Remote Learning Tips

1. If you haven't yet, activate your School Mate® Publishing Classroom Book kit. If you don't have your kit number, contact us & we'll be happy to provide it.

2. Your Parent Payment Due Date, number of students, name, grade, and class description can be updated in your online account by logging into your account here, then clicking on the "Edit" button on the right hand side of the page beside the "Classroom Info" heading.

3. In the "Send Email Notifications to Parents" section of your online account page, under the "Announcement" & "Reminder" tabs, you will find a template you can copy and paste into an email (or other school-based message app) to parents, letting them know about or reminding them of the project and how to order. Copying & pasting this content in an email provides a starting place for your message to your students' families that can be edited as you wish. Just be sure to include the link in your email content for parents to order or decline a book.

4. We suggest requiring your students' families to order or decline a book online only. Since those responses are automatically recorded in your online Order Tracker, we do not require those families' Parent Order Forms to be returned. The digital process eliminates the need for the paper copy of Parent Order Forms.

If you opt to allow families to pay by check and cash, you may download the Parent Order Form (PDF) and email to the families. Be sure to give your CLASS ID to each family. They can then mail you their payment & order form. Cash & check payments cannot be sent directly to School Mate by the families. Send any physical payments, forms, etc. with your order materials. Those parents who don't respond either way will be considered as "No Book" responses when you're ready to ship your order to us.

NOTE: Requirements for returning all Parent Order Forms will be waived if your school is closed due to COVID-19. A minimum of 2 books must be purchased for us to accept your order, and teachers will receive their free copy of the book.

5. Students may complete their pages at home and send them to you digitally. Students can use plain paper from home or you can email them template pages. After completing their pages, parents can upload their student's pages to your online, teacher account or email them to you.

Options for completing & submitting pages:

• You may give your students' families the option to upload their students' pages directly to your online, teacher account. This functionality may be turned on or off by logging into your account. If turned on, families may upload their student's page file (scan or photo of pages, Word Doc, etc.) to your online account by clicking on the Parents button on our website toolbar. Once all students' pages have been uploaded to your account, you may then use our Page Builder to assemble your book pages in the order you desire.
• Scans or photos of students' pages can be emailed to you, then uploaded and combined with other pages within your online account using our Page Builder.
• All assembled pages may then be submitted to us digitally through your online account.
• If you have other ways you would like to accomplish completing the book pages, we encourage other options to get your book materials completed and to us.

6. Submit your order on your Kit Return Date once you have received responses from all families and have your book's front cover and book pages ready to submit to us. Click the green "Order Now" button in your online account to complete the Classroom Book Order Form and submit your order and all material to us.

7. If you have hardcopies of your book materials, physical forms, and/or payments (checks or cash) to ship to us, send us your completed Classroom Book Order Form, Payment Envelope, book cover & book pages (emailed/uploaded, if desired), and any physical forms and/or payments you have received, using your prepaid UPS return shipping label. You may request a free return shipping label if you do not have one. (Please keep all book materials, Parent Order Forms, and check & cash payments until you have completed the project to the best of your abilities. Then send all physical payments, forms, and book materials to us at once if not submitting digitally.).

NOTE: If your school is closed, please give your home address as the ship address on your Classroom Book Order Form before submitting the order and books will then be shipped to your home.

Please contact us if you have questions or need help. We're here for you.