71. Ideas for Serving in Our Schools and Why It Matters

It’s that time of year when many families are finally getting settled into their school routine and schedule. Life can be busy! Running kids around, balancing many responsibilities in and outside our homes, and keeping up with all that life has to offer. So with this episode I wanted to take a minute to give the reminder that volunteering in our children’s schools is a great way for parents…and even grandparents…to serve and make a difference!

I share my personal reasons for why that is and give some encouragement and ideas for anyone who has ever thought about volunteering in their kid’s schools. There is no one size fits all answer…every person needs to know what they can say yes to and sometimes what they have to say no to when it comes to helping out at school. But I hope after listening to this episode I give you some inspiration and motivation to see the many ways you can say yes and how that can be so beneficial for you, your family, and your children’s schools.

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Transcript

Melissa: It's that time of year when many families are finally getting settled into their school routine and schedule. Life can be busy running kids around, balancing many responsibilities in and outside our homes, and keeping up with all that life has to offer. So with this episode, I wanted to take a minute to give the reminder that volunteering in our children's schools is a great way for parents and even grandparents to serve and make a difference. I share my personal reasons for why that is and give some encouragement and ideas. For anyone who has ever thought about volunteering in their kids schools, there is no one size fits all answer. Every person needs to know what they can say yes to and sometimes what they have to say no to when it comes to helping out at school. But I hope after listening to this episode, I give you some inspiration and motivation to see the many ways you can say yes and how that can be so beneficial for you, your family, and your children's schools. Welcome to the do something more podcast, a service oriented show where we highlight the helpers who inspire us all to do something more. I'm your host, Melissa Draper. Thank you so much for being here. Hello. Hello. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. Today it's going to be just me, the host, Melissa Draper, talking to you about ideas for serving in our schools and of course, sharing why I think that matters. It's the beginning of the school year still a little bit. My family's been in for just over a month. My kids have been in school, so we're getting settled into everything, getting used to our routines and being back into that structure. And I think it's a great time to think about volunteering in the schools, especially if it's something maybe you've thought about, but you don't know how to approach that. Or maybe it's something you didn't think you ever had time for, even though you wanted to do it or it felt important to you. I hope I can give some ideas and inspiration for how you can make that happen. But first, I just want to give a little reminder. If you are a listener of the do something more podcast, you've been enjoying these episodes. I would love to invite you to show a little love to the podcast. So there are many different ways you can do that. You can leave a review on Apple Podcasts or rating on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also give the show a follow and you can share episodes with a friend. Each of these podcasts have a unique link. You can just copy that link, text it to someone, and say, hey, this episode made me think of you, or this is something I thought you would enjoy. All of those are great ways to show the podcast some love and of course, help us continue to grow. So today's episode is on serving and volunteering in our schools, and I'm going to start off by reading a list, which I think you might be able to guess where I made this list from or what it's made up of. Here we go. Read fun books at a Halloween party, went on a field trip to the corn maze, judged at a debate tournament, served on a school community council, organized a craft for a Christmas party, helped at a book fair, went on a field trip to the farm, lined up runners at a track meet, kept time for a battle of the books competition, wrote thank you notes and emails. Were you able to guess where I got all those things on my list? Well, of course, they are all ways that I personally volunteered in my children's schools last year. I had four kids at four schools last year, so we were spread across all the different age groups. And I'm not sharing that list to overwhelm anyone or to show off what I did. Obviously, last year I was able to be involved a little more than I usually am. And there have been other years that when I read a list off to you how I volunteered last year, it would go like this, wrote thank you notes to teachers and that's it. That would have been my list. So the reason I'm sharing that list, though, is to give you an idea of all the many different ways we can volunteer and help in our schools. This is one that sometimes I think people just get stuck in one way. They think the only way to volunteer is to serve on the PTA board. And while that's a great way to volunteer, and I so love the people I have met and seen serve in that way at my children's schools, that is not the only way. There are so many different ways that you can serve and so many different times of day. That's the other one. People think I can only volunteer during the school day. And while many of those were during the school day, a couple of them were on the weekend or on an evening. So there's lots of different ways. And I just wanted to share that list, to just give the full variety out there. And I'm sure, of course, it's not inclusive. There