Featured Seller - Joy Billeaud

My name is Joy Billeaud, and I am teaching 5^th grade Science in China Spring, Texas.  I have been teaching for 22 years, and have taught everything from pre-school to high school PE and girls’ athletics.  I have never had a position that I did not love, but now that I am no longer coaching my favorite spot would have to be teaching in a self-contained 4^th grade classroom! 

What I like best about teaching is the feeling I get when a student grasps a concept that they had previously eluded them.  In fourth grade this concept is often long division.  They have to remember all the steps, all the multiplication facts, and all their subtraction facts.  When they’ve gotten through to the quotient and then check their work, a smile creeps across their face that says, “I can do this!”  That smile makes the previous hours of struggling all worthwhile!

My favorite TpT product is my Texas Cattle Drive. It includes reading, writing, math, geography and language translations! Students will decide on a location for their own cattle ranch, then decide where they will drive their cattle to market. They hire and pay trail hands, cooks, and trail bosses according to how many miles and days they travel. (tons of math work!) They will draw a card each day to see what happens with their herd. They will journal their daily drive including all sorts of things they may encounter, such as: bad weather, disease, cattle thieves, and even Native American tribes along the way.  My students love this activity, and have even worried about what will happen to their cattle over the weekends!

                                             

                                              

New Sellers at TpT should go directly to the forums and learn everything they can from experienced sellers.  I had products listed for almost 18 months before ever finding the forum.  I didn’t know what Pinterest was, and had no idea that marketing was involved.  You can imagine how well my products were selling – not at all!!

Most of my TpT earnings will go directly into my retirement fund – my Texas Teacher Retirement System is not going to keep me happy in my golden years!  The rest will be spent traveling with my children.  We’re going to Universal Studios in two weeks to see Harry Potter!

TBOTEMC has taught me more about marketing my products than I could have ever imagined possible.  I love the new ideas that are shared through this collaborative group, and I feel like I am on the ‘ground floor’ of new and innovative  marketing strategies.

                                                           

Featured Seller - Krystin McGahan

Featured Seller: Krystin Mcgahan

Primary Lessons grades K-3

Tell us about yourself?

My name is Krystin McGahan. I have 9 years primary teaching experience. But… TPT is now my full time job! After having premature twin boys, I was unable to go back to work. Due to the nature of their prematurity the NICU doctors determined that the babies were ineligible for daycare. I had exhausted my maternity leave and unpaid leave so at that time I decided that being a stay at home mom was best for my new family. This also meant leaving my beloved teaching position in the inner city Chicago where I had started my career 9 years prior. My husband was just starting a new job and losing my salary sent us into a tailspin. It was time for me to figure out how I could stay at home, remain in the field I felt so passionate about and make money all at the same time...and I had to do it FAST. This was when I took the leap of faith that was TPT! Our head of district curriculum was onto TPT from the get go and she had been persistent about trying to convince me to sell for years. She believed that my ideas and lessons would sell. At the time I was still teaching and didn't think I had the time but once I became a stay at home mom I decided it was worth a shot. I bought Publisher (which I had NEVER used) and began creating. I won't lie, the first year I put in hours and hours of work. It was in fact a full time job that I did during naps, early in the morning and late at night but when I started selling right away I knew I was onto something! Well TPT has and continues to exceed my wildest expectations. In just over 2 years of selling I have hit two earning milestones making me a top seller in IL!! I officially set up an S-CORP becoming my own small business by which I can stay at home with my kids. Best yet it has allowed me to stay connected to education that I so truly love. In one word TPT has been a blessing and has given me the gift of spending everyday with my twin boys. My only regret being...why didn't I do this sooner!!??

What do you like best about teaching?

Being creative and getting to be around curious little minds and unconditionally loving hearts J

Describe your favorite TpT product.

I love my Guided Reading BUNDLE, it’s perfect for beginning teachers or teachers new to guided reading and has some new ideas for veterans. It provides ways to get organized and includes tons of printables and games to play with GR groups. Visit this product by clicking on the link!

Guided Reading BUNDLE

What advice would you give to someone who may want to become a seller at Teachers Pay Teachers?

