Finally Fourth: A Teachers Pay Teachers Store

I've discovered I'm a Type B teacher. I wrote a post about this long ago.

The thought jumped back into my head when a former coworker posted another Type B teacher article that really made me relate.

This is applicable, currently, because I've been working on a Teachers Pay Teachers store for the last 9 or 10 months, and I just named it last week. I still need a good profile picture.

Type B, for sure.

I'm also positive that I would be head over heels diving into this type of project in a way that I stay up all night perfecting resources and writing descriptions and uploading fonts and researching better ways to do it all...if I were Type A.

Instead, I started created resources last fall, at night, between baby feedings, when I should've been asleep.

I used Powerpoint and Google Docs and my PicMonkey membership and free downloaded fonts to create better versions (i.e. cuter versions) of resources I not only used in my actual classroom, but relied on day to day.

I still have a drawer of papers and resources I plan on re-making and uploading and selling. Guess how many I've created since we've been in Pittsburgh?

One. In 7 months.

Definitely Type B.

Currently, I'm working on writing PDFs of ideas. I'm giving them away for free, actually.

I am 100% more concerned with getting my ideas out onto the internet and trying to help other teachers than I am with making money. I've written a lot of blog posts about teaching as well, if you're interested. So most of my resources, unless I spent hours creating from scratch and they're large files, are free.

Click HERE to see the store!


P.S.
If you are a teacher getting ready to start the school year, the one thing you absolutely must have is a Beginning of the Year Packet. They're all over the internet, so you can find them just about anywhere. This is the version I used for the last several years. 

Friday Favorites.

1. Target brand ice cream.
I eat ice cream almost every day. I can't help myself. It's just something I've done for years now. During the last 4 weeks of pregnancy, all I ate was ice cream, toast, and watermelon. Moving to a new place, I always need to find a reliable grocery store with a decently-priced ice cream selection. I picked up one at Target a few weeks ago and I'm pleasantly surprised. The Market Pantry brand is really good and isn't $5 a half-gallon. I also like Friendly's when it's on sale, but I think that's an east coast thing. RIP Tillamook. Who knows when I'll see you again.

2. Lemongrass. I don't know how I felt about lemongrass before this last month, but I realllllly love it now. I use the essential oil in the shower and I bought this soap from Walmart. They had different scents but I liked the green bottle of Lemongrass/Spearmint, and I also got Apricot/Vanilla. It was less than $4 and hasn't ruined my hands yet. I recommend the soap (and lemongrass-scented things). I usually stock up on BBW soaps for each season but I had planned (yes, I actually planned) out my soap use so as to use up my stockpile before moving so I didn't have to bring it with me. I take soap pretty seriously.

3. The library. The county that Pittsburgh is in has a fantastic library system. There's a branch in every borough and that means I'm within 2 miles to about 4 different branches (maybe more...this city is pretty twisty/turny). My borough's is right across the highway, so less than a mile and I went a little crazy, requesting my TBR list on their website last weekend. They have everything I've wanted to read lately! Well, 7 of them came in this week. That means I have a lot of reading to do before mid-March.

They were so nice to me there too, and talked about how they have a storytime for babies, and I really do want to go...but it's right in the middle of his morning nap. I just don't think it'll work right now because I'm desperately trying to stick to a nap routine. Maybe this spring/summer, since it's for 0-24 months.

4. The gym. Along with finding a library...the gym was at the top of Scott's list of things I needed to do in order to settle in. I could write about a book about what gyms have meant to me in good ways at past duty stations and how they've been a turnoff at others.
We found a chain of gyms and he did all the research and signed us both up and there's one 2 miles from the house and they have a decent group exercise schedule and they even have childcare. I've been going to a Tuesday night class when Scott gets home from work and I've gone to a Saturday morning class that I loved. Mornings are hard if I'm tired and nights have always been better for me when it comes to exercise anyway. But if I can make it to two classes a week, the $24 a month membership will be totally worth it.

5. I'm making a point to get back to posting material on Teachers Pay Teachers. I posted this Place Value Chart on Monday. (I'm working on a schedule for myself and Mondays include this type of "work").

This is the Place Value Chart I desperately wanted as I was teaching 4th grade over the last few years. We started every year with place value and they needed a model so badly but I could never find what I wanted online. This is the updated (nicer) version of what I had created and used back then.

Starting "fresh" as a teacher in January

If you are from my hometown, chances are that you're already back in school for a short week following the New Year.

If you're from the districts I've worked in across the country, you're probably not back to the classroom until next week.

Either way, this post can help you!