are so many more different ways that you can serve. And the other thing I really wanted to emphasize is all of those things, some of them maybe took a few hours in a day. Some of them really didn't take any time at all. I just showed up and helped for maybe an hour. The only thing that I did consistently throughout the year was when I served on the community council that had monthly meetings. I had to be there, but everything else was just really a one time thing. And that's the other thing I wanted to address, is that when we're talking about serving in our schools, it's not really about the time you have or the amount of tasks that you do, even though I just read a long list to you. But it's really about that desire of wanting to be involved and wanting to be connected to your child's school and wanting to be informed on the things going on in your school and wanting to support and to help. And when we have that desire there, which I believe many parents do, I interact with many parents who do. I believe when we have that desire there and we're willing to keep our minds and hearts open to ways that we can serve, that opportunities will come that will fit the time we have to give or the things that we feel passionate about wanting to help with. Maybe that's a little Pollyanna talk for me, but I really believe that that's really what it's about when we're serving in our schools. And so why? Why does that matter? Why should we have that desire to want to support and serve and volunteer in our schools? Well, our schools need parents and community involvement. Schools thrive when they are a connected part of their community, when all the people that interact with them are involved with the things that go on there. So the administration that work at schools, they need parents inputs and perspectives, and they need them in good, respectful ways that foster good dialogue. Many times, those that work in administration, they only see the angry emails or the upset things. And I'm not saying that parents shouldn't have a place to be able to voice those concerns. But too often are we not seeing those same amount of parents showing up at things like school community councils like I do, or other opportunities to have respectful dialogue and to voice the things that are important to us and matter to us to the administration, members of our schools. And they need that. They need that parent involvement. And then, of course, teachers. Teachers need our support. So much has been put on them. Many of them are doing so much with their time as they teach our children. And many times, again, it doesn't have to be a lot. My kids are getting older now. I have two in high school this year. So of course I'm not going in the classroom like I did when they were in elementary school. But I can show simple appreciation for what they do. I can encourage my children to have good interactions with them when there's a concern. I can encourage my children to communicate with them, and I can support teachers again through simple appreciation of the things that they do. So our teachers need that support. And of course, the final reason I want to give for why we should volunteer in our schools is the kids. It's our children. It truly takes a village. And I really believe that all kids can benefit from positive interaction with a variety of adults in their lives, even in small ways. It doesn't have to be huge. Even just sitting on the bus with those kids on your way to a field trip and them getting some positive interaction from an adult that's not their teacher and not their mom can be beneficial for them. I've seen that benefit in my own kids lives, or I talked about the things I've done with my older kids judging at debate tournaments. I have loved the opportunity to give a little positive note to those teenagers who I can see are working so hard and to recognize the hard work they are putting in. And they don't know me from anywhere. They're never going to see me again. But that positive interaction and that encouragement can be important for them. And I really believe that it takes a village and kids need lots of those positive interactions with adults. Even those little miniscule, tiny ones can matter. And really, that is, for me, the biggest reason why I volunteer in my children's schools. I love those opportunities to interact not just with my own kids, but with other children as well, and to have those positive interactions and to give them encouragement. Hopefully I've given you some good reasons. Of course, I think most people already feel that way. They just don't always know how to make it happen after they're feeling that inspiration or that push to be able to volunteer. I just want to kind of clarify here and say I get it. I get the busy and sometimes hard lives that many of you are leading. Many of you may be in survival mode right now. Many I know have full time jobs, or you have multiple kids in multiple schools, and trying to keep track of all of that is crazy, or you're just juggling other responsibilities. All of those things are okay. And I am not trying to heap burden or try to make anyone feel guilty for what they aren't or are doing or whatever it might be. I simply just want to share some ideas. If this is something that has mattered to you and maybe just spark a little interest in doing it. So I'm just going to share three different thoughts here today, and none of them are groundbreaking. Someone might listen to it and go, well, duh, Melissa, I knew that. And that might be the case. But I think these reminders are good, and they're ones that have helped me be able to be an active participant in volunteering in my kids schools. So the first idea I want to share is to just at least hold space for a yes. Hold space for saying yes to opportunities that pop up to those emails asking for help, to the little paper coming home, needing