Go for it! No doubt it takes a ton of work in the beginning and there is in fact a learning curve but with dedication and perseverance the rewards can stretch beyond your wildest dreams. TPT has been life changing for me. Reach for the stars and don’t be afraid to dream big….it is possible

What have you done or hope to do with your TpT earnings?

I have used them to set up an S-CORP allowing to run my own business and replace my teaching income so that I can stay at home for a few years with my twin boys!

What do you like best about being a member of The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative?

All of the marketing tools. Social media and marketing are areas that I have not scratched the surface of so having these readily accessible and manageable means to get my products in front of more people is invaluable.

Visit My TpT Store:

TPT STORE

Featured Seller - Joya Crawford

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Joya Crawford.  I have been married to my husband for 10 years and we have 2 children.  Suri is 7 and Levi is nearly 4.  They are our biggest blessings as we adopted them from foster care.  We were foster parents for 6 years and cared for many children.  It is something my husband and I are both very passionate about.  I was a teacher for 15 years before I was promoted to stay-at-home momma for 2 years.  My husband applied for an opportunity through work to work in the Bahamas and we moved down here in November of 2013.  We are committed to 2 years and have the option to stay 2 more.  While in the classroom for 15 years I taught first grade and second grade.  I taught mostly at high-poverty, high ELL schools in Fairfax County, Virginia and then in Mukilteo, Washington.

What do you like best about teaching?

I loved building relationships with my students and building a caring community in the classroom the most.  I used Responsive Classroom practices to build a strong sense of community in my classrooms.  I loved getting to know and care about each student and seeing them care about and for each other.  Once they felt safe, accepted, and cared for they were ready to learn. 

Describe your favorite TpT product.

My favorite TpT product is my Student-Friendly Behavior Learning Targets.  I just love this product.  I used this all the time in the classroom.  I am passionate about helping those kids who just need a little extra behavior support.  Classroom management plans are great but are often overwhelming for these kiddos.  That’s where the behavior targets come in.  We have academic learning targets that target specific academic goals.  Why not do the same for behavior?  I’ve done this in my classroom for years and it works.  Students can be successful in changing their behavior when you break it down into achievable goals, one goal at a time.  Try them and let me know how they work for you!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Student-Friendly-Behavior-Learning-Targets-833323

What advice would you give to someone who may want to become a seller at Teachers Pay Teachers?

Do your research on the forum first.  Also come to the conference this summer if you can!  I learned so much I wish I had known earlier.

What have you done or hope to do with your TpT earnings?

Right now I’m hoping to make enough to pay to go to the conference this summer.  Beyond that, my husband and I hope to foster and adopt more children from foster care when we return to the states and will use my earnings to support us in caring for them.

What do you like best about being a member of The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative?

I love the community atmosphere.  Everyone is so supportive and wants to help you out.  People share what they’ve learned in their journey so others of us don’t have to make the same mistakes.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Joya-Crawford

http://liveloveserveteach.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/liveloveserveteach

https://www.pinterest.com/liloserveteach/

 

Featured Seller - Gretchen Ebright

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Gretchen Ebright from Endless Teaching Ideas. I have 20+ years teaching experience (PreK, K and 1^st) and I have been the Director of a church-based preschool. I am also an artist and have taught classes and sold products at an art studio that my mother owns.

We have 4 grown kids and an adorable furry baby, named Vinnie.

What do you like best about teaching?

My favorite part of teaching is seeing a child’s face when they finally grasp a concept they had been struggling to understand. WhooHoo!

Describe your favorite TpT product.

One of my favorite TpT products is called Art Parts. It features different themed sets that are a combination of art templates and clip art to coordinate with classroom units, such as Woodland Animals, Cold Weather Animals and Famous Americans…

Here is the link to the set of Woodland Animals

What advice would you give to someone who may want to become a seller at Teachers Pay Teachers?

My advice for beginner TpT sellers would be to just stick with it! It may be a slow go, but continue to create, pin and share your products. Also, access the CoOp for tips and pointers to assist you.

What have you done or hope to do with your TpT earnings?

With my TpT earnings I hope to be able to afford the little ‘extras’ in life for my family and myself! I am also considering starting a dog rescue and would love to have the extra start-up money for that adventure!

