Well, I had every intention of keeping up with this blog during the school year to document all the things that I did in my classroom. Seeing as how my last blog post was in August, that obviously didn't happen! I, honestly, am not even sure where the time went. In October I felt like the year was just dragging on, and now, the week before state testing, I can't push the brakes fast enough! Here is some of what I have been up to lately:
I started teaching 7th grade this year in addition to teaching 6th grade, and I LOVE it. 7th grade might be one of the best kept secrets in middle school. Since I taught most of the kiddos last year in 6th, I know exactly where each kid is skills wise, and that makes things SO much easier. There really is something to be said about moving up with your kids each year. Who knows? Maybe I will teach 8th grade next!
A few years ago, my husband (also a teacher) came home from a professional development and told me about a website called Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT). I browsed through some things, not really knowing what it was I was looking for, and I found some pretty great FREE items to use in my class. Who doesn't love FREE?? Well, I would periodically return to the site, most of the time by way of Pinterest (again, another epic discovery) and I would purchase things to use with my students that were better than anything I have created (and cuter, too)! However, I have made several things for my team at school and my husband mentioned at dinner one night, "Hey, you should sell some of your stuff online and make some money off of it." WHAT?! No way is my stuff good enough to sell online! Who would buy it?
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I took the leap of faith on February 19th and uploaded my first free product. By the next day, 20 people had downloaded it! I was so excited--I started posting other things that I had created in previous years, some for sale, and some free. Sales started off slowly, and they still are, but I get a little rush every time I get an email saying one of my products has sold! I now have 28 products uploaded on the site and am pleased with the progress my store has made in the past 2 months.
One of the products that I am the proudest of is my take on the game Taboo, Unthinkable!. It is a math vocabulary game played similarly to Taboo. I created a different set of cards for each of the 5 strands aligned to the common core (primarily grades 6 and 7). Here is a peek at some of the cards:
The cards are color coded by strand. The 5 strands included are: Numbers and Operations, Expressions and Equations, Ratios and Proportions, Geometry, and Probability and Statistics. I bundled them all together for a total of 186 cards!
Take a look in my
TpT store to see the rest :)
I promise it won't be 8 months before I post again...Happy Saturday!
Danielle
