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Get Involved: How Parents and Community can Help Teachers and Mentors
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | May 13, 2009
Teachers need all the help they can get. The other day I posted some ways that teachers can involve parents in their classrooms to enrich the environment for everyone. Today, some ideas for how parents and volunteers can help teachers and the mentors too, who work with and support their kids.
Parents and Community Volunteers Can:
· Teach what you know. Offer a workshop on personal finance, watercolor painting, organic gardening or Russian folktales. Your perspective and knowledge can enrich any lesson or project. Design a presentation, or some activities and materials around your area of expertise so that even when you have left the building, your knowledge stays behind.
· Volunteer in after-school workshops, classroom enrichment, or tutoring to small groups of interested participants
· Teach the teacher or mentor. Are you an educator, a technology professional, a therapist? In what ways can your professional skills be used to help the people who work one on one with your kids? Be creative, be willing to help. Do not push!
· Spend some money, (if you can). Sponsor a class or building membership in an organization (such as one for gifted learners.) Sponsor an Artist in the School, or provide art supplies, educational software, books (used can be great) or a subscription to a publication that either kids or teachers can use and enjoy.
· Spend your time. Assist teachers by making or locating materials they need for special (and regular) activities. Update the website, edit a parent newsletter, ask … how can I help? Ask again. Even one hour a month can make a difference.
· Connect with the community. Help busy teachers by taking the time to locate mentors for kids with special needs, resources for families, and other community people who have skills and knowledge that will enrich the classroom and fill the needs you see.
· Communicate with other parents and community members. (See update the website above). Encourage them to participate in parent groups, classroom and building activities, and to chose from the items on this list so that they too can help to enrich the school environment. Translate information, or be willing to communicate with families in whatever way is needed.
· Who do you know? Do you someone with an interesting career? Someone whose experiences would be of interest and value to kids? Is there someone who can bring music, or art, or culture into the classroom? Arrange for guest speakers. TIP: Also, ask people with special knowledge or expertise to recommend (or provide) resources, websites, books or magazines so that kids will be able to continue their learning.
· Collaborate with teachers, other parents and students to coordinate and participate in special events. You might: Invite an author for a literary evening, a story teller, direct a play, publish and distribute a collections of resources, run a Family Math or Science Night, design and plant a garden, host a dinner, organize a cultural fair.
· Show YOUR love of learning. Support what you believe in. Model the behaviors you value. Get involved.
Topics: Creating a Positive, How to Help, Things to do |
May 19th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
When interacting with parents and other family members I try to be as open and warm as possible. I don’t necessarily share a lot of personal informarion about myself, but if asked I will answer truthfully. I’ve learned quite a bit from different parents over the years- they all have unique stories. A couple I worked with who had three children informed me once that their children had been in foster homes. This information was very helpful when working with them and helped me understand more about their behavioral problems. These meetings usually took place when the parents were dropping off or picking up thier children from daycare.
The most effective approach when talking with parents is to be friendly and open. Also being understanding and sympathetic to each person’s situation helps parents open up and feel supported. The meetings I’ve had in the past are usually short and standing up, nothing formal. The least efffect approach when taking with parents is telling them what’s wrong with their child. This is mean and will usually cause them to react in a defensive manner.