What do you like best about being a member of The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative?

I appreciate how The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing CoOp assists with marketing my products. The information provided is invaluable and has helped me spread my wings!

Please FOLLOW me at:

My TpT Shop - Gretchen Ebright

My Blog - Endless Teaching Ideas

My Facebook Page - Endless Teaching Ideas

My Pinterest Boards

Thanks!

Gretchen

Featured Seller - Jennifer Bradley

 

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Jennifer Bradley and I am currently a speech therapist in the school system.  I love working with little kids, but have worked with all ages.  I am married to my high school sweetheart and have 2 children (3 year old girl and 2 month old boy).  I love being creative and using creativity to make fun materials!  Some things I like to do include camping, art, hanging out with my family and going out with friends. 

 

What do you like best about teaching?

I like seeing where kids start in the beginning of the year and how much they improve by the end of the year. 

 

Describe your favorite TpT product.

Even though I make speech products, I think my favorite products would be my fonts.  I especially like my Christmas and Winter font bundles.  They make me smile when I use them in my products and see other sellers use them.  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FUN-Winter-Fonts-9-Fonts-Included-1637600

 

 

What advice would you give to someone who may want to become a seller at Teachers Pay Teachers?

Be yourself and create what you like.  It’s hard looking at other people’s products and thinking, ‘Wow, I wish I thought of that’.  After selling for a couple of months, I realized that the products that sell the most are the ones that I was excited to create!

 

What have you done or hope to do with your TpT earnings?

I hope to start being a full time stay at home mom while my kids are young.  I love being a speech therapist, but I miss my kids when I am at work.  I want to keep creating materials while my kids are at home.  When they go to school, I would like to go back to working full time.

 

What do you like best about being a member of The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative

Getting to know other sellers has been really nice.  It is nice to have someone cheering for you and your success.

 

www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/jen-bradleys-store

http://www.speechtherapyfun.com

http://www.facebook.com/speechtherapyfun

http://www.pinterest.com/slptherapyfun

 

 

Featured Seller - Amanda Trump

Tell us about yourself.

Right after high school, I found myself sitting in a classroom taking classes to be a teacher.  This was not anything I had planned, but five years later I found myself with a teaching degree. I have taught for 19 years in a variety of settings including homeschooling, regular education, and currently special education.  When I first began teaching, I taught as an elementary substitute teacher for a few years.  Then I came home, and taught my children for seven years until they graduated from high school.  During my children’s college years, I returned to teaching, and also I had the opportunity to return to college and earn my masters, tuition free, in special education.  Now I teach struggling kindergarten and first grade students reading and math and love it!

What do you like best about teaching?

I love teaching reading!   When these ‘little ones’ first come to my resource room, I assess the current skills, discover the gaps in their foundation [which are there for various reasons], and then we get to work. Usually, the least likely reason for learning gaps is not that they are not sharp enough to learn to read.  They are very sharp!  They just need someone to put some successful reading tools in the toolbox for them to use.  First, they have to learn to identify all the letters and corresponding sounds.  Then they learn to blend letters in the order they appear.  This is a really difficult skill for some students because they come to me with the idea that reading is a ‘guessing game.’  In reality that’s what reading has been for them because that’s how they have perceived reading since it was too much for them to figure out.  But I have found that my students learn to read simply by giving them intense one-on-one instruction, holding them accountable to reading the print as it actually appears on the page, and making it fun by playing games to teach the ‘reading rules.’  I begin teaching 'Reading Closed Syllables' first.  Closed Syllables make up about 50% of the English language. So if students master reading closed syllables, they have a great foundation upon which to begin reading. Typically, after about six months, they begin to enter the zone of reading, and when they do, it is so thrilling to see their awareness of a whole new world opening up to them. 

Describe your favorite TpT product.

