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

tra work for them. I understand why teachers preferto use the same volunteers again and again. For instance,when there is a field trip and chaperones areneeded, the teachers want chaperones who are dependable,trustworthy, and helpful. So,while I fully understand why the teachersgo with the same volunteers, I alsounderstand the need and importance ofgiving every parent the opportunity tohelp. However, I stressed to the teachersthat it is important to extend the effortto all parents who say they would like tovolunteer. Periodically, I sent memos tothe teachers: Remember the volunteerlist? Have you lost yours? Do you needanother copy? Have you contacted allthe parents?My goal is for every parent who had volunteeredto be utilized at least one time. Even if it is just somethingsmall, it is important that each parent receivean opportunity to contribute. At the end of the year,I plan on distributing another survey to the parents(and one to the teachers) to find out what I can do tomake the volunteer list easier for the teachers to useand to find out from the parents if they felt the volunteerprogram was successful. Did you volunteer?Were you called? Were you able to come? Was therea reason why you couldn’t? What can we do to help?The feedback I have received from the teachers so farhas been very positive. My only concern is whetherthe teachers are still using the same volunteers overand over or if they include everyone.Another thing that grew out of this survey wasa focus on our parent involvement in other ways.The response to the question which asked, ‘How“My goal is for everyparent who volunteeredto be utilized at leastone time. Even if it isjust something small,it is important thateach parent receivean opportunity tocontribute.”comfortable do you feel in our library?’ was mostlynot applicable.This response alerted us to the fact that we don’t oftenoffer activities that bring parents into our library.Now, when we have family nights, weschedule activities in the library so parentshave the opportunity to visit. Thiswas an interesting situation which mayhave gone unnoticed if we hadn’t administeredthe survey.I was also able to distribute statisticsto the teachers to show how the parentsfeel in various areas of our school. Thisallows us to identify what we can do tomake the parents feel more comfortablein the school.I learned from my previous surveys to narrow theinformation down so it was manageable. I was justa little overzealous with the first surveys because Iwanted to collect as much information as possibleand didn’t even anticipate the amount of work andtime it would take to compile the results. It wasn’ta bad survey; it was a great survey. It was just toomuch.I am proud of this project because I establisheda database of volunteers, their skills, and wherethey’re willing to volunteer. That in itself is a hugefeat, but then I also think of all the other thingsI did, like sharing data so teachers can make improvementsin the school and classrooms to helpparents feel welcome. This project also brought upthe issue of the importance of using all parents andnot just a select few. This project became so muchmore than just creating a database of volunteers.It’s pretty impressive.BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME: STORIES OF SUCCESS FROM LAWRENCE COUNTY, TENNESSEE4