#BEYOU

Truth Time: I have struggled this year, majorly, with my business. A lot of what I am struggling with is just being a new seller and being intimidated by all the fabulous sellers that are already out there. I love looking at and admiring all these amazing teachers and what they are able to create. But at the same time I am so intimidated! 

I have so many ideas of what I want to create and sell but I always feel like as soon as I get the idea I already see the same product online, then I get down on myself because I feel like my product will never look, or be as good. I have really struggled with creativity this year as well, I am a perfectionist in ways where I want my product to be great, look great, and be perfect (which who are we kidding, is never gonna happen!)
With all of this said, I have really attached myself to Ashley Schroeder's saying of Be You recently. She is so SPOT ON with this motto. I have slowly come to realize that I need to just trust myself and be myself with my business. I may never be the perfect seller or teacher for that matter that I want to be, but as long as I am proud of my product, and, most importantly, it helps the students in the way it is intended then there is no reason to stress! 

I am learning to trust myself, and let my creative side flow. I am learning to BE ME!
Have a Cheerful Day!

iPads for the Classroom

Happy Sunday friends :)

I finally did it! I posted my first donor's choose project a while back and now I want to share it all with you! 

Technology at my school isn't necessarily limited, what IS limited is access to the technology. In my classroom we only have 3 student laptops where student's can access i-Ready reading and math, and our other reading programs. While we do have two computer labs available for use we all know how hard it can be to be out of the classroom. 

Instead of trying to take my whole class to the computer lab once or twice a week (let's be real it would only be once if were lucky) I figure iPads would just be so much easier to handle. This is what leads to me donor's choose.

For those of you that don't know what Donors choose is, it's a website where teachers can post projects asking for any type of school related supplies. Then people can donate to your project to help it get funded. Once it is funded Donors Choose sends the materials to your school! About a month ago I finally submitted my first project, asking for 4 iPad mini's and cases. This way I can have 7 students versus 3 working within our reading and math programs at a time! On top of that theres more access during centers, and less time having to go to a computer lab and take away from key instructional time.

I wanted to share to let you all know about my project! If you would like to donate click here! If not, then don't worry, if you could take a moment to spread the word around I would greatly appreciate it. Best part, if you donate now and for a limited time your donation will be matched thanks to the #bestschoolday event that has been going on! Thank you for taking the time to read this, and in advance for those of you who do donate. 

Have a Cheerful Day!

Take a Second to Peek into 2nd Grade - Week 1

Hey friends!  Today I'm really excited to be joining Katie from Pop Into Primary for her Take a Second to Peek into 2nd blog series.  Each week there will be a new featured blogger that you won't want to miss.  Each blogger will be sharing a little about themselves and will also be putting one of their products on sale for two days.

I'm super excited because the first featured blogger is .... Stephanie from The Learning Chambers!



I've also picked one of my favorite products and it will be on sale September 25th and 26th only.  My reading response flap journals are so much fun and a great way to have your students respond to the books that they are reading independently.  It's one of my students' favorite reading activities.

They are also differentiated because your students can use whatever book they are reading at the time.  They also include two different styles of writing lines.  You can click on the cover image to check them out in my store.

Thanks so much for reading all about Stephanie from The Learning Chambers!

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TPT Seller Challenge Week #3: Make Your Masterpiece

I can't believe it is already week 3 of this wonderful challenge! This challenge has been such a motivator for me to really work on my products. It has also allowed me to explore my personal seller style as well. I feel like this is one thing I have really struggled with and I haven't been able to really my "seller style".

This week has been especially difficult lets start at the beginning...

Last week we (my boyfriend and I) were supposed to move into our new apartment. We had everything all set and were so excited. I mean who wouldn't be excited to live seriously 10ish miles from DISNEY WORLD! Anyways...we arrived and were told our apartment was no longer available......wait wait wait "what did you say Mr. leasing consultant man!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Basically the company said "we called" and "cancelled" our apartment. They had no written proof of this and refused to pull phone records..said it would be to complicated because the call volume was so large. Well little did they know I am a teacher and and organization freak. Collected all of my documents and showed that there was NO WAY we called and cancelled as our phone records never showed us calling and there were no emails exchanged. To move this long story on...they had already leased our apartment, weren't very forgiving, made us feel like complete dummy's and that this was our fault. They ended up offering us the following...

Move into a 2/2 instead of a 1/1 till the middle of September. THEN...move into a 1/1 that would be on a second floor versus a 1st floor. Well who wants to live out of boxes and move again in 3 months ish time. Not us, and especially at the beginning of the school year! No thank you! They would also offer us a small money compensation but we weren't having it. I was a mess and so thankful for this wonderful man I have to calm me down ( I wonder sometimes how he still puts up with me after 4 years!).

We had no where to go except our cars and moving truck and all our family out of state...We took a chance and headed to the apartment complex next door we had previously viewed but it wasn't our first choice. LUCKILY  they had an apartment ready for the next day but were so so kind to allow us to move in immediately. We couldn't believe what we were hearing and that we had something! We got the truck unloaded and began another antagonizing process, transferring all our services from our non-existent apartment to the apartment we weren't planning on....here came more bad news. No wifi till Thursday (6 days later!) This wouldn't do for me, hello I have blog posts planned and teachery things to do sir! Well there was nothing we could do so I had to make do. At least I had a roof over my head right.

