Gomez Peer Zone Review

Moore reports receiving consulting fees from SonoSite and Philips; and Dr. Copel, speaking fees from Siemens, World Class CME, the Institute for Advanced Medical Education, and Educational Symposia, grant support from Philips, and reimbursement for travel expenses from Philips and Esaote and serving as a paid member of the editorial board of Contemporary OB/GYN at modernmedicine.com. Provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org. No other potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported. Figure 1 Basic (B-Mode) Two-Dimensional Ultrasound Image. A typical ultrasound transducer, shown in Panel A, has 128 or more crystals arranged across the face of the probe. Each crystal transmits and receives bursts of sound (typically in the megahertz range), creating a scan line.

You can download Gomez Peer Zone -a completely free automated money making software and install it on you PC computer. It will run in the background and bring money for you while browsing the internet. What is Gomez Peer Zone Gomez Peer Continue Reading → make extra money online.

The scan lines together make up a frame, which is refreshed many times per second and displayed on a two-dimensional screen to create a moving image. As shown in Panel B, the plane of the ultrasound can be directed in any anatomical plane or between planes.

By convention, in abdominal imaging, the probe indicator (a bump or groove on the probe) is to the left of the screen and is generally directed toward the patient's right side in a transverse plane. The ultrasound image shown is a transverse image of the abdominal aorta. The indicator is directed to the patient's right side, corresponding to the left side of the screen. The aorta is black (fluid-filled) and located just anterior to the vertebral bodies. (See also, available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org.).

EDIT: To better represent my purpose of this post I have changed the image (meaning I admit the first one was a mistake.) This post it truly meant to be about a conversation so please take a minute to read the comments. The discussion happening is just as interesting (maybe more) as the actual post. You read that right, I am not a fan of Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT). Please let me explain First off I do not like black and white statements so please don’t take this post as a claim that I have issues with everything on the site.

Also, if you sell products there or buy from the site this is not attack on you personally, I am simply asking you to think and consider my points. I think teachers are selling things that work in their classroom. Amazing things no doubt, but the skills, format, imagery and wording is built around what works for their kids or their population. I feel I do my best teaching when I meet the needs of the kids in my classroom.

TPT sells almost everything in a PDF format making it impossible for me to change things (even slightly) to meet the needs of my class. #2 I think TPT is creating what I call the “laminating culture” among teachers. We all work hard for the little money we get. When we spend $5 on a unit that unit is going to be laminated and used for several years. Why is it being used? Is it because it meets the needs of the kids in the class that year?

Or because the kids in the class show an interest in the topic? Sadly, I think they often get used over and over because they cost money and they are easy. #3 I think cute is overrated. Maybe it is because I am a male teacher but I talked about this with many people at I Teach K this week and it seems a lot of people agree with me. My question is who are we making these activities for? I know teachers need to feel happy and excited about what they are using but often I think early childhood rooms are designed to impress parents and other teacher friends (.) I’m sorry but kids don’t need polka dots, owls, and bubbly fonts to have fun and learn. I would go as far to say they don’t even notice.

I have never had a kid tell me great job on the design of my handout or activity. #4 I think real images are more valuable than clip art.

When I make something for my class I use to find real images of butterflies, elephants, sunflowers and fire trucks. My class is not growing up in a world of DJ inkers. Maybe you agree with me and maybe you don’t but I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. I decided to share my ideas on TPT for several reasons. My work isn’t cute.

In fact, I’ve had complaints because it isn’t cute. I want teachers to have intervention resources which are difficult to find. I do share many things on my website and TPT for free.

As a single mom with two kids in college, I need extra money. I don’t think its bad to write for profit. I think there is a lot of stuff on TPT that is cute but without a lot of substance. That’s what bothers mefun activities that don’t help teach anything.

And,yes each class is different and you have to tailor your approach for each class each year. I hope that the products I post are used more as a staff development resource which will never go out of style. I, too have issues with TPT. I agree with your statements here. In addition, I remember when the Internet for educators was about sharing. Not because you wanted to be paid but because you just wanted to share.

I’ve had a web presence since 1994 when I made my first website in HTML. I posted lesson ideas, links to favorite websites, etc. Even now I post every presentation I give online, free of charge. I’m not in it to make a buck. If someone can find something I did useful, I’m happy to share it for free. With all do respect, the conversation about money upsets me. We have not seen a raise in 5+ years in NC and teacherspayteachers has helped me make ends meet plenty of times.

I recently bought a house as a single woman, not thinking that I could afford it, and TPT has been my saving grace in that respect. In addition, I think most TPT sellers do GIVE freely in addition to asking for a small price for the things we spend HOURS upon HOURS on. Believe me, it is no QUICK job to make a 50-60 page file, write 32 engaging word problems to turn into task cards, add the finishing touches of clip art (of which I am a minimalist), or upload to TPT. TPT has inspired me to create things with a flair and motivation that I never would have created in the same way without knowing that it would help other teachers beyond my grade level. The quality of my creations has improved greatly as TPT has exploded.

I am inspired by the community of bloggers and sellers who work 60 hour weeks in their own classrooms and then spend time creating resources. I do feel that I own a small business, I have paid taxes on my earnings, and I am not ashamed of that. None of us should be and we should stop apologizing for making a few dollars. Why should we continue to pour (and allow our states and districts to) money into textbook factories (Pearson, Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt)? I think these textbooks are dead weight before the ink even dries these days. TPT teachers constantly update their files (often adding more materials and resources than were in the original and therefore again giving away freely to their supporters and followers).

I think the teachers in my school who are not using TPT as a resource for common core materials are not as far along as my grade level who creates common core materials for our grade (and then uploads onto TPT) and also seeks resources on TPT when we don’t have time to create our own. At the same time, I think with any shopping experience, you must be choosy, and you must look for quality.

I do see sellers changing the clip art on packets that contain the same exact word problems to fit a theme or holiday. I’m not going to do that–and I won’t buy from them–but to each purchaser his own freedom. Well we can’t say we are creating awesome resources to help others because the creating is happening that way cuz you get paid.

You are not required to but do so for the pay because a better resource will get you more money. I’m in favor of teachers sharing resources at their leisure, but we shouldn’t act entitled to extra pay when we decide to share a resource. We are all in the same boat. If the pay helps adn you need it you then go for it.

I really really don’t like what it’s selling though and I’m not talking about the resources. It’s an every-man-for-himself mentality that totally seems to go against why most people start teaching in the first place.

I agreed with the comment about relationships are what is most important. A “cute” room can provide you a little bit of time for buy in on the part of older elementary students, but it doesn’t take long for them to figure out if you really care about them. If you don’t care–they won’t care–no matter how many great posters you have up in your room. I get frustrated by the desire to create replicas of classroom charts found on these sites.

