Wendy Says

Spring is often the time of year when “teacher fatigue” can strike. After struggling through the winter months with obstacles of all sorts, energy levels can run low. The end of the school year is in sight, but that last leg can be rough! Your creative juices have dried up, and you’ve run out of ideas to help teach certain concepts to those students who need more help.

By nature, teachers are a creative bunch, but it has only been recently in which there has been a forum where others could share ideas. In 2006, Paul Edelman, a former NYC public school teacher, decided to create an open online marketplace where teachers could buy, sell, and share original educational materials in downloadable formats. He was the first person to launch this idea, and it has exploded around the world. We know it as Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) , and if you haven’t heard of this site yet, I will be glad to enlighten you. 

In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, computer equipment was becoming commonplace in the classroom, but the use of the internet as a teaching resource was still in its early stages for the general populace. Online teaching was rudimentary at best, but once begun, it was like an online conflagration for the next best thing to improve the experience for both the student and the teacher. No longer was an online classroom static, as tools were created to make it possible to simulate an actual interactive classroom. Connecting with the online world has become an integral part of learning and teaching.

Mr. Edelman saw a need for there to be a place where teachers could connect and share ideas, but he took it a step further by making it available for teachers to sell some of their ideas at a nominal cost and earn some extra money in the process. How many times have you worked hard to come up with an idea to help teach a particular concept or idea and created a great teaching method that proved successful? By taking this one step further, you could share this idea on the TpT website and earn something for your effort. 

There is no cost involved in registering to be part of the TpT community, and you are even allowed ten free downloads from an extensive list of products just for signing up. There are many free features to take advantage of, but if you want to become actively involved in the selling aspect, you will need to become a paid member. Everything is explained on how to do this, but you are free to participate however best suits you.  There are 1,600,000 registered members with over 90,000,000 page views made each month! 

The website covers all aspects and levels of teaching, so there is something for everyone, ranging from teaching ideas to making money by selling your ideas through the marketplace. Pinterest has several pages that show you the wide variety of topics that are available. Take the time to browse through some of the offerings, and be sure to check out their blog--you will be amazed!

It’s March already, and many of you are either on Spring Break or about to be. Unless you’re located in one of the few areas that hasn’t experienced much of a winter, you’re still buried under several feet of snow and undoubtedly feeling that the groundhog froze solid! Just seeing the temperature get above freezing is a big thing, but soon, the wildflowers and daffodils will be popping up to remind us of warmer days ahead.

Everyone is familiar with You Tube, but there may be some of you who aren’t familiar with Teacher Tube. I remember it being a place where I could find videos on a variety of topics that were designed to help me in the classroom, both physically and virtually. Now, it has mushroomed into something that I have had to take time to study, all the while trying to keep my jaw in place!   

Teacher Tube has become a complete virtual community that reaches out not just to teachers, but parents and students as well. This site launched in 2007 as a You Tube for teachers. In 2009, Audios, Docs, Photos, and Collections were added as additional resources to Videos. In 2014, Teacher Tube was able to integrate all these tools for use in online classrooms created within the site, greatly ensuring security and safety for its users. Each online classroom is a private place in which the teacher is able to create lessons utilizing all the tools and teaching aids that have been made available on the site, and it even uses a Learning Management System that allows the teacher to create tests that can be instantly graded. 

This sounds like an innovative approach to combining such LMS tools as BlackBoard, Angel and WebCT with You Tube to allow you to create your unique learning environment. The classroom is also accessible on any mobile device, thereby increasing a higher percentage of participation from wherever the student might be. This is available for any level of grade or specialty—there are no restrictions when it comes to learning.

What does something like this cost? 

1. Free: Offers a limited package of space, but no email support; must contend with ads. 
2. Teacher Tube Pro--$29/yr. Offers full functionality of all tools, LMS, email support, design, customization, and more.
3. Teacher Tube Campus Pro—Must contact for pricing. Designed to be used by schools, districts, and universities; networking capabilities. Offers complete use of all available tools as well as unlimited data. 

You do not need to set up a classroom to be able to use the other video and audio tools, so take advantage of everything you can—it’s free! Teacher Tube’s mission is to make a teacher’s life easier by offering tools that increase as well as enhance creativity and efficiency, again for free. Teacher Tube welcomes you to look around as much as you like and find out for yourself what a great resource this is. Enjoy!

Welcome to Wendy Says! This is your online forum and one-stop-shop for the latest in education trends and new ideas.

This blog was created just for you--the busy educator. As a veteran educator myself, I know what it's like to juggle parents, students, administrators, papers that need grading, special education requirements, continuing education, standardized tests, and  more. The list seems never-ending! And I also remember what it was like to greet my first group of students-with butterflies having a field day in my stomach!

I believe that the key to any educator's success is communication. Ideally we find the resources and information we need within our own school. But when you want to teach outside the box, you may find yourself looking for answers elsewhere. You have come to the right place!

Please browse through our blog often as I will update it regularly. I will write about a myriad of topics here. Feel free to join in the conversation. That's why I created this site-to stimulate dialogue among educators to share teaching ideas that benefit children, the reason we all got into the field. If you have questions or would like information about a topic you don't see here, please let me know and I will do everything in my power to help you find what you need.

If you are a MyTeacherSite.org subscriber and have questions about your site, don't hesitate to post them here as well. I will forward anything I can't answer to Greg, our tech guru.

In the end, have fun. And remember that learning is not a spectator sport, so please join in!