Something I always did was start fresh in January. It helped that we often didn't go back to school until the second week in January in the districts I worked for, so it really had a second-semester-feel when the kids came back. Last year, I posted about what I do during those dreaded winter months to keep up my own motivation, along with the students'.

My biggest #1 secret has always been to make sure all of the Christmas decorations are taken down before I leave the building before break. Winter/snow/snowmen...that's all fine and will last you until the end of February. But anything with stockings or trees or presents or Santa needed to be off the walls before I left. This helped to contribute to palate-cleansing feel I'd get when I walked back in after break, and it's also, I think, incredibly motivating to students: a fresh start can be had by all, no matter what happened last fall.

I always tried to have something new and appealing for kids in January. I mentioned that I've been working on my Teachers Pay Teachers store this past fall and here are some ideas if you want something new to try...

How to solve your pencil problems

I love that this teaches independence. I used this method for years and, no matter the group, it always had a rate of success. (Because we know they all come back from a two week break having forgotten every rule and procedure associated with school.) I'm giving this one away for free because I think every teacher should at least check it out!

Following Along Reminder Cards

I used this last year, and it was something the kids enjoyed. I was actually surprised, at one point, to learn just how much they appreciated being held accountable for their own learning. There's a full-sized poster and then mini-copies to fasten to student desks in this purchase.

Beginning of the Year Packet

I designed this packet to work for the beginning of the year and I've used it for years, but it's ideal for a new semester too...or if you're in a country that starts school in January! It includes a survey for the student, one for the parent(s), and a classroom scavenger hunt so students can get to know their new surroundings.

Classroom Library Sign-out and Rules

If you have a classroom library, this is the perfect time to revisit the rules or establish new ones. (I think rule #2 here is key, personally.)

I would also happily create custom library rules signs for anyone who is interested in one.

Depth of Knowledge Question Stems

This took me f.o.r.e.v.e.r to put together. I only wish I'd had that kind of time when I was in the classroom! I would've used these cards instead of just referring to a laminated sheet I kept by my projector to get the questions.
In this packet, there's 27 total stems and the ones pictured ^ are the lowest level, so they're labeled with a "1".
I also include ideas about how/when to use them.

Book Review Project for Fiction Chapter Books

This was a fun project I started doing way back in 2011 in Alaska. I did it as a poster/presentation, but this PDF packet covers all the basics and you could add in posters and presentations if you wanted. I just found that it was a nice way to break up January/February and was also an easy way to connect to Common Core Standards, while doing something a little different.

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I hope you find something here that works for you or a teacher friend! 

(While I would love to make real money off of TPT some day, I would never put anything on there that I wouldn't use myself...these are all tried and true!)

Friday Favorites

1. Not dressing up for Halloween. Sometimes I have to think broadly to find some favorites from the week, but this is easy. I never hated Halloween and I think it's a great holiday for kids actually...it lets them be creative, there's cute games and movies that go along with it, and they can celebrate it with their friends. It's very much a kid-friendly holiday. HOWEVER...it wasn't until I started teaching in Colorado that, all of a sudden, teachers had to participate. I never dressed up in Alaska (if I did, it was a cowboy hat or a tiara or something) and in Missouri, they didn't do Halloween at my school.
In Colorado, each team of teachers had to have a theme for their costumes and they were judged on it. This gave me crippling anxiety...I don't know why. Each year, my coworker bought or made my costume for me and I just paid her for it. Minions, Power Rangers, Pac Man. It's a complete WASTE of a school week, to be honest, if Halloween falls in the middle of the week. If teachers complain about kids being "off", they totally did this to themselves. If anything, make it a 1 hour party in the afternoon and keep the rest of the day the same. But in my last building, the entire day was devoted to parades and parties and an assembly. What. a waste.

Whew. It's kind of nice that I can say this now.

Halloween is the worst, an article. If you care to read.

2. However, dressing up Wells was fun. The dogs decided to not cooperate, but oh well. I've never successfully gotten them to wear a costume so this year was no different.

3. As Wells gets heavier, so does the carseat. I found this video on how to carry a carseat without, essentially, killing your arm. It does work.

4. We went out for wings last night and I'd show you a picture but we have this rule about no phones out at restaurants and I made Scott put his away. But the wings were good and Wells enjoyed watching ESPN from the hanging TV. We'll go back.

5. On Wednesday, I had to choose between creating something for Teachers Pay Teachers and doing Pilates during naptime. I chose to create. This is a fiction book review project. It's based off of something that I used to do with my class, but very user/student-friendly and one of those things you just can't go wrong with, because it's all included in the packet. All that's missing is the book!

I'm going to have to start publishing these Friday Favorites posts on Thursday nights, because otherwise, they're getting out there kind of late.