Follower Appreciation FLASH FREEBIES

I feel like I blinked and summer ended and school started. August went by crazy fast!

Quick Recap of August: 

1. I am LOVING my new position!

2. August turned out to be my BEST MONTH EVER selling on TpT :)

3. I have sooo many topics I want to blog about! Can't wait to sit down and get all my ideas out!

4. The TpT conference helped me see I was doing some things the "hard way" when creating products ...now that I am learning some of the more efficient ways of doing things. Because of these tips I am creating products much faster!

5.  I am so ready for fall..and this is very silly because AZ doesn't really get fall weather. I am ready for long sleeve shirts, pumpkins,  fall decorations and .....FOOTBALL :)

Speaking of football something you may not know about me is I am in 2 fantasy football leagues. Last season I took the whole thing and won the championship ( didn't hurt that I had Peyton Manning and Calvin Johnson on my team :) ) and  I am itching for a second big win!!  In honor of my banner month and all of the new followers I have acquired I want to share the love!

So here's how this FLASH FREEBIE will work :

1. Make sure you are following me on TpT & Bloglovin :) 
2.  Every Tuesday Morning I will announce if one of my Fantasy Football teams won- If ONE of my teams win I will be posting a BRAND NEW product for FREE -- but it will only be free for a few hours.
3. If BOTH of my fantasy football teams win that week I will not only post a BRAND NEW PRODUCT but I will also put my entire store on SALE for the ENTIRE DAY.

My Fantasy Football regular season runs from September 4th -November 24th so be on the look out for FLASH FREEBIES!

What are you most looking forward to doing this fall?

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!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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!

Vegas TpT Sale!!

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!

Peek at my Week and BIG NEWS!!!

LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!

This year has been exhausting and I am ready for my summer break!

First the Big NEWS!!...I accepted a new job for the 2014-2015 school year and I am thrilled to announce that I will be serving as the new Assistant Principal at my current school!! Even though I am sad to leave the classroom I am looking forward to  this new journey! 

ok so now back to my week:

Monday: Regular day - Finishing our Dream Vacation Trip Project and working on cleaning out the classroom. We will also have a promotion pratice sometime this morning.

Tuesday: Regular morning then our annual 8th grade Luau potluck and promotion practice

Wednesday: Very few of my students attend school on Wed as they stay home and get ready for promotion. Then my babies promote to 9th grade :( I'm really going to miss this class!

Thursday: Very few of my students come as they promote on Wed so this day is spent packing and helping out other grade levels.... and then by 1:15 PM I will officially be on break!!

I will be teaching summer school and starting my new job in July so it will be a working summer but I am excited about spending a little time relaxing and sitting by the pool!

Liebster Award !!

 

Hi all! So I while I was away on our class trip to SeaWorld (more on that soon!) I got the coolest email- it was from Mrs. Spangler of Mrs.Spangler in the Middle  and she was informing me she nominated my lil ole blog for an award!

The rules for accepting this award are:

1.  Link back to the person who nominated me:  Mrs.Spangler in the Middle 

2.  Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers.

3.  Answer the questions posted for me by my nominator.

4.  Share 11 random facts about myself.

5.  Contact my nominees to let them know I nominated them.

Answers to Mrs. Spanglers' 11 questions:

1.  What is the best thing about blogging?

Discussing and collaborating with other teachers 

2.  How do you manage your time to get all the blogging activity you want to do "in"?

I try and make a little bit of time at night before bed when I can . It gets really hard during the school year trying to fit everything in! 

3.  What is your best community building tip?

Overnight trips are a great way to build comminity! The kids bond and work on team building skills. 

4.  What do you like best about teaching?

Watching students grow and mature into young adults

5.  What would you do if you couldn't teach?

Event Planner - Social Worker 

6.  Do you have class pets?

NO - Not a big fan of many animals 

7.  What is your best engagement strategy?

Video clips to teach a strategy- My kiddos LOVE them! 

8.  What is your best "go-to" teaching resource (besides TpT)?

A to Z Teacher stuff - Pinterest 

9.  What teaching organizations do you belong to?

ASCD 

10.  What is your favorite thing to do to de-stress?

Yoga, walk, or read 

11.  What is your idea of an ideal vacation?

Beach! Sun! Sightseeing!  

11 Facts About Me: 

1. I am from a small suburb in Ohio 
2. I graduated with a dual degree in Elementary Education and Special Education 
3. I AM TERRIFIED of Cats ....and birds ...and  well many different animals but cats are the worst!
4. I love salted caramel 
5.  Moving to AZ was the hardest and BEST decision I have ever made 
6.  I have one brother and one sister 
7. I love decorating my house! 
8. Am horrible at math! :( 
9. Love teaching middle school! They are by far my favorite grade level
10. Graduated in Dec with my masters in Educational Leadership 
11. Love to read young adult literature ...next up on my list "The Fault in Our Stars"...a pick made for me by most of my 8th graders

 Blogs I have Nominated:

Language Arts Bliss

Teaching and Tech in the Middle School Classroom!

Surviving and Thriving: Teaching Middle School Social Studies

To Engage Them All

Teaching With the Middle Sister


Questions for my Nominees
1.  What is your favorite lesson (that you have taught) ?
2. Why is your school amazing?
3. Finish the sentence: When my students leave my room I hope that they...
4. What goals and ambitions do you have beyond teaching?
5. What is your favorite household chore?
6. What grade level do you teach and what is your favorite thing about that age?
7. What is your favorite tv show?
8. Who is the most influential person in your life so far?
9. Left Brain or Right Brain
10. Do you have a class pet?
11. Summer is almost here ...what do you plan on doing?