A chart should be about what you and your students create as you are learning to help you track your learning–not just about the cute factor. My classroom is usually covered with stuff on the walls-but I have found there is little room for my created cuteness when the students work is what is shining all around the room. Hilarious Amber and Matt.I only get things on TPT that’s going to appeal to my kids. Just because I get it for one group if students doesn’t mean I am going to use it for another. I figure why create the wheel and use my time if its already done and readily available for me to use.

Id rather get it for 3 bucks on TpT as opposed to buying at lakeshore or supply store for 3x as much! If its cute that’s just an added bonus. As for my classroom I theme it out. I try to leave bulletin boards and things like that blank so that students can put up their own color word charts that we make and interactive writing during the year.

I want what’s on the walls to be meaningful. If I am going to spend more time in my classroom than my own house I want it to feel organized, cheerful and welcoming to me, my students, parents and teachers. I think it’s just a personality thing and certainly a difference between man and woman.

If you ever need decorating advice I’m sure there’s plenty of k bloggers willing to help give you a manly man classroom!:) •. I am a font designer by profession and I sell licensing for my fonts for usage on TpT. Most teachers have purchased licensing to use the images and fonts they use in their products. I don’t think they need to fear retaliation from font designers and clip art designers unless they are using the fonts and artwork without a license. Many TpT sellers are quite copyright-savvy and aware of those issues.

I think cute is valuable only if it is matched by equally valuable content. As a homeschooling mom, I can testify that my daughters are much more likely to enjoy their work if it is presented in an attractive manner.

Obviously, the content needs to be on par with the design work. But I don’t think cute is equivalent to crappy content. Crappy content can be ugly or cute. Valuable content can be ugly or cute. As for students noticing the cute factor, kindergarteners may not notice. But I have a large following of middle and high school students who are quite obsessed with decorating things.

They are definitely aware of fonts and artwork and appreciate when their teachers make the effort to make things cute in an age-appropriate way. (Cute for kindies is not the same as cute for middle grades, obviously!) Just food for thought. Matt, thank you for this post. I agree with you and have had many teachers tell me to sell my plans on TPT.

Here is the thing, units are simply words on a page. It is the reciprocal relationship between the learner, the content and their relationship with the teacher that make those words come alive. There are in the moment changes that the teacher makes to facilitate a closer approximation of understanding happen for individual students. You have to be completely comfortable with your content area and the way people learn. Confidant enough to jump into a wormhole with your class because their interests have taken a turn and know that they will come out the other end closer to the learning goal. These things cannot be bought and sold.

This cannot be written in plans. This is good teaching. It is my hope that teachers who are using TPT, are considering a starting point and not a laminated plan for centers. Matt, you raise some really good points.

Each year will demand a little something different in our approach. Sometimes activities can be adapted to meet those needs, sometimes we need to use different activities altogether to tap into the needs and interests of the children in front of us. It is our job to move students to the standards in the way that fits them best. My classroom should reflect my students, their talents, needs and individuality. If a TPT idea is the vehicle to move a student toward a standard, that’s one thing. When a TPT purchase becomes tradition, regardless of the needs of the students in the room, that’s another thing entirely.

Thanks for your insights and all you share. Your suggestions have helped me several times! I think the biggest issue I have seen with TPT is all the things that say “common core”on them, but really do not begin to scratch the surface of what is expected of students. I cringe when I think of all the teachers buying stuff and thinking they are really meeting the expectations of the common core standards when they really aren’t. I think it’s great that teachers are able to be entrepreneurs in this day and age without having to try to get published by companies. There are some fabulous ideas being shared. I have a million resource books that I thought would be great (without really getting to preview them) that now sit in a file cabinet unused.

I feel you get a better preview of stuff on TPT. I do get concerned by some of the “fluff’ I see out there being scooped up for math. And for the record I teach 7th grade and I do not think cute is overrated. My students love my classroom decor (which is really just a color scheme with zebra accents) based on the numerous comments about it in my end of the year survey. I cannot thank you enough for your post. The biggest concern I have with teacher creations or store bought creations is that it lacks The ability for students to feel like the classroom is theirs and not the teachers.

There’s nothing wrong with teachers Decorating their teacher space and parts of the classroom. With an overall theme or content.

However when it comes to the items the students actually use it needs to be created by the students. They gain a sense of ownership in the classroom When they know their strategies and teaching guides were made by them.. Just a thought •. Thanks for taking a risk and expressing your thoughts. Although I do buy from TPT, I have become more selective lately in WHAT I buy. After attending your session at the Region X Tech Conference (Richardson) and following your blog, my friend and I have convinced our Kindergarten team that we need to try some different things this school year.

Along with integrating technology, as our district-wide initiative, we hope to work to meet the needs of our Kindergartners in many wayssome yet to be determined! Thank you for being one of my role models in feeling more comfortable to try new ideas, especially with technology! (FYI: This will be my 20th year teaching K!) •. Matt, Sites such as TPT are just resources. They exist to help teachers develop a theme or curriculum aid.

I could never afford to copy and laminate everything I find on sites like TPT, but I do find inspiration and ideas which I can tweak or re-create to suite the needs of my class. I do agree with real images as the best way to go, but sometimes a child will need a simple image to help them, so in that case sites like TPT have a place. Sometimes the simple images can be used to create board games, story cubes, and other literacy and math games, so maybe there is room for all resources.

Thanks for your comments Matt. For more than 20 yrs.I have refused to use images that slap smiles on everything from the sun to a computer! I have recently been thinking about my long-term anti cute campaign and have wondered if it was rooted in my “Yankee” up-bringing or if am just getting old. A recent NEA article featured “cute” room set-ups and I was aghast! Rather than cute or thematic, I want my K classroom to be safe and organized, to promote independence and cooperation, and support learning.

I am admittedly a ‘ less is more” person, but I think we need to be mindful of the potential for sensory overload when classrooms are decorated around a theme rather than set up to meet student needs. I credit a steadfast fire chief and Responsive Classroom practices for helping me resist the decorate ’til you drop trend. Matt, your comments were thoughtful and respectful, thank you! I know this was not an easy post, but I agree with your opinions. When I walk into my room each day cuteness is not on the brain or what I find needs to make me smile each day. What makes me smile is to see learning. STUDENTS creations and thoughts, along with realistic models and examples ready for those curious brains to explore.

I have used TPT, but all the while struggled with its inability to truly challenge my students and meet their needs. I lacked the feeling of being a “teacher”. That is allowing students to create, explore, and facilitating meaningful experiences. Instead I felt as if I was constantly instructing how to construct step by step models that lacked any chances for creativity. Colored, cut, and constructed characters and unrealistic animals can take away from so many other learning experiences. I am proud that I regognized that TPT did not meet the needs of my kindergarten classroom or my teaching style. I am also proud to say that at the beginning of each year my room will be a shell ready for exploration no matter what grade I am teaching.

Essentially a blank slate waiting for the touch of each student that walks through the door. Mounted insects such as; butterflies, moths and tarantulas are just a few things you might find in my room before the students make it their own. I have really enjoyed following your blog this past year and summer.

