A Journey, A Step

Join Ruth and Stacey for a Slice of Life on their blog Two Writing Teachers every Tuesday.  Read a slice or write one of your own!

A journey begins
with one small step
chancing the unknown

No one knows what the future holds
we just set our goals
and travel onward

A new adventure awaits
around every turn
and fork in the road

It's up to us to grab hold
or let go
and move forward either way

Our journey is our own
no one else can say
only our heart can guide the way

Consider your path carefully
but let your heart choose
listen and trust

Chance the unknown
take one small step
begin a journey

My journey? There are many things my heart wants to do.  Write a book or two?  Maybe someday.  Today I think I will be a wife, a mom and a teacher.  But my newest fork in the road, my newest journey, is to help other teachers.  I love to help others if I can and I hope that by creating a shop at Teachers Pay Teachers and Teacher's Notebook that I will be able to help teachers far and wide.  I am sharing the things that I have created and have used in some form or another in my own classroom to help my fellow teachers.  There is no sense recreating things that people have already spent time making...so let's share!

And now...a shameless plug...

If you are willing to read for a few more minutes, I hope you will check out my new teacher stores by clicking one of the links below...or tell a friend...or both!

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/Sheldor/

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Teaching-Tomorrows-Leaders-Robin-S

And because I consider you all my friends, there are two freebies waiting for you if you go!  You can go to either shop -- the freebies are in both.  You will find an "Owl Counting Pack" for counting by tens and ones AND a "Little Monsters Roll & Color" activity for recognizing standard dice dot patterns and numbers 1-6.  I hope you will enjoy them and also take the time to check out my other items.

Happy Tuesday!

I Spy Some Changes Around Here...

You may have noticed some changes here on my blog!  I decided that it was time, after a little encouragement from friends and a little online stalking, to open shop!

Not a in-real-life kind of shop.  An online shop!

Over the last year or so, I've become a stalker of a few kindergarten blogs and have been in love with some of the things they post that they have created.  I also enjoy creating things that people can use in the classroom. 

Last school year I saw several great ideas on Pinterest that gave me ideas for my own activities.  After trying my ideas out in my own classroom, I shared them with my team mates at school.  After a while, they started telling me I should sell them.  "Yep, sure, I'll get right on that!" was my usual sarcastic answer.

But then I started really thinking about it.  Slowly I began to look closely at the things people had listed for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers and Teacher's Notebook.  I started to notice how "cutesy" everything is and while that's nice, it gets a little over the top to me.  I think things should look nice for children but I don't think everything has to be matchy-matchy or cute, colorful animals to get their attention and I don't want to teach my students that it should be. So...I decided to create my shop with that in mind.  Don't get me wrong, I will use fun clip art pictures and backgrounds but I will not make everything so over the top.  And please don't misunderstand, I think it's great that people have the time and energy to devote to that sort of thing, I just don't think it's necessary for kids to learn so I will offer an alternative.

I have only added about 12 items so far to my store but it's a start.  I will continue to work on new products throughout the summer and as we head back to school I will be thinking about what I create for use in my classroom and what I think others would use too.  Those are the things that I will add to my store.  It's not a huge resource yet, but it will grow over time and hopefully someone will find something useful to them.

Because of all of that, I needed a picture/graphic for my stores.  I wanted something simple but something that would be easy to see and remember as well.  I played around with some graphics and created my new title/header.  It also works as my button and headers for my shops!  (Gotta love it when it plays double duty!)

If you are interested, I hope you will take a few minutes to check out one of my shops or tell a friend who might be looking for something.  (There are links to both shops on the top right hand side of my blog.)  And hey, if you have any suggestions for improvement on anything, let me know!  That's how we learn and grow, right?