To Our Volunteers:

Welcome to the Hayfield Elementary School! The PTA would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your participation and support.

There are volunteer activities to fit virtually every interest and time schedule. Our volunteers share their talents in the classroom, provide administrative and clerical support from home, and interact with the students and faculty at the many social events throughout the school year.

Our children gain in so many ways when they see their families participating in their school. They develop a sense of community spirit and appreciate our commitment to them as individuals and to the greater student body. Whatever role you choose to assume, know that you are appreciated!

If we can be of any assistance to you, answer any questions or direct you to the appropriate committee chairperson, please do not hesitate to email.

Thank you again for helping to make this year a great one for all our children at Hayfield Elementary.

Sincerely,

Len Farrell & Christina Gorham

PTA Volunteer Coordinator Co-Chairs

nelenabrad@usa.net

ourfamily1st@cox.net

Guide to Being a Volunteer at Hayfield Elementary

The teachers, staff, and children appreciate every Volunteer, whether you are in the classroom once a week or once a year, or even if you can only help at home. The following guidelines and procedures will help you while volunteering at Hayfield Elementary.

1. When volunteering, please sign-in and sign-out at the front desk in the office. You must provide a form of identification prior to your volunteer work in the school.**  Once you have shown proof of identification, enter your name into the computer and a "volunteer badge" will be printed for you to wear while in the school.

2. Please obtain and wear a volunteer badge before proceeding to your volunteer location. The badges will be generated when you sign in through the computer at the front desk. Also, please remember to sign out when you are done.

3. A volunteer should maintain confidentiality regarding the work and lives of the faculty and students. This includes students’ scholastic records, test scores, grades, behavior issues, and character issues.

4. Volunteers are there to help the teachers with all of the students. It is not always possible or preferable for you to work with your own children. Please respect the teachers’ decisions in these matters.

5. The phone numbers and email addresses given to room parents are to be used for school purposes only. Please do not give them out for other uses.

6. As a volunteer at Hayfield Elementary you are expected to uphold the Code of Ethics for Volunteers.

**Regular Volunteers designated by the classroom teachers will receive photo volunteer badges that will hang on the wall in the front office.  If you are one of these volunteers, you can check-in as a volunteer with pin.

Code of Ethics for Volunteers

1. A volunteer enters the school to assume a place on the educational team and acts accordingly with confidence and respect to the school staff and students.

2. A volunteer conforms to established school procedures for reporting in and out and using materials, etc.

3. A volunteer supports the staff by following school-wide or classroom regulations regarding student behavior.

4. A volunteer is a role model in the school community.  Therefore language and comments in the school should always be appropriate for students to hear.

5. A volunteer must be dependable and consistent in order to provide the maximum benefit of such assistance to the teachers and students at the school.

6. A volunteer is there to increase the students’ confidence in them and avoids disparaging remarks, which might undermine that confidence.

7. A volunteer deals impartially with students regardless of differences in background, intelligence or physical or emotional maturity.

8. A volunteer never makes negatives comments about a child. This is destructive and should be avoided.

9. A volunteer does not discuss the child’s progress with the parent, but refers the parent to the appropriate teacher or the principal if a question should arise. Direct communication with parents about a child’s schoolwork is the responsibility of the school’s professional staff.

10. A volunteer does not discuss confidential information with inappropriate persons. Confidential information includes: scholastic and health records, test scores and grades, discipline problems within a classroom, and character traits of an individual child.

11. A volunteer speaks constructively of all professional staff, but should report difficulties involving the welfare of students or school to the principal.

12. A volunteer is in the school for a relatively short portion of the week, and therefore perception of a problem can be mistaken because the volunteer is not aware of the total situation. Volunteers should take their questions about such problems to the volunteer coordinator or

Appropriate staff member.

13. A volunteer consults with the supervising teachers at appointed times so as not to interrupt the teachers’ schedules. A volunteer follows school procedures for setting up a parent-teacher conference, and does not interrupt the instructional program, teachers’ planning periods, or

Volunteer schedules.

Reprinted with permission from Hunters Woods Elementary School and adapted for Hayfield Elementary School Guidelines.

Effective Ways to Work With Children

1. Be warm and friendly. Learn the children’s names. Show interest in what they are doing and telling you- you are very important as a listener.

2. Encourage children to do their own thinking. Give them plenty of time to answer, silence often means they are thinking and organizing what they want to say or write.

3. If you don’t know an answer or are unsure of what to do, admit it to the children and work it out together. Feel free to ask the teacher or the children for help when you need it.

4. Encourage children. Use tact and positive comments. Seek something worthy of a compliment, especially when children are having difficulties.

5. Accept each child. You do not need to feel responsible for judging a child’s abilities, progress, or behavior.

6. If a child is upset, encourage discussion of the problem. You need not solve the problem, but by listening and talking you help the child feel you care.

7. Respect a child’s privacy. If a child or a teacher reveals personal information, regard it as a confidence.

8. Remember that the children look to you as an example.  Be a good example by being positive, respectful and using appropriate language and comments when in the presence of students.

9. Maintain a sense of humor.

10. Be consistent with teachers’ rules for classroom behavior, schedule, and atmosphere.

11. Wear comfortable clothes and don’t hesitate to "get down on a child’s level."

12. Keep your commitment; the children will expect you and look forward to your coming. If you know you will be gone, tell them in advance. Keep all promises, and make none that you cannot keep- children never forget!

Adapted from the Senior Citizen School Volunteer Program, Western Pennsylvania Gerontology Center.