What I Hope to Learn in Vegas

Happy #tptvegas15 Week!

I hope you had a fabulous holiday! We did our fair share of chillaxin', eating, and movie-watching (at home & we saw Inside Out). And lots of packing and repacking for Vegas!

Recently, there's been a flurry of blogposts written from the heart...have you seen them? 

I'm a huge blog reader and I've really appreciated getting to see another side of the teachers behind the blog.

By far, my favorite post was from Ms. Russell ♥ titled 

Short Term  Sacrifice Long Term Gain

She explained so eloquently exactly how I have been feeling. If you love that post, the one she wrote right before it is wonderful, too!

BTW, how often do you read blogposts and what format do you use?

My Bloglovin' followers steadily increase, but I'm still mostly reading from my Blog Roll list (or YOUR Blog Roll list). What am I missing? Any good tips out there? Thanks!

This past week, I've been working on revising unit plans for my intervention groups this year and I feel REALLY excited about fitting it all in! 

But now I'm switching gears from teaching and starting to prepare for the upcoming TPT Sellers Conference in Vegas:

Suitcase with 6 sundresses, flip flops, 2 scarves, most comfortable sandals,
session handouts, wristlet-purse, and my striped notebook! 

Can you tell I'm ready to go?!?

Even though I will be surrounded by awesomeness and inspiration, I have to remind myself what this conference is for...selling, not actually teaching. 

And then I struggle a "tiny" bit. 

I'm NOT a huge seller. I'm a creator. I create things to help my students and have been for 5, 10, 15...years. I collect dozens of ideas, try them out, toss them, revise, etc.  It's an ongoing quest to create the "perfect" teaching tool that will reach all of my learners. That may sound naive, but I'm not willing to give up on that dream!

I started creating because I couldn't find what I needed to reach THAT student THAT day. Many of my products started as post-it notes written out of desperation! Actually uploading products (Thanksgiving weekend 2011!) was a way to share what I was creating (I had mostly freebies) and organize my materials.  

I adore being a TPT seller because it's incredibly challenging (I ♥ to learn) and provides a creative outlet. Although I can't imagine I'll ever be satisfied with my teaching practice (there's always more that can be done!), I do know that participating in blogging with other TPT sellers has had a tremendous positive impact on my teaching (huge understatement). And if I could pass on some of that to other teachers or families? Win!

I truly can't imagine ever teaching without TPT in my life!

But sometimes I worry...I want being a TPT seller to enhance my teaching practice, not deter from it. Except on "those days" that we all have every once in awhile, I don't want to leave the classroom. I'd love to be able to do both!

I know I'll be inspired this week - I can't wait to learn new tips and tricks! I also hope to learn from expert teachers who have similar backgrounds and are finding solutions to making their businesses expand their teaching impact. I'm thrilled for those sellers who have found success and launched full-time businesses, I just don't want to follow them at this time :)

I also want to apologize in advance ... I'm quite blind, so if you're waving at me in Vegas and I'm just staring in your direction, please don't take offense! This is true even if I have my glasses on!

I'm also an avid note-taker during sessions and may forget you're sitting next to me (sorry!). I will try hard not to "shush" anybody so I don't miss a word. I'm not proud of being so Type-A!

Also, if you see this guy hanging around...he's with me. 

You will most likely find him at the pool :)

Thanks for reading!