January 8, 2002

Students benefit from parents' volunteer work

Pledging time for schools

Chris Richards / Staff
Angela Wiseman, who volunteers at Ironwood Elementary, goes over a test with her son, Ryan, age 7. "I didn't know volunteering would be so much fun," she says.

A new semester that began Monday is a new opportunity for families, students and the community to make or renew commitments to improving education.

Over the last semester, more than 60 people signed "Teaching Tucson's Children" pledges to become involved, and stay involved, in their children's education.

The idea grew out of the Teaching Tucson's Children Town Hall, held at the University of Arizona in August and broadcast communitywide on television and radio. The community discussion focused on how getting involved - as a parent, a neighbor, a business - can help kids learn and grow.

Parents who took the pledge have figured out what works for them and what is practical, and they are seeing results and setting examples for others.

Angela Wiseman, for example, jumped right back into volunteering at Ironwood Elementary School when classes resumed Monday after winter break.

Close to 100,000 students in school districts across Pima County returned to school Monday.

When Wiseman and her husband bought their home in Marana, they didn't even think about schools. And being from Ohio, she felt she didn't know about the local school system her son would attend.

"That's how I started to volunteer - I didn't want to feel like I'm sending him off to something I know nothing about," Wiseman said. "Volunteering put my mind more at ease.

"But I didn't know that volunteering would be so much fun," she added.

Wiseman started volunteering at Ironwood Elementary with her son in kindergarten last year. Then she joined the Parent-Teacher Organization. She heard the librarian needed a hand shelving books and other chores, so she signed up.

Balancing volunteering at school with her part-time job can get hectic, Wiseman said, but it works out.

The education pledge reiterated Wiseman's commitment to being involved, and she clipped the form and sent it in "just to get it on record that there are people out there volunteering because they want to help out."

Wiseman said she can see the benefits of family involvement.

Classmates will ask her son, "Wow, is that your mom?" Wiseman said. Having a parent who volunteers in class makes her son proud, she said.

Kids who know their parents are concerned with their education put more emphasis on it themselves, she said.

"I've even had kids come up and say, 'I wish my mom or dad would volunteer' - from different age groups, from kindergarten to sixth grade. "They wish their parents would come in for an hour once a week, or just to see their classroom, anything."

"It's in my heart"

Parent Diana Thibault says she'd already had spent years volunteering in her sons' school when she took the education pledge online.

"It's in my heart, right up there with prayers - you just do it," Thibault said. But by filling out the online form, she sees herself making her private commitment public.

"It's kind of like having your friends holding you accountable," Thibault said. "I guess I did it to let people know that there are parents who are doing this.

"You can do it, whether you're doing it quietly or loudly," she said.

Thibault volunteers in her first- and fourth-grade sons' classrooms, works as a monitor during lunch or watches over kids before or after school, and fills in as a substitute teacher's aide in a special-education class when needed.

"My husband, Raymond, does his part at home," Thibault said. "He'll roll up his sleeves and assist with homework."

The boys, Blake, 10, and Nicholas, 7, have learned that Mommy is there to help all the kids, but sometimes she slips out of the classroom to help the school nurse or assist in the office or cafeteria.

"There are times I have to back off because the boys will see me and they want Mommy's attention," Thibault said. "I'll tell them that I'm here to be a mommy helper, but I can't just help you individually."

Thibault keeps on top of how the school accommodates her sons' visual impairments. "You can't not know what's going on if you're there," she said.

Thibault said she's careful not to hover or embarrass her sons, and she keeps up to date with their teachers after class. Her attentiveness works on several fronts: The school knows she's involved, and her sons know she knows what's going on.

"If I'm there and the school knows I'm paying attention, they'll listen to me, vs. just being a face that just shows up occasionally," Thibault said.

Other ways to help

Ryan Castillo said work has kept him and his wife, Monica, too busy to volunteer in school as they had hoped.

They stay involved in their daughters' education, however, by finding other ways to help out in the classroom.

That includes buying supplies for the classroom as well as art projects.

They also volunteer for escort duty for field trips for both Briana, 11, who attends Ironwood Elementary, 3300 W. Freer
Drive, and Monique, 5, a pre-schooler.

"You really have to make the time," Castillo said. "We try to work around our normal work schedule."

Grandma keeps journals

Susan Lane helps her grandchildren become interested in reading and writing by keeping the topics personal: She keeps a journal about each of them.

"I'm starting my fourth journal this year," Lane said. "They read some of it, and they love looking at pictures I put in, or things from the newspaper or my daily devotion."

Lane, a retired schoolteacher of 30 years, also volunteers with second-graders at Erickson Elementary School, where a friend is the principal.

She works to teach kids about peace and fills her house with phrases to keep the message of peace front and center.

Transition to paid aide

Patti Nelson made good on her pledge to volunteer every day at her daughters' school.

Now she works there.

"I think they just got tired of seeing me there every day," joked Nelson, a teacher's aide and monitor at Vesey Elementary, 5005 S. Butts Road.

Nelson said her volunteer work ranged from helping the teacher grade papers to tying the shoes of kindergartners.

Now Nelson is an aide for an hour each day in 5-year-old Julie's kindergarten class.

And she works the rest of her six-hour shift as a monitor at the school, in which daughter Leslee is a third-grader.

Working at the school her daughters attend makes it more convenient for Nelson to stay on top of school goings-on.

But she said it also has made her more aware of how many of the girls' schoolmates lack the support at home to help with homework and basic needs, like a daily change of clothes.

* Contact Hipolito R. Corella at 573-4191 or at corella@azstarnet.com.
* Contact Sarah Garrecht Gassen at 573-4117 or at sgassen@azstarnet.com.