So, I've joined the #tptsellerchallenge, which is a 4-week challenge to enhance your TpT Store (find mine here) and boost your presence on social media (find me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram).
It also appears to be a great way to connect and learn with other fantastic educators. I joined a few weeks late, since I've been busy with my newborn daughter, but I have learned a lot from just reading what everyone else has been doing! Week 2 challenges us to dream about what we want from our TpT journey. If you never dream it, then how can you achieve it - right?!? So here goes...
I taught seventh grade science for five years before becoming a work-at-home mom. For me, it was tough only spending three hours of the day with my own child. I knew that I would regret not spending time with my children while they were young when a traditional teaching job could, theoretically, always be available.
I have been blessed to stay at home for a year now and have added a new daughter to our crew in that time. My oldest likes to play school as she readies for preschool in the coming year. She likes to call me "Mrs. Mommy" when we pretend to have calendar time. TpT allows me to be Mrs. Mommy and for that I am very thankful.
College loans stink. It was a great idea to attend a private liberal arts school when I was 18. Oh, and then again for my masters...until you realize you will be paying off your loans for what seems like forever. Although my alma mater was a great fit for me, met wonderful people (husband included), and enjoyed every bit of the experience...post-collegiate life would be so much better for our generation without being shackled to so much student loan debt. As my store blooms, I hope to be able to take on this monster before my own kids start college themselves!
Financial freedom also means that my hard-working husband can then dabble into projects that he loves. He has always been a huge supporter of me being a work-at-home mom. He knows that working on creative curriculum materials puts me in my happy place...and whose husband wouldn't want their wife to be in their happy place?!? Earning financial freedom with the development of a successful store will help me return the favor.
We also like to travel. I hope to be able to show my children the world - even though I will be explaining the weather, the biomes, or plant/animal adaptations as we go to, I imagine, eye-rolling teenagers. Oh well - once a science teacher, always a science teacher!
TpT allows me to support all those teachers who are fighting the good fight out in the trenches of everyday classroom life. The demands on a teacher are extreme in the current environment. Teachers must continuously assess students then analyze the data, alter their plans to remediate or enrich the students based on the data, track how much value is being added to each student's education as the year progresses, connect with parents over various social media platforms, participate in and prepare for school leadership meetings, and the list goes on and on.
So, what happens when your brain has been moving at a million miles an hour with only time for a 15-minute lunch/restroom break? You lose all creative juices. Lessons get boring. Students tune out.
My TpT store allows me to provide carefully crafted resources to supplement the teachers who find themselves in the same position. Eliminating those extra demands has allowed me to be creative again! I can work on engaging and challenging materials for the students that have a polished appearance beyond what I would have had time for while working everyday in the classroom.
My hope is that teachers can relax a little more, spend more time with their families, and know that TpT has them covered. Maybe a little tweak here or there to fit their own classrooms, but they never have to start from scratch!
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