Jenmomof3 Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Need some help from the hive. How do those of you in co-op school situations encourage parents to teach? We have about 50-60 families in our co-op and have only about 14 parents teaching during the 3 hours each week. The other parents have to attend and assist in the classroom, but the burden of planning and teaching is falling on a very small group of people. Has your co-op found an innovative way to expand this group? Do you make it mandatory to teach every so many years? If so, how do you enforce that? Do you offer price breaks for those who teach? (Although, I'm not sure this would help here, since our school is so cheap) Any thoughts or ways that have worked for your group? We're having a planning meeting tonight and I'd love to bring some ideas to the table. Thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Do you limit how many children can be in each class? If so, that could be an incentive right there: each teacher decides what she can teach, there are no more than 10-15 children in each class; if people want more classes, there must be more teachers. Of course, since not all of the parents are teaching, it isn't really a "co-op," is it? We called it "Friday school" (unless it was on Wednesday, lol). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 At the co-op I go to, parents who teach get a discount on their children's classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missplacedalaskan Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Our co-op charges a fee for "helpers" families. There is no fee for teachers. This is a great incentive for me. Our Semester fee is $25.00...to participate, this covers insurance for the church we use, all fee's for copies are covered with this and many of the class fee's come from this fund. If you are a helper for classes you still pay a fee for you children to attend. The fee for our Co-op is $5/child/class. For me this was very prohibitive! It would cost us $20/class to participate in Co-op. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate CA Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Our co-op is a fraction of the size of yours (only five families total) so my info might not be helpful. We require all moms to teach. We rotate subjects through the year so that every mom teaches a portion of the year. I agree with Ellie that it is not really a co-op if the moms are not teaching (or working in some substantial manner). I also like her idea of small classes. I also think that you should treat it as a class rather than a co-op if you are not willing to make teaching mandatory, and charge accordingly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 -require everyone to teach -limit class sizes -require every to serve in some way (some co-ops do a point system) -give discounts to parents who teach -have routational teaching schedule, with everyone's name on the docke- -have parents team teach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julesmama3 Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Maybe the administrator of your co-op needs to set the ground rules. Our administrator assigns up to 3 teachers per class, depending on the size and age, and its the responsibility of those moms to get together and decide what material will be used and who is teaching which lesson etc. We seem to give grace to those moms who are new to the co-op format but after a couple of years, it is time to participate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 We are in a cop-op about twice that size. Every parent must teach a class every semester. It is still not totally equal - some are co-teaching preschool while some are teaching high school - but at least everyone is working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teamturner Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Yes, you need to make it a requirement for all moms to teach at least one class a semester. My co-op used to have a point system where you received one point for teaching and half a point for assisting. You needed to have I think 2 points for the whole year (we have 4-6 week sessions per year. So your class can be a 6wk class for 1 point or a 12 week class for 2 pts.-some high school classes went the whole year). We don't need the point system anymore because everyone realizes by now that everyone has to teach a class each sememster at least. We also have to help in either the set up team or clean up team. We do also show grace for those new to the co-op or those who've recently had a baby. :001_smile: Each spring when we sign up for the new year, we have to put down at least 3 class ideas that we are willing to teach. Plus our co-op has a lot of resources we can offer the moms to assist in the lesson planning. Then we put out the entire list of classes and everyone puts down their children's top picks. This determines what the class offerings will be. Then we register our kids for the classes and after we see which classes "make" we shuffle the teachers around in case someone's classes didn't get picked whereas another mom's classes all got picked and she can't teach them all. Sorry this got too long and wordy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tina Posted October 16, 2008 Share Posted October 16, 2008 Well, we have two different coop options available. In the first, the classes are the same every year-science, art, math/geog games, etc. It meets for a 1/2 day biweekly, with kids rotating into your class. This group is to provide some group experiences. All parents are required to teach, and tho you can number your preferences on the registration form, you are assigned a class with a partner. You have no choice whether to teach or not. The second option, where you can teach whatever you want for the year, be it a science class, literature discussion, math, whatever, meets weekly. These classes are generally one the mom would like to teach her child with some peers, and assign a textbook, and perhaps homework. The teacher assigns a fee for her class that you agree to pay when you sign up for the class, along with a minimum and maximum # of students. (Generally, it just covers her expenses, maybe $5 a kid or something.) The parent can just sit in the quiet area during classes (we have some quilting and doing other crafts :) ; she doesn't have to teach. Last year, we did wave the building use fee for teachers to encourage a few more. This year we couldn't afford to do that, but we still have a great array of classes. (We do have a band and choir that actually have some expense to them.