Hey Everybody,
We have been fortunate to meet some really great and gifted people on our TPT journey so far, so we thought we would introduce some of them to you!
First up is Peggy Means of PRIMARY FLOURISH We met Peggy at Southern California TPT meet up/dinner. She has been very, very helpful to us as we try to figure out the ins and outs of social media and things like Rafflecopter.
PEGGY: I am so delighted to be hosted on The Teacher Team blog with some other So Cal bloggers! It’s so fun meeting new friends and to know more about each other!
I grew up on a farm with my family, cows, calves, cats, dogs, chickens, pigs, goats, guinea pigs, hamsters, and even white rats. I am thankful to have had such a rich childhood so close to nature. I am also thankful for the disciplined life that farm life required… of course I didn’t at the time 😉
I loved teaching for 40 years and now I am enjoying the retirement season! While I was in the classroom, I was constantly creating resources for my students and loving it! Now I have even more time to create resources for teachers and their students. I am so thankful for TpT and the great community of teachers that I now collaborate with. I would probably be in withdrawal if I weren’t involved with education in some way.
My retirement is so much more than that – it’s time with my sweet husband, family, gardening, walking, Bible study groups, traveling and more!
I love gardening and am always thinking of gardening metaphors and similes when in my garden. This sweet poem (author unknown) inspired my blog name, Primary Flourish. It reminds me of the necessity of meeting the individual needs of students through differentiation and engaging activities.
One of my very favorite resources that I have created is the “Paragraph Toolkit”. This pack contains differentiated graphic organizers and rubrics that will take writers through the Writing Process. Learning the steps to the Writing Process will enable students to write well-developed paragraphs.
It makes my heart so happy every time I see that one has been sold because I know that so many teachers are going to have the tools to help their students develop into confident writers!!
Thanks Peggy! Please check out her store!
Next up are Jonathan and Lisa of Created For Learning!
Jonathan and Lisa were the first people we connected with at a TPT Blogger Bash lunch last summer (boy did we feel like rookies!). Since then we have been collaborating and sharing ideas for improvement on TPT and in the classroom.
Our blog link: http://createdforlearning.blogspot.com/
Our store link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Created-For-Learning
JONATHAN AND LISA:
Hello! We are Jonathan and Lisa from Created for Learning.
Jonathan has been teaching for 13 years. He is currently teaching 7th & 8th grade English and creative writing at a charter school in Southern California. Lisa taught first and second grade before she chose to stay home full-time. We’ve been living in a two-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood of the school that Lisa taught at so our oldest daughter could go to school with teachers that Lisa knew and loved. We are saving up money to buy a house someday.
Both of us created our own resources for the classroom because we weren’t given resources or the things provided, especially for Jonathan teaching middle school, were boring or not relevant to the students’ actual lives. We wanted things that fit the vision of what we thought would work best for our students and ourselves. Jonathan also likes things to look really cool and places a big value on the design of things he uses in his classroom.
Paper Towns Novel Teaching Unit (the movie is coming out soon)
Grammar Ninja Commas Unit
Most all of the store includes Jonathan’s Middle School resources but Lisa quite enjoyed her Multiple Meaning Word Book.
Random fun facts:
- Jonathan once filled Lisa’s dorm room with balloons for Valentine’s Day.
- Lisa got everyone in Jonathan’s life to write words of affirmation for him and surprised him by decorating his classroom with them all over his walls.
- Lisa loves the aftertaste of foods and strategically picks her last food item to eat.
- Jonathan likes to eat gummy worms one segment at a time.
- Jonathan’s birth country doesn’t exist anymore.
- Lisa collects ice cream spoons as her souvenir from other countries she has traveled. She was sad when she realized their middle daughter was throwing away her silverware to “help” clean the table after meals. She didn’t realize it soon enough to rescue her Italian gelato spoons from Florence.
- Lisa is on team cookie and Jonathan is on team brownie (although they will eat both). J
- Jonathan has written four young adult novels that are, as of this time, unpublished.
- Lisa did movie extra (background) work and modeling while growing up. Lisa loved working on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. She was in one of the episodes with Johnny Cash. Here is a picture with her sitting on Johnny Cash’s lap with Joe Lando next to them.
- This summer, Jonathan and Lisa will be moving to the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
- They love to travel and experience new cultures.
It has been so fun to get to know John and Carol! It is great to have people we can bounce ideas off of and learn from each other. Thanks!
Thanks Jonathan and Lisa, next up is Dana Encheff of Technicatopia
Dana and Carol have known each other for a while now. Dana just opened up his TPT store and is looking forward to helping students with his innovative products. Dana is a computer and technology wizard and we can’t wait to see what he comes up with on TPT. (Little known fact: Dana’s 90 year old grandmother was a foreign language teacher at John’s junior high! John did not have her for a teacher but his sisters did and Mrs. Encheff remembers them from the 1970’s!)
