Ada Merritt K-8 Center
Room Parent Program
For all of you who have already volunteered to be a Home Room Parent, thank you!
There are some teachers who still don’t have this essential parent, and as you all know, every teacher needs a parent, or a team of parents, from the classroom to help out with small organizational tasks that take away from the precious teaching time, and that we as parents can always do, either at our own place of work, at home, or at the school.
One very important and crucial task is to be the communicator between teacher and parents, and the PTA. It is so much easier for the PTA and teachers to send any communication to the homeroom parent for its distribution to the classroom directory.
Having been a homeroom parent myself, I advise you to work in teams. Sometimes things can get a little overwhelming, and as a team you can divide the tasks amongst you, maybe get other volunteer parents to help out in case of need, and things will flow smoother.
Here is a short description of what this important volunteering opportunity entails:
• Sorting paperwork/class work/artwork, etc.
• Filing
• Making copies
• Laminating
• Classroom decoration
• Putting together a classroom directory that should include every child’s name, parents’ names, address, primary telephone number and preferred hours for contact, and e-mail addresses. It helps to include the child’s date of birth only for congratulatory purposes, although it’s not necessary, and it’s always good to check with the parents in your classroom how they feel about the subject. This directory should be accessible to every parent in the classroom in order to keep the lines of communication open; parents should have the freedom to communicate with their child’s teacher on an individual basis as needed, or with other parents working together on a specific task.
• Setting up an e-mail address block, once the directory has been created, for communication between the PTA, teachers and parents. If working in teams, you should assign this role of forwarding e-mails from the PTA or any of its committees to only one parent to avoid repetitive e-mails that only overload inboxes and end up not getting read because of its annoyance factor.
• Chaperoning on field trips; remember you must have clearance from the School Board. Forms are available in the main office. Chaperoning is a team effort, so it makes sense to work as a team with parents that have clearance for this type of event.
• Commitment. While this is a voluntary assignment, it is important to have a level of commitment and responsibility. We all want to help out, and we are all very busy, and yes, things happen that change our lives and schedules. However, if anything should happen and you can’t continue with the commitment, please pass the torch to another parent, or let your team know. The only ones that are affected by the adults’ lack of responsibility are the children because they miss out on the communication tread and sometimes their classroom participation in events is not as organized as another classroom with coordinated homeroom parents.
Thank you all for your participation, I am sure this is going to be another great year. As the Room Parent Coordinator for this year I plan to do my best to keep an accurate and updated directory for the school, to help keep the lines of communication open, and to assist the new parents who want to dive in to this important and wonderful job.
Monica Duran
Room Parent Program Coordinator
(305) 491-4549
bienclaro@yahoo.com
