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Home » Education Articles » Schools Volunteers Are A Helping Hand

Schools Volunteers are a Helping Hand

There is no secret that volunteering activities at the school level enable families to share their time and talents to support the school, teachers, and students. It matters not if volunteers are working at the school, in the classroom or in the community, they are essential to promoting parent involvement and student achievement.

It's no secret that some teachers can be territorial when it comes to letting someone into their classroom or accepting assistance from individuals not employed by the school district. Sometimes it is easier to just do everything alone or ask family or friends to help out on weekends or after school hours. What would happen however if a teacher took a chance and decided to consider working with one or two committed volunteers?

Various strategies may be used to recruit and train volunteers and to match their time and talents to the needs of teachers, students, and administrators. Two years ago a middle school in Michigan recruited six parents as "Den Mothers" responsible for contacting parents about issues and concerns addressing the grade they were assigned. Two sixth grade parents would create flyers for the sixth grade teacher concerning field trips, remind parents about upcoming parent meetings and conduct fundraisers used to purchase items the teacher needed in her classroom. There were two parents assigned to the seventh grade and the eighth grade. The group of "Den Mothers" met twice a month to talk about parent communication methods and met once a month with each teacher. Additional correspondence was made via email and phone calls. The principal met with the teachers and their assigned "Den Mothers" every six weeks.

Each "Den Mother" was responsible for creating a Parent Resource Directory for their assigned grade. The directory was used to solicit volunteers for field trips and special school events. There is little doubt that parent volunteers who serve as assistants and contributors to school and classroom programs and as audiences at school activities and events help strengthen school programs. By organizing and training volunteers to assist in the schools, educators are sending a clear message that parents and others are welcome and that their time and talents are valued.

Here are a few rules you might want to remember when planning a volunteer initiative.

- In operating a volunteer program, it is important to keep a broad view of potential volunteer involvement. Do not assume that the only people who are likely to volunteer at your school are the same types of people who previously volunteered.

- Program planning and design begins with an initial assessment of why the school wishes to use volunteers and what benefits and problems are likely to be resolved with the use of volunteers.

- What are the benefits of having school volunteers? Delivery of service at a reduced cost – There are a number of volunteers that will be able to assist the school in areas that might otherwise topple a school's budget. If the school in able to create a pool of retired volunteer teachers to help in the reading or math lab, or with students one-on-one sessions, this is a great benefit to students, teachers and parents at virtually no cost.

- Teachers and parents can not do everything that is needed to increase student achievement. Volunteers are needed to assist in listening to a poor reader, acting as hall monitors, walking through the neighborhood before and after school and planting flowers so the school and community can take pride in their school.

- Additional eyes and ears in the school and in the community – Parents, business owners and other community members are the eyes and ears of the school community and when something is not what it should be; rest assured someone in the community knows the story.

- "Training" is the process of instructing volunteers in the specific job-related skills and behavior that they will need to perform their particular volunteer job. This is particularly important in a school setting because staff and students will focus on the task and behavior exhibited by the volunteer in the school setting

-Volunteer training at the school level should be practical, and tailored to the individual needs of the volunteer. If a parent is not a good reader, do not have her read to a group of 2nd graders while the teacher is administering a make-up standardized test.

Contact your principal or a school district administrator to see how to start a parent volunteer initiative at your school. If you do not have a volunteer initiative plan, contact the Red Cross. They wrote the book on volunteer initiatives and will be able to create a skeleton plan for your school. Remember to include parents and community members on your school volunteer initiative planning committee.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Cycling Programs & Ponzi Schemes

Copyright 2005 Judy Thompson

People make money and people lose money with cycling programs. People also make or lose money with network marketing and any other kind of legitimate business under the sun! While Ponzi schemes are illegal, some people make money with them, too, while many more lose money..

In this article, I would like to give the reader some information about Ponzi schemes and about "Cycling" programs.

