Putting Parents to Work
By Douglas Wurst

Having a parent visit your classroom can sometimes be unsettling. This is true for seasoned teachers as well as for beginning teachers. A teacher would need tremendous self-confidence not to be affected by the unwavering gaze of a parent sitting at the back of his or her classroom. I've found that there is, however, an alternative to this uncomfortable situation: Put your visiting parents to work!

When visiting parents are working in your classroom, they are given a productive purpose for their visit. They become contributors to their child's education – and you don't feel as though they're watching your every move. In fact, having parent volunteers can lighten your load and establish your classroom as a true community of learners. Over time, you'll begin to see parents as allies and as people who share your goal of providing the best education possible for your students. Here are some suggestions for how to transform parent observers into some top-notch parent volunteers.

Do you have an appointment? First things first, be sure to review your school policy as to what parents can do in your classroom. Adhering to this policy will help protect your students, their parents and yourself. Be sure to also decide whether or not you want an "open door" or "appointment only" policy in your classroom. In other words, do you want parents to have free access to your classroom, where they can come in whenever they want, or would you prefer to have prearranged visits only? There are advantages to both; however, an "open door" policy does send the message that you have nothing to hide and that parent guests are always welcome.

Get involved! Right from the start of the school year, inform your students' parents of your desire to have them involved in their child's classroom. Write an article in your classroom newsletter that encourages parents to become classroom volunteers.

Great expectations. Develop a "Parent Volunteer Expectations" handout that can be given to parents as they enter your classroom. Include suggested helpful tasks they could perform while in your classroom. Possible tasks to recommend are: reading with a student (have parents read with their own child first and then move on to reading with other kids), tutoring a student on math problems, writing a response entry in their child's journal or working on one of the tasks from the Task Tub.

The task tub. Any task you want parents to work on can be put into the Task Tub. I have found it very helpful to have the directions and materials bundled together before putting them into the tub. This way, parents will not need to ask how to perform the task or where the materials are located. Here are some examples of tasks that could be placed in your classroom's Task Tub:

• Return books to the classroom or school library.

• Put up a bulletin board. (Some parents may be willing to design the bulletin board as well.)

• Research information about an upcoming unit.

• Bind student stories into book form. Train one or two parents to do this task. You can also ask them to do all the binding so you don't lose time training several parents.

• Set up science experiments and art projects.

• Stuff and address envelopes for mailings.

• Reorganize and clean an art or learning materials area.

• Water plants or clean the cage of a classroom pet.

• Maintain a classroom website.

• Sharpen regular and colored pencils.

• Organize information to go home into designated folders.

Having a purpose. Parent classroom volunteers can become an integral part of your community of learners. As parents become more involved, some will want to come into your classroom on a regular basis to perform specific tasks. They may want to read with students, take roll call, help publish the classroom newsletter, bind student-written books or plan and implement classroom parties. When parents are performing a purposeful task in your classroom, they'll stop watching you with a critical eye and become your allies in achieving your shared goal – the best possible education for their children.

Douglas Wurst has taught at University Schools in Greeley, CO for the past 25 years.