Classroom Plus & Financial Matters Volunteer Resources

Thank you for volunteering with BestPrep’s speaker programs, Classroom Plus and Financial Matters! With your help, BestPrep reaches over 22,000 Minnesota students every year through hands on presentations and interviews. Throughout the school year, you will be talking with students about financial literacy, career exploration and/ or career skills.

Scroll down to find resources on engaging students, technology troubleshooting, presentation materials, and more.

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While volunteering virtually, you may have technical issues come up. Below is a link for tips to help troubleshoot if you need.

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See below for Classroom Plus and Financial Matters for you to use while presenting to students. Thanks for using these materials!

You must have permission from BestPrep to use these materials. If you have not connected with a BestPrep staff member about using these materials, please contact us. For funding purposes, we need to keep track of where and how often materials are being used.

Read below for Frequently Asked Questions for Classroom Plus and Financial Matters volunteers.

What should I do if I get a request that I can’t help with?
We totally understand that everyone has their own busy schedules, and don’t expect you to be available every time we ask. The only thing we ask of you is that you let us know as soon as you are able. If you are interested in the presentation, but have a scheduling conflict, just let the staff person know! We can always ask teacher if they are flexible with their dates.

What to do if you are getting close to the presentation date and you haven’t heard from the teacher?
As you know the expectation is that the teacher will reach out to you first to confirm details of the presentation and provide you with additional information. If it is less than a week out and you haven’t heard from them, don’t worry! If you haven’t already you can try reaching out to them directly or reaching out to the BestPrep staff person who scheduled your presentation. We will make sure you get in contact with the teacher!

What are good questions to ask the teachers ahead of time?
We encourage volunteers to ask the teacher questions ahead of time to inform the way they give their presentations. Some teachers may give you a ton of information ahead of time, but others may not. Good information to know includes:

  • What is the class typically like? Are they loud and chatty, or more reserved? In the virtual setting do they typically have their cameras on or off?
  • What is the classes background knowledge on this topic, if any?
  • For older classes, what are their post-secondary plans?
  • For in person presentations, what technology is available in the classroom for me to use?

There are many more questions that you could ask, but this is just a few examples to get you started.

What if you have a last-minute schedule conflict and can no longer give your presentation on the original date?
We hope that you try your best to make the original date work but do understand that sometimes unavoidable conflicts can arise. As soon as you are able, please let both the BestPrep staff person and the teacher know. The earlier we know, the more likely it is that we can either reschedule with you, or if needed find a new volunteer.

Can I edit the pre-made PowerPoint presentation?
As you may know, many of our topics come with pre-made presentations. We highly encourage volunteers to make these their own if they want to! Adding slides about yourself, adding examples, or even tweaking the content based on the teacher’s lesson plan are all totally encouraged.

How long should the presentation be?
During typical in person presentations, the expectation is that the presentation will take about the whole class period, but no more than an hour. This is including time for questions from the class. In the virtual setting however, we are finding that shorter presentations of about a half hour are much more effective.

What if a teacher reaches out to me directly about a presentation?
We highly encourage teachers to go through us to schedule presentations, but sometimes if you have been to a teacher’s class before they may reach out to you directly for another presentation. If you are comfortable giving the presentation, that’s totally fine, but we just ask that you loop us in so that we can accurately track how many students we are reaching with our materials.