Be a parent volunteer in school, better for your school and child

PHOENIX - If this is the year you plan on getting involved in your child's school volunteer program, you may want to check out a website called

volunteerspot.com

.

VolunteerSpot.com offers all the tools you need to simply and easily coordinate volunteers for your classroom and school activities - from scheduling to Smartphone sign-ups to email reminders - even volunteer hours reporting. It's great for organizing classroom volunteers, parent-teacher conferences, cafeteria and library volunteers, snack schedules and school fundraisers like carnivals and book fairs. They also have great free guidebooks and a popular blog with tips and ideas like Room Mom Survival Guide .

Mary Firme is the Director of Marketing for Volunteerspot.com and says there are huge benefits for all involved when you donate your time to your child's school and education. "When your child sees you alongside their teacher working as a team, it creates positive rapport and opens communication channels for everybody. The other compelling factor is that school budget cuts mean our class sizes are suddenly larger, and our teachers have fewer (if any) assistants. Any help we can give as parent volunteers makes a big impact."

So who makes a great volunteer? "The beautiful thing is, there is no such thing as the perfect classroom volunteer - everyone can share their time and special talents with their childrens class and most teachers welcome and encourage parent participation."

Firme says it's important to be realistic about how much time you can give and match your volunteer commitment to your schedule and interests. "Almost anyone can find some time to volunteer - We've seen from the schedules our users have created on VolunteerSpot.com that jobs can be daily, weekly, monthly, annually, weekends, lunches anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours," says Firme.

Here are some "Smart and Simple" tips to being a great classroom volunteer:

* Volunteer to do something that you find fun or interesting. If you can't stand messes, you're not going to enjoy art day -- but you might enjoy organizing student weekly folders! If you like it quiet, be the classroom reader, not the recess supervisor.

* Be prompt. Show up in the classroom when scheduled. Be sure to leave plenty of time for parking and to check-in at the school office.

* Leave the cell phone in the car. Volunteer time isn't social time. There's nothing worse than a parent reading facebook when they are supposed to be reading Cat in the Hat.

* Honor the lesson plan. Your child's teacher has put a lot of time into organizing the day's activities. It's her game, her way - ask how she needs your help and follow through.

* Keep it positive. A bright smile and heaping doses of praise go a long way to a great day in the classroom. Reinforce classroom behavior expectations and refer discipline issues to the teacher.

* If you can't make it, call!  Alert the teacher right away if you can't make it, and try to find a substitute yourself.

* Help all kids. Be inclusive and support all kids in the classroom, not just your own son or daughter.

* Respect student privacy. Special needs, grades and performance are private (and often legally protected) and must be kept confidential.

* Follow school rules. Background checks are required in some districts and others have rules prohibiting younger siblings in the classroom.

* Have fun! Enjoy this special time with your children and their classmates. They're only young once and they all will treasure and remember your special days at school.