Sunday, July 13, 2014

The Top Take Aways from the TpT Conference!! Linky Party!


Hello All!If you were able to go to the conference I hope you consider linking up with my post on the Top 10 Takeaways that made your day!!

Community 

WOW! This was made clear within moments of stepping into the conference meeting rooms! It was wonderful being able to sit with so many different bloggers and TpT sellers and discuss what each person does for a living and sell on TpT. Deanna Jump's Keynote address brought me to tears as she described her life before TpT and how this experience changed her life forever. I decided right then and there that I need to make it a priority to comment more on blogs that I have been reading and to reach out more on the TpT forum so I can become part of this community!


Costumer Care

I attended Jen Jones of Hello Literacy's session on Top Notch Customer Care. It was a thrill to meet Jen and hear her speak on things TpT sellers can do to strengthen their stores. One of the best tips she shared was utilizing the mark button after each comment so buyers see what wonderful comments were left about the product. She also reminded us how important great costomer service is and how it can make or break a sale.

Public Domain

This one might not be new to you but it was new to me in understanding copyright laws! PUBLIC DOMAIN!!! This term explains how anyone can rewrite Shakespeare's plays or Hans Christian Andersen's work. From my still basic understanding this term is defined as those works whose intellectual property rights have expired or forfeited. This one term has made my day as I have been working on some Greek Mythology passages and I have been worried about copyright laws.

How to Make your own Clip Art! 

I am not sure if I am ready to step into clip art yet but it was wonderful hearing Nikki of Melonheadz Clip Art explain her process !

Quality over Quantity

This one really resonated with me as I am creating new products that it is very important to always remember that my goal is to create the best product possible. Teachers dont have a huge expense account to purchase materials and I want to make sure my products live up to their expectations!

Magic Ingredient

I attended Erin Cobb from I'm Lovin Lit's session on how to accelerate your stores success. First it was wonderful hearing her speak about how her store reached such an amazing level of success.  She discussed how you need to find a magic ingredient that makes you stand out from the hundreds of other sellers out there. I realized quickly my magic ingredient is covering Ancient Civilizations! I hope that Friends of Reading can be known for foraging the connection between Science and Social Studies and Reading. So everyone can become a friend of reading!

Take time to Relax! 

As silly as it sounds this was made very clear as I really needed a vacation! It is so important to take the time to relax and indulge every once in a while! ( I will post later about my trip to Carlo's bakery while in Vegas!) 

Time -- Making my Priority List

It was actually extremely helpful to hear that other sellers struggled with juggling the demands of home, work and TpT.  Up to know I have really been working on my TpT products as a hobby and fit it in when I found time. As I sat there listening to the success stories and wonderful friendships that were created from blogging and selling I realized I wasn't giving my little business enough attention to see if it can be really successful...or at least as successful as I would like it to one day be. My second goal for myself came from this realization - I need to dedicate time and put hard deadlines to finishing posts and products so it doesn't get pushed to the back burner.

Importance of Appearance

  This goes for my brand appearance as well as my blog appearance. I need to make sure I am spending time on all aspects of Friends of Reading.

STAY AT THE VENETIAN HOTEL!!

 Enough said! See my pictures on facebook!!

 Ok --Join the linky party and share your experience!!






Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Vegas Tomorrow!

This pretty much sums up how excited I am to pack up and head to Vegas tomorrow! I cant wait to meet everyone and collaborate...not to mention play my FAVORITE slot machine ...
Chances are that if you were looking for me while in Vegas you would probably find me at one of these machines!!SOOO much fun!!

More to come on the conference when I return! Follow me on Instagram to see pictures of the trip!



Thursday, July 3, 2014

Recap and Currently

So I kinda took a little vacation from the blog! The end of May and June raced by and proved to be exhausting both physically and mentally. 


A few days after school ended I lost one of the most influential and important people in my life-my Papa. I was blessed to have had him as my grandfather and know that he is dancing in heaven with my Nani. It happened suddenly so I had to quickly fly home to be with my family. It is still hard knowing that he is gone and I wont be able to talk to him anymore but I know he is in a better place.

A week later I found myself back in the classroom teaching 3rd grade ELA summer school. We had a blast learning all about new reading strategies and our topic was Ancient Rome! Perfect for a gal who loves Ancient Civilizations!! 

Those four weeks flew by and on July 1st I officially started my new position as Assistant Principal!  Very excited to start this new journey! 


Listening: Big Brother 16 has officially started!! I caught up this weekend and this years group of people are very interesting! I love the competitions, the alliances and crazy conspiracies!  Anyone else watching? Its too early to call a winner but I already have a few people that I cant wait till they are evicted!

Loving: Nuff said! Summer school is over woot woot!!



Thinking: Are you going to the TpT Conference?!?! I can't wait!!! After looking over all the handouts even more pumped to head to Vegas! Plus getting to stay at The Venetian Hotel...heaven!!!! I have a few new restaurants I want to try this visit!

Wanting: I started my new contract already so I need to make sure that when I have the time I need to rest and relax and possibly sleep in!!

Needing: Oh my ya'll I absolutely LOVE my new office! Here are a few pictures! I need a few more accents but I am loving how things are looking!






4th Plans: Hopefully spending with friends and eating some fantastic BBQ!

Now that life is back to normal I hope to be able to get back to posting and creating new products for my TpT store!