The Third Grade Nest : #tptsellerchallenge

I am loving this #tptsellerchallenge! It's keeping my mind off of things while I just sit here waiting and waiting and waiting to hear about the appraisal on my house. I have been trying so hard to save money in preparation for the biggest purchase of my life, but it is the hardest thing to do during the summer, when I have all day to sit and ponder purchases for my new house! This week, the facilitators challenged all of us to "dare to dream" and list out the reasons we have joined TPT and basically have committed to working another job. So, here are my top 3 reasons:

1. Collaborate with other great educators; I initially wanted to start blogging and joined the TPT community to make new friends and learn from other educators who are as invested in their work as I am. I haven't been taking blogging seriously yet, so I am excited to see where the challenge takes me in meeting this goal. I know that great collaboration adds so much to your classroom teaching skills and am excited to make new friends along this journey!

2. Provide a great education for my students: The first reason I joined the Teachers Pay Teachers community was to provide students with a quality education. I was previously at a school that didn't have a great reading and math curriculum, nor was I required to use it. It was very hard to teach a combination class with these two curriculum, and we were in the process of changing to the common core which was not supported by the math and reading programs. I turned to Teachers Pay Teachers first to improve student learning and meet state standards that were not covered by the curriculum provided. I still use the site for just this reason, but now that I have a few more years under my belt, I feel comfortable creating some of my own resources.

3. Pay off my debt!: Between car loans, credit cards, school loans, and now (what am I thinking?!?!) a mortgage, I can use any extra income I can get. I have only ever worked in the two lowest paying states for educators and it makes life tough! I'm hoping to pay off my car early, and get my credit cards paid off in a timely manner with the income I make from teacherspayteachers.

There are many more reasons I have joined TPT and started a blog, but these are my top 3. I am enjoying this journey and cannot wait to see where it takes me!

I finally had time to sit down and finish this week's challenge for the #tptsellerschallenge. I am SO SO SO excited with the final, redone product.

I chose to do one of my first products, my brag tags. I intended to use these as a positive behavior support last year, but I never got around to doing it. However, I know these are being put to good use in other classrooms, because it's one of my best sellers!

Before the Challenge:

The Title page was bland, uninviting and pretty boring. I was just learning how to create cute things for TPT when I started this product, and I thought I did a pretty good job. After working hard for the last year and paying really close attention to good design, I realized that that title page is not getting anyone to take a second look. This challenge couldn't have come at a better time!

After the Challenge:

AHHH! This challenge makes me want to redo all of my products! I love, love, love the way it turned out! I love the bright colors, the Melonheadz graphics and the new fonts. PS I am obsessed with arrows, and the clip art on the cover makes me so happy! I'm hoping the new look adds some added attention to the product, which I totally revamped ... because, well, it was time!

Click here to get your brag tags!