Thank you for inspiring creativity, the use of technology, and meaningful learning. I am not sure how I lost the beginning of my writingif it is posted – I apologize for the repeated part. I am a mom, teacher, National Consultant/keynote and an author. I have many thoughts about this topic from many viewpoints. First, as a teacher I wanted things that were “made” and made my life easier but often found myself recreating parts or all of things from other teachers and resource books ~ after all, no one knew my children as well as I did. Many of the ideas posted are “as is”.

As a consultant, I was asked many times if my ideas and writings were on tpt. I caved and placed some on months ago. It has always bothered me that the best selling categories continue to be “printable”, fun stuff, & worksheets. I love the cute and the fun. BUT cute and fun with meaning. I meet thousands of teachers a year and will tell you that many of our newest teachers are utilizing this site most.

This is scary because this is the time in their career when learning to adjust and address levels, interests and needs are crucial. How in this day and age can “worksheets” be considered a best selling product? At the National K, I was shown many things that would not hold up to the level of “best practice or current research” that we need in education, but are available as downloads on tpt. I also agree with Sherrie that many items say common core (maybe in an attempt to win the search) but don’t address the true meaning within the standard. Finding answers, teaching children to think and ensuring that foundation skills are firmly in place. After leaving the K conference, I have spent the last 2 days at a state Kindergarten Conference – tpt was the topic of a dinner discussion one night. A teacher brought up the site and 2 authors were “shocked” to learn that people were using their name and their ideas in products.

In particular one author stated “that is not even an idea that I approve of using with a young child”. This is scary. A teacher gave me full credit as the author of “You can’t teach a class that you can’t manage” when she posted ideas from my book, problem is that my publisher doesn’t quite think that her ideas totally align with my philosophy and are a bit upset that many sentences were “lifted” directly form the book. The publisher is now moving forward to ask her to remove the item, it could cost her $.

Many young teachers may believe that these items are credible for meeting the needs of children, truth is there is a reason why publisher don’t publish everyone’s ideas, some just aren’t that good. Worse maybe not even appropriate for children and what is known about how they learn best. As an author, I am very concerned for many teachers that have items posted that belong to someone else. It is a copyright infringement to take clipart, ideas and words that are not yours and sell them without permission. EVEN if you acknowledge that you got them from the person.

It doesn’t mean you can sell them. In speaking with several teachers they seemed totally surprised that Dr. Seuss’ estate would demand that teachers stop using his work as a basis for units and activities without permission. I can understand that a teacher creates an idea for something being taught and wants to share it, but you can’t sell it.

In speaking with a tpt seller that was asked to remove an item, I can tell you that she said, “I am not removing my Dr. Seuss things until after the first week of March, there is a LOT of money involved” – what about ethics involved? There continues to be districts that are investigating the thought that this work actually belongs to the district. While, I would argue that we ALL know how much extra time we put in that if I was a seller still in the classroom, I might take a peek at my contract.

I believe that you, Matt have come in on what was bound to be addressed soon. Thank you for starting this conversation so that each of us might reflect on what is best for our students. Relationships and personal connections come first – all of the rest needs to be built one block at a time! I will say that I pin things on Pinterest that others have pinned from TpT but just to trigger a thought later on.

I am not into cutesy as a female so many things from TpT don’t work for my personality. Also, I work hard to stay away from worksheets (enough of that in required instructional materials for my district). And, when it comes to posters I tend to only put things up that are kid generated or are anchor charts created in front of students.

There is research out there somewhere that talks about the brain imprinting that goes along with information built in front of students. Kids connect more with what’s generated in their presence vs. Purchased elsewhere. I just appreciate your honest & respectfully put opinion. Matt you touch in a point with which I struggle from time to time!

But my belief in learning and teaching based on the needs of my students is at the core of what I do daily. So I am encouraged to see so many others with similar beliefs. Thank you for you post. I would also encourage you to look into using the Responsive Classroom Approach. There are many excellent ideas for building home school relationships including holding school based Hopes and Dreams conferences with families prior to or at the beginning of the school year. Best of luck with your upcoming year!

Male 5th grade teacher chiming in. I get props for the way my room looks on a regular basis and often feel that colleagues (& parents?) are legitimately surprised I can pull it off.

The time and energy (and laminate and color ink!) used in the overuse of TPT(and Pinterest) legitimizes the idea that a classroom should look perfect. I’d greatly prefer having my wall space used to display what we’re working on, what the class wonders about and what we choose to share with visitors, passersby and what we want to look at 8-10 hours a day. We have a clause in our (outdated) handbook that says something to the effect that classrooms should be neat and that teachers are responsible for maintaining the learning environment. I keep a 2×3 tackboard by my desk of my personal family pics, photocopies of my degrees, and cards I get from students. A shelf above that of coffee mugs and miscellaneous “gifts”. And we start the year. Inside of three weeks my room is “decorated” with learning, in all of its misspelled, new marker soaked glory.

And its ours and its authentic. When it no longer applies or (more likely) we need the space, it comes down. To be recycled, taken home or maybe, maybe I save it for next year. My friend, you know we are of one mind on this. While I have recently had a bit of a crash course on TPT (I HONESTLY had no clue about a great many things), I definitely share your perspective.

One of my concerns about the TPT model is that it has the potential to create a mindset of “I bought this cute game, now I have to find a way to use it;” rather than “My students are struggling with XYZ, I need to find a tool to help them.” I think this is a dangerous thought pattern, especially for vulnerable new teachers. I am also uncomfortable with the idea of teachers creating materials purely for the purpose of selling them, rather than to meet their students’ needs. As for the cute thing, please know this is NOT a gender issue. While I am in favour of teachers maintaining organized, pleasant, happy work environments for themselves and their students, and I acknowledge that everyone’s definition of “organized and pleasant” varies, I am going to take a strong stance and say that having a cute classroom theme before you even meet your students is poor pedagogy. I think that the culture of cute, as perpetuated by TPT, Pinterest, and a great many teacher blogs, sends a dangerous message about what makes a good teacher, and puts ridiculous pressure on all of us, as if spending hundreds of hours double-bordering our bulletin boards is somehow a measure of our dedication and competence.

Our priority should and must be our PRACTICE, and our RELATIONSHIPS with the students in our care every day. You know me, and you know I could go on and on. Great post, thank you for being brave and giving a voice to something that many may have been afraid to say. I have to admit that for a while there, I was enamoured with the TPT world, and although I still create and sell/give away resources, I don’t actually use a lot of them in my own class anymore because I’m more interested in the children and not what my display looks like.

By that I mean, I’m more interested in how the children interact with the classroom as a learning tool. My walls shouldn’t be covered in generic (cute) posters with rules I made up or examples I developed. It should have the children’s work, their writing, and their ideas. I strongly believe that a classroom should be a working document, much like my planning! I have found that when my kids are involved in the making of alphabet lines and number lines and birthday boards (and they are created for a purpose), they are FAR more engaged and I see them approach and refer to the walls with interest and frequency.

