How to Create a Class Handbook that Rocks!

The Teacher's Back to School Survival Guide

I'm excited to be joining some of my favorite upper elementary teacher bloggers who have put together a Teacher's Back to School Survival Guide with some of our best tips!

Most schools have a handbook of guidelines and district policies, but have you ever thought of creating a handbook just for YOUR classroom?

My back to school survival tip is to take a little time now to create a class handbook that rocks! It's easier than you think, especially with the tips and samples I'm including in this post. A class handbook is a fantastic way to communicate your classroom policies right from the beginning of the year. It also sends a message to parents that you care enough to keep parent informed. When you make it attractive and thorough, it shows that take pride in your role as an educator.

Why You Need a Class Handbook 
Have you ever had parents tell you during a conference that they didn't know their child would lose credit on late assignments or that they needed to sign their child's daily reading log? If you sent home a handbook during the first week of school with information about that policy, you can politely direct the parent to that handbook.

Creating a handbook also forces you to think through ALL of your classroom policies in a logical way. There's something about explaining your policies in writing that makes you examine them more closely. Finally, a class handbook is a real time-saver when you get a new student. It's a nice way to welcome the child and to help him or her feel more comfortable about your expectations.

What to Include in Your Handbook
You might want to include the items below in your handbook. If the list seems overwhelming, include only the most essential information now and update your handbook next year.

• Welcome letter
• Best way to contact you
• Class website or blog info
• Homework and grading policies
• Snack guidelines
• Birthday party policies
• List of classmates's names
• Classroom lunch schedule
• Supply list or materials requested
• Brief descriptions of your instructional methods (i.e., cooperative learning, literature circles, reading workshop, etc.)

Click to download a PDF sample of my class handbook pages. You can't edit it, but it will give you some ideas for what to include. You can also download two free printable handbook covers.

Class Handbook Tips
Consider these tips in mind if you're just getting started:

• Ask a colleague to review it for both clarity and grammatical errors. You don't want your first communication with parents to be confusing and filled with errors!
• If you're worried about the amount of paper needed to print copies for all students, you can create a digital version and it email it to parents or upload it to your class webpage. 
• Before you print copies of your handbooks or send it out digitally, ask your principal to review it to be sure all of your policies are approved by your administration. Also, if a parent disagrees with one of your policies and takes your handbook to the principal, you'll be glad that it's not the first time your principal is seeing it! 
• Print at least 5 extra copies to have on hand for new students, and be sure to keep a copy for yourself. Staple and punch three holes along the left edge of each print copy to make it easy to store in a binder.
• Give each student a handbook on the first day of school, but DON'T spend the entire first day going over it! Instead, only cover the very most important information on the first day, and space out those discussion with other first day activities. It might take you a week to go through the whole handbook, but at least they will remember the information! 
• Allow a few days for parents to read your handbook and provide a deadline for it to be signed and returned. Ask that it be stored in their child's binder for future reference. If you email a digital copy or post it on a class website, send home a paper permission form to be signed by students and their parents. 

I hope you found these class handbook tips to be helpful. Creating a handbook that rocks will save you time later in the year and will pave the way for student success in your classroom. What do you plan to include in YOUR handbook?

If you're short on time, check out my newest teaching resource, a collection of editable files that make it easy to create your own class handbook. Click the image on the right or this link to take a closer look at Create Your Own Class Handbook. You'll be able to preview all the handbook pages and cover designs from that page.

By the way, I added it to my Back to School Super Start Combo, so if you've already purchased that item, you can download Create Your Own Class Handbook for free. Go to your My Purchases page on Tpt, locate the Back to School Super Start Combo and download the zip file again.

To visit all the blogs participating in this event, click on the logos in the link up at the bottom of this page to visit each blog. By the way, I'd like give a big shout out to Kristen of Ladybug's Teacher Files who designed the awesome logos for our blog hop! She is so talented!

An InLinkz Link-up

How to Become a Millionaire on a Teacher’s Salary

I know what you're thinking... How can someone become a millionaire on a teacher's salary? It sounds impossible, but high school teacher Andrew Hallam accomplished this milestone by age 40 on a regular teacher’s salary! No, he didn't invest it in lottery tickets, either! Instead, he learned to live without incurring debt, and he understood how to invest his savings in safe ways to provide the greatest return.

