Parents May Be Able to Provide Resources

As a teacher, you are often limited on money, supplies, and help. Parents may be able to supply all three, but you have to know your students and their parents. In your first communications with parents and students you may be able to develop some handout that asks parents questions about their present jobs, skills, and possible ability to help. Before sending out any such communication, get approval for the final draft of the handout before sending it out. Have it checked for punctuation and grammatical errors. Be careful, don't ask personal questions, but at the same time don't be ashamed to ask for help.

Money: Unless someone in the class has parents that are very wealthy you are unlikely to get some dramatic amount of money, but I have had parents of students that were millionaires. Sometimes they may contribute especially if the need is great. Even if their children are not now in your school or class they may be able to help. If they are going to donate a substantial amount of money they will most likely want detailed accountability as the funds are used. They want to donate to the Parent Teacher Association so that that organization will have control over how the funds are used. The High School I worked at had a construction company donate a large amount of supplies and labor to build a wall and gate system on one side of the campus. This wall did not completely go around the school, but it did make it more difficult for children to get near a very busy street. Although the company did not donate money, their contribution was substantial.

Businesses: Local businesses will donate money and services, but they often would like to see students and parents use their services at least a little more often. For example a local dry cleaner, may actually clean and press uniforms for the school team for free or at a discount, but they would appreciate a little extra business. Parents that already use the service should make an effort to thank them for their effort and parents that presently do not use their service should consider using their service at least one time through the year. Many businesses work on a very thin margin of profit, so any additional sales would help.

A parent may not have any special skill, but may be able to participate in field trips or even act as a classroom assistant at no cost to the school one or more days a week. In this day and age, having a parent assistant takes a little more effort. A parent may need to get fingerprinted and clearance to be allowed to participate in a field trip. This clearance can take a long time to complete and may be costly for the parent. In many systems the parent must pay for the fingerprinting and background check. If you are considering the possibility that the parents might drive students on the field trip, you need to know about their driving record and type of car. Some school districts have lists of acceptable cars for field trips. Most districts will have an extensive set of instructions for a field trip and details about rules and regulations. In spite of all this parents can be vital resources on such trips.

Parents may work for a company that is absolutely eager to get involved with the community. They may want to sponsor a science club, photography club, journalism club, aviation club and much more. Larger businesses often have equipment that could be used by schools that they no longer need and may be able to give to schools. This does not only include computers, but could even be something like a satellite dish.

You would be amazed at what you might be able to get from local large or small businesses, but you have to ask and even before that you need to know your students and parents. A teacher should consider calling every student's parents both for good and bad things that may happen. I made an effort to call parents when their child did something good, just as often as when they might have gotten into trouble. In almost every case when it was something good, they were surprised at the call, but really appreciated the call. Students also were surprised when calls to their parents were about great things. Such calls give you the opportunity to get to know the parents on much better terms.