Today's topic is about how to effectively use volunteers and tutors who find their way into your classroom with their eager smiles and helpful hands! I am blessed to have 5, that's right FIVE, tutors in my classroom at various times throughout the week, and without them, my classroom could not run efficiently. Tutors and volunteers, when you have them, can make your life and your classroom so much easier as long as you know how to use them.
Most volunteers, parent or otherwise, come with little education experience, but a desire to help in any way possible, which is why they are so amazing! Someone who wants to be in your classroom and to help you and your students is such a positive influence in the learning environment.
In order to effectively use volunteers, you, as the teacher, needs to identify the areas of need that they can logically address. Obviously, you are the first source of instruction, but volunteers can be used for review, one - on - one tutoring, fluency activities, basic math fact review, writing conferences, and literature circles. Volunteers can be a great intervention for students in tier II and III of the RtI process, and it allows for more interventions that you may not have time to deliver.
Once you have identified the needs that you want your volunteers to help with, tell them. I know that seems logical, but talk them through the activities and tell them a little about the students that they may be working with. If you're asking a tutor to complete an oral reading fluency drill, show them how to mark miscues and record retells. If you're using them to facilitate a literature circle, show them how to question and guide conversation. Again, volunteers are there to make your life easier and to help grow students, and you would be doing yourself and your students a disservice by not being clear about the expectations.
So, you've identified the needs, discussed the activities with the tutors, and now the sessions have started. The key to making sure volunteers are true intervention and are truly assisting with student growth is to document their activities.
Documentation is such a dirty word in education, because it instantly takes a negative connotation, but I've created some easy templates that you can use in your classroom to document time in and out, as well as, the activities completed and with who. I use something very similar in my own classroom and just add copies to my student's intervention folders and my Title I crates. The truly easy thing about this documentation is that the tutors can complete it by themselves and you can easily keep track of frequency of interventions for those who need a high level of help.
I have made the volunteer packet available for download for free, so check it out here.
Ultimately, whether volunteers are reading to students, helping you file papers, eating lunch with your babes, or reviewing multiplication tables - at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. Volunteers will make your classroom a fun, exciting, and multi-dimensional environment. I love my volunteers and I hope you find volunteers who make your classroom more fun and exciting!
I want to update one more time this weekend. I need to get better at controlling my life, so that I show how much moving the Ginger is doing! Great things are happening, loves and I hope great things are happening for you too!
Until next time!
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