How to Sell on Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT)

March 9, 2018 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Teacher friends are always asking me how to start selling on TpT. I love helping others! I look forward to helping the people who have already took the step to become a seller (Teacher Author), and helping others who want to create some time-saving resources for teachers. To be honest, it is not easy. I started part-time, just working on the weekends. Now, I resigned from teaching and work TpT full time. I LOVE LOVE LOVE every minute of this job, but it is time-consuming. Like anything, the more you focus on something, the more successful you will be at it.

How to be a TpT Author

First, let me have you ask yourself a couple questions to see if it is right for you.

Do you have an educational background?
Do you enjoy creating teaching material?
Do you have a computer?
Do you have time to spend creating materials?
Have you worked in PowerPoint before?

If you answered yes, then there is a pretty good chance that you will enjoy working with TpT! Now, what do you need to do to get started?

Step 1: Join Teachers Pay Teachers. You can use this Referral LINK to join as a seller for FREE. Once you get comfortable, and know it is the right fit for you, I highly suggest you upgrade to the premium account, so you get a better payout. Think of a great name for your store. You can use your own personal name like a lot of sellers, or you can create one that keeps your brand separated from your person. Once you decide on a store name, check first to make sure no one else has your name by typing it in the TpT search bar. This will be the way people remember you, so spend some time to really decide on something you will be happy with in the long run. You logo should be clear and not too wordy. Think of the colors you want for branding.

Step 2: Use PowerPoint to create your first resource. The first one is a free resource, so make it nice so everyone knows what they can expect from you in future resources, but don’t go over 10 pages. My first one was only 1 page, and it is really not a good representation of my type of products I offer now after all of my growth, but it makes me happy to see where I started. I also updated it with PowerPoint because the original was made in Word. SMH

TIPS FOR YOUR PRODUCT:

Create a cover
Put a copyright on each page
Have a border around each page
Find images and fonts on TpT to use in your product, (there are some free ones who just want you to link them in the credits, and you can use Pixabay for commercial use images for free)
Don’t break copyright law by copying others, be original
Use great search titles! TpT has a search bar that pops the top 5 searched titles for each letter you type in the bar. USE IT to make sure your title is what buyers are using to find your product.
Make a great preview (maybe the product in action)
Make sure the description is VERY clear
Invest in your business with training, purchasing great fonts and images

Step 3: Once you are happy with your first product, upload it. Repeat this with another product, and this time put a price on it! Now it gets exciting! TpT has resources for you to find how to properly price items. Make sure you look around the web site to become familiar with all it has to offer. TpT University and the forums are great places to find information.

Step 4: Download the TpT app to your phone, so you can hear the CHA CHING sound that plays when you get a sale. It is motivating!

Feel free to visit my store Teacher’s Brain to look around to see how I write a description, make covers, and previews. There is a lot more to learn, but this should get you started. Do a search on YouTube for tips on how to make covers in PowerPoint. That is how I got started. After a few months, I was able to create resources that I was really confident about making for teachers. If you need a course that will really get you to focus, try The Focused Teacherpreneur Course with Shelly Rees. It has been a game changer for me, and worth every penny.

Teacher-Seller Courses I offer:

Vital Tools for Teacher Sellers

TpT Seller Mini Course for Pinterest SEO

TpT Seller Mini Course for How to Price Resources

Good Luck!

Should We ARM Teachers?

February 21, 2018 teachersbrain Teaching Tips

NO.

Arm Me24

Classroom Escape Room Ideas

January 20, 2018 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Get Excited

We all dread seeing our students falling asleep or wanting to escape the classroom out of boredom while we pour our hearts out teaching. Why not spice up your lessons with creating an educational escape room for your little ones? I’ve seen my own children coming home so excited about the escape rooms or break out boxes that their teachers have created in middle school. So, I had to figure out how to create this excitement about learning and teamwork in the elementary classroom setting. It took me some time to wrap my head around how to make it easy enough for a 6 year old, but rigorous enough to meet the benchmarks. Once I figured it out, it was like magic!

How to Set it UP

Here is an example of how to set one up in your room. First, think of the topic you want to cover. Let’s just say this escape room will focus on sight words. Then, come up with two fun tasks you would like the kids to work on together in order to get a clue. For example, plastic bags full of letters that will create sight words that are hidden around the room, or a mystery picture to color using sight words to code the color of the picture. My daughter says that the best part of her escape room experiences (besides opening the box full of treats), was the video they watched as a “hook” that explained a crazy situation of someone capturing them or stealing an item. (Click HERE for an example of a video hook.) So, keeping that in mind you can create a little video, or just make up a story.

Clues

I like to separate my students into two groups. Each time the students complete a task, they get the next clue inside of an envelope that I read to the class. In this case, the class would use the plastic bags letters to solve sight words. The next clue would lead them to maybe a mystery picture to solve. Then, they get the last clue which leads them to find a key (either paper or a real one to a box) by reading a riddle for them to solve. This riddle could have a code to open a lock that you placed on the box. They will each need their key or code to open the box, which also opens their classroom. They will have to use their imaginations a little. We don’t want to actually lock them in the classroom. Once they open the box, I let the students “free” to go to recess or to get a book from the library. Students are encouraged to work together to help each other solve the problems. In kindergarten, I used an old shoe box and just pretended to open it with a paper printout of a key.

Extras

You could even add QR Codes, black lights, and magnifying glasses to your escape room to change it around for different lessons. Students go home talking about how they found sight words to escape their room. Designing an escape room yourself takes some time, but the benefit is well-worth it!

FREE MINI ESCAPE ROOM

If you are wanting to try an escape room and you have not signed up for my newsletter yet, CLICK HERE to get a free mini escape room sample.

These exciting classroom escape rooms are available to purchase:

Sight Word Mystery K-1 (Editable)

Numbers to 10 Pre K-1 Troll Themed

Pirate Mystery COMPREHENSION 1st-3rd

End of the Year Beach Party (save the turtles) K-2

Alphabet Mystery Escape Room Pre K-1

Veterans Day K-5th

Get them all in the First Grade BUNDLE and save $

Primary Teacher Challenge

January 17, 2018 teachersbrain Giveaway, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Teaching Tips

Do you like free resources? Do you love to see what other teachers are doing in their classroom, but can’t because you are busy teaching? Well, I have something fun for you! Go check out my Facebook Page. Pinned at the top is the video (same video as below) of me explaining how to win free resources by simply sharing one of your fantastic lessons with the rest of us by snapping a quick picture and adding it to comment section with a sentence. Go check it out to discover the criteria I’m looking for, and hopefully see some other teacher’s lessons for inspiration. I can’t wait to see what you all are doing with the kiddos!