sign ups for something. Hold space for that. I'm not saying you need to say yes to everyone. Of course, nobody can say yes to everyone. That would drown anyone. But hold space for the yes. I feel like in our current culture, there's been a lot of talk about boundaries and no is a complete sentence and all those things are true, and it's good. But I feel like sometimes we swing that pendulum way too far the other way and we're in that no, no, no mode that we are missing out on real opportunities that really wouldn't take too much more effort from us to volunteer, to connect with our kids, to learn something new. And so just hold space for the yes. There's kind of two different stories that I wanted to share with this as an example. So the first I shared back, I believe it was episode ten, and I talked about how after my third child was born, my body fell apart just a little. And I went through a space of time in the years after that that I did not have the energy and the things that I normally did and that I do now in my life. And so there was one point where I finally had to accept that I had to realize it, and I had to press pause on a lot of things. And so, of course, something I pressed pause on was volunteering in my children's school. And I was not very involved for several years. I still had young kids in my home at the time, and I was healing my body and just kind of getting my footing again in life. And so it was absolutely okay for me to just say a blanket no at that time because I knew, I knew I couldn't do it. But as I talked about before, I still very much had that desire to be involved and I wanted to serve, and I knew I didn't need to feel guilty about it because I was doing exactly what I needed to do for me and my family at that time. So one thing that I did to stay engaged with the school to stay engaged with serving because that was important to me was all I did was write thank you notes. I wrote a couple thank you notes to teachers when I would see parents would share a text with me when my kid ended up in their group on a field trip. And I'd just reply and tell them, oh my goodness, thank you. How fun. It looks like you all had a fun day. Thank you so much for being willing to do that field trip. When my friend talked about the book fair that she had worked so hard to put in, I sent her a little message and I told her, thank you for taking the time to do that. Had my kids give a thank you to their bus driver, or we sent a thank you to the custodian, or we just, we just did a lot of thank yous that year. Thank yous don't take very much time and effort, but they matter and they mean something and they acknowledge the good that others are doing and they're a great way to serve. So that is how I served for many years in my kids schools. It was simply by just showing appreciation to the other people that could serve and had more energy for that at that time. So that was one story I wanted to share for just leaving a little space that I absolutely recognize that there are times when we do not have as much time to serve or as much energy, but there are still small ways we can find to make a difference if it matters to us. The other thing I thought of as I was preparing this was, I remember back when my older kids were still in elementary school that they were decorating all the doors for teacher appreciation week. And this was something that I never signed up for to do when they would ask for sign ups. This was when I chose to say no. And it was simply because I am not a very creative person in that way. Artistically, it really stretches me to do anything in that way and takes a lot of googling or asking other people how they would do it. It just doesn't come naturally to me and I don't revel in it and feel as much joy from it as creating in other ways, like making this podcast. But a friend came to me and she said, hey, we need someone to decorate the secretary's door. Would you be willing to do that for teacher appreciation Week? And I was all set to, you know, hold my boundary and say no. But then I was like, you know what? I can do that. I can do that. It's really not that hard. I can look on Pinterest, there's lots of ideas. And so that's what I did. I googled and found something that worked. It was our secretaries are the berry best. And then we just put strawberries on the door. I mean, that was it. It was super simple. And I remember I printed off those strawberries, and I had them on my kitchen table to start coloring. And my sweet daughter, who I think was in fourth grade at the time, came and, mommy, what are you doing? And I explained to her, and I might not be artistic, but my daughter is. She's very artistic and very creative. She loves doing those things. And so she climbed up there next to me and Satan and colored those strawberries with me and absolutely loved it. For me, it was checking off the list and getting a task done, but for my daughter, I could tell it was feeding her little creative soul. And to sit there next to her mom at the kitchen table coloring those strawberries. And in that moment, I was so glad that I'd said yes, because I got to have that little experience with my daughter. And instead of being this to do task item, I had to get done. It suddenly turned into a beautiful moment, and, of course, now a beautiful memory of coloring those strawberries with my daughter. And I got that because I held space for yes. I really did have the time to make the door. Most of the reason I was saying no was because I just felt like it wasn't something I was good at. But I held space for that yes. And it gave me an experience that now I will never forget. So hold space for those yeses. You can't say yes all the time, and we definitely shouldn't feel guilty every time we have to say no. There's no place for that either. But there are opportunities, and they pop up and just sit with them for