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenmomof3 Posted October 16, 2008 Author Share Posted October 16, 2008 Great responses. Thanks so much for sharing. Can't wait to present some of these ideas at the meeting tonight. You guys are great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 When you get back, let us know how your meeting went. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda TX Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 I'm late getting in on this, but our teachers get first priority at registration for their kids. Also, we have been known to assign teachers, especially at the younger levels (k/1). Our co-op is about the size of yours, sounds like. 60-65 families, almost 200 kids. We do registration twice a year.... http://www.vcccube.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soph the vet Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 I know you're probably at the meeting but... You could inform them what it costs to hire teachers. Our co-op pays $25/hr. for starting teachers (adults) for a 3 hr. class. Our current art teacher gets $100 per co-op and our science teacher gets $195/co-op (she is truly exceptional and does a ton of hands on stuff). It is NOT cheap to hire teachers but could be an option for your co-op if everyone wants to fork over a few hundred dollars a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frogpond1 Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 That is the best way to make it fair. A lot of moms would rather pay than teach anyway, but teachers spend a lot of time planning, correcting and working. I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosy Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 I know your meeting has already happened, but for others who might be interested, our co-op charges a $15 honorarium per child per class that goes straight to the teacher, and teachers can also charge a materials fee. It's great incentive to plan great classes, and we always get more teacher applications than we can use. People who don't teach are still required to volunteer, we get one free period if we're there all 4. It works for us--our co-op is consistently growing and improving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tap Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 One very successful Friday school I know of has this basic set up. Everyone pays the $5 or $10 registration fee per kid, per semester. Each class costs $2-5 per session for materials/supplies, everything is provided with limited exceptions (highschool textbooks etc) so the teacher isn't providing anything out of their own pocket. Each person is expected to teach or co-teach a class, if you do not, you pay $45 per semester per class, to pay the school to hire a replacement for you. If you are not actively teaching a class, you are expected to be volunteering in some form. There are some moms who teach their own requirement and also get 'paid' to teach another class. To avoid IRS, Tax or other legal issues, the payment is in the form of credit for any fees the teacher would have paid themselves for the year (registration fees and class fees) or future years enrollment. And gets them out of any volunteer expectations as a parent for all other classes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linders Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 Our co-op is about the same size as yours and has the potential for the same issue. One thing that helps a lot is that teachers get to sign up their own children one week before the general signup. Since some classes are more popular than others and teachers are allowed to limit class size, this is a big incentive to teach. Good luck, co-ops are fun but can be a challenge to run! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlotteb Posted October 17, 2008 Share Posted October 17, 2008 We just joined a co-op this year and it sounds alot like yours. We have almost 100 children and about 30 parents. Maybe half of them are teaching (a one hour class) and the rest are assistants, hall monitors, etc. Some of the teaching parents (myself included) are teaching 2 classes. Well, we just had sign ups for next semester and it looks like a lot of the same people are still just wanting to be assistants. They are low on middle/high school teachers and I really don't want to have to teach 2 classes again to fill the gap. I'm hoping another mom or two will step up . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenmomof3 Posted October 17, 2008 Author Share Posted October 17, 2008 Just had to thank you all again for the great responses. We had our meeting last night and everyone was so glad to have options we could discuss. So, here's what we've decided to try. We picked the classes last night we will offer, based on a survey that was taken by the children and parents. When the registration form goes into the newsletter, everyone will be required to select the classes their kids would like AND select the top three classes they would be willing to TEACH. Then, we'll use the teaching team idea in which 3 parents will be assigned to plan/teach the class. We're planning on everyone team teaching one class, assisting with one class (some classes will only need one instructor with assistants), and having one hour free. I'm sure we'll have to adjust a little and work out the bugs, but at least we're headed down a new track that will involve more parents in the planning and teaching. Wish us luck! Thanks so much again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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