I have to admit that I’m still guilty of making things look a certain way, whether it’s my class newsletter or a printable game, and I find I’ve done it for parents and the big boss, not for the kids. I make my own clip art, I design my newsletter layout, and I’m very particular about labels! I love a good label. But I’m slowly letting go of some of that digital design obsession (slowly), and giving the kids more freedom to make the class their own.

They don’t care that I used a great new font or that the clip art is all made by me. They care when their work is on the wall (and by “their work,” I don’t mean “craftivities!”). As a high school teacher, I love to collaborate with my colleagues–whether they are online or in my school. If I find something I know my department can use, I’ll send it to them. I spend a lot of time on my units, and I have shared my folders with my department (we are all on Google drives). The more we collaborate, the better we get.

I don’t use TPT because of the cost and because I can’t edit it to benefit my students. Check out there’s a lot of free resources–it’s from the UK, so the grades/objectives are different but the resources are amazing. And free to download.

(And there’s quite a few cute things for the lower grades.) Some are in.pdf format but the majority are editable. I am not familiar with TPT, other than what I read from others’ experiences (I am an elementary principal).

You make interesting points about the quality of prepared activities. If preparing for student learning is taken out of the equation, what is left? Planning tasks, planning assessments, planning for when a student doesn’t do what we ask them to participate. All of the opportunities for inquiry and exploration are squashed when the learning progression only follows one thread.

When we have a plan in mind, our ability to be responsive to our students’ needs are diminished. This post reminds me of Peter Johnston’s quote from his book Knowing Literacy (Stenhouse, 1997): “Having labored over plans, we are often loathe to part with them, even when our students suggest we should. Planning is used to reduce possibilities, whereas preparation is done in order to manage diverse possibilities” (125). Hi Matt:) I just wanted to tell you as a seller and buyer (when I can afford it) of TPT, it has changed my life.

I am not a “top seller” but I work very hard on my products that I use with my kiddos for that YEAR. Of course I do not use the same activities with students year after year because they are all different.

By whatever I create, I may be able to use in a few years who knows? I work 4-5 hours every night making products for my kids especially because I have taught multi grade levels and children with special needs and did not have access. Or afford workbooks or resources. My last years class appreciated everything I made for them and did notice the cuteness:) I do agree that not everything needs to be cute it needs to be authentic and important to the students’ lives but if I work hours on an activity that is perfect for my students and someone else sees that its perfect for their kids too?

How wonderful to help out other teachers:) I have a big heart but I also make minimum wage as a teacher (or lower I am not sure) so even though I give away as much as I can, I don’t feel bad putting a small price on my resources and neither do my buyers. I have made amazing friends and shared so many resources through TPT. The money I earn also helps me put food on the table. I hope you reconsider checking it out sometime:) more and more products are editable but its difficult with the copyright of different graphics. And there’s always freebies!

Materials are materials whether you buy them at a teacher store, toy store, or TpT. Me selling on TpT is no different then bundling that $5 product with additional resources and taking it to scholastic and having it published. Do you have a problem with people who publish books too? As a professional you should know it’s what you do with these resources that makes the difference. TpT has never claimed to be educational training for teachers. It’s not where you learn to be a great teacher but where great teachers go to get resources to use with their students! Furthermore, to assume that because you buy something this year means you use it next year with your students is just silly.

The fact of the matter is that most resources we purchase from where ever do get used year after year because they are appropriate for our class and we use them at appropriate times with the appropriate children. Good teachers don’t just use resources because they have them. That is an insulting comment to the teachers of our profession and not to TpT. And after thinking about it lots of what you say is more insulting teachers than TpT. TpT is just a place to purchase or download free resources. The way I see it is that you have issue with the way teachers teach in which case what are YOU doing about it?

My resources don’t provide the education of the children the teacher does! And I don’t make my room ‘cute’ because I want to impress anyone but my students. They are 5 and get excited over bright, colorful, and cuteness! Have you ever been to a kids birthday place that was all ‘real photos’? Do I include real photos in my lessons and classroom of course! To assume that because someone purchases a product from me because it is ‘cute’ is insulting because my activities SUPPORT learning. I am a kinder teacher and I do sell on TpT – and do rather well at that.

I don’t take your post as a personal attack but I do think you are completely misrepresenting what TpT is and would even say you are posting this because you know your page hits are going to be through the roof with this topic. Jennifer, I am posting this because I thought it was a topic that needed to be brought up.

This post has been sitting as a draft for over 6 months. I have been working on it for over a year. I have talked it through with MANY of my friends because I know it is controversial. It is near and dear to my heart to tell teachers they can be themselves and that relationships are the key to success in the class. I have no reason to want to “drive up blog traffic” as I don’t ever sell anything on my site. It is fun to see more traffic but only because I want to reach more teachers. I am not assuming teachers laminate and reuse, I see it in the real world.

I met many of the top sellers on TPT this past week and I can honestly say they are all wonderful people that have a passion for teaching and helping others. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns. I don’t claim to share anything more than what I think and feel. Any conversation that makes me rethink the why and how makes me a better teacher. OK so it looks like you are doing TONS to help teachers!

=) So thank you for that. I spoke before I checked out your site and only responded by your blog post. I just wish you had a better opinion of TpT as it is changing many teachers lives for the better! Financially for those who sell and classroom wise for those who use our resources.

My school is a big customer of many TpT stores. Let me tell you when they are not using TpT resources, they have items that are dittos! Yes I said dittos!

So it is impactful. Gemini Tv Mogali Rekulu Serial Youtube on this page. Is it the be all end all NO!

Is it making them better teachers NO! But it is helping update resources! Kay I am done! I would just like to quickly respond to some of the statements regarding being able to edit files. I am a seller on TpT and have been selling for a year now. When creating a product, most sellers use clip art, fonts, backgrounds, and borders that we purchase to use commercially.

If we were to make these files editable, we would be violating the terms of use from the artists we purchased from. It would make it quite easy for someone to take those same images and use them for his/her own use. Another thing to consider when making files editable is copying. There are far too many people on TpT who start out by copying items from the Internet, teacher resource books, and unfortunately other sellers. Make an item editable will allow these individuals to easily lift text from our products and sell it.

Trust me, I’ve seen it done way too many times to count. While I do understand that it is not always in the best interest for our students to receive the exact same instruction as the previous year’s group, TpT has actually made it easier for me to adjust to my students. If I’m teaching a lesson in science and my students really get excited about life cycles, it is super easy for me to quickly use TpT to search for more activities to use with them.

I’d rather spend a few dollars to get something that meets my needs quickly so I can have it to use the next day, rather than spending a few days to create something, or spend hours searching the Internet. I’m not saying that your points are invalid, and I actually agree with most of it.except for the cute. It makes me happy and I can guarantee that my 3rd grade students have commented about being excited to use a monster fraction unit because the monsters were so “boss.” •.

