I have accepted the new title of Parent Volunteer Cooridinator. Till now our school has frowned on the thought of parents coming into the school to help in any way. But our new prinicipal would like to change that. I need help. How do I get over the wall teachers have put up and they want workshops to instruct any parents coming to help. Where would I get information or format for things like that? What kind of things should be covered? Has anyone out there ever been to or conducted a parent workshop?
Thanks you!!!

I would get together with the teachers and principal about this. I cannot imagine what they want the parents "trained" for. If it is "guidelines" and "procedures" that they want parents to abide by, again, they would be the ones to put that together. I would ask them what they want you to cover. Also I have found that the principal indeed is the key to get the cooperation from the teachers.

Our PTA hosts an annual "volunteer training". We discuss a lot of common sense things like the smoking policy, dress code, how to use equipment (copiers, laminator, Accucut), a brief tour of the school etc.

What has made our Volunteer Program successful is the fact that we ask the teachers to let us know what they need and when they need it. (They complete a form and place it in the PTA box)Some are a little more open than others but once we made sure they realized that we were there to help they really seemed to appreciate our volunteers.

We are trying to organize our volunteers a bit better this year, which is a challenge because for the 2nd year in a row we had an enthusiastic Chairperson elected in May who left (for reasons unrelated to PTO) during the before school started in the fall. Bummer...

Anyway, we have a volunteer form to capture the initial information. We probably aren't at the point to do a formal training, but we are working up some handouts (not ready yet). We feel they need to be welcomed and told they are appreciated, but they also need to understand some policies and rules. The teacher (in the classroom) is always in charge. Don't try to corner the teacher for an impromptu parent-teacher conference, sign in, wear a nametag, volunteers may be exposed to confidential information that is not to be shared, where to go for questions/supplies, etc.

Perhaps you could enlist the teachers' help and start small with a handout if an actual training session doesn't work for you.