Just Ask
If you do not let parents know that you need help, they will just assume that you do not. Asking for help seems like a given, but sometimes it is easy to forget how powerful a simple, direct request for help can be. If a child’s parent indicated that they would be willing to help with a craft project, for example, call or email the parent directly and ask them to come in. Be flexible when giving parents times and dates and be sure to ask in plenty of time that they can rearrange their schedules. The worst they can say is no, but it is better to ask than to wait, hoping, for someone to respond to your plea for classroom help.
What are your best tips for encouraging and nurturing parental involvement in the classroom? Share them with us below!
Tongass Teacher says
A while ago I blogged about how I use your book bags to send home work for parent volunteers that can’t make it into the classroom. I had one parent volunteer that put together book orders for me and that saved me a lot of time! I plan on sending home a volunteer bag every year now 🙂
Tes Macpherson says
Great tips! I’d like to add that we offer a great-value tool for PTAs to publish events and detailed tasks lists, and grow their community organically into a private and secure social network with parent-to-parent messaging and interactive volunteer management. Great for increasing parental involvement, fundraising and community building. Please check us out 🙂 http://www.ptasocial.com
Brandi Jordan says
Great resource! Thanks, Tes!