a second, just see if it's something you really could help with or have the capacity to do. And you might be surprised at the things that come your way when some of the time you do get to say yes. My second idea isn't really groundbreaking, but I just wanted to give it more as a reminder that you can help with organized things so organizations or functions that are already organized within your school, you can show up and help with. So, of course, now I have to give a plug for the PTA's and the ptos out there. I have never been a huge on the PTA PTo board. I have been able to go to some meetings, and I'll participate in those. And I think sometimes, again, this is another one. I think it's a stereotype sometimes I see people making fun of the PTA ladies and they're crazy or something like that. And I kind of take offense by that. Not because I've really been a really super involved PTA lady, but because I have met all of them and they are amazing people and they are moms and dads. I've seen both. And some of them work, some of them don't. They're just all people that want to be involved in their kids schools in a variety of ways. So that might be the place for you to go, to go and join, show up at a meeting, just see what it's like. You might be surprised. You might find your people there. And also, I know many times with the PTA's ptos that I've seen, they want to get help in any way. And so lots of times they'll have email lists, they'll create, just put your email on there and then they'll send you out and let you know about the opportunities. Often they'll send out like a sign up genius. And I love that. I love just being a member of my parent teacher organizations and my schools, in my kids schools, I give them my email and then they send those out. And then I can sign up when it works for me and I can say, darn, I can't do that one. That one doesn't work for me. That's how a lot of them function now. And so it can be really convenient and you can just look and see the opportunities that are out there. There's no stress, no pressure. You sign up, you show up and help, and then you go home. It's a great way to be involved. I'm really grateful for the many individuals that serve on those boards and organize things in those ways. And another way to help with organized things is to look at the organized activities that your kids are participating in in your schools, and they need help lots of times. So I gave those examples of the debate tournament and the track meet, the battle of the books competitions. Those were all things my kids were participating in. And they sent out a need and a call for parents to help. Many sports have parents organizing, sometimes team dinners or activities or different things, and they need parents to just be involved and to help a little bit with that. And so there's lots of different ways that you can help. I think most organizations would love your help, and if you haven't seen anything forthcoming, you can approach them. You can approach the choir teacher or the orchestra teacher, the coach or the whoever and say, hey, I would love to help and be involved. Is there any way you could use parent help? And especially with older kids? That's how I've been involved in my older kids school experiences since, like I said earlier, they don't need you in the classroom anymore. That's not how you're serving. And so you just kind of be flexible with all those opportunities as your kids go through the different stages. But there's always opportunities to help. And I don't know many of those adults who will turn down a willing parent. So help with organized things. Help with the organized things in your kids schools. Help with the activities they're participating with. And also one that I love. Here in Utah, we have school community councils. These councils help decide how trust land money is spent, but they also give real input to administration about things in the schools and different opinions or perspective on things. These councils have administration, teachers and parents on them, and they're a great way to connect. So that's one way that I have loved to volunteer in an organized way. You basically just show up. Well, first you have to get voted on the community council by other parents in the school, and then you show up at those meetings once a month and they're scheduled. You show up, you participate, and you go home. And I love that. I love being able to do that. I love it's all organized in that way. So help with organized things. You don't have to come up with things on your own. And many times, just showing up and being willing with the organizations that are already functioning in your school is a great way to volunteer. The last tip and thing I wanted to share, it is something I have talked about many times before here on the podcast, and that's to do what comes naturally. You can do that with serving in the schools, too. You can do the things that feel right to you. Use your passions, your gifts, your talents, whatever it might be. It is okay to volunteer in that way. It's okay to do the things that come more natural to you. So again, I talked about how I haven't been as involved with the PTA's and ptos. Some of the things that they plan aren't always my cup of tea or things that I necessarily want to be involved in, and that's okay. Especially when my kids were in elementary school. I felt the most purpose and the most best use of my time by being in the classroom, because there were so many opportunities to be in the classroom. And I especially loved going on field trips, which I noticed some parents that that is not something they have ever desired to do, but I did. I grew up in a big family, and that organized chaos that is present on field trips, that was kind of what I grew up in. And I really love it, actually. I love trying to organize all those little kids. I love how excited