Why spend time reinventing the wheel? For the most part we are (or should be) teaching the same things so if another teacher created a great unit which meets the objectives you are teaching why wouldn’t you use it? As with any curriculum, every page may not meet the needs of your students and you may need to tweak it a bit but wow, what a great time saver tpt is! And I think we would all agree that there is never enough time in the day to accomplish all that we want to accomplish in our classrooms.! To everyone lamenting about not being able to change files bought from TpT–there are usually ways around this.

Oftentimes the seller will work with you if you need it tweaked in just a certain way; other times you can take just part of the activity and insert it into your own framework, other times you can edit with cutting and pasting and white out (just for your own classroom, of course). I agree that it could be a trap, a way for teachers to start with TpT and then take it to their class, but I think the problem there is with the teachers–not TpT in and of itself. Just like any other resource, there are great ways to use it and not so great ways. I am a 2nd year K teacher, and I don’t go to TpT to browse–I go when I have a specific need in mind.

I have found some excellent things there, that I usually do tweak to some extent. As far as the cute room themes, I think kids do notice it.

I’m not saying they can’t enjoy a plain room–but this past year when our fire marshal came, he made us take everything off the walls. Previous marshals hadn’t been so strict, and when he left, we did put some things back up. Regardless of your thoughts on that, my point is that the kids noticed–our room was bare for 2 months, except for what I could fit on 3 bulletin boards, and then over a long weekend I spent hours putting things back up–those cutesy room things, as well as our word wall and some anchor charts.

My students came in on Monday and were in awe of the change, and so excited to have a fun room again. My theme for this year is Kindergarten Kingdom–for the sake of having some fun with my students as we learn, and reminding them to have the manners of a knight/lady as they interact with people. I have a secondary “theme” of Sporty Sight Words–a different sport for each list of 10 words.

I will have bulletin boards in my room themed for these categories, as well as other places to display student work and accomplishments, but those themes don’t take the place of anything else–they simply add to fun of learning. A well-done theme (it is possible to overdo it, for sure) in a productive classroom is like wrapping paper on a present–it doesn’t replace the present, but simply enhances it. Finally, on the topic of cutesy worksheets and such, no I haven’t had a student comment me on fonts or graphics either.

I don’t spend my own time making those cutesy things; when I make things for my class they are fast and simple to serve my purpose because I am not naturally artistic. That’s part of the reason I enjoy purchasing some things on TpT; the extra “sparkles” on those materials balance the plain-ness of others.

I wonder, if you were to give a student two copies of the same worksheet, one with a graphic or two that relate to the topic (I agree, real-world is best, but I don’t think cartoons are harmful) and some fun (but easily readable) fonts, and the other without graphics and in a plain font, which one the child would choose to do. Worksheets are not idealbut especially in K when so much of the focus is on teaching them to read and write, worksheets are necessary sometimes. And especially in K, learning should be fun! I feel sorry for kids in upper grade classrooms where the environment has grown sterile and the teachers focus so much on the lesson that they don’t worry about trying to make it fun. Yes, sometimes learning is dull and you have to push through a slump to learn something important as an adult, but if we start that too early, that’s when kids get burned out by the time they’re in 4th grade. My goal is to teach my kids what they need to know, and to make it interesting and fun enough that they want to work and learn without me having to drag them along.

One huge problem I always have with tpt is the clip art and graphics used. As a teacher in a school where all my students are black, middle eastern, or Hispanic, I have no use for most things with clip art. My students need to see that they are important, and seeing graphics or smiling people with Caucasian features is not the way to do that.

I do like “cute” in my classroom (and am actually required to follow a checklist when setting up, pretty much covering everything cutesy), but I much rather use illustrations I create with my kids or real pictures. Believe me, they love seeing themselves on a poster or a center game.

If you need cute, there you go! Thanks for posting this!

Teachers really should start looking at tpt as one of many sources that may help them reach their students best, but not as the only route. There are a few TPT-like sites out there and I pretty much stay away from them. There are two main reasons for this. First, why pay for something when you can find so many great resources out there to help you create you own lessons and activities for free? Secondly, I am a huge cheerleader for collaboration in education. So, I would prefer to spend some extra time and energy finding somebody willing to share/collaborate with me and create something that works for my students.

This is why tools like Google Plus are so valuable. Networking with really great people is my favorite way to find new ideas. Rock On, Charlie •. It would seem you are not a discerning TPT user if all you see is cute. I have got some awesome resources from the site and cute is not what I have been looking for. Yep some of them like the fraction Qr codes i recently purchased are laminated and will be repeatedly used (as long as I have access to iPads) – just because you use something more than once doesn’t make it poor teaching or lazy. If we recreated the wheel every single day we wouldn’t have a chance to actually teach.

Every time we use a resource we reflect and improve our teaching around it. In my experience few teachers actually share unless they see an advantage for themselves.Teachers are constantly paying out of their own pockets. If can pays couple of dollars that save me hours of work or provide an engaging teaching experience I hadn’t thought of, I’m willing. On the other side of the coin, if I can share some of my ideas and recoup some costs, I’d like that.

Just my thoughts:-) •. Thanks Matt for this post.

I agree with you totally about the “cute” factor. I have observed many classrooms that place cuteness a priority over what is age-appropriate and relevant to student learning (alignment to common core). One truly needs to reflect as an educator. What is my purpose as a teacher? At times I hear from some teachers that they simply do not have time to complete the many items on their to-do list, but yet they make it a priority to have the classroom looking like an IKEA showroom. I have met teachers who teach kindergarten just to showcase their creativity and their artistic talent. Admittedly, I do purchase from TpT and am selective about my purchases.

I have found a seller who uses real pictures on her products (there might be more sellers) and a number of quality materials available through the site. I believe a teacher needs to be knowledgeable and current in the profession; otherwise, the best decisions for students would be overlooked. One of the places to begin this journey is through the information highway. I have been thinking about your points that you made which I’m guessing was your point. You want to make us think. Well, I can say that since I discovered blogs, TPT and pinterest my teaching has changed.

It has changed for the better. I love seeing what other people are doing in their classrooms. I have seen my kids do things I never realized they could do because I saw this great idea.

I loop with kindergarten and first. I truly believe my last loop went further than any other class I have had.I think that in part has to do with me discovery this online world. I was energized and excited about the possibilities. When I see an idea or a product, I take into consideration what would work for my class or my students. I don’t throw a worksheet at them because the worksheet is cute.

I also don’t decorate my classroom for the sake of cuteness. I want my room to be an inviting space for the kids to come into. Kindergartners have enough apprehension about starting school to begin with.

I want the classroom to be a place they enjoy being. A place where they can show off what they know and be a part of.

I hope that as teachers and professionals we can use our judgement to decided what works best and what meets our students needs. Good point Molly! The best part of TPT is it gives teachers a way to connect with other teachers. As I have said several times relationships are the key to success in educations and that means with the kids, parents, admin AND other teachers. The community is the biggest asset of TPT in my mind. Secondly there are great things being shared on the site.

