TpT Seller Challenge Week 2- Dare to Dream

      It is the second week of the TpT Seller Challenge.  This week's theme is called Dare to Dream.  I am linking up with Sparkling in Second, Third in Hollywood, Teach Create Motivate,  and Peppy Zesty Teacherista for this next challenge.  

      I started my TpT journey, like many of you.  I was simply introduced to the website and I began purchasing items that I could use in my classroom.  After purchasing items for a while, I knew that I could begin creating items.  I have always been creative and I felt like this would be the perfect new adventure.  So, originally, I was making things I needed for my classroom and wasn't concerned about the profit.  As people started purchasing items from my store, I realized that I could really turn it into a business, in which I could make somewhat of a profit.   I am no where near the level of seller as many on TpT, but my little store is working for me.  I have enough products, that I can go for periods of time without creating new products, and still make money  That is one of my favorite things!!    

      This past school year was my best year yet on TpT.  With that being said, here are my "dreams".  

1.  My boyfriend and I are currently house hunting.  We have looked at a few houses, but mostly have been searching online or through the links our realtor sends us.  I have been saving most of my TpT money at this time, to go towards a down payment on a house.  

2.  I love traveling.  Whether it is a one day trip or a long vacation, I enjoy traveling.  I love having my TpT money in a Paypal account, so that if I want to book a plane ticket or hotel room, I can use this money for those purchases.  I hope to continue to save this money and use it for other fun adventures in the future.  

3.  As, I just mentioned, currently, I am using little bits of these profits for traveling/fun adventures and the rest is being saved to go toward a down payment.  So, I hope to later on, down the road, build up a savings with this money. 

4.  Last, I use my profits on TpT to purchase other products on TpT!  Even though I create my own products, I still purchase many other products, especially when I want/need something last minute.  I have found so many amazing products on TpT.  I also enjoy using this money for other shopping expenses on Amazon, etc.  

     So, while my dreams for my TpT account aren't crazy, I hope to continue to build a business that allows me to save and spend on items that I may or may not have had the ability to do so other wise.  I can't be MORE THANKFUL for my TpT followers and customers.  It truly is an amazing community.

Monday Made It- Fixing Up Last Year's Project and a New One!

     It is Monday again and I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for another Monday Made It addition.  I don't know about you, but I love my summer craft projects.  They always seem to be better, though, as ideas in my head, versus the real thing.   
      

      For example, last summer I was SUPPPPPER excited to purchase stools from IKEA.  I spray painted them, put little numbers on them, and couldn't wait to set them up at my guided reading table.  Well, they were cute, and they looked GREAT at my guided reading table, until...the kids came in!  Oops!  I sort of forgot to factor in the kiddos and what would happen when they got their hands on them.   
     Here are some pictures from last year.  Click on the first picture and you can go back to my original post, last summer. 

     I tend to get a lot of fidgety kids or students with sensory needs.  So, my cute little stools turned into not so cute stools.  The students picked the paint away and left them looking like pretty rough.  Not to mention that my wiggly kiddos liked to wiggle on these stools.  Unfortunately, they aren't the best for wiggling and they started getting pretty loose by the end of the year. The picture makes them look better than they really look. Here is how they looked by the end of the year:

     So, today's project was to get these babies looking new again.  They are spray painted and and drying now. I haven't decided if I want to put the numbers back on them or not.  I will figure that out later.  For now, I am glad to see they are painted once again!
     

       The other project I worked on this week was really easy.  I saw it somewhere recently and I decided to try it out as well.  This coming year, I will have at least 5 Chromebooks in my classroom. So, on Meet the Teacher Night, instead of having parents fill out multiple forms telling me about dismissal, email, phone numbers, etc., parents will fill out one Google Form with all of this information.   Then the information can all be compiled for me.   This was super easy to create and it shouldn't take parents long to complete.  This way, they don't have to worry about completing multiple forms and asking figuring out which ones to turn in, etc.  I am hoping this works out well! 

Do you use Google Forms with your parents at school?  Have you used them with your students?  If so, how have they worked for you? 

Summer Saleabration

     While browsing through blogs today, I found a Summer Saleabration over at Teacher Treasure Hunter.  I decided that I will join in the sale.  

      For this entire week, the product below will be on sale for 50% off!  This product is a book study that compares multiple texts to the original story of The Three Little Pigs.  Click HERE to go grab this product for 50% off.  

Stop over at Teacher Treasure Hunter to grab some great products that will be on sale all week long. 

Five for Friday with Makeover Madness!

      I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday.  I am also linking up with Sparking in Second Grade for their Makeover Madness TpT Challenge!

