How the Nutshell Began {+ Summer Goals}

Have you heard of the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G link-up that Miss Monica of I Heart Grade 3 is having this summer? If you haven't you should seriously check it out! It's week 2, but you can jump on board at any time! Since I missed week 1 (even though I don't need to), I'm going to try to squeeze in the topics from both weeks because - why not?!

How It All Began

Our story begins when I graduated from college in 2010. You see, I was an out-of-state graduate, which for many majors is no big deal, but in teaching - it's a pain in the butt. It took me months to get my paperwork through the system in my home state so that I would be able to teach and another few months for me to get off my lazy bum and decide to register to teach ENL students as well. That following school year, I was without a teaching job, but I still wanted to learn more about being in the classroom. I headed online to learn more about what to expect and there I found the holy grail!

Teacher blogs! More specifically, one teacher blog (which for the life I me, I can't remember the name of and I am so embarrassed!)

Anywho, this wonderful teaching blog was an anonymous blog full of funny classroom stories, wacky colleagues with fabulous nicknames, and general quirkiness. I'm pretty sure I wanted to be just like this teacher - although I certainly did not want to work with some of the folks she had to work with.

From there, the idea, for me, of teaching blogs and finding teacher resources online caught fire. Once I finally got a job the following school year, I learned about the amazing ideas on Pinterest, how to harness the power of Donors Choose to bring great materials to my classroom, and eventually, how to find absolutely anything I need on Teachers Pay Teachers. I am seriously unsure how I didn't learn about TPT sooner!

Right before my second year of teaching, Teaching In A Nutshell was born.

A stroll down memory lane!

My Summer Goals

I also want to quickly share these since I missed last week!

#1: Prepare for Baby!

I have a craft room in need of a serious makeover! I've already started sorting and organizing things into brand new containers (yay!), but now the hard work begins of transferring it all to the basement. Yes, I'm lazy. I'm really excited to paint the room, start getting some adorable baby furniture, and - fingers crossed - tackle some sweet baby Pinterest projects!

#2: Build Teachers Pay Teachers Store
My TPT store is Teaching In A Nutshell. I only have 13 items in my store and only 8 followers. Pretty lame. I have a calendar full of projects to complete so that I can amp up my store and hopefully make it more successful. I've mostly focused on tools I can use in my own classroom so far, but we use a district mandated program, so what I need is somewhat limited. This summer, I'm going to focus on creating things that I know will be useful for teachers and students whether I am able to use it in my room or not.

#3: Vegas Success

I'm headed to Vegas this summer and I have all my cool things ready to bring with me! I kind of teeter between being outgoing and being a wallflower, so my goal is to make sure that I put myself out there so that I can meet as many amazing teachers as I can!

That's it for me!

Head on over and link up with Monica, too!