My hope is that we encourage teachers to be more thoughtful about what they buy and how they use it. Again, page views are fun but not my goal. I have no reason to want to increase page views. I share because conversations make me a better teacher.

Appreciate your comment! Funny you wrote about this topic! I just blogged about not buying into the “cuteness” to impress parents. I’m letting my kids decide what should be on my walls. What is important to them and what they feel is worth posting. I think it’s important that as teachers, we focus our time on meaningful, interactive lessons.

This means they should be ever-changing, even in the middle of that lesson. Cookie cutter worksheets do not meet the needs of all students. TPT is a great place for teachers if they love a cute class and I get that completely but buying lesson resources that are black and white and in worksheet form makes me bonkers!

I think you do have to be selective when purchasing items on TpT. But, you also have to be selective when shopping at a teacher supply store, or from a catalog. I do buy a lot of things from TpT, but they must fit the criteria that I set for my classroom. The things I buy usually do not make the top 100 selling list, because they do not fit my criteria.

There are great products on TpT, but it requires effort to find them. A product can only be as good as the teacher using it. As kindergarten teachers, we adapt just about everything we use. Let’s face it – most products are not appropriate for kindergarten. Like you, my students are different every year. Although, I always have some students that do not know letters, sounds, their name, numbers, etc.

– I also have one or two that are ready for first or second grade. So, I know I am always going to need differentiated materials, open-ended type centers and activities, guided reading materials, guided math materials, and products to use for intervention. I am always searching for RtI materials, and have found a few great ones. Everything I do in my classroom has a purpose.

No busy work! I consider myself a creative person, and I do like a cute graphic or two (as long as it doesn’t take away from the educational value). I also like a cute room, as long as it is organized and efficient for students. Everything must have a purpose!

Kindergarten should not be Crafts 101, but should be kid-friendly. I think you make a valid point about what classrooms should be vs. What SOME (definitely not all) are or will become due to TPT. I am a buyer and seller (though not of many items) but I NEVER buy anything thinking, “I am definitely going to use this again next year.” I search for things based on the needs of my classroom that year.

While all of the resources may not be editable, they are adaptable to fit your classroom and they are only resources, not a be all end all to your instruction. These resources are a FABULOUS place to start planning your instruction and adapt to your needs. And they are made by some fabulous teachers. I do fear that the age of task cards and centers will create some teachers who fit into that “laminating culture” but just like any profession, there are the good and the bad.

As a first year teacher, I was told that my classroom basically needed to be “cuter” more posters/student work/things hanging on the walls. I focused on what my students were learning, how they were learning it, and their excitement for school. And being a first year teacher, I couldn’t do it all. SO I decided I would focus less on the look of my classroom and spent all my time. Hours upon hours. Of planning for the contentonly to be sort of crushed at the end of the year when I was told that my classroom needs to look better.

There is sadly a push for teachers to make their classrooms LOOK nice. You could be a bad teacher but have a classroom that looks like you’re awesome and it’s all good. It’s that business, “First Impression” analogy that’s going around. The parents first impression of me is going to be my classroom so it better be a darn good one. That being said I also think that teachers want to make their classrooms look engaging and inviting. We spend most of our time in our classrooms so it needs to be a place that we WANT to be rather than “I have to be here because this is my job.” Not to mention it needs to be a place where kids want to come back. Your relationship with your students will bring that excitement, yes.

But kids are excited to come to a room where they are rockstars, or there are owls hanging around. And for most teachers, I don’t think that their cuteness takes away from the fact that they are awesome teachers. Just my two sense.

2nd Year Teacher •. Matt, thank you for this post. As a teacher who entered a school culture where cute was an Olympic sport I truly appreciate your candor. That was 5 years ago and shortly after beginning my own journey at that school I became the mentor coordinator. I think the hardest part of my job became helping the “newbies” not have a catastrophic meltdown about their room because of the “Olympian Cute Culture.” It was frustrating because these very awesome educators felt defeated by “cute stuff” before a student ever entered their classroom and that is SAD.

As far as TPT, I agree 100%, thought it a million times, but was just not brave enough to say it I might feel differently if it was a template that was modifiable for my specific classroom needs. Thanks for sharing and look forward to meeting you at @edcampDallas! Great points! I do use some TPT items, and I do sell some TPT items. None of my items are “cute” because that’s not what I use in my classroom. And I think some of the things I used and sold last year are items that I won’t use this year because my students need different things this year.

I don’t think that printing things off of TPT is any different than buying a book and copying pages out of the book to use. With that being said, I always try to think about if a worksheet or activity is just keeping them busy, or is it making a difference. I teach middle school and I totally agree with you about the PDF and the cutsie fonts. We should be able to tailor what we pay for for our kiddos. However, my biggest problem with TPT is that a lot of teachers are violating all kinds of copyright laws by reproducing handouts, worksheets, activities, etc. That have been published by textbook companies and other educational institutions.

I have seen so many items published for sale on TPT that are clearly not the original work of the teachers selling the products. As a TpT seller and buyer, I see nothing wrong with your points and actually do think they are valid. My whole take on it is, I’m making this stuff for my classroom anyway, if I can list it on here and have a few people buy it, then that’s a plus for me. As a special education teacher of students with autism I often find that there is a small market for the products that I create with Boardmaker, simply because most teachers aren’t interested in those images, but for my classroom, they are perfect.

When I am purchasing products it’s most often because it’s something that I’m looking for at that time. I’m never really shopping for “long term.” Now, will I be saving that item amongst my files and probably pull it out the following year, yes. But when I’m purchasing, I’m purchasing for right here, right now.

For what my students need at that moment. Beyond that, it becomes a resource that I have and may use in the future, or may not. The cute aspect I think comes from more of the perspective that if the teacher feels good about the materials or about how their classroom looks, then they will feel good about being there. I know it’s not all about that, but for me, if I take pride and put in time to make my classroom look well put together, I’m going to enjoy spending my time in there even more. The number one reason I love my job is because of my students, and that’s why I’m there everyday. But to walk into an organized and well put together classroom in the morning makes me feel much better than walking into one that’s unorganized. It’s all about personal preference in that department.

I know amazing teachers whose classrooms make me cringe when I walk into them, but they know where all there stuff is. That all comes down to personal preference. You just don’t see the people who could care less about their organization and decor putting classroom pictures on the internet, therefore creating this “ideal” that we all have to have organized, matchy-matchy, themed classrooms.

I think your post has done exactly what you intended for it to do, and that’s to make people think. Disclaimer: I’m not a teacher. I educate my preschool children in my home and whenever possible, I strongly prefer to use real images rather than clip art. About a month ago my 4 year old was eager to learn about cats so I made him some printables with images of real lions, tigers, leopards, etc.

