Do you really want parents in your classrooms?

That’s a loaded question! Do you want parents to volunteer to work with students? Or will that take too much time preparing for? Do you want parents to help you grade papers? Or are you anal about how you grade papers and you don’t want to explain your system to another person? Do you want parents to join assemblies or classroom parties? Or do you cringe thinking about the impromptu conference that will become? What if I told you parents can be involved and you can keep the control?! Um, yes please!

As educators we say we want parents to be involved, but do we really? Recently I took a survey about how parents have felt or do feel about being a part of their child’s classroom.

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Ok. Back to the parent survey, I mentioned above. The results were as follows:

• I want to or went into my child's classroom to volunteer.
• I feel like the teacher and I are/were on the same team.
• I am or was able to attend a classroom party.
• I do not or did not feel welcome in my child's classroom.
• I feel like or felt like my child's teacher thought they were better than me because they never let me be part of the class even though I want to volunteer to help.
• My child's teacher says or said we are a team in my child's education, but I don't feel we are teammates.

So How Do We Get Parents Involved Without Getting Them Involved?

Huh? 🤨

I know, it sounds contradictory, doesn’t it?

You have to be one of three types of teachers.

❤️ The More the Merrier! “I love having parents come into my classroom to work with students, to help prepare materials, and to participate in fun activities!”

💛 Tug-O-War. “I love meeting with parents at parent-teacher conferences, and keeping in touch with them through email, but I’m not sure how to involve them more.”

💙 Table for One. “I prefer to do all the teaching preparations on my own…it’s easier for me this way. I would have too much to explain to someone else. It’s too much extra work and time.”

So which one are you?

Honestly, I’ve been all three at different points in my teaching career.

When I began teaching, I was the Tug-O-War teacher. Once I figured out what I was doing and got into a system I liked several years into teaching, I was the Table for One teacher. Now that I’ve been in the profession many years, I’m more lax and relate to The More the Merrier teacher.

Not to date myself, but let’s break this down.

The More the Merrier! ❤️

If you are this teacher, kudos to you! I’d love to hear some of the tips and tricks you use to make this parent volunteering work for you!

In this classroom, the teacher has a revolving door with systems in place. Parents come in and out several times a week to be the teacher’s “right-hand man.” Teachers have parents tear apart and put book orders together, laminate and cut items apart, and work with small groups of kids.

The parents feel welcome. The teacher feels less stressed having help. The students are proud (and most times better behaved!), when their parent comes in. It’s a win-win-win situation.

Suggestions for you, The More the Merrier.
1. Host an informal thank you tea at the end of the year after school for all the volunteers you had throughout the year. Keep it simple! Tea or lemonade and some cookies.
2. If you feel led, give each volunteer a small token of your appreciation in a form of a gift. Think gift card!
3. Make a class thank-you gift. On a piece of card stock have each student put their thumbprint on the page. Allow each student to take a sharpie marker and draw ears and a tail or a smile on their thumbprint to make an animal or a face. Encourage each student to write their name legibly and small by their thumbprint. See an example here.
4. Throughout the school year, tell the volunteer how much you appreciate them, leave little thank you notes for them when they come in.

Table for One 💙

Y’all! Giving up power is hard for some people. Can I get an amen?!

If you are a Table for One teacher, it’s ok! You are being honest and real. Teachers in this group are not trying to be mean or controlling, they just prefer to handle their classroom their way.

When I was in this group, I remember feeling it was so much easier for me to just do the work than take time to teach someone else to do it how I wanted it done.

And that was ok!

No one is saying every teacher needs to have 5 parent volunteers come in and help each week. And, if you choose not to have volunteers, that is ok! You be you! Do what works best for you.

Suggestions for you, Table for One.
1. Put routines in place so students are more responsible. Have students sharpen pencils, cut out lamination, staple book orders together, sort papers into files, keep track of their own academic data, etc. Kids love to help and it is so beneficial for them to learn responsibility.
2. Batch plan. Take one day, let’s say the first Tuesday of the month and plan for the entire month’s math lessons. Take the first Wednesday and plan for the entire month’s science lessons. And so forth so you aren’t sitting down at one time, for hours planning.
3. Pick one assignment per subject to grade a week. Read the answers aloud and have the students grade their own or a neighbor’s work. Yes, little ones can do this too! Then all you have to do is record the grades.
4. Each week take a few minutes and send an email, a handwritten note, a text to one student’s parents letting them know how much you appreciate their support at home by getting their child to school, helping with homework, making sure their child has a hat and gloves. Acknowledge the parents’ support.