1.  This week I was away from my computer.  I took a road trip down to Charlotte, North Carolina.  After living there for 8 years, it is like another home to me!   While in Charlotte, I was able to visit with one of my friends that I taught with for 6 years! You know those people that make going to work that much better!  I definitely miss working with her.  We didn't take a picture, though!  Then I took a beach trip with one of my best friends!  For the past two years we have gone to the beach and camped.  Although I miss hanging out with these girls, now that I am in Ohio, I LOVE having friends down south to visit with!

 2.  We spent three days at Hunting State Park in South Carolina!  It was fabulous! 

 3.  I had planned on reading Word Nerds while at the beach, but ended up reading The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins and Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand.  Both were great, easy beach reads.  So, I guess I will be reading Word Nerds now that I am back at home.  I just couldn't put down by easy reads!

4.  I came home from my trip to see two letters from my one of the schools I worked at in Charlotte.  Two of my former students wrote to me. I loved reading these letters!  So sweet. :)

5.  I saw the posts about the TpT Seller Challenge, while I was away. I really wanted to join in on this fun, but didn't have my computer with me, so I had to wait until I got home!  This week's challenge was to makeover a product.  I decided to makeover two of my first products.  These were created using Microsoft Word.  I didn't know how to use Powerpoint at the time that I created these products.  Here are the two that I have updated, as of now.  One of them didn't even have a cover.  This has motivated me to makeover a few other products, as well!  One of the products aligns with the Common Core Standards.  The other product is aligned with Common Core, but also matches with the first grade Reading Street Unit 1.  Click on the pictures below to grab a copy of these updated products! 

Happy Friday!

Five for Friday- Saturday Morning!

      While some of you, along with my friends down in NC, are just wrapping up their year this week, I am already three weeks into my summer vacation! Between PD that I signed up for, leadership team meetings, getting work done on my car, etc. the time is just flying by.  Summer needs to SLOW DOWN!  I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share what I have been up to during my third week of summer vacation!

1. On Monday I had a Professional Development class that I signed up for this summer.  Our district has courses that are mostly online and only require one face-to-face meeting.  The courses are informative and based on concepts or books that are current and popular in the educational community.  This past year I was able to take a variety of courses.  Some of them were on Number Talks, Notice and Note, Autism OCALI training, etc.  I am currently taking a couple of courses this way. Monday I started a class for Making Thinking Visible.  This is a great book and so far I am able to see how this will transform the parts of my day which need a change!

2. Not much more to say than that I have spent 3 or 4 afternoons this week running at this amazing park!  I have almost 30 miles so far this month!  Once I saw that, I decided that I would set a goal to run 70 miles in June!  I think this goal will push me to have some  longer runs a few days a week!  

3. The SUMMER heat is here!  People are already complaining, but not me!  I have not forgotten that about 4 months ago it was still snowing and frigid outside!  There are parts about each season that I truly enjoy and that is what I try to remember!  So when it is 90 degrees outside, instead of complaining, I spend my afternoons by the pool. :)

4. I've spent a ton of time this summer watching Netflix.  When I'm working on projects, folding laundry, etc. that is usually playing in the background. I never watched Parenthood while it was actually on T.V., but I recently started watching it on Netflix.  I just finished the last season that is on Netflix and am SO eager to see the final season!!!!

5. I had the privilege of going to a district-wide PD recently. The keynote speaker was Jason Hillman, head of the Literacy Collaborative as Ohio State and a previous teacher and principal.  He has had a lot of success turning around schools that were in need of a change. He was an amazing speaker with great ideas and motivation to change the culture for students and teachers, within our schools.  He suggested reading the book, Transforming School Culture.  I ordered a copy to be picked up at Barnes and Noble this week.  When I arrived, it wasn't there!!  They couldn't find it anywhere.  So, I ended up buying a digital copy and am really looking forward to reading this book!

Monday Made It- June 8th

       I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for another Monday Made It!  I love Monday Made It, but recently I have started a few different projects and haven't finished them!  So, I figured I would share my projects, even if they are just in the works!  

    We have planted a ton of vegetables again.  We decided to plant radishes.  What I didn't  know was that radishes grow like weeds.  So, we have TONS of radishes that are ready to be eaten right NOW!  Of course I went to Pinterest to try and find a way to preserve the radishes.  I ended up finding a recipe for Taco Pickles.  I have had a similar type of slaw on tacos before and thought we would try it.  The recipe is SUPER easy.  I put two jars in the fridge and froze two bags of them.  I'm looking forward to having this with my tacos later this week! Click HERE to get the recipe!

      I have been working on creating a novel study to go along with the book The One and Only Ivan.  It is NOT finished, but in progress.  Check out a few of the previews below. 

Have a great week!