How to participate in a Junior Achievement (JA) elementary school program

The Junior Achievement program is a grade appropriate volunteer program that bring economics lessons to children of all age and grade levels. Becoming a JA volunteer brings these important lessons to your child's school and not only benefits your child, but their entire grade level. It is also a great way to be more involved as a parent.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Time. A typical program is 1/2 hour lesson per class, per week for five weeks, plus about 1hr prep time before each lesson.
• Training. Once contacting this organization, you need to be trained on their policies, appropriate classroom behavior, and get briefed on the curriculum to be taught.
• Skills. Going through the JA training is great, but you'll need to have an inclination to teach and like being around kids to most effectively run the program.

1. Contact your child's school or Junior Achievement directly to find out if the program is offered at your child's school and if they need volunteers to teach the course. You can get more info at www.ja.org about the program and its procedures and available curriculum.
2. Once you confirm that there is a need and you are chosen as a volunteer, get the contact info for your local JA representative. This will be your contact to get training info, review teaching materials and advise of any issues or questions.
3. Go through JA training. This is typically offered online if you don't want to have to attend a training session. Trainings typically take less than an hour and you are quizzed online throughout the training. Completing the training signals your representative that the course materials can be sent to you to begin reviewing.
4. Set up a meeting with the teacher of the class/grade you will be teaching. This is a good time to review the materials, share the planning information and decide on what dates and times are convenient for you to visit the classroom. You should also try to get any other pertinent information you may need about specific challenges with his/her particular group of children or any tips about teaching this group that may help you make the most of your time.
5. Start teaching! Before each class review the JA kit to prepare the lesson and be sure you have all the materials necessary for each lesson. The preparation guide maps out all of the lessons as well as details any and all materials necessary for a given lesson. It is a great experience and is a special way to give back to your child's school and become more involved!