5 Easy Ways to Get More Parents to Help in Your Classroom

It was hard enough to get parents to volunteer in your classroom at the beginning of the school year. Even then, the same small group of parents (usually, stay-at-home Moms) did all the heavy lifting at the school.

Now it’s late Spring, and “volunteer fatigue” has fully set in. The heavy lifters have more than done their share of volunteering, and the curious onlookers are no longer so curious.

You ask parents to lead a classroom activity or a holiday party, to chaperone a field trip, or to bring much-needed classroom supplies – and you hear… crickets. Nothing. Nada.

Does that sound familiar?

It certainly did to teachers at my school.

When I saw our teachers struggle with getting enough parent volunteers, I asked them why they thought it was happening. The most common reply was “in many families, both parents work, and they are just too busy to volunteer”. That definitely rang true. I myself was working full-time and was often having trouble fitting my volunteer commitments into my not-always-flexible work schedule. Yet I thought it went beyond us being too busy, that there were some other barriers at play.

So I created SimplyCircle, an easy-to-use communication service that strengthens the school-family connection. Among other things, our service helps teachers and room parents get more parents to volunteer in the classroom.

Here are 5 simple tips that should help:

1. Ask parents to help! You know the saying “Ask and you shall receive”? Well, if you don’t ask, you definitely shall not receive. When you need parents to volunteer, the first step is to tell them when and where they can help!

2. Accept help, no matter how small. Many working parents can’t commit to volunteer every day (or even every week) in your classroom. But they are happy to help once every once in a while when their work schedule permits it.

3. Make it easy to sign up. While emails and paper sign ups are great, Web-based tools make signing up for a volunteer commitment as easy as a click of a button. And you know exactly who is coming to the classroom to help!

4. Remind parents about their commitments. Or use a tool such as SimplyCircle, that has reminders built into the interface. Reminders help parents honor their commitments.

5. Thank the volunteers. Showing appreciation to parents who volunteer is one the best ways to make sure they come back. A simple thank you note or better yet photos of the kids from the activity they volunteered for, should do the trick! And don’t forget to share photos from the volunteering event afterwards. Parents LOVE seeing photos of their kids, and it will keep them coming back for more!

I hope these 5 tips will help you get A LOT more parents to volunteer in your classroom!

Here’s how teachers, administrators PTA leaders can use SimplyCircle to get more parents to help in the classroom:

• You create a private circle for your class in just minutes
• You invite parents to your circle
• You share photos, updates, calendar, volunteer signups, private messages and anything else you want with parents – everything is all in one place.

By Dr. Elena Krasnoperova 

Dr. Krasnoperova is the Founder and CEO of SimplyCircle, an online parent communication platform for classrooms, PTAs and school communities. She’s a mother of two kids in elementary school, and an active parent volunteer and member of the PTA.

The Educator's Network (which includes Education World as premier property in its network of sites) is an affiliate member of SimplyCircle.