Volunteering opportunities for middle school students.

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:9:15 again to add to my post. To the other person who recommended the invasive plants, we looked into that. My son was interested. The issue is a parent had to go with them for the entire time. While that’s nice in theory, we have multiple kids and don’t have time to devote a day to that after working all week. It was his volunteer requirement, not mine. He can find volunteer opportunities when he’s old enough to go alone.


Exactly. Having this as a requirement in middle school is a burden on families. It’s basically virtue signaling.


FCPS doesn't offer opportunities on campus?

I live in MoCo and have taught in DC, in both places our middle schools have plenty of opportunities on their campuses, with transportation available. I know 7th and 8th grader who got hours for riding the school bus to 6th grade orientation as ambassadors. I know kids who use their lunch time to shelve books in the middle school library. I know teachers who run clubs that do activities like packing backpacks for elementary school lunch, or making cards for elderly people, that meet after school before the late bus leaves. Teachers also work things into the classroom. The 6th graders in MCPS do stream clean up as part of outdoor ed, and MCPS transports them there.

I am surprised FCPS doesn't do the same.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:An 8th grader doesn’t need to volunteer. All they do is get in the way of the adults anyway.


This. But it was a loose requirement in DD’s ES. Required, but no consequence for not doing it. So you have 100 10 year olds looking for volunteer opportunities.


Volunteering for an elementary or middle schooler consists of things like helping an elderly neighbor, sending cards to grandma or the local old folks home, etc.

What we used to call simply being neighborly.

Not some big facebook or instagram worthy production.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m an elementary school librarian and I’d love to have A couple of middle school students come over after school to help shelve books!


How would the middle school student get to the elementary school? Middle school is out by 2:15. Then the bus takes kids home. How would working parents get their kids over to an elementary school for volunteer work?



ES offer many evening events that are always looking for volunteers. They can also come in on a Teacher Workday. There are always teachers looking for help or a PTA event.


You are thinking of students who have stay at home parents to drive them.


Or live in walking distance from an ES, or know how to take public transportation, or have a parent who works shifts as any one of a number of jobs that work shifts, or require an early start and an early end. Your inability to imagine that people live lives that are different from you is part of what service learning is designed to address.



I understand that this option will not work for ALL kids, but it is still an option. Students can pick up trash in their neighborhood and that would count too. I just mentioned this because many kids do live close to their ES.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m an elementary school librarian and I’d love to have A couple of middle school students come over after school to help shelve books!


How would the middle school student get to the elementary school? Middle school is out by 2:15. Then the bus takes kids home. How would working parents get their kids over to an elementary school for volunteer work?



ES offer many evening events that are always looking for volunteers. They can also come in on a Teacher Workday. There are always teachers looking for help or a PTA event.


You are thinking of students who have stay at home parents to drive them.


Or live in walking distance from an ES, or know how to take public transportation, or have a parent who works shifts as any one of a number of jobs that work shifts, or require an early start and an early end. Your inability to imagine that people live lives that are different from you is part of what service learning is designed to address.


New poster: your kid is not able to Google virtual service hours. I can find many in less than a minute.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:9:15 again to add to my post. To the other person who recommended the invasive plants, we looked into that. My son was interested. The issue is a parent had to go with them for the entire time. While that’s nice in theory, we have multiple kids and don’t have time to devote a day to that after working all week. It was his volunteer requirement, not mine. He can find volunteer opportunities when he’s old enough to go alone.


Exactly. Having this as a requirement in middle school is a burden on families. It’s basically virtue signaling.


FCPS doesn't offer opportunities on campus?

I live in MoCo and have taught in DC, in both places our middle schools have plenty of opportunities on their campuses, with transportation available. I know 7th and 8th grader who got hours for riding the school bus to 6th grade orientation as ambassadors. I know kids who use their lunch time to shelve books in the middle school library. I know teachers who run clubs that do activities like packing backpacks for elementary school lunch, or making cards for elderly people, that meet after school before the late bus leaves. Teachers also work things into the classroom. The 6th graders in MCPS do stream clean up as part of outdoor ed, and MCPS transports them there.

I am surprised FCPS doesn't do the same.


They do offer opportunities to volunteer on campus. My son helped prepare laptops for distribution and got 40 hours worth of credit.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:9:15 again to add to my post. To the other person who recommended the invasive plants, we looked into that. My son was interested. The issue is a parent had to go with them for the entire time. While that’s nice in theory, we have multiple kids and don’t have time to devote a day to that after working all week. It was his volunteer requirement, not mine. He can find volunteer opportunities when he’s old enough to go alone.


Exactly. Having this as a requirement in middle school is a burden on families. It’s basically virtue signaling.


FCPS doesn't offer opportunities on campus?

