12 Ways to Help Your Child's Teacher

By Samantha Cleaver

Helping in your child’s classroom isn’t limited to chaperoning field trips or bringing in birthday treats. From September through June, teachers welcome parent helpers for more than an extra pair of hands. As a new school year starts, here are 12 ways that you can help your child’s teacher. All you have to do is ask!

Sharpen Pencils
All that time that elementary school teachers spend sharpening pencils can really add up! Stop in once a week for 15 minutes after school to sharpen pencils to fill all those pencil boxes.

Help Around the Classroom
Lend a hand filing papers or organizing report cards to go home. If you have time to spare during the week, help reorganize the classroom library, make copies or wipe down desks, tables and windows.

Restock the Supply Closet
Around January, the supply closet that was once fully stocked with tissues, baby wipes and paper towels starts to go bare. Help restock the shelves with basics, and ask what other supplies teachers might need for science fairs or art projects.

Be a Reading Buddy
Lead a Small Group
During reading or math time, offer to work with small groups or individual students on specific reading and math goals, such as learning sight words, spelling words or practicing math facts.

Be a Bulletin Board Buddy
If your child’s teacher has a hallway bulletin board or classroom bulletin board that needs to be changed to showcase new student work or reinforce a new concept, offer to help put up new boards. Even better, ask your child if he wants to help design and put up a board.

Deliver a School Day Treat
At the start or end of the year when it’s hot outside, bring in fresh fruit or cold juice boxes for students mid-afternoon. A cool treat is a big help and much better than sugary snacks.

Provide IT Support
Young kids may be savvy with Facebook and video games, that but doesn’t mean they’re ready to use word processing and publishing programs. If the class is using computers to write, volunteer to help students write and edit their work.

Bring Your Set of Skills
If you have a special set of skills, ask your child’s teacher if you can be of service. If you’re a web developer, offer to help set up and manage a classroom site. If you have expertise doing home videos, offer to record and edit a classroom memories video.

Teach a Lesson
If you have a skill that you use at work or for a hobby, consider bringing it into your child’s classroom for a special presentation. If you work in a laboratory, for example, bring in a simple science experiment. Or, if you work at a newspaper, teach a writing lesson. Before you bring in your expertise, talk with the teacher to connect it to the curriculum.

Make Use of At-Home Time
Ask your child’s teacher if you can cut out words for a word wall or prepare materials for a project while you watch TV at night or over the weekend.

Record Your Favorite Stories
Read your child’s favorite stories onto CDs or MP3 files that can be used in the classroom listening center. To give the recordings a boost of cuteness, have your child record stories that she loved in previous years.

Every time you spend time putting up a bulletin board, reading with a child, simply sharpening pencils or any other way you help in your child’s classroom this year, you’re strengthening your child’s connection with school, and that’s always worth the effort!

If you have time during the school day, offer to come in and read with students during a set time each week. As you read, ask students questions about the stories to help them develop reading fluency and comprehension skills.

6 Things Teachers Wish You Would Do

By Jennifer Friend

Sure, you're the parent who volunteers in the classroom, attends every open house, and persuades your colleagues to order 50 rolls of wrapping paper every year for the school fundraiser. What more could you possibly do to show your support for your child's education? According to some teachers, there are a few things that even the most well-intentioned parents could learn about their child's classroom.

Let your child be independent

“I wish parents would stop doing everything for their children and allow them to do things for themselves,” said Judy Corn, assistant director of Island Montessori School in Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Students at her school are expected to clean their plates after lunch, take turns doing classroom chores, and spend their school day working independently. Give your child opportunities to take care of himself at home. Let him help with daily chores, provide clothes and shoes he can easily take off and put on himself, and certainly don’t do his homework for him.

Communicate with teachers

Good teachers make themselves accessible to parents by phone or email and are always very happy to answer questions or address any concerns. "Don't hesitate to contact the teacher. Email or phone calls are always welcome," says Blair Williams, a third grade teacher at Carolina Beach Elementary School. Another good rule of thumb: If you have any concerns about your child's progress—socially, academically or developmentally—always attempt to talk with the teacher first before going to an administrator. If you ask the principal first, changes are she’ll turn to the teacher anyway.

Read the handbook

Parents are inundated with paperwork at the beginning of the year and are likely tempted to just sign most of it without reading any of the contents. Keep in mind teachers spend a lot of time compiling the information presented in parent handbooks with the hope that parents will take the time to read what is on every page. "Always read the beginning-of-the-year handout and keep it handy,” says Williams. “It covers many questions for the whole year."

