10 Tips for Classroom Volunteers

Are you a parent volunteer who is unhappy or bored with the way your volunteer experience is going? If so, don’t get discouraged. You have the power to make your volunteer experience more valuable for your cooperating teacher, for yourself, and, most important, for the students.

A non-teacher would never guess the stress that teachers go through in preparing and organizing tasks for volunteers to complete. Today’s teachers are busy dealing with discipline issues, proficiency testing, constantly changing curriculums, and student safety. Many stay after school until well past dinner trying to stay on top of the game. A collective groan surges through the teachers lounge as we realize parent volunteers are coming and we still haven’t found the time to organize tasks for them.

The stressors that make it difficult for teachers to organize work for their volunteers are also the very same reasons we so desperately need assistance in our classrooms. We need volunteers now more than ever to help our students achieve the highest academic success and to help shape our children into individuals with strong spirits.

As a teacher, I strive to make the best use of volunteers by assigning them important and meaningful work. But it’s always a struggle to find the time to organize projects for my volunteer or even to explain how the classroom works. So over the years, I’ve devised a system that sets up the volunteers for success throughout the year, no matter how busy I get.

1. First Meeting

Schedule a 20-minute conference with your cooperating teacher to cover your daily responsibilities, grading policies, the classroom behavior plan, special needs of individual students, and schoolwide safety procedures. Bring a list of specific questions and concerns to make the most of your scheduled time. Don’t forget to ask about procedures for fire drills, school lockdowns, and other emergency situations.

2. Work Area

Ask your cooperating teacher to set aside a work area for you, such as a table or extra student desk. Assign a few students to label and decorate signs for your table and chair. This will remind students and a harried teacher not to use your work area as a miscellaneous storage space on days that you’re not volunteering.

Have the teacher set aside an extra stapler, pair of scissors, tape dispenser, roll of masking tape, glue bottle, pencils, Sharpie and project markers, different-colored pens, and stickers or stamps with a stamp pad. The extra time your teacher takes to assemble these materials will save you both time later when you’re in the middle of a lesson that requires any of these supplies.

Select another few students to label all of your supplies with masking tape and a marker. Assigning tasks to students helps you form a bond, and it gives them a sense of responsibility. Always make sure that you choose different students for each task. You may not remember, but a student will, if you "never pick him."

3. Teachers' Lounge

Before you take your first lunch break, ask your cooperating teacher whether volunteers are welcome in the teachers lounge. Some staffs welcome everyone in the teachers lounge. However, most staffs have an understanding or even a rule preventing non-teachers from taking their breaks there.

Because teachers have so little planning time, lunch often is the only time they have to hold meetings with their colleagues. These informal meetings often focus on confidential issues such as school politics and issues regarding individual students. It's difficult for teachers to discuss these matters when someone’s parent is eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich next to them. Most administrators do not take their breaks in the lounge for this reason, so don’t feel insulted if you’re not made to feel welcome in your school’s lounge.

4. Bulletin Boards

When I was pregnant and had no volunteer, I still had a Halloween bulletin board up in my classroom when I took maternity leave in March. And though pregnant teachers often need the most help with them, bulletin boards are a stitch in almost every teacher’s side. Coming up with original ideas and then finding the time and energy to actually complete the bulletin boards is nearly impossible. So keep your mind open to ideas for bulletin boards, and share those thoughts with your cooperating teacher. Offer to make the bulletin boards a regular job that you can complete each week or each month.

5. Be Open-minded

Try not to judge the teacher’s teaching methods and discipline strategies, especially during your first few volunteer sessions. It may appear as if the teacher has a diverse range of expectations for individual students regarding discipline and academics. But keep in mind that the teacher knows confidential details concerning the students’ academic abilities, domestic situations, and medical information that may affect behavioral and academic performance.

6. Boundaries

Before you start your volunteer experience, have a clear idea of what your personal boundaries are. Are you comfortable having the students refer to you by your first name, or would you prefer to be called Mr. or Mrs.? Are you willing to discuss aspects of your personal life such as your spouse and children?

Children ask adults a lot of personal questions in an attempt to bond. Because children are developing social skills, they are still learning the difference between appropriate and inappropriate questions. I usually answer personal questions that are within my own comfort level as long as they are asked during suitable times such as recess or between lessons. If a child asks a question that I don’t want to answer, I let him know in a polite way.

7. Communication

It may be difficult to find time during a busy school day to actually talk with the teacher, so if you have any questions or concerns, let the teacher know that you need to set up a time to talk. You might want to ask your cooperating teacher for her e-mail address in case you need to contact her between your scheduled volunteer days.