[blparent] volunteering in your child's school
dawn stumpner
dawn205120 at gmail.com
Thu Sep 1 14:10:24 UTC 2016
Hi, Ronit!
It can feel daunting sometimes, but I have had several good
experiences volunteering in my 3 sons' schools throughout the
years. I have done the blindness / braille-related things like
showing the class how to write on a brailler, bringing in some of
my books and talking clocks, giving them little messages to
decode in braille with a braille alphabet key, etc. This always
went over really well. I have also taught little mini Spanish
lessons, which I did once or twice a week for the whole year for
a couple of my kids' classrooms. If you have traveled to
different countries or states, you can let the teacher know that
if they will be studying any of these in social studies, you
would be happy to talk about them and show pictures. I did this
about Thailand, for example. I teach English to foreign
students, so I have also brought them in for social studies to do
an around-the-world morning with the kids. Sometimes there is a
career day where you can come in and talk about your career, or
you may have other talents or skills to share in science or other
classes such as gardening, fun little science projects, art,
sewing, etc. I helped a kid who needed regular practice with
spelling and math in the early grades get some one-on-one help
once a week. I also came in to read to four or five
Kindergarteners on a regular basis when my oldest was in
Kindergarten, and this was fun, but I enjoyed it less because it
was sometimes hard to tell in the library when one of their
attention spans was beginning to ebb or if someone was about to
wander off, so it was distracting while I was reading. They were
high-energy and 5-6 years old. I was asked to volunteer helping
a group of boys during their writing time, but I didn't enjoy
this. I mentioned it might not be a good match because I
couldn't see what they were writing, but the teacher said I could
just ask the boys to read what they were writing and help give
them ideas. Again, they were young and high-energy, and they
sometimes drew inappropriate or violent pictures from video
games, which I didn't always know right away, etc. I didn't feel
as useful doing this, but I did give it a try for 7 or 8 weeks.
I mention this last one just to illustrate that it's good for you
to figure out what your strengths are, what you feel comfortable
with, and what needs the teacher has in the classroom, and try to
pick something you feel good doing and fairly comfortable with.
You will probably enjoy getting a close-up perspective of your
child's classroom activities, and your child will enjoy having
you come in and spend time with the class, too. Happy
volunteering!
Dawn
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