Training provides confidence, prevents unnecessary conflict
Volunteers are like employees in many ways. They offer skills to an organization to help complete a goal, they are expected to fulfill commitments like showing up to work on time and dressed appropriately, and they volunteer for many different reasons.
Volunteers are also like employees in the sense that proper training and orientation are necessary for them to feel comfortable and work effectively.
According to a June 2010 Graduation Matters Missoula survey of MCPS teachers, the No. 1 reason K-12 teachers in our district didn’t utilize volunteers in their classroom last year was “I don’t have enough time to prepare and train volunteers.”
Teachers are busy people. They balance in-school hours of instruction with at-home efforts of grading and preparing materials. It’s easy to see how budgeting extra time to train volunteers can fall by the wayside.
However, by compiling training and orientation materials ahead of time, preparing and training a classroom volunteer can be as simple as offering a packet of information about school policies on dress, drugs and confidentiality, curriculum material, anonymous examples of student work related to their volunteer position, and a form with contact information for their direct supervisor and school administration.
Take an afternoon to compile whatever materials you think a volunteer would need to hit the ground running in your classroom as an aide, presenter, tutor or at-home assistant and make a volunteer orientation packet.
Keep a few hard copies on hand for an impromptu offer to help out in the class and make a digital folder of the material that can be easily attached to an e-mail.
The time a good volunteer can free up for a teacher will be well worth the initial effort of creating an orientation packet. However, don’t forget to have one-on-one interaction with your volunteer. On their first day, remember to tell them where to park, what restrooms they can use in the building, and how much their time commitment means to you and the school.
December 29, 2010
Hot-button Issue: Integrating training needs
Using both paid providers and volunteers in school settings
By Kathryn Furano and Corina Chavez
Corporation for National and Community Service Effective Practices
Programs often have a mix of paid members and non-paid volunteers working together on projects. While there are benefits to this arrangement, there are management challenges as well. No matter how well-intentioned volunteers are, without an infrastructure to support and direct their efforts, they are less likely to be effective and, worse yet, may withdraw from the program.
Action
Working effectively as an outsider in school settings, regardless of program curriculum, requires a solid plan and the ability to communicate it to administrators, teachers and other school personnel.
During the first year of the Public/Private Ventures study, the seven participating sites shared effective practices:
Strategies to initiate effective partnerships:
Show how your program will help achieve existing educational objectives — considering both administrative and operational levels, from state departments of education to individual school buildings.
Articulate what your program will provide and accomplish. Who will benefit and what will the outcomes be?
Engage school personnel prior to program start-up. A high level of engagement up front will result in ongoing support and “investment” in the results.
Be clear up front about programmatic processes, objectives, and expectations. This candidness can alleviate apprehension and delineate areas of responsibility.
Strategies for training paid providers:
Build on the experience of outgoing paid providers and volunteers. Gather input from paid and non-paid providers who are transitioning out of service. Build a notebook of activities, fliers, newsletters and notes that can help providers operate effectively and consistently.
Tap into the expertise of specialists to train tutors or encourage students enrolled in reading instruction courses to become volunteer tutors.
Strategies for fitting in the school community:
Take the initiative. Be visible, but pro-active. Be careful not to overwhelm school staff. Attending various school activities, such as assemblies and staff meetings, contributes to increased acceptance.
Incorporate programming into the existing school structure. School structure influences fit in several ways, such as school openness and accountability to local residents; existence of other outside programs; previous experience of staff and administrators with other outside programs; and the willingness on the school’s part to facilitate a “fit” through policy and development opportunities.
Use school resources strategically and diplomatically. Certain resources will be required, such as space, access to fax machines, and copy machines. Be aware of and responsive to the dynamics that surround the ownership and use of these resources. Offer to use the equipment after school hours or at less busy times of day. Become resourceful at using scarce resources.
Recognize and respond to barriers. These may be structural, transitional, or timing-related.
Become a value-added resource.
Have a paid provider who can manage the volunteers, as well as fill-in for volunteers who are late or sick.
Identify only one person (the paid service provider) that the teacher needs to contact when there is a classroom scheduling change.
Originally published in Combining Paid Service and Volunteerism: Strategies for Effective Practice in School Settings. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures, August 1999.
By Kathryn Furano and Corina Chavez
Corporation for National and Community Service Effective Practices
Programs often have a mix of paid members and non-paid volunteers working together on projects. While there are benefits to this arrangement, there are management challenges as well. No matter how well-intentioned volunteers are, without an infrastructure to support and direct their efforts, they are less likely to be effective and, worse yet, may withdraw from the program.
Action
Working effectively as an outsider in school settings, regardless of program curriculum, requires a solid plan and the ability to communicate it to administrators, teachers and other school personnel.
During the first year of the Public/Private Ventures study, the seven participating sites shared effective practices:
Strategies to initiate effective partnerships:
Show how your program will help achieve existing educational objectives — considering both administrative and operational levels, from state departments of education to individual school buildings.
Articulate what your program will provide and accomplish. Who will benefit and what will the outcomes be?
Engage school personnel prior to program start-up. A high level of engagement up front will result in ongoing support and “investment” in the results.
Be clear up front about programmatic processes, objectives, and expectations. This candidness can alleviate apprehension and delineate areas of responsibility.
Strategies for training paid providers:
Build on the experience of outgoing paid providers and volunteers. Gather input from paid and non-paid providers who are transitioning out of service. Build a notebook of activities, fliers, newsletters and notes that can help providers operate effectively and consistently.
Tap into the expertise of specialists to train tutors or encourage students enrolled in reading instruction courses to become volunteer tutors.
Strategies for fitting in the school community:
Take the initiative. Be visible, but pro-active. Be careful not to overwhelm school staff. Attending various school activities, such as assemblies and staff meetings, contributes to increased acceptance.
Incorporate programming into the existing school structure. School structure influences fit in several ways, such as school openness and accountability to local residents; existence of other outside programs; previous experience of staff and administrators with other outside programs; and the willingness on the school’s part to facilitate a “fit” through policy and development opportunities.
Use school resources strategically and diplomatically. Certain resources will be required, such as space, access to fax machines, and copy machines. Be aware of and responsive to the dynamics that surround the ownership and use of these resources. Offer to use the equipment after school hours or at less busy times of day. Become resourceful at using scarce resources.
Recognize and respond to barriers. These may be structural, transitional, or timing-related.
Become a value-added resource.
Have a paid provider who can manage the volunteers, as well as fill-in for volunteers who are late or sick.
Identify only one person (the paid service provider) that the teacher needs to contact when there is a classroom scheduling change.
Originally published in Combining Paid Service and Volunteerism: Strategies for Effective Practice in School Settings. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures, August 1999.
Tips From Pros: Senior Corps volunteers request training
Alicia Crandall of Missoula Aging Services works with Foster Grandparents and their supervisors. The Foster Grandparent program provides monthly trainings for volunteers. Based on a survey of Foster Grandparents, Crandall said Senior Corps volunteers requested training in:
Best ways to work with individual students
How to interact with students and classroom management
How to listen to a student read
Relating to students living in low income situations and building empathy
Confidentiality
Math curriculum
Autism and autism spectrum disorders
Dyslexia and learning disabilities/differences
Missoula Aging Services works to provide training their volunteers request, but teachers and volunteer supervisors can also ask any volunteer, not just a Foster Grandparent, what they could know more about to help them work better in MCPS schools.
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