they are, and everyone's running around crazy, and I love it. It's tiring, too. You know, I come home and I'm like, whoa, that was a day. But I have always loved going on field trips in my kids elementary schools. So that's what I volunteer with. That's where I save my time and energy for, because that matters to me. That makes a difference. Someone else, they might not want to go on a field trip, but they might love to come help the teacher cut out things that she needs to put on her bulletin board, or they might want to come and volunteer with the PTA and organize book fairs or whatever it is, so you can find those different things that you naturally like to help with and you naturally like to do. It is not selfish to want to get a little lift from your service, to want to feel that there's purpose and meaning behind it. And it can be really draining if you consistently just try to do things that you personally feel there's no bigger purpose to or you don't think matter as much. That can be draining if that's all you're doing. And so that's why it's important, especially when it comes to serving in our kids schools. Cause our kids are gonna be in school for quite a while if we're wanting to do it over a long period of time. Important to make sure we're doing things that also we find joy in and that we can find purpose and meaning behind. And I mentioned the field trips. Another reason. That's another reason why I've volunteered. My son has done debate. I've volunteered to be a judge at several of his tournaments. Of course, I don't judge him. We don't judge our own kids. But I get to interact with other teenagers. And I've judged at those battle of the books competitions and things like that was because when I was in school, I loved those things. I loved the scholastic competitions or the more academic things and the studying and working hard towards those things, like spelling bees, geography bees, those kinds of things. I loved all of those things when I was a child growing up in school. And so it's really fun for me to volunteer in that way. And I also love interacting with teenagers. I enjoy that interaction, and so I enjoy finding those opportunities to serve in that way as well. You can do what comes naturally. You can find joy in the service that you are giving at your children's school, especially if you have limited time to give. It's okay to want to enjoy that time and to enjoy that interaction. So I hope out of those three ideas that I've maybe sparked, some things in your mind and ways that you can be involved. That number one, you can hold space for yes. There are so many opportunities to say yes, and we don't need to have just a blanket no ready to go hold space. Say yes those few times you can, and then of course say no without the guilt and the times that you can't. But there are opportunities to say yes, and we can take advantage of those. Number two, help with organized things. Join the PTA. Join the PTO. Help with the things your kids are involved in. Look for the the councils or other things, the meetings that you can show up at and lend your voice. Many times those are just about scheduling them and showing up and giving our voice or giving our few minutes of time. And those can be a great way to be involved. And they take a lot of the legwork out for us to try and guess what to do because we can just show up at what those organized functions are asking us to show up and help with. And then number three, of course, is do what comes naturally. Of course, it is okay when you're serving in your kids schools to do those things that come naturally to you and that bring joy, fulfillment, purpose and meaning. So I hope you can find some ways to volunteer in your kids schools this year. Again, even if it's like the year where I gave thank yous everywhere, that was a great way to serve and I learned a lot from that experience. So support your kids. Support their teachers. And again, I just want to give that reminder that it doesn't have to be much. You do not have to have a long list, like I read at the beginning of this show, to make a difference. You don't have to spend hours of time. It really can be those little increments and pockets of time that we can fit in or those opportunities that we choose to say yes to. They can be great opportunities to connect with our own children and to show them that we believe it's important to be involved in our community. It's great to be an example of that to our kids. It also gives us opportunity to connect with other kids. Kids need a village. They need those positive interactions with other adults, and we can offer that when we choose to volunteer in our kids schools. I hope I've inspired you today to get out there and serve in any way. I hope I gave enough encouragement too, and reminder that you can volunteer no matter what age your kid is. Last year I had kids in elementary, middle school, junior high and high school. They split them into four schools. Here where we are and every school there were opportunities for me to volunteer. So every age and stage there are definitely opportunities. It can be a great way to serve. Obviously, it's where I spend most of my time serving at this stage of my life, because volunteering in the schools is really important to me and so it's where I spend a lot of my time. I like to be in the schools. I like to be involved. I like to be aware of what my kids are doing and learning. And I also like showing my support to the administration and the teachers for the good work they're doing as well. So it's a great way to serve. I highly recommend it. Thank you so much for being here and for listening. This week again, show the podcast some love. Leave a review, give it a follow share an episode, maybe this episode with a friend. And as always, I hope this week you find a way to do something more to help lift, inspire, or make a difference.