PONZI SCHEMES

Ponzi schemes are a type of illegal pyramid scheme, named for Charles Ponzi, who duped thousands of New England residents. In the year 1920, Ponzi offered 50% profits every 45 days. He collected $9.8 million dollars from 10,550 people and paid out $7.8 million in just 8 months.

This was a kind of swindle, also called a "bubble" and has existed for hundreds of years. In reality, it is not an "investment" as people are led to believe. Money is simply being transferred from new investors to earlier investors. It is a fraud in which the "investors" are promised extremely high returns over a very short period of time.

This short payment time and high rate of return soon attracts large numbers of people. Initial "investors" make a lot of money, but their profits are not a result of the success of a business. Their profits actually come from the contributions of those people who later join, thinking they are participating in a legal business investment.

Ponzi schemes typically claim that their moneymaking abilities are because of their elaborate, inventive investments or business process. Because of word-of-mouth advertising about this great "opportunity," new depositors are quick to jump on board. Usually a Ponzi scheme will not last very long. It eventually collapses since it was based on something that either never existed, or was grossly overvalued.

A major attraction of a Ponzi scheme is that it appears to be a high paying investment opportunity. As a passive type of program, a person does not need to work in order to generate great profits. The impression that people are given is that they need only to put their money into it and wait for the money to come rolling in!

Unfortunately, only a few "early birds" actually make money, which they actually receive by fraud, while everyone else loses most of or maybe their entire investment!

CYCLING PROGRAMS

Most people who are looking for ways to make money, truly just want to find something that is legitimate and is within their ability to do. A conventional business generally requires a large investment and long working hours. Network marketing, even though it is also a business that takes investment of time and money before a great deal of success is realized, has the advantages of being able to work part time and takes far less investment than does a conventional business. Unfortunately, with network marketing or MLM, there is a lot of hype. Often people are made to believe that they should be making lots of money in a short time. Since that usually doesn't happen with MLM, as in any other legitimate business, people may begin looking for something that has less involvement and is more "passive" in nature.

So along comes an offer of a promise to make money in a short period of time. All you have to do is invest your money...and wait. There may or may not be some sort of product involved. A product of some sort at least keeps the program within "legal" limits. The so-called product may be leads that have been used over & over again, or some other internet thing that a person would not normally spend their hard-earned bucks for.

The promoters can be very skilled at making a person think that they are getting into a type of investment that really pays off. Indeed, a person, provided they are in "early" enough, does get paid. Investors are led to believe that the "investment" is what is paying off, when in reality, it may be they are being paid from new people investing their money, or even may be getting part of their own money back. These high-yield investment programs (HYIP's) are actually much like the "cycling" programs only they are not called that. Most of those programs last no longer than about 6 months or so, and then collapse.

Then there are the programs that tell you that you will get paid when you cycle, or it is your turn. At first it takes only a few days to "cycle" and your money may double. The longer the program lasts, the longer it takes for a person to cycle. Eventually the cycle program collapses and the promoter starts another one. Most likely the same people that got in early on one program, will be the ones who get in early on the next program, and so on. A few people make real money, while the majority of folks are left holding the bag!

The promoter of this kind of program, I believe, is running an illegal Ponzi scheme! Even the people who get in early and make money are actually making money at the expense of those who invested later on, and may be in legal trouble, at least in the United States.

From the little bit of experience I have had with both the HYIP's and the cycling programs, even though at the time I believed each was probably legitimate, a close analysis now tells me different. In general, I would advise anyone to stay far, far away from HYIP's and from cycling programs.

However, I believe there may be some exceptions to the above information: there are at least a couple companies which have been around for several years that offer cycling plans to their members to help them in advertising or obtaining leads for their business. It should be noted, though, that the members purchase product from these companies each month. Their compensation plan is not based on when they "cycle."

Dear reader, face up to it, if you are going to develop an income in a legitimate business, you will need to be prepared to work, invest some money, and allow time before you realize the income of your dreams!