Ring, Ring, It's the Room Parent Calling!

I was recently handed the duties of Room Parent for my sons Kindergarten class, guess no one else volunteered so I was handed the duties in October, school started in August.

I had a million questions about how to go about being a Room Parent (notice it now has a gender neutral term, it's no longer Room Mom) so I called up my wise mother, she was a K teacher for 20+ years so she had to know what I should do, never mind the fact that listed at the bottom of the instruction page was the Room Parent Coordinators name, phone number, and email address. I turned to my mom for guidance.

I received the paperwork Monday, Oct. 19 and began to read things over. Job #1 - By Friday, Oct 23 have 3 parents donate cupcakes/brownies for the Harvest Festival. YIKES! I felt silly calling people I'd never met, they hadn't even been notified there was a Room Parent (My mom said that her Room Parents sent out a letter introducing themselves to the class.). I dialed away, starting from the bottom of the list for luck. I got 2 volunteers and only made 3 calls! The 3rd call was to a number that was disconnected - guess that parent REALLY doesn't want to be bothered!! I was feeling good.

Jobs #2, #3 #4. A Room Parent must organize the parties, take pictures of the class throughout the year for the Year Book, and do whatever he/she can to make the teachers job easier. That sounds so simple on the surface but then I began to wonder.... How do I get in touch with the parents who simply wrote "cupcakes" or "anything" on the sign up form (I was given the sign up form that the teacher put out on Back To School Night in Sept along with the list of my duties.) but didn't list their name? How do I get pictures taken throughout the year when I'm only in the class for 3 hrs each Thursday? I already missed the opportunity to take pictures of the bus evacuation drill, the earthquake drill, the jumping/skipping/hopping test. Geesh!

I'm going to put all those questions on hold and focus on the BIG question, how to "make the teachers job easier". REALLY!? Asking how I can help in such an open-ended way is like, well, asking a teacher what you can do help make her job easier! Will the teacher ask me to pick up her dry cleaning? Maybe she'll be nice and simply ask me to sharpen pencils. The possibilities are endless and a bit frightening!!

I will be back in the classroom on Thursday... So I've got some time to build up the courage to ask the how can I help question. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm thinking positive, I mean I did get 2 parents to donate baked goods! I'm a natural.