School field trips are always both fun and exhausting. The preparation for school field trips is extensive and often causes plenty of headaches, but whenever you have trustworthy and responsible volunteers, the field trips are sure to have a greater chance of succeeding. This article will help you find field trip volunteers so that your field trip will go as smoothly as possible.
1. Parents
Parents always make great candidates for volunteers, but you never really know how responsible a parent. It is always a good idea to check for references. Whenever you have meetings with your students' parents, write down the names of those parents who seem the most mature and responsible to you, and who you may think will have the time to volunteer at random times of the year. This is not about discrimination; rather, it is about your judgment and how you will support that judgment (using references, of course).
If you want to choose this option, you may consider putting up a sign-up sheet. You can either e-mail this information or print out newsletters for your students to take home. Encourage their parents to sign up, but notify them that this will be a selective process, especially since the volunteers will be dealing with students. When looking for field trip volunteers, safety always comes first.
2. Other teachers
Turning to colleagues is always a good idea, but also remember that your colleagues may teach differently than you and you may encounter some authoritative issues during the field trip. Make sure that your colleague is understanding of your teaching method, if your methods differ, and that there will be little to no friction between you during the field trip. Not only will this generally make the field trip less exhausting, but your students will have more fun, too.
3. Community
Outreaching is sometimes frowned upon, especially since we necessarily do not know who our neighbors really are. Again, references are suggested. Check potential volunteers' background histories and compare them to their references' knowledge of them. If the two differ, that person is probably not a good candidate. This method, however, will be the most time-consuming, so always save this option for last if you cannot find colleagues or parents to volunteer for you.
As you can see, finding volunteers is a difficult process because you always want to try to maintain the safety of your students. However, you can try to safeguard your students by checking prospective volunteers' backgrounds, references, and best of all, making sound judgments.