I Was In the Dark About TpT CREDITS

One night quite recently, a friend casually mentioned she had a loot of TpT credits.  CREDITS? What CREDITS?  I am sure I must have yelled through the text message.  I had never heard of them but once she explained the deal, I went to right to work.  You see, I had been a regular shopper at Teachers Pay Teachers for quite some time and had racked up some purchases.  (Don't tell the SO!)


Let me explain how it works.  You shop on TpT, download and use the product, return to TpT and leave feedback for the seller.  For each dollar you have spent, you get 1 credit.  Once you have enough credits, you can apply those credits towards a new purchase.  

Tips:  feedback on freebies won't get you any credits, but the sellers do appreciate positive feedback of all kinds.  

Here's the link with the official TpT info about credits.  There! Don't say I never saved you any money... :) 

Denise

Attitude of Gratitude: How to Add a Gratitude Journal to your Classroom

A few years back, I went to a 3-day conference to see Eric Jensen (author of Teaching with Poverty in Mind & Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind) in San Antonio, Texas.  Beautiful place and exteremly hot and humid there in July!

I learned so much during the conference, took pages and pages of notes, and couldn't wait to get started with EVERYTHING!  But, wait!  Past experience had taught me that you can't jump into everything at once.  I knew I needed to pick one new piece of learning and apply that and only that to my classroom in the fall.  Manageable.  Doable.

It wasn't hard to decide on building a sense of gratitude.  The research on the physical and mental health benefits are well-documented. I also knew I had enough time in a time-pressed school day (at the end of breakfast) to add in some time for journaling.

I found these catchy titles on the internet, "Grati-Tuesday" and "Thankful Thursday" - and that made it easy to remember what days we were going to be journaling.  This August, I will start my third year of using Gratitude Journals and thought it was about time I shared them with you.  Denise

Back to School Freebie

Even after 21 years of teaching, there's going to be a day at the :) of the year where I am WAY over planned and the kids don't finish half of what I had set up to do.  You've been there, right?  It's easy to forget that all the systems and expectations you had in place in May aren't already there in the fall. That classroom running like clockwork is long gone and you have to start from scratch...again.  Tear.

Strangely, on other days, we will inevitably finish the lessons in record time and need a filler activity before the 3:05 bell!!   I usually have some copies of a word search with all our names in it as a filler.  But, I also like Bingo because I can be a part of the activity and show my funny side a bit!

So, I've created a Back to School Bingo set to share with you.  Download it for FREE, on my TpT store today and then go back to enjoying your time off.  BTS will be here soon enough.

:)Happily on Summer Break,
Denise


Prep Tips:  Build in some time to make the boards and have baggies with ripped up recycled paper to cover the spaces ready to go.  That way when you want to play, kids can just get out their boards, have a helper pass out the baggies, and start playing!  A winner's reward can simply becoming the next game's caller!

Planners! What's All the Fuss?

There sure is a lot of fuss this time of year about what teacher planner to get!!  I looked at several different brands and they were pretty similar.  Each brand has calendars, planning pages, checklists I will never use, and pretty covers. It comes down to personal quirky preferences, in my opinion. 

Nothing stood out to me as a "must have".  Until... I discovered that you can create your own covers on Erin Condren.  Not the one where you upload a bunch of family photos (did that one last year).  This one is 100% your design. That sold me!

I will show you the PNG I created on Canva.com for free!  Tips to create yours is underneath my creation!  So, scroll down past the picture. 

 Note:  The blank space at the bottom of the picture is where your name will appear on the final product.

To create your own image on Canva, use the custom dimensions instead of a template.  Type in 2805 x 3630 and change the in/mm option to px.  I used an online calculator to determine the pixels to match professional level photos.  So, 2805x3630 px = Design.

Once you are at the next screen, you can customize the template any way you like.  There are free photos and illustrations to use and/or upload your own.  Don't forget-- if you are making your own Erin Condren cover, leave space at the bottom for your name!

When you are ready, save it as a PNG on your desktop and you are all set!  Have fun and happy planning!  Denise


**I don't get paid a dime by EC, just a fan of this year's planner :)

Early Reader Freebie: What Lives in the Desert?

To celebrate uploading my 7th Early Reader using Fry's 1st 100 Word Books... I am giving  away Book #7:  What Lives in the Desert? for free just for the next 7 hours... click here.  

 The regular price is $1.25 per book or $4.50 for a 5 book bundle.
Books #8-#10 will be out by the end of the weekend. :)


Happy Friday!  Denise