No more apples

While teachers appreciate the kind gesture, they may not know what to do with the abundance of apples and apple-scented lotion they get every year. Believe it or not, what most teachers want are more materials and supplies for the classroom. “I make a lot of the materials for my class,” says Cheryl Blackwelder, a teacher of 1- and 2-year-olds. “When a parent buys something for my class, they're really giving me the gift of time—time that I can spend teaching.”

Look beyond the grades

Monitor your child's whole development, rather than just his grades. Teachers don’t just teach academics; they’re teaching life lessons every day. Look at how your child interacts with his teachers and peers. Is he respectful of others? Is he courteous? Is he eager and willing to do things for himself? Putting emphasis on these traits isn’t just the right thing to do—it also makes the teacher’s job easier.

Stop texting

Kids are getting cell phones at younger and younger ages each year, and many schools have abandoned their rules against having cell phones at school because they are too difficult and time-consuming to enforce. However, if you do choose to send your child to school with a cell phone, be courteous and don't text your child during school hours. If you have an urgent message to relay to your child, call the school's office, and someone will gladly give your child a message.

Ultimately, parents should understand that teachers really want just one thing: to work together. Parents and teachers should join forces to help nurture children so they grow up to be productive, responsible, and caring citizens of the world.

The Top 10 Things Teachers Want From Parents

By Amy Bizzarri

It takes a village to raise a child. We can't expect teachers to be the only ones educating our children. Research proves that when Mom and Dad become involved in their kid’s school life, grades, behavior and emotional well-being improve. So, if you want to make the teacher’s job a little easier, check out these 10 things teachers want from parents.

“The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading, is reading aloud to children,” stated the U.S. Department of Education Commission on Reading in 1985. Grab a book, any book, and read to your child at least three times a week. You’ll plant the seeds for a lifetime of reading.

Get to Know the Teacher
You should be on a first-name basis with your child’s teacher. Ask for the best way to get touch with him or her, such as by phone or email. Be there for open houses and parent-teacher conferences. Don’t be the parent who only shows up when you have a bone to pick.

Encourage Friendships Outside of School
Classroom learning works best when solid teamwork is in place. Because there isn’t always time for children to get to know one another all that well at school, make sure that your child spends time with classmates outside of school by encouraging playdates and after-school activities.

Get Involved With the School
Attend school council meetings. Join the school’s PTA. If you work and these school-oriented meetings are scheduled during the day, ask if meetings can occasionally be held at night. Your voice counts—sometimes, it's the only voice that will advocate for your child. When parents unite, they can more readily affect changes in schools.

Take Part in School Events
Don’t miss school events such as talent shows, science fair nights and seasonal potlucks. Even if your child isn’t playing on the team, why not attend a school sporting event? You’ll help foster an appreciation of school life. Not only will you be helping your child be successful in school, but you'll also be making memories with him along the way.

Bring Learning Home
There are always learning moments to be made away from the classroom. Bake a cake and teach the basics of measurement. Have your own spelling bee night. Take a weekend trip to an aquarium or museum. Watch an educational, family-friendly movie. Bringing learning into the home is a great way to foster future success.

Value Education
Show your child that learning is a lifelong adventure that doesn’t end once school is over. Read a book. Take a class that interests you. Tell your child about the learning experiences you’ve had on the job. Bond over educational books, movies and TV shows.

Don’t Be So Patient
Teach Your Kid to Clean Up
Are you usually the one putting the toys back on the shelves? If your child doesn’t clean up after himself at home, he’s sure to be messy at school. Have him stow his toys neatly away after playtime. Teach him to make his bed, take out the trash and wash the dishes. When that’s the standard at home, keeping a clean desk at school won’t seem like a big deal.

“Patience is for martyrs,” says Lisa Holewa, co-author of What Kindergarten Teachers Know. When you enable your child’s urges at home, he may not get with the program at school. When you take your child to an appointment, for example, be on time … no matter what cool thing may have caught your kid’s attention. You’ll suffer fewer headaches in the meantime.

Teach Your Kid to Clean Up

Are you usually the one putting the toys back on the shelves? If your child doesn’t clean up after himself at home, he’s sure to be messy at school. Have him stow his toys neatly away after playtime. Teach him to make his bed, take out the trash and wash the dishes. When that’s the standard at home, keeping a clean desk at school won’t seem like a big deal.

Do Step-by-Step Teaching at Home

When you teach a lesson or begin an activity with your child, pretend you’re teaching a class. Make sure you have his full attention, go step by step and give very clear instructions. “Plan to stand physically near your child, bend down, and get eye contact,” Holewa says. Your little guy will learn to follow directions, and he won’t be the one lagging behind at school.

When you get involved with the school, do some teaching of your own and lead the learning cause by example, you become an invaluable part of your child's success in and out of school. The teacher will thank you, and one day, your child will too!