With the ever growing world of social media, we are more exposed to each others' lives than ever before...
Or are we?! 

How awesome was that? A hilarious video with a very powerful message explaining that all is not as it seems. This would make a great discussion topic (especially if you teach PSHE, Life Skills or if you have a Tutor Group!). 

​Growing up is hard enough as it is. It's important that our young people know that they shouldn't compare their lives to what they see people portray online as it is likely to be a false /staged reality, and likewise they shouldn't feel the need to portray a glorified reality either! What did you think of this video? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Are you ready to be a “teacherpreneur”: teacher by day and business owner by evening, night, weekend any other time you can squeeze in?!
​
Well, you’ll be in good company as 2016 is apparently seeing the largest boom of entrepreneurs in history! In fact according to Fortune Magazine, millennials have started twice as many businesses as boomers! So now is a great time to think about starting, especially as it’s almost summer break for most of us teachers and you might be able to invest some more time into it.

​When I began my teaching career 10 years ago, I hadn’t planned on becoming an entrepreneur but I have always enjoyed creating learning resources. I took that passion and ran with it, and here I am 3 years later teaching full time 5 days a week as well as running my own business!

​So, if you’re a teacher and you’re considering starting up your own business, here are 3 things you can ask yourself right now to help you start thinking in the right way:

1) What can you offer? Any business revolves around serving others. What are your skills / strengths? What can you offer others to make others' lives easier / better? Dig through your resources / lesson plans or any strategies you’ve used that have been successful and explore from there. My thing has always been design – I just love making things aesthetically pleasing, engaging, fun and modern / relatable so that is what I aim to bring to the table with my resources. I also love drawing illustrations and clipart and I sell these too so other teacherpreneurs can use them for their projects as well!

2) How much time can you consistently dedicate to this project? – OK, so if you have a full time job and a family, your time may seem "limited" at first glance, but if you’re serious about this then I'm sure there is time somewhere you can utilise - even if it means going to bed half an hour later or getting up half an hour earlier. Any amount of time is enough to make a start. Remember, this is not a race. There is no finish line. The journey is the destination. Just take it day by day and build one brick at a time. I started by looking at what I already had created in my own classroom that worked, and I began making content from there. 

​3) Can you come up with original ideas? - Chris Ducker once said "an original is always worth more than a copy" and “being different is better than being better”. I love those quotes! There's nothing wrong with being inspired by others, but you should aim to be different. I am always striving to be unique and come up with new ideas – for example, my website does not look anything like the other teacher blogs I read, the illustrations I use on my resources are all my own designs and now I have some unique videos to showcase my resources too! Be the one that people want to cyber stalk as they know you have such great ideas – that’s how you make a name for yourself!

Work on providing high value and doing it with class and originality. It will really set you apart in your field and strengthen your entrepreneurial skills.  

Still not sure teacherpreneurialism (I'm totally making up words now) is for you? Read my previous blog post on why selling my teaching resources has made me a better teacher and see if any of these points resonate with you.

I know starting a business can sound like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Break steps down into smaller chunks and with time and hard work, you can can build up your own business to be proud of!

If you would like to start your own TpT store to sell your own teaching resources, all you need to do is make a free seller’s account on TeachersPayTeachers using my referral link, and I’d be happy to help! 

I'd love to offer you more specific support with your teacherpreneur struggles, so please complete this quick survey with your comments so I can help you more:

Interested in learning more about being a teacherpreneur? Check out these articles that may be of interest:
·         Are you ready to be a teacherpreneur?
·         7 free apps you need as a teacherpreneur
·         Why selling my teaching resources made me a better teacher
·         100 blog topic ideas for teacher bloggers
·         Top 5 time management tips for teacherpreneurs

What type of teacherpreneur are you? Take the quiz and find out!

So my colleagues across the pond are almost ready to start wrapping up the academic year, and I have been getting excited feeling the end of year vibes on social media already! But then I have to bring myself back to reality, as here in the UK we still have about 3 months to go... :) But this got me thinking  about the common myths and misconceptions surrounding teachers and our summer break.

You know the ones, things like:​
"It must be nice not working all summer..." or
"You only work 9 months out of a year..." or
"I bet it must be so easy being a teacher with those long holidays..."

If you're a teacher, you know how much will power it takes to bite your tongue and unclench your fists when you hear those kind of comments! ​Well, I came across this website recently from Alamo City Moms Blog and it is titled "Teachers: You're not Fooling Me" and it got me quite stirred up! I suggest you stop here and have a read of it first if you haven't come across it already.

With all the teacher hate out there on the internet, reading the title of that post initially made me think the worst. But my oh my, what a wonderful blog post it turned out to be, and it restored my faith in humanity knowing that there really are people out there who understand, appreciate and respect how hard teachers really do work for their children - yes, even during their long summers "off"! I hope you got warm fuzzies reading that post too!

I personally prefer to describe it as "we fit one year's work in 9 months", but most teachers I know do still even work during the holidays, whether it is at home researching and developing lesson plans, or in their classrooms setting up and making the environment a fun and exciting learning experience. In my 10 year career, I have come to peace with the notion that a teacher's work is never done, but we still don't let that stop us from trying!

As summer approaches for many of us, I would like to raise a glass to my fellow colleagues who have worked their tail end off this year for their students. I know you will most likely be doing some kind of work this summer, but don't feel guilty for taking time to yourself to relax and unwind for a little bit - we deserve it, no matter what some people may say in their ignorance! If they're not a teacher, they won't ever fully understand what we do but that's OK, we don't do it for them - we do it for the kids and the future generations of this world.

If you're wrapping up the school year soon,  I have created some fun, stress free lesson plans to get you through the last few weeks that you should check out! I hope you have a wonderful end to the year and an even more wonderful summer break! To those of us who still have a way to go, stay strong and keep your head up - I'll be here with you!