DANA:
Hi Teachers and Friends,
I am new TpT member, and a long-time curriculum developer. I have been working for a K-12 school district in Southern California for nearly a decade. I am currently a technology coach, and I spend most of my day working alongside teachers to help them integrate technology into the classroom instruction. All of my products will be based on instructional activities I believe in, and most of what I make will have an added technology twist or activity to help meet the needs of those 21st Century skills our students need. I hope you enjoy my products as I continue to develop them. If you have any needs, especially those related to technology and curriculum integration, let me know! I’d love to make products to meet your needs.
This is my Common Core Leaf Classification Unit
This integrated Common Core unit includes a variety of ELA grammar, reading, writing, and speaking and listening activities to teach students about how to classify leaves and identify basic structural parts of this organ system. The unit is perfect for teachers who want to teach ELA through highly engaging science lessons.
Best Wishes,
Dana
Thanks Dana and good luck with your store!
Next up is Sean Killeen
We met Sean at our Southern Cal TPT meet up and are looking forward to working with him! Please check out Sean’s store on TPT!
SEAN:
A small of group of us meet last month to talk about TpT and some other cool things going on in our classrooms in Anaheim. It was a great time and I felt like I made some real connections with new friends.
Some of the topics which were generated from that meet up centered upon our TpT stores, products, blogging styles and a little about ourselves.
I have had my TpT store for a little over two years. I sell a variety of products. If you visit my store, then you will find the following:
Figurative Language across all genres
Holiday themed items (MLK, President’s Day, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, Halloween, & Thanksgiving)
Mental Math Cards
Math Patterns
Daily Morning Work
Pundles
The one product I am most proud of happens to be my simile and metaphor unit. I have received great feedback on this item.
My blogging style is a combination of family and school. I like to write about what is going on in my personal life as well as all the incredible things we are doing in class. The one major point of focus is writing.
I am currently approaching my twentieth year of teaching and it has happened so quickly. I’ve taught third, fourth and fifth grade.
My son, Ciaran, a loving four year old, keeps me active. He is an amazing little boy who brings nothing but joy. My wife and I love to take him to the park, read, build puzzles, watch entertaining shows, travel, take walks and joke around.
Thanks Sean! Don’t forget to check out Sean’s store!
Last but not least is the HappyEdugator!
We met Deborah Hayes, aka the HappyEdugator through Facebook and have been fast friends ever since!
DEBORAH:
I am the HappyEdugator!
I have been a TPT seller since 2008. I have about 25 years classroom experience, from Pre-K through 8th grade, in multiple subject areas. If you stop by my TPT store, HappyEdugator, you will see I have a great variety of products for multiple subjects and grade levels. In fact, I am surprised that I almost have 1000 products! There is one disadvantage to having so many items…I spend a great deal of time going back and updating some of the old ones which were posted when TPT was young, in addition to creating new products all the time. However, even if I revised one product a day, it would take me three years to get to them all! Wow…and by then, they would all need updating again! I do the best I can to keep my products current, but there are some old ones out there in need of work. I think, though, my store has a lot to offer from years of teaching. There are many free items that will should help new teachers get started, especially middle grade teachers.
Here is a product I really like:
This poetry unit includes a wide variety of resources to help teach a comprehensive unit on poetry!
I blog occasionally, post on Facebook and Pinterest, and try to stay active on all other social media, too. Sometimes there are not enough hours in the day to do it all! 🙂 I would love to have you follow me for products, ideas, and just fun stuff!
Although I have had many students, I have two children of my own. My daughter is now 33, and she had my sweet grandson last August. She is currently working as a chef at a fine restaurant in Seattle. My son is 32 and is currently working as a CNC programmer, and also lives in Seattle. I am enjoying being the grandmother of his sweet 4 year old little boy, too, but sad they are so far away from me. I get to visit about once a year.
My husband and I love the outdoors, especially camping, fishing, and going to the springs or the beach. We have two dogs: a lab/chow mix and a border collie/daschund mix, who are both spoiled rotten. We plan on retiring in Florida and traveling during the hot summer months.
In the classroom, I try to make everyday an unforgettable day! I make every effort to appeal to a variety of learning styles, so that students can stay focused and engaged in learning. Children should walk away from my classroom with a love for reading and a hunger for learning something new everyday.
Wishing you all my very best wishes for success,
Deborah Hayes
aka HappyEdugator
Check out Deborah on her various “homes” on the internet!
My blog: http://www.happyedugator.
My Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/
Linked-in: https://www.linkedin.com/
Thanks to all our TPT/Blogging friends! We are so excited to watch your blogs and stores grow. Please leave us a comment and let us know what you think. See you soon!
John and Carol
The Teacher Team