[blparent] volunteering in your child's classroom

Thu Sep 1 12:08:11 UTC 2016

Oh yes, I did volunteer in both daughters' classes.  I was a classroom teacher myself in the public schools before I married, so knew how appreciative teachers are for parent involvement.

For my older daughter one year, her pre-kindergarten, I took each child in the hall where we had a small table and chairs where we sat and went over flash cards for spelling.  It was a memory exercise on their part, with me being the prompter, to help them remember the words for the week.  It was so long ago, as this daughter is now 30, but I believe I got the set of flash cards in advance and took a couple minutes to braille on them then brought them back to class when we came, or might have taken the whole stack home to braille.  Either way, I do remember braille/print flash cards.  I may have done them myself, using the typewriter then brailling on them also.  Memory fails here.

At the time of this half day afternoon class, my youngest was still in her frame pack, so I wore the frame pack the entire time, and that is where the youngest usually napped while I went back and forth from the classroom to the hall with the kids.

When the youngest awoke, I would pull the juice bottle from the holder and hand it to her and she would contentedly sip while I worked with the kids.

Pre-K was only for about 2 and a half hours, I think, so we would be finished by around 3 or 3:30.

For my younger daughter, when she entered fourth grade, I offered to be the classroom mom who organized the volunteers.  I explained that I could not help with any cursive, but could do anything that would involve helping with reading.  By this time I had a braille note taker, so was easier to take a few seconds to take down word lists and such.  I was also responsible for arranging activities for the class.

This classroom teacher was a first year new teacher, and we had great fun with ideas.  Two of the activities that were brought back to my memory.  One time, I had a delivery service bring McDonalds for lunch.  We had choices of either a hamburger meal, cheeseburger meal, or nuggets, and the cost of the delivery was built in to the cost each kid would bring to pay for their lunch.

On grandparents day, I had each grandparent that attended give a memory of their fourth grade teacher.

This teacher is on facebook, and she remembers the activities we had in the class still.

The only thing I could not do, and I was up front about this, was help the teacher correct homework, but one of the other moms stepped in to do that.  

We did other stuff too, but since this daughter is now 26 my memory is a bit rusty.

Don't be afraid to step in and do what you can do.  Start off by offering what you can do, and if questions come up, give your limitations.  My only ones being, not being able to drive, and not being able to correct homework, but I could help herd kids on field trips.  There were several volunteers in that classroom, and they were only too happy to have someone help organize things and weren't worried about vision or not.

As the kids got older, there were not as many classroom volunteers needed in that way, but I did do baking when needed.  I always did offer myself for the teachers, and I found all very willing to accept me.   Teachers are always glad of parent involvement, and in my experience, are not going to turn you down because of your blindness, if you are the one who can present solutions for them.  

Judy

-----Original Message-----
From: BlParent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Star Gazer via BlParent
Sent: Thursday, September 1, 2016 4:55 AM
To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List'
Cc: Star Gazer
Subject: Re: [blparent] volunteering in your child's classroom

			Do whatever your interests and talents and the needs of the school point you to. At that age I remember playing the dradle game with my daughter's kindergarden class. We aren't Jewish, but the teacher wanted it at a party and I Googled how to do it and we all *loved* it. The kids could care less that you can't see. I also love doing science stuff with the kids, we had a science lab I helped with last year, and I explained to the kids what to do and how to treat the equiptment. I also helped with picture day, helping them comb their hair, and telling them that they'd have these pictures and be looking at them when they were the age of their grandparents. 

-----Original Message-----
From: BlParent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ronit Mazzoni via BlParent
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 11:43 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Ronit Mazzoni <rovadia82 at gmail.com>
Subject: [blparent] volunteering in your child's classroom

Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since I wrote. My 5-year-old son, Alex, just started kindergarten at our neighborhood public school. Just as most  other public schools, this school asks parents to volunteer in the classroom and for other events as much as possible. I want to volunteer but find that I am a little intimidated because I feel like my blindness may prevent me from doing most tasks, especially when the children are so little and can’t read. Have you all volunteered in your child’s classrooms or during school events? What have you been able to do? I have no functional vision.  Other than reading a book in braille to the class, which I have done for his pre-school in years past, what else could I do? Just trying to get some ideas so I can brainstorm in an email to his teacher about what I’d like to help with.
Thanks.
Ronit

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