Appomattox program welcomes Dads into the classroom

It’s just his second time volunteering at Appomattox Elementary School, but already T.M. Phelps looks like a pro.

Upon entering his daughter’s classroom, he slips down beside her on the floor. She nestles close and classmate Kelsey Pless leans in as the three take turns reading aloud from a novel about the Revolutionary War.

Phelps is part of a program at Appomattox Elementary School called Watch D.O.G.S. — or Dads of Great Students. The idea is to encourage fathers and other men in the community to volunteer at the school. 

The program at Appomattox has inspired at least one other area school, Madison Heights Elementary in Amherst County, to begin using the program as well.

“With our Watch D.O.G. program, students get more male influence and male attention in a positive way,” Appomattox Elementary Principal Tom Yarber said, adding it’s especially helpful for boys to see men who care about their education. “I think there is something meaningful about the adult wanting to be here.”

Teachers Katie McCann and Jason Wells started the program two years ago, at the same time the school also started Girls on the Run  — an extracurricular jogging program aimed at girls.

Wells said he stumbled across the Watch D.O.G.S. program on the website of a school in another part of Virginia. He and McCann, the sponsors of the Student Council Association, held a kick-off party to tell dads about the program and get them signed up.

He said that the  program has boosted the overall number of volunteers at the school and helped open the lines of communication with the families who participate.

‘If they have a problem, they feel like they can come to us.” Wells said. 

In the program’s second year, the two say they are averaging about one Watch D.O.G. visit per week. That’s up from last year, when it was more like once a month.

Before they started the program, administrators say they can’t remember having any men volunteering at the school at all. Without a special invitation or guidelines about what to do, men can feel hesitant about diving in as school volunteers, they said.

Phelps has plenty of experience with children — he’s a stay-at-home parent of a 3-year old and a fourth-grader.

Still, he was intimidated as well as excited at first about the prospect of volunteering all day at the school.

“I was scared to death,” he said. “I was like, ‘what do I do?”

Administrators handed him a standardized Watch D.O.G.S. schedule — a plan that maps out the day with suggested activities — most of which are pretty flexible.

For example, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. the schedule suggests a dad visit his child’s classroom, monitor the hallway, read with a student, or visit a resource classroom such as art, physical education or music.

Watch D.O.G.S. are also asked to deliver notes from the office to classrooms, talk with students during lunch and recess, and greet children as they enter and exit the building before and after school.

Over the course of his first day volunteering, Phelps said he got the swing of talking to the students. While some children are happy doing their own thing, he said, others are just waiting to chat with a caring adult.

For example, Phelps said, he got to cheer up a boy feeling left out because all his friends were bragging about the video games and systems they got for Christmas.

His Watch D.O.G. participation has also been a hit with his daughter.

Usually, he said, she is hard to get out of bed, but the morning he was set to volunteer, she popped up an hour ahead of time.

For his part, Phelps is so enthusiastic about the program that he wants to start a Watch D.O.G.S. group at Appomattox Middle School when his daughter moves on from elementary school. 

At the end of the day, Yarber offered Phelps a chance to say goodbye to the students over the intercom.

“I hope everyone has a wonderful evening,” Phelps told them. “Get that homework done early tonight, get a good dinner in and a good night’s sleep.”

Pulling on his coat, he walked out the door to wave goodbye to the students, already looking forward to next Thursday, when he plans to spend his birthday volunteering again with the students of Appomattox Elementary School.