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Volunteer Best Practices for K12 CS

Computer Science Education is rapidly expanding in the United States[5]. As a part of this expansion, many programs are using university students and industry volunteers for a variety of purposes within schools. These volunteers can bring a wealth of content knowledge and professional experience in their interactions with students [3], and can be inspirational when talking about the problems they work on[1]. Some programs even advocate for the use of professionals for instruction based upon their content knowledge[2]. Although professionals often have a high level of content knowledge, they may lack the training or experience necessary to be effective in the classroom[3, 4]. This panel brings together 4 different organizations with experience working with content expert volunteers with widely disparate preparation in teaching. In this panel we will share lessons learned by the organizations whose programs rely on volunteer instructors and mentors, that combined work with over 1,200 volunteers for multiple years. Topics discussed by the panel will include recruitment and selection of volunteers, volunteer training prior to entering the classroom, appropriate supports for volunteers throughout the experience, volunteer retention strategies, and preliminary efforts at evaluating the implementations. Panelists will also discuss volunteers for short-term engagements such as speaking opportunities and school-based hackathons.