I live in MoCo and have taught in DC, in both places our middle schools have plenty of opportunities on their campuses, with transportation available. I know 7th and 8th grader who got hours for riding the school bus to 6th grade orientation as ambassadors. I know kids who use their lunch time to shelve books in the middle school library. I know teachers who run clubs that do activities like packing backpacks for elementary school lunch, or making cards for elderly people, that meet after school before the late bus leaves. Teachers also work things into the classroom. The 6th graders in MCPS do stream clean up as part of outdoor ed, and MCPS transports them there.

I am surprised FCPS doesn't do the same.


They do offer opportunities to volunteer on campus. My son helped prepare laptops for distribution and got 40 hours worth of credit.


+ there are tons of opportunities to volunteer in the schools--often during the study break period or afterschool (on bus days). But some posters just want to gripe that service learning is "virtue signaling" or is somehow inequitable.
Anonymous
Every kid can pick up trash in their neighborhood for an hour x 5.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:An 8th grader doesn’t need to volunteer. All they do is get in the way of the adults anyway.


This. But it was a loose requirement in DD’s ES. Required, but no consequence for not doing it. So you have 100 10 year olds looking for volunteer opportunities.


It was required for NJHS, as well as a requirement for Honors Civics.

Regardless of what you think of it, they are required to do it. So instead of whining about it, embrace that it may get one or more seriously involved in community service. That is a good thing.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Every kid can pick up trash in their neighborhood for an hour x 5.


That's . . . not how it works. You need a sponsor and someone to sign off on the request.
Anonymous
I’ve often wondered about adults who never volunteer to give back. Who don’t help with sports, scouts, religious orgs, etc. Now I know, they believe that helping out is virtue signaling and their virtue is all caught up in themselves.

I’m sorry if you object to your children having to volunteer and can’t help direct them to resources or direct some of your free time to volunteering with them, your kid needs service learning the most. Because they’re not learning what it means to be a caring, engaged, and active member of the community from you.

And on behalf of every working, service oriented parent who gets tapped all the time to lead/help/volunteer, I guarantee you’ve enjoyed every fall festival, bingo night, sports team, and scouting event the rest of us have somehow found time to contribute to. Please stop teaching your children to freeload. It takes everyone doing their part for us all to have nice things. I’m glad school is teaching them if you are not.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I’ve often wondered about adults who never volunteer to give back. Who don’t help with sports, scouts, religious orgs, etc. Now I know, they believe that helping out is virtue signaling and their virtue is all caught up in themselves.

I’m sorry if you object to your children having to volunteer and can’t help direct them to resources or direct some of your free time to volunteering with them, your kid needs service learning the most. Because they’re not learning what it means to be a caring, engaged, and active member of the community from you.

And on behalf of every working, service oriented parent who gets tapped all the time to lead/help/volunteer, I guarantee you’ve enjoyed every fall festival, bingo night, sports team, and scouting event the rest of us have somehow found time to contribute to. Please stop teaching your children to freeload. It takes everyone doing their part for us all to have nice things. I’m glad school is teaching them if you are not.


You are so privileged it’s disgusting.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’ve often wondered about adults who never volunteer to give back. Who don’t help with sports, scouts, religious orgs, etc. Now I know, they believe that helping out is virtue signaling and their virtue is all caught up in themselves.

I’m sorry if you object to your children having to volunteer and can’t help direct them to resources or direct some of your free time to volunteering with them, your kid needs service learning the most. Because they’re not learning what it means to be a caring, engaged, and active member of the community from you.

And on behalf of every working, service oriented parent who gets tapped all the time to lead/help/volunteer, I guarantee you’ve enjoyed every fall festival, bingo night, sports team, and scouting event the rest of us have somehow found time to contribute to. Please stop teaching your children to freeload. It takes everyone doing their part for us all to have nice things. I’m glad school is teaching them if you are not.


You are so privileged it’s disgusting.


+1
Anonymous
I have no idea. My child said he would volunteer, under the supervision of his chess tutor, to provide free chess lessons to younger kids in the community. National Junior Honor Society rejected this as community service.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I have no idea. My child said he would volunteer, under the supervision of his chess tutor, to provide free chess lessons to younger kids in the community. National Junior Honor Society rejected this as community service.


So ridiculous.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I have no idea. My child said he would volunteer, under the supervision of his chess tutor, to provide free chess lessons to younger kids in the community. National Junior Honor Society rejected this as community service.


That’s bc part of the service hours requirement is identifying a real (authentic) need. See here:

https://www.fcps.edu/activities/service-learning

Has your kid determined that there was a big gap in this and the need was genuine, that’s step one.
post reply Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)
Message Quick Reply
Go to: