Monday, July 14, 2014

Back from Vegas, Baby!


Hello friends! 

After waking from the deepest sleep this morning, I couldn't wait to get on and post! I had an amazing extended weekend in Vegas! Before I go into all the details, I am linking up with Becky Baxter @ Teaching, Learning, and Loving to give you my Top 5 TpT Tips.  




Apparently I have been creating a preview the much harder way. In the session with Erica Bohrer, I learned you can create a preview by downloading Picasa for free, saving your slides as .PNG files, inserting them into Picasa, and creating a collage. No more hours of sorting images on PPT! I found a great tutorial on this on A+ Firsties that lays it out and makes it seem so easy!


A+ Firsties  includes a tutorial with images that I will surely be using in the next few days :). 



I learned a lot and refreshed what I already knew at Erica Bohrer and Cara Carroll's Q is for Quality: Inserting Quality into Your TpT Products. I learned that not all my products are secured and I definitely need to invest in Adobe Pro ASAP. This will allow me to securely save my products so everything is protected. Most importantly though, I felt inspired by these two women, who were even nicer than I would have thought. I aspire to be as good as them one day! 



Networking is important! The more I talked to other teacher bloggers, the more I realized many of them had gained followers through being mentioned by other teachers on blogs or joining up to linky parties. This is something I am going to dedicate myself to in the future. Also, Deanna Jump even attributed much of her success to being mentioned on the TpT newsletter. I can't wait to share with you a little something special that I will be doing with these ladies a little later this week :)




One of the biggest themes I heard over and over again in all the sessions is to be true to yourself and your products. Cara Carroll said it best when she said, "Who wants to be a lesser version of someone else?" I totally agree with this sentiment and in this journey I always want to be true to myself and my educational beliefs. Though those may evolve as I grow as a teacher, I am going to be sure to be true to me! As we were about to leave I saw this piece of artwork at Channel in the Wynn. How perfect? 


"To be irreplaceable you must be different"


If you want it go and get it. Success is not just going to knock at the door, you have to chase after it and want it with all you are. In Deanna Jump's inspiring Keynote, I took away that if I want to be a teacher whose products are amazing, I need to make it a priority. I need to create more, blog more, and network more. This year this is going to be my goal- I hope you will follow me in my journey! 


I had an amazing trip and was so fortunate to meet so many amazing teachers! I am excited to begin this new phase of my teaching life and I have more drive than ever! 

  For today's Made It Monday, I have created my back to school newsletter! I am hoping to send it to parents within the next couple weeks! I am also working on classroom labels, which will hopeful be up for next Monday (fingers crossed)!



Happy Planning, 
Ms. Winter

5 comments:

  1. Seriously cute newsletter! I love the sentiment about how to be irreplaceable, you must be different. I need to remember that :)

    JoAnn
    Whimsicle

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  2. Thanks for linking up!! So glad to have met ya :)

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  3. Thank you for the Picasa tip. I have been using Power Point to make my previews. I am definitely up for something easier!

    Mary
    Fit to be Fourth

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  4. Your blog is the first one that I have seen featuring some of the "tools" learned! Thank you for sharing!!! It's a blog post like this that really makes me wish I would have gone myself!!!

    Cheryle :)
    As the Classroom Turns

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