To me it just makes more sense to surround our children with images that will captivate them, inspire them, not just amuse them or bore them. Children are naturally drawn to nature, both the tangible forms of nature in their backyard and the real life images of nature they find in their books. By using cartoon images and clip art in our teaching supplies, we really are watering down the impact we could be making.

Just one mom’s opinion though, no offense to those who do prefer the “cute” clip art and such. We’re all just trying to do the best we can, even if we don’t see eye to eye on what “the best” actually is. My suggestion would be to focus on the “polished” part. Make things look neat and crisp and polished in YOUR way. I think that polished is polished whether it’s cute or business like.

You can’t deny organization and neatness. I teach high school and so many of the teachers because they think it’s too “grade school” to decorate teach in ugly, depressing, messy and disorganized rooms or really ugly and visually damaging (lol) rooms where they try to toss up a few posters with absolutely no consideration for where or how or even tape up paper announcement sheets with masking tape. You can make something as plain as a bulletin board with daily announcements polished by using symmetry and matching push pins rather than mismatched thumbtacks. Just some thoughts. Great post Matt! I am glad that you are giving me (and others) “leave” to avoid the pressure of the cutesy thematic madness. I follow many blogs and it seems that the majority are doing themes or giving advice on how to do themes.

I was honestly beginning to believe that I wasn’t giving my “all” to my kids. I teach pre-k, I honestly don’t think some of them could function in some of the classroom ideas I see posted online.

I look at some of the classroom pics and I feel overwhelmed by all of the stuff I see. I can only imagine how my little people would feel. I do try to make things welcoming and inviting to the kiddos; however for the most part, I start out with a basic blank canvas.

I buy and sell on TPT. I love it, because it is current. I can find things as the wave comes in and the pendulum swings. I don’t have to wait for a book company to get wind of it, send it to their publisher, wait for approval, revise, send it to the printer and so on. Teachers are in the trenches and living what is happening in their classrooms and districts. Next year I am teaching a class that there are not many materials readily available.

I found some on TPT and will be creating the rest. As for cute, I do love cute!

I have cute fun stuff and I have cute practical stuff. A lot of my products are geared for decorating classrooms. I spend most of my waking hours 9 (sometimes 10) hours a day in my classroom.

I want to have something nice to see every day. I want my kids to love coming to school and for my classroom to be inviting to visitors. I love that TPT puts the money into the hands of hard-working and usually underpaid teachers.

As a single mom who is raising my son on my own with a teacher’s salaryas a teacher who spends money on my classroom so that my students have the things they need (both from TPT and other places)as a caring person who often uses the funds from TPT to buy shoes or groceries for students’ families who are strugglingI am thankful every day for the opportunities that TPT financially provides and the friendships I have made because of it. Great post, Matt.

I love how you always say what you feel and why you feel that way without intentional offense or judgement. It’s ok for teachers to disagree, however I completely agree with your post. My room is almost completely bare at the beginning of each year because I want my room to be filled with my students’ work/experiences things that hold meaning for them, not me.

Our rooms should be inviting not necessarily over stimulating. My house isn’t covered with polka dots and glitter (although a glitter and feathers never hurt anyone), so my classroom isn’t filled with those things either. A former great principal of mine once asked, “What educational value do these things on the wall represent?” That question resonates with me each and every single school year. You wrote something I’ve been pondering myself. My main issue with TPT as an EC educator, is that most of the ways I want to teach can not be printed from a PDF. Didn’t we all learn way back when that young children learn from play?

Yes, it takes longer to gather the materials than to click ” print” and it takes more room to store them, but I’d rather set out ten teddy bears to count than have the kiddos ring ten on a cute worksheet any day. Even though I’m only in my thirties, sometimes people think I’m old- fashioned because of this. I’d just rather save my ink, spend more time gathering than laminating, and let the kids be cute;) •. I agree with you about how it’s better to use realia rather than worksheets–I think so too! I teach Kindergarten, and sadly there is such a push toward accountability that worksheets are becoming necessary even to document what is done with realia. Last year we were barely allowed 20-30 minutes of centers 3-5 times a week, and we haven’t gotten our official directives for this year but we know there is supposed to be an hour of math as opposed to the 30-45 minutes we’ve been doing, so we’re guessing that center time (with home, puppet, building, math, reading, and puzzle centers) will be replaced by math stations. Not an awful thing, since most math manipulatives are fun, but even last year we were encouraged to have the kids be accountable for what they did at center time–so I won’t be surprised if we have to make them accountable at the math stations.

In shortno longer is it enough to have kids practice counting 10 objects or writing their sight words in a sandbox; now they have to do that and then redo it/record it onto a worksheet. Frustrating, but if I have to, I can at least do my best to make it enjoyable. There is far too much that is just “cute” for teachers. Cute WITH content is fine. Sometimes, teachers spend energy on making things cute because they like it (and for some things, I do too- because I spend so much time there!) but when it comes to learning materials, it’s important to weed out the stuff that’s only cute and make sure the content is strong too.

I know teachers who have adorable seasonal bulletin boards that change constantly- and I’m sorry, I just don’t get to that because I don’t have enough time or wallspace to spend on “cute” alone. I do think building a comfortable classroom environment is important and the cute can be a PART of that, but my walls are covered with anchor charts and usable word walls and things my students made or use. TpT (and Pinterest) do put more of a focus on the “cute” and cause more competition, but in some ways, blogging and that little bit of competition motivate me to be creative in my instruction, too, so you get the negative consequences with some powerful positive ones. I agree, too, that too much of what’s out on TpT are just worksheets with some clipart on them, but I think that’s why those sellers who do well are doing SO well- because they go beyond worksheets and really design creative, interactive activities. And of course, there are teachers that use something like TpT out of laziness- to get print and go lessons- but I don’t know that most teachers do.

I’m a new teacher, and there are so many more things I’d love to create for my 3rd graders firsthand that I don’t have time for. When I buy from TpT (which is rare because I’m a new teacher and something of a cheapskate:) it’s because I see something that’s a quality product my students need that will save me tons of time. And then, just like a teacher’s resource book or a copy of something from another teacher, it goes in my file and only comes out next year if it makes sense to use again with my students. (To be fair, though, most things I buy cover a topic that ALMOST all classes will need, at least for some students.) I really like to buy a pack with lots of activities so I can pick and choose out of it for what works best for my students, too, instead of just printing and using it just because. Some teachers are TOO focused on the cute over the content.

(Nothing wrong with liking cute, but you just have to be careful.) Some teachers are TOO likely to use materials immediately after printing without adaptation for their students (using TpT materials or anything else!) Some teachers are TOO likely to use the same materials (again, TpT or anything) year after year without trying to update or improve- and that’s not helping their instruction improve or fit for each class of students. So while I’m a TpT seller and peruse TpT regularly, I really don’t take much issue with your critique. To me, it seems more like a critique of the teachers who misuse it than the service itself. Sure, the service makes it easier but to me, it also makes me a better teacher when I find truly wonderful lesson materials that I might’ve never come up with myself or had the time to create! It just takes someone using the materials and resources in the right way and truly searching to find those that are quality- like any public marketplace, you get the bad with the good!

