Building Bridges Between School and Home - Center for Literacy ...

u Surveying to Invite Parent Involvement uWhen I began thisstarted the year before. So,job as the FamilyEngagement(See Appendix I) to againI sent out a shorter surveycoordinator three years ago,I conducted a survey of theparents because I wantedto know how comfortableparents were inside ourschool. I wanted to knowthe comfort level of theparents when they enteredthe office, our cafeteria,our classrooms, and our library.gather volunteer information.I processed the surveys,and I arranged the resultsby who was willing towork in various areas — forexample, who was willing towork in the library and whowas willing to work with thePTO. I even had “landscaping”on the survey. I had aThe survey asked how often theyplace for stay-at-home moms whoJamie Glass,volunteered. Had they offered to volunteer?Did the school call after they vol-were willing to do whatever was neededand the days they were willing toInstructional Coachunteered? I wanted to know what theyhad to offer. I gave a three page survey,which I found out very quickly was toolong and not well written. I spent hoursfor Leoma ElementarySchool, has over 20 yearsexperience as an educator.Leoma Elementary servesvolunteer.My original idea was to put thisinformation on the school’s websiteso teachers could easily pull up the listtallying the results.Pre-K through 8th gradeto see who had volunteered for what.The next year I decided to give aHowever, I was unable to do this duewith over 550 students.different survey. This time the surveyto security concerns. Instead, I createdwas much shorter and focusedmore toward parent volunteering. I decided to focusthis survey on volunteering because I saw thesame parents being utilized over and over again.I was beginning to hear animosity from parentswho wanted to be involved, but said they weren’tcalled. So my goal was to figure out how to takecare of that problem. I sent the survey out to allthe parents asking what skills they had to shareand what days they could volunteer. After theparents returned the surveys, I had a nice, overwhelmingstack of surveys but wasn’t able to doanything with them because other projects cameup. So this year I gave yet another survey, and myaction project became a project to finish what Ia master list for the teachers that includedthe parents of their classrooms. I gave copiesto the library, the PTO, and the office — essentiallyone for all the different areas for when I asked volunteers.I sent a list to the teachers, along with a noteencouraging them to utilize each parent volunteerinstead of calling on the same ones over and over.Continually using the same parents is understandablebecause it is easier for the teachers if the parentsalready know how to do what it is they are beingasked to do. It is easier to call them and ask them tocome in than to have a trainer or a mentor to comein to mentor another volunteer. It’s just easier to callthe same ones. So I encouraged teachers to utilizeeach volunteer even though it might mean a little ex-BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE3