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Yeah, this school has volunteerism down to an ART form! I'd never heard of the "copy mom" thing before we moved here either - in Colorado, they don't even make their own copies, all but the smallest jobs are sent out to a central building to be copied and then they were sent back to be sorted by the teachers and volunteer moms.
But we're not allowed to bring cupcakes, Kleenex was on the school supply list and you have to pass the background check to attend field trips. And this school doesn't do Scholastic book orders either - rumor has it that 4 or 5 years ago a bunch of volunteer 'book order' moms ended up embezzling several thousand dollars and Scholastic won't allow book orders until they are reimbursed. They do allow book fairs though.
I don't think I could work very well with that kind of system. It's not that I don't like parental involvement. I do! It's great! But I'm the kind of person who decides what copies to make, and changes her mind three times, while I'm IN the copy room, the day before the class will be using those copies. And then, while the copies are running, I see a die-cut that would work really well for what we're doing tomorrow, so I cut dozens of those. And then another teacher walks in with her copies and I look at them and say "Ooooh, can I steal that from you?" and I make copies of hers. My teaching turns out better that way, believe it or not. It's a weird combination of super-preparedness and make-it-up-as-you-go that just wouldn't meld well with planning things out to have someone else do my copying weeks in advance.
I've always been curious - how does confidentiality and all of that work when you've got a parent spending a lot of time in the classroom? I dunno... I'm in a very small town and it just seems like if I set kids to work with parent volunteers, they're going to become intimately aware of what Susie Jones struggles with, and it seems like that could be awkward or even illegal in some cases?
I don't think it's petty to let the teacher and/or whoever does the newsletter know that you felt hurt by the omission. Personally, I'd rather somebody be direct without being too subtle or dramatic, just "I was a little hurt that I wasn't recognized in the newsletter for all the work I did". The problem with being clever about it is that your target may not realize you're really upset, especially if they are prone to missing details.
I've always been curious - how does confidentiality and all of that work when you've got a parent spending a lot of time in the classroom?
The parent volunteers aren't supposed to come into contact with the confidential stuff, but we do. (I do very little actually in the classroom here - there are parents who insist on it, but I prefer to do the stuff for the teachers that they would have to do on their "off time") When I come into contact with something that I shouldn't be seeing, I try not to notice, but sometimes I do. I just keep it to myself.
This happens most often when I'm making copies and a teacher pops in for a "quick" copy of their own... although this copier can be momentarily interrupted, if it is interrupted at the wrong moment, it'll cause a paper jam so they often just leave the stuff with me to copy when I can and then I run it back down to their classroom as soon as I can.
In Colorado, you had to pass the same background checks as the teachers to work with the kids. As I was working with 1st & 3rd graders and their sight words and math skills, most were struggling with the same things, a couple more than others. I didn't keep track of who had what skills, other than my own two.
It's a weird combination of super-preparedness and make-it-up-as-you-go that just wouldn't meld well with planning things out to have someone else do my copying weeks in advance.
I'm a control freak myself most of the time and can only have the most menial tasks completed by others, whether it's housework or something with the Girl Scouts (I'm getting better/looser about the housework!). I make a lot of work for myself at the school because I can't help myself from saying sometimes, "Have you ever heard about/thought about...". Then the teacher thinks it's a fabulous idea that she doesn't have time to put together and since it's my idea anyway... This is how I turned a 1 hour hanging things on a bulletin board into a year long project that took my dh & I just over a week to set up, working at the school a couple hours a day on it, plus the time at home! But once I start something, I cannot leave it undone!
The problem with being clever about it is that your target may not realize you're really upset, especially if they are prone to missing details.
I've always been curious - how does confidentiality and all of that work when you've got a parent spending a lot of time in the classroom? I dunno... I'm in a very small town and it just seems like if I set kids to work with parent volunteers, they're going to become intimately aware of what Susie Jones struggles with, and it seems like that could be awkward or even illegal in some cases?
Bigcats, you have brought up an interesting aside regarding confidentiality. When parents are sorting student work into take-home folders, tutoring struggling readers, copying modified spelling lists for certain kids then there is that question of confidentiality. Most confidentiality laws seem to relate to Individual Educational Plans, IEPs from Special Education. Some of the rest is perhaps courteous confidentiality. It certainly is a interesting question!
In regards to confidentiality, the interpretation seems to be more geared towards the issue of discussing what you know about a student and not the actual knowing.
As much time as I spent in my son's Kindergarten last year and with my background/experience I could easily assess their strengths and weaknesses. That in itself isn't an issue because there were no discussions between the teacher and myself regarding any student except my own, nor with any other parent. So there was no breach of confidentiality.
Just to update... I decided to tell the teacher today how I felt during our parent/teacher conference, and not get "clever".
She seemed genuinely embarassed, said it was her fault for not paying better attention and told me that she would make sure it wouldn't go further, on her end. I explained to her what happened with the other mom and she seemed baffled by her behavior as well.
Okay, so big effusive, unnecessary praise in last week's newsletter. I feel petty and small now... but TOTALLY appreciated!
The teacher did tell me that it's the last newsletter that will mention any parent by name... seems I wasn't the only one who brought it up (other classrooms/grade levels). So from now on, there will be a general thank you to " all the parents that worked so hard on *insert name of project* so that there will be no more mistaken or outright missed names. I can live with that!
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It's a weird combination of super-preparedness and make-it-up-as-you-go that just wouldn't meld well with planning things out to have someone else do my copying weeks in advance.
confidentiality
