiple modalities" and creating and sharing work online. He'd like to see more schools promote blogging and provide students with email accounts and wiki access.

He encourages district literacy leaders to engage students in far more online reading and to use school librarians trained in online research to lead instruction.

Meanwhile, Warner says, "It makes a huge difference when there is a librarian in the school who can teach students how to evaluate sources of information and foster these other online reading skills."

So sign up for the workshop. "Parents have a key role in this," Warner emphasizes. "It's important to reinforce at home what students learn at school."

(Do you have a question about your child's education? Email it to Leanna@aplusadvice.com. Leanna Landsmann is an education writer who began her career as a classroom teacher. She has served on education commissions, visited classrooms in 49 states to observe best practices, and founded Principal for a Day in New York City.)