Tug-O-War 💛

Picture it….

A parent is invited to come into your classroom to work with 1, 2, or 3 students practicing counting…or reading…or writing a sentence. All this can be done while you teach the other students. Grades go up, concept mastery increases, struggling kiddos you can’t seem to get enough time to work with have been supported.

WOO HOO! Now that is a glorious picture!

Teachers in this frame of mind want to include parents, but don’t know how or what to have them do when they do come into the school.

Teachers in this frame of mind want to maintain some control.

Teachers in this frame of mind need a little push and pull.

Suggestions for you.

1. Prepare a basket with materials the parents will need. Pencils, erasers, dry-erase boards, dry-erase markers, counters, paper, crayons, scissors, a timer, and directions for activities.
2. Make a template of the activity you want the parent to work on with the students so all you have to do is change the questions, or prompt, or directions for the next time.
3. Have parents give timed tests.
4. Parents can copy future materials and laminate and cut items.
5. Parents can file papers.

Parents Can Volunteer at Home 

We've chatted about volunteers coming into the school to volunteer, but what about those who are not available during school hours? 

1. Encourage them to attend a PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) meeting.

2. Ask them to prepare materials at home and then send them back in. For example, tear apart book orders, cutting out laminating, etc.

3. Ask them to record them reading a story you plan to read to the class. Show the class the video of the parent reading the book.

4. If you are talking about a specific topic in class like neighborhoods or recycling or hygiene or the weather, ask parents who work in those fields to come in a share their job with the class. If the parent can’t physically come in, ask them to join by zoom. Perhaps the best way for the parents is having the students write questions down for the parent and the parent answers back.

Increasing Parent Participation-the Coolest Idea!

This idea is fantastic for encouraging parent participation. It's a super fun idea too!

Are you ready to learn about the coolest idea?

Well…

I’ll peak your interested and then provide you with a link you can read more in-depth about this particular way parents can volunteer and you can create a parent-teacher team.

The concept is each month of the school year you choose one activity that the each student and their family can participate in.

Hold on…keep reading…don’t freak out!

Here’s the run down:
🟣Each month pick one activity to invite the student and their family to participate in. For example, for the month of October, you may host a s’mores night. Or in May, you may host a water night.
🟢You plan the activities that will last about an hour. For example, in November, you may have a fall setting set up where the family can come and get a nice family picture taken. Or for January, you have families come and make a game.
🟡Depending on the activity, some months will be outside, some inside. Outside venues could be the school, a park. Some inside venues could be inside the school, at a local building.
🔴 Prepare materials for the night/day. Provide a small snack if desired. Take pictures of every event and at the end of the year, compile the pictures into a book for each family.

Sound fun?!

Sound like a lot of work/preparation?!

Sound like a lot of money?!

Sound like something you want to investigate further?!
Well, you are in luck! 🍀

I have done the hard work for you to prepare a year long, that is 12 months, 36 activities with plans and a list of materials needed to pull these family fun times off!

You put in as much or as little work and preparation as you wish. You decide if refreshments will be served. You decide when and where the event takes place. You decide how often you host a family event.

Some months’ activities are purely fun, some are focused on academics.

Each month has 3 activities to choose from. You decide if you do all three or just one theme.

Parent Involvement Freebie!
Check this out! 😍Click here to grab a one-month freebie.

 

Encouraging Parent Volunteers

Teaching is hard. Parenting is hard. Learning is hard.

You have to be you. You decide how many volunteers you want, or if you want any at all.

Whichever you decide, you will rock it! Let me know how I can support you in whatever direction you head. I’m here for ya!

Keep being awesome!

One more of my favorite sayings:

“Every student in your classroom is someone’s whole world.”

Connect with me on Facebook here and share some of your volunteer ideas.

Parent Volunteer Resources

😍Click here to snatch the yearlong, 36-ideas bundle.

😍Click here to grab a one-month freebie.

😍Volunteer Gift link 

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and strategies are always being added.