1. Volunteer Orientation
School Year
Greeting – introduce yourselves

2. Introductions
Name What brings you to MPS? (Parent, Community Member, Student) What three words describe your school experience?
Model with your own intro

3. Minneapolis Public Schools
Introduce handouts on the table – map, calendar, current opportunities

4. Demographics MPS Students *2015-16 data
Total enrollment is over 36,000 students (Fall 2015 reports)
African-American (including African immigrants and refugees) – 40% (~16,000)
32% of these students speak a language other than English at home (~5,200)
White-American – 33%
Hispanic/Latino – 17%
Asian-American – 6%
American Indian – 4%
* data

5. Demographics MPS Students *October 2015 data
Total enrollment is over 34,000 students
Special Education Services 21%
ELL 20%
Free and Reduced Lunch 60%
Homeless and Highly Mobile 10%
*October 2015 data

6. Culture of Minneapolis Public Schools
Importance of flexibility
Communication is important, but needs to happen at appropriate times
If you don’t understand something—ask!
Acronyms are utilized frequently, ask the teacher when is a good time to check in, be flexible with the teacher if that time doesn’t work, keep a list of questions to ask at that time.

7. How to Be a Successful Volunteer
Be prompt. Teachers are counting on you!
Show up ready to serve students and schools each day
Remember, the teacher is in charge of the classroom
Reasonable, planned absences happen (travel, etc). If you have something planning, please tell your teacher as soon as you know and the week before you will be gone.

8. Activity
Hand out “challenges” sheet to half of the class, “positives” to the other half
Mo activity instructions
1. Read the instructions and the full page to yourself.
2. Discuss with your small group (table) for 3 minutes, and make a list together.
3. Choose someone to report out from your group
4. Large group report out

9. Asset-based Interactions
Small, but intentional shifts in the way we perceive and interpret information about ourselves and others
Thinking in a way that magnifies strengths rather than focusing on weaknesses
Zeroing-in on what is working instead of what isn’t working
Giving specific, affirmative praise rather than “Good job, Charlie! You’re very smart!”
Asset based interactions. Anyone heard of strengths, strengths finder, etc?
Utilizing a strengths (asset) based model when interacting with students.
Provides us with a framework to have a big impact in a small amount of time

10. Behavior Management
Different than discipline– It is proactive, not reactive
Teachers, not volunteers, should discipline
Misbehavior may happen when students are dealing with unmet basic needs
Redirection, asking questions– “Can you sit on your pockets, please?” or “When we’re reading a book, students should be sitting in their chairs.”
Affirming positive behavior, especially in students that have exhibited negative behavior previously– “Nadia, thank you for being on time today.”

11. Intercultural Competency
Be aware of assumptions
Students might behave differently based on their home life experience
You don’t have to be an expert– be ready to learn!
Students come from all walks of life.
Students will have assumptions about you too.
Don’t assume a student has enough to eat, a quiet place to study, or is loud because they are angry.
Be open to what you will experience, ask questions, and follow the teacher’s lead or ask the teacher questions after class if you’re not sure how to behave.

12. Working with English Language Learners (ELL)
Be aware of your pronunciation, how quickly you speak, and the words you choose
Draw out responses and encourage the student to speak. Open ended questions are valuable
Get to know their culture, ask questions
Chances are high that you might work with ELL students even if you are not in an ELL classroom.
Students withl higher English speaking levels will sometimes struggle with written English.
Students with lower levels of English will answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions easily, so try to draw out their answers with open-ended questions.

13. Stretch break
Time check – 1 hour.
5 minutes

14. Opportunities We match volunteers with school/student need
Teachers request volunteers based on need
Some volunteers placed in classroom or other spots as determined by the school
Refer to current, open opportunities. Give some examples of other work.
If you need a significant amount of hours, please treat this as an internship. It can be very difficult to accommodate large amounts of people that need many hours of service.

15. Background Checks
Background checks are required of any volunteers that will be unsupervised with students
Checks cost $5, cash or check
Checks are good for two years at any MPS School
Forms are available today or you can print one off the website if you don’t know if your placement requires a background check.

16. Volunteer Expectations Activity
Please read briefly over the MPS Volunteer Expectations.
Scenarios - each group will get a scenario, spend time reading the scenario and discussing how you should react in your small group. We will then discuss all 5 as a large group.
*I usually don’t assign #2 and begin with it as a large group example – too easy for a small group.

17. Next Steps
Please stick around to talk placement if you have not already been in contact with a specific school
Utilize your resources and be proactive
If you have a specific need (i.e. a specific number of hours or classroom need), be proactive in setting up your schedule. It is not guaranteed that we can meet these needs.
Schools are very busy places. If the volunteer liaison doesn’t respond to the initial placement within a week or so, be proactive and send a gentle reminder. Ask then when they’re best available to chat on the phone or in person. If they don’t get back to you, connect with Patti Peterson to troubleshoot.

18. Questions?

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Thank you!
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