Jodi Rudoren, education editor of The Times, is a co-class parent at her twins' school in Brooklyn. She will be blogging about her experience this year. Help her out and respond to our query below: What advice do you have for a new class parent?

It took nearly two weeks, but I finally managed to get an e-mail (and phone) list together for the parents of my twins' pre-K class. Then I was told I was doing it wrong.

A contact list seemed both a logical and handle-able first task after I was named co-class parent on Oct. 11. Prekindergartners at our school, Public School 11 in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, must be dropped off and picked up in the classroom, so the little wooden mailboxes where the teacher places fliers to be sent home seemed like the place to start.

I was given a little bio of my partner in class parenting (a mom of two who is not only on the PTA executive board, but runs the legendary Halloween Fun House event), and wrote a self-deprecating one of my own (something about enthusiasm making up for inexperience) and put a note in the boxes the next day asking people to e-mail me with their information.

The first one came in the same day: “Although I do work full time, I'm very interested in being involved and volunteering whenever I can,” she wrote. “Because I'm always in a meeting, it is best to send me a text if you need to get in touch with me right away.” I was thrilled. Another guilt-ridden working mom trying to do what she can! This was going to be great.

Three more e-mails came in the next week. Then: nothing.

I thought about putting a reminder in the boxes, but my co-class parent said we should avoid wasting paper and, anyhow, nobody paid attention to what came home.

I asked in the main office if they had e-mail addresses on file — yes, of course, but already locked away in storage.

"You wouldn't believe how much paper comes in," the excellent and kind office manager explained, gesturing to a stack.

My co-class parent reminded me that we had all signed in at the pre-K orientation in September, so I asked the teacher if she had that list. No luck.

But she handed over an accordion file of the forms we had filled out in the first week, about our children's allergies and English-speaking status, our emergency contact information and possible special skills that might help in class — the very form on which I had indicated my aspiration to be class parent!

So I sat there in the cafeteria one morning, scribbling e-mail addresses and phone numbers on a piece of scratch paper, wondering if I should really be looking at this stuff.

Ethics aside, I put together a spreadsheet with everyone's information, and e-mailed it out on Monday, noting that we class parents would be meeting with the teacher the next morning, and inviting questions or concerns for that conversation.

In our class of 17 families — 18 children; remember, I've got two — only one does not have an e-mail address. We'll have to remember to call her whenever something is happening. (Oops! I am taking a break from writing this right now to let her know about the Halloween parade and party on Monday, which I e-mailed the others about on Wednesday.)

It was at that meeting with the teacher that she (very politely) told me I was doing it wrong. She said we were supposed to create a Web site — she meant a listserv — so that we would better be able to control and filter the posts. "Keep it positive," she said. "We don't want any gossip."

Hmm. I was not opposed to a listserv, but I certainly had no interest in moderating posts among our little group of 17 families. I am a journalist by trade and a truth-seeker by temperament, so the words "control" and "filter" are not my favorites.

I agreed with her about gossip, but if people did not feel positively, I wasn't going to insist that their e-mails be positive.

The whole point was to give people a chance to talk to each other, individually and as a group. And, if I couldn't get people to send me their e-mail addresses, how could I count on them to sign up for a listserv?

Turns out you can actually add people involuntarily to a Yahoo Group (though they strongly recommend against it). You can do only 10 a day, though, so by the time it is set up, it will have taken me almost three weeks to get digital communication going.

In the meantime, I am still waiting for a someone to volunteer to bring juice on Monday for the Halloween party.