Anyways this really (I mean really) postponed my Week Three Challenge Plans! On top of this Wednesday I left for Michigan to visit my family and I wasn't sure when I would have time to work. Well luckily I found time today so here is my Masterpiece!

I present to you a math interactive notebook for HMH Go Math! Chapter 1. (Any other Go Math! users out there?) This past year my kiddos loved interactive notebooks. Not only that their test scores increased so much as well and who wouldn't be happy about that :) So I decided this summer I would make some interactive notebooks that followed our Go Math! series more closely. I think these will be perfect for my kiddos this year.

Now this set here is aligned to the Florida Math Standards, but don't fret Common Core friends, yours is coming soon! This set should be posted soon, again it has been a long week and I am in Michigan vacationing till the 17th. Once it is posted I plan on doing a blog post that goes a little deeper into how to set up the notebooks and what the pages should look like. I also am almost done with Chapter 2 so that should also be posted soon as well. I plan on doing a fun little flash sale on these babies so follow my social media sites to stay up to date!

Well again I have ranted....I need to work on that!

Have a Cheerful Week!

Meghan

TPT Challenge Week 2: Dare to Dream :)

Today started week two in the TPT challenge that I have taken part of. Even though I am EXTREMELY NEW to this whole Teacher pay teacher world I have already seen the effect of this community and I am loving it. I started this blog awhile ago but haven't kept up on it recently. This is probably because it looks so boring (I mean who wants to look at this!). However this challenge has given me the confidence to jump in head first and make a decision I have been tossing and turning over for awhile....

I am getting a new Blog Design thanks to Gabby's Classrooms!

I am so excited for the end of August! I know she will do a wonderful job and that this will really help my store/brand.

Anyways..back on track 

1. Pay off my student loans: HOLY COW! I want to cry every time I see the amount. I knew going to college I would have a huge amount of debt coming out but yikes. I am only a year out of school and have a long way to go but I am hoping that by starting a TPT business this will help to pay these off.

2. Success: I am a new teacher, just finished my first year. I have always wanted to be a teacher and I have a huge fear of not being successful at this career I have invested a lot into. Not only do I want to be successful as a teacher but also as a seller. Again I have this big fear of failing and doing this has been a dream of mine for a year now. I want to be successful with this. I would love for when I have children that I could be a stay at home mom doing this as my income. I know it will take time a patience but with hard work anything is possible.

3. Grow my business: I am having a hard time with this one. My Instagram page is slowly starting to get some interest but I haven't seen much progress else where. It's discouraging but again I know it will come with time. I am working on posting more but I still am unsure what to post. I hope by the end of this year (Dec. 2015) to have gained more attraction to my different social media outlets and have made some progress within my store. 

I just wanted to say a quick thanks to all the fabulous bloggers hosting this. It has really given me the boost I need to dive head first into this! Thank you PeppyZestyTeacherista Third in Hollywood Teach Create Motivate and Sparkling in Second

Have a Cheerful Day :)

Meghan

Table Organization HELP!

SUMMER!! (Insert Olafs yell)

Wow I don't think I have ever appreciated summer more than as a teacher. Worked hard all school year and now get time to relax and get ready again for a new batch of kiddos and.....

A NEW SCHOOL!

Yup, thats right. I made the decision to transfer to a new school in my district. The main reason behind this was just to be closer to home. Gotta watch the miles on my car so this move should help. I am very excited. I met my new team and they already seem awesome and so helpful!

So when talking about this new school I have a lot of changes that will be happening for my classroom. At my old school I had one of the largest classrooms in the school. At this new school my classroom size will be cut in half :( Sad but I'm still a new teacher a don't have a lot to fill up such a large space (I know this will change!)

Anyways I'm in a predicament and hopefully I will get some views on this and some help. I no longer have desks! Instead I have tables! I am excited and nervous. I have no I idea how to pursue tables. My first thought was table caddies. I had these as supply caddies last year. They worked but I didn't like how messy they got and my OCD would take over and ya...

So I have the same shape currently and enough for each table. But as we all know they don't always hold a lot. If I didn't use them for each table then I would find another way to use them. However I did find this.

Now I have the teacher toolbox for myself that is similar and I LOVE IT! My kids loved it. They weren't supposed to touch it unless I asked for them to grab something. They knew right where everything was a had to read the labels (added bonus?) So thanks to Ladybug Teacher Files I found she does this for each table. I will only have 3-4 tables of kiddos and thought this would be perfect. All the supplies I think they will need are right there, so less time having to go to get supplies out, or passing out highlighters to everyone. This also allows more supplies to be held here. The students are also going to have the 3 drawer roll carts so this could be another addition to that or is it to much? I'm just not sure. I feel like for my sanity this would be much better but I don't want it to be to much for my little second graders. Any advice would be appreciated :)

Well I'm off to the pool and working on packing. We move in a week!

Have a Cheerful Day :)

Meghan