Andrew wrote Millionaire Teacher: The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School to share his knowledge with other teachers so they could take charge of their own financial futures. I read the book a few months ago, and it totally changed the way I think about saving and investing my money. Before I read this book, I never felt confident about managing my own investments. Books about finances tend to be dry and difficult to understand, so the concepts always seemed just out of reach. However, Andrew’s writing style makes Millionaire Teacher an easy read. Not only is the book witty and entertaining, Andrew makes the concepts easy to understand, probably because he's a teacher. He does a terrific job of breaking complex financial concepts down into simple ideas using stories and analogies. For example, he shares his version of entrepreneur Willie Wonka and the chocolate factory, and uses it to explain how the stock market works, elaborating with manufactured details to illustrate the basic concepts of finance and investing.

Even if you don't think you have a single extra penny to save and invest, you should read this book. After a few chapters you'll be convinced that you CAN save for the future. Andrew explains how you can manage your money yourself, and he describes how to avoid the pitfalls of hiring a financial manager.

Are you worried about losing your savings if you try to manage it yourself? If so, you’ll be glad to know that Andrew doesn't promote risky strategies like picking individual stocks or timing the market so that you try to buy low and sell high. According to Andrew, "It's not timing the market that matters, it's time IN the market." His strategies are based on setting up a portfolio of a few rock-solid index funds and bonds and holding them over time. He explains exactly how to do this and where to invest your money so that you are not paying high fees.

Why You Need to Read It NOW!
If you aren't convinced that you need to read this book now, remember that the sooner you apply these principles, the greater the payoff in the future. That’s why these concepts are especially important for young adults to master because they have time to ride out the ups and downs of the stock market. Small regular investments now will pay off in a big way in the future. For that reason, Millionaire Teacher would make a terrific gift for any new teacher or teacher-to-be, but it’s also a great read for veteran teachers. In fact, it’s an awesome book for just about anyone who wants to take control of their finances and achieve financial freedom by the time they retire.

I wish I had read Millionaire Teacher years ago, because I’ve made a lot of mistakes due to my lack of understanding about how to invest wisely. However, now that I know how easy it is to manage my own money, I'm excited to begin applying these principles to my own finances from this point forward. As they say, better late than never! To check it out for yourself, click one of the title links in this post to find it on Amazon where you can look inside the book and read buyer reviews. I know you'll find it to be a life-changing guide to financial success!

Disclaimer: Amazon affiliate links are included in this post.

How to See the Content YOU Want on Facebook

Facebook is such an awesome way for educators to connect and share ideas, but until recently it's had one big, frustrating, drawback. Until lately, there was no way to see ALL the posts from your favorite pages. Who likes to find out about flash freebies, helpful tips, and special sales a day late? Not good! You'd think that clicking the Like button on your favorite pages would mean getting all their posts, but Facebook doesn’t work that way. I guess I can understand why … our Facebook feeds would be swamped if we saw every post from every page we like.

Fortunately, a new feature that Facebook recently rolled out allows you to customize your news feed so you can see your favorite content at the top, marked with a blue star. Yay! As soon as I learned about this feature, I knew I had to share!

How to Customize Your News Feed
To customize your Facebook news feed, find your favorite pages and follow these steps. Why not try it first with my Teaching Resources page?

1. Click to find Teaching Resources on Facebook, and be sure you have Liked the page. 
2. Hover over the "Liked" button and click “Posts in News Feed." 
3. Choose “See First" to see my new posts appear at the top of the your news feed.  

That’s it! Take those three steps now, and you should start seeing all new posts from Teaching Resources appear at the top of your news feed. To see those posts, click the "Home" link at the top of Facebook or the words "News Feed" on the left side. All new posts from Teaching Resources and your other favorite pages will be identified by a blue star. If you click away from the news feed, those posts will drop down into your regular news feed.

I hope you love this new feature as much as I do! You'll never again miss out on teaching tips or resources from your favorite pages that could have made a difference in your classroom! By the way, over the next few days, I plan to do several giveaways and offer some special discounts. To be sure you see those posts, mark Teaching Resources as a page you want to see first!