My ‘Reading Syllable Types Bundle Packet’ is my favorite unit. This is a packet that I have wanted to put together for years, and when I heard about TpT, it gave me the incentive to do. This packet lays out six strategies to help students decode words.  These strategies are called syllable types, and there are six of them.  Learning each strategy/syllable type is a matter of the student looking around the vowel/vowels in a word to see what consonants are beside the vowel.  Once they learn that certain consonants around a vowel give a particular clue to that vowel’s sound, they are on their way to reading.  Through the process, they discover that reading is really simple, and it is a matter of them working to ‘break the code’ to reading. This packet lays out these six strategies in the most simplistic, systematic way giving a plethora of concrete examples.  

Link to TpT Product

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reading-Syllable-Types-Bundle-Packet-1202234

What advice would you give to someone who may want to become a seller at Teachers Pay Teachers?

Don’t hesitate to get started!  At first it seems so overwhelming to know what to do, but take that plunge and do it one step at a time, and eventually you will prove it to yourself that you can do it.  It’s just a matter of you turning your great ideas into useful materials. If you have found an idea to be successful in your teaching, then other most likely will also.  Just begin sharing!

What have you done or hope to do with your TpT earnings?

I would like to have the opportunity to get financially fit and to give more to others. 

What do you like best about being a member of The Best of Teacher?

Since I personally don’t manage a blog, I like having a place to which I can post and advertise my materials.  It’s such a great opportunity Vicky has created for usJ

Link to Your TpT Store

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Amanda-Trump

Featured Seller: Lisa Robles

Featured Seller: 

Lisa Robles

Tell us about yourself.
     I've been teaching for 24 years in an elementary setting though some of those years were out of the classroom. Those years reminded me how much I love the classroom. I have a wonderful husband and three amazing boys in their 20's and we live in Southern California. I recieved my Bachelors' from U.C.L.A. and my Masters' from C.S.U.F. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Instructional Technology. I am a National Board Certified Teacher in Literacy: Reading, Language Arts. 

      I am proud to say I am a founding member of our school, Lucille Roybal-Allard ES. A team of fantastic educators worked for two years to write a plan to create the best educational environment they could think of and the district agreed with us and awarded the school to us. It's been challenging but rewarding starting our own school.  We are currently in our third year.

      Currently, I'm teaching fourth grade.


What do you like best about teaching?
     I love the creativity and the fun you can have with the kids. Kids are so open to learning new things and just trying. I love that about children.
     I also love the lightbulb moment. You know that moment, when a student has been struggling to get a concept and, all of a sudden, you can see that lightbulb turn on over their head and their eyes light up because they get it. I love that.


Describe your favorite TpT product.
     My favorite TpT product has to be my close reading guides. I love reading quality literature to my students as interactive read alouds and going further and using close reading to really go deep with the text. It's so important to have great open ended questions to use and that's how I designed my guides. 

      I use the story as an Interactive Read Aloud during Reader's Workshop. The language of the story helps me delve into comprehension, literary elements and genre. I use the questions I created in the close reading guide to help me "go deep" with the literature. Students turn and talk during this time and discuss their thinking. I also model how to annotate text, which students can do using the class read aloud or a book at their reading level during the workshop.
       Once a week we do a formal close read during our language arts time. That's when I use the formatted sheets in the close reading guide. Gradual release is the teaching method in which responsibility shifts from the teacher to the student. The "I do it, We do it, You do it together, You do it alone" model. The lesson is very explicit and scripted. Close reading can be focused on anything you like: figurative language, theme, character development, story elements etc..


What advice would you give to someone who may want to become a seller at Teachers Pay Teachers?
      Just go for it! Make a quality product and people will be thankful. A one of my colleagues recently said, "It's not that I can't make it. I just don't have the time." If you've already made something, just try putting it on TpT. You're probably helping someone else out!

     Oh, and go to the TPT conference in the summer!  I learned so much in one day.  I didn't know I was doing so much wrong!  Make the investment and go! You will learn a ton and meet great people.


What have you done or hope to do with your TpT earnings?
     I hope to help out my family and pay some bills! I don't make a ton but every little bit helps!


What do you like best about being a member of The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative?
     I've learned a lot about blogging with Victoria. She has been a great resource. It's interesting to see how others use TBOTE, too. Thanks, Victoria, for creating this great resource.

Fourth Grade Teacher in California!


TPT: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisateachr
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/lisarteacher/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LisaTeachR
Blog: http://lisateachr.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @Lisa_teacher