Volunteer

Gentle guidelines for effective participation

1. Remember to bring your enthusiasm and expertise into a school.
2. Know that your organization's genius and creativity will add to and enrich students' lives.
3. Find out everything you can about the class curriculum and course standards. Teachers are expected to impart an absurd amount of information and skills to their students, so you want to be sure that your project dovetails with these responsibilities.
4. Find out what the district or school requires of you before you can work as a volunteer, and take care of these things well ahead of time. Sometimes seemingly simple tasks, like fingerprinting or background checks, can take months to complete.
5. Remember that you are there to help the school, and not simply to check off a box on your list of philanthropic goals. Bring your skills at project execution into the school and finish that project at all costs.
6. Make sure you know how much time you and your company can devote to a particular project. It's not helpful for a teacher to meet six times with a group that then stops returning to his or her classroom. It also sends a harmful message to students, especially those in tough schools. They've often experienced many adults – both in and outside of the school setting – making promises that they then cannot keep.
7. Consider other ways that you can help. You can donate equipment or funds to an existing project if it's not feasible for you or your company to work within the school setting.
8. Once in the classroom, do not handle awkward situations on your own. Consult with a teacher if you experience what you perceive to be a problem with a particular student.
9. Make sure that the school's administration is aware of your project.
10. Never contact students outside of school. All communications should be made through a teacher.
11. Consider creating an evaluation of your project that the students can complete. Their input will help you plan future projects. The teacher you work with should also be able to help you with this. You'll probably want to do a quick evaluation with students both before and after the project, and you might also help the teacher conduct an assessment that helps him/her identify whether students met specific academic standards.
12. Be willing to work on a project that the teacher and students really need to complete, such as editing or one-on-one tutoring, and not just on projects that seem splashy to you.