I am have worked in an elementary school library for years and recently moved to classroom teacher. While in the library I worked with the whole student body.

I can testify that younger students almost always prefer real pictures that cartoons. Many young students (especially boys) will not get a non-fiction book unless there is real pictures because if it has cartoons they think the book can not be true. They have a very literal mind. As students get older they start to be more interested in comic graphics and exciting fonts. Every class is different and gender difference also play a huge roll. Thank you for writing this post. It makes a lot of good points.

As a friend of Matt’s, and someone who only recently learned of the magnitude of TPT (maybe it’s because I’m Canadian?), I’ve been following this post really closely. A huge theme in the comments is that TPT is a lifesaver for new teachers — the very teachers who may lack the experience and reflectiveness necessary to think really critically about materials and how to use them. I think perhaps a much larger question is: how do we better support new teachers so that they have access to resources they need, and also have models for the level of reflection and questioning that makes us all stronger educators? I’m not sure what the answers are, but what I see here is a group of passionate, articulate teachers who really care about our students; if anyone can figure out some answers, it’s us!

The dialogue happening here is REALLY important, and we need to start bridging the gap between The Cute and The Anti-Cute, and creating a deeper level of understanding. I can’t believe that some people are suggesting that the plans/ideas/projects I create to work with my students are the intellectual property of the school. Who created them?

Not my superintendent (that’s for sure) not my principal, ME. So if it’s my creation, I have the right to sell it or give it away as I see fit. TPT is a wonderful way for us grossly underpaid teachers to make a little bit of extra money and I would much rather give that money to a fellow educator rather than a multi-million dollar corporation. As to cute, when my kids(2nd graders) arrive on that first day, the room (colors of borders, theme) reflects my personality and tells them something about me as we get to know each other, which is important. The kids get a kick out of it. (Yes, some have mentioned the colors to me.

“You made everything black and white!”, “I like dogs, too!”) By the end of the year the classroom reflects what we’ve done together, but the underlying theme is still there so that I don’t have to recreate the wheel every year. Do I laminate games and center activities to reuse with next year’s kids. You betcha, and I’ve been doing that for my twenty-odd years of teaching, long before TpT came along. Each class’s needs are different, sure, but I haven’t met a 2nd grader yet who couldn’t use 10 minutes in a center reinforcing saynouns and verbs, even if they already knew them. I guess I don’t understand what all the fuss is about.

Themed rooms and un-editable worksheets have been around long before TpT. I’m just glad that it’s teachers making the $. Bogeysmama1, actually many times what you create is owned by the school. It is something you need to be aware of. It matters when you make it, where you make it and what tools you sue to make it. I think most TPT sellers have a good understanding of that so I didn’t mention it at all but as you note it has been discussed in the comments.

I wouldn’t call this all “fuss” I would call it a conversation about how and why we do things for our class. It is easy to get in a rut or have tunnel vision when preparing for the year so I sometimes need reminders of why I am teaching. Thanks for the comment! I actually found your blog because I follow the other blog that wrote the “rebuttal” to this post. I feel like I’m getting ready to introduce myself at an Al-Anon meeting: Hi, my name is Amber, and I have spent more money than I care to think about on “cute” stuff from TpT. I am getting ready to start my third year of teaching, and I have to say that I was quickly “seduced” by all the cuteness that can be found on that site. The worst part: I probably have only utilized a third of what I purchased!

This saddens me, because I am by no means a wealthy person (I am a teacher without grad hours, hello?), and that money could have been better spent on things that would have actually helped my students (or to pay off bills quicker!). I recently uploaded my first item to purchase on TpT, and it has yet to be sold. I’ve been toying with the idea of just offerring everything I make for free, not only because I am obviously not making money, but because I have stumbled across so many blogs lately that are offering their amazing units and packets for free! They are spending time and energy to make things for classrooms, and are not at all worried about being compensated. Isn’t a common practice for teachers to beg, borrow and borrow without permission? I was born loving colorful ducttape, bright sharpies, and glitter. I’m not a fan of “cute”, but a fan of the colorful world we live in.

I just couldn’t agree more with what you have written here. I’m a collaborator. I share openly.

I make things and feel really, truly happy when others benefit from their use and truly enjoy sharing. I’m bothered by the “borrowing” of ideas for profit, the need to slap a “for sale” sign on ideas, and the way TpT encourages teachers to profit off of collaboration. I have found more open plagiarism on TpT than I have ever seen before as a teacher. If I share for free, and you ‘borrow” my file, recreate it with your name on it, and sell it? Collaboration is no longer about becoming better teachers it’s about profit.

When we share, we all get better. When we sell it, we are missing the whole point of open collaboration. I am a TPT seller, buyer, and blogger.

I can appreciate your view because there are definitely some sellers out there who are just selling “fluff.” There are some buyers out there who will buy and use for years, yes. But how is that different than a store like School Box selling resource books that teachers buy and use as busy-work, and probably for years? I think the problem you are presenting is not a problem with TPT, it is a problem with teachers who aren’t planning the way they should, and the source for these materials has only moved to a new “site” – TPT. That doesn’t mean TPT is only selling fluff or busy work. Business In A Box Pro Free Crack Download. I only sell things I use in my own classroom. What I sell are resources that may not fit all students, but that’s a teacher’s job to determine that. Even the things I create I don’t use year after year, but there are some things that I DO use year after year because they go with strategies that teach a standard all students must learn, or they are games that all students have enjoyed playing every year.

My hope in putting them on TPT is that another teacher out there is looking for something just like that and can use it. Aaaaand last, as for decorating the room- do you decorate your home? (Or maybe your wife?) I want my room to feel “homey” because that is where I, and 25+ 10 year olds, are going to “live” for 36 weeks, and I don’t really want to feel like I’m in a cinder block cell. My decorating is not taking away from the interactive displays that the students and I make through the year, it is simply helping to provide an atmosphere and make everyone comfortable (pillows, chairs, rugs, etc). Again, I feel like this goes back to school supply stores that would get every poster bought out the week before school started so teachers could have things on the walls- is it right? But decorating a classroom to make it “cute” doesn’t always mean covering the walls with posters no one is going to read, and that definitely doesn’t start with bloggers or TPT. This has been happening for ages.

Just my (long) two cents. Jessica, I don’t think this is a new concern but one that seems to be going into overdrive with sites like TPT. They make it easier to find and download content without and oversight into what is fluff and what is not. I make my room fit my needs and my comfort level.

Other teachers should do the same, but if you read the comments here and on twitter you will hear a voice from teachers that feel pressure to do things that don’t match their style. I want teachers to be themselves and to teach from a place of comfort and love. I am asking those that truly love cute to understand not everyone does and those that don’t enjoy cute to know they can be themselves and still be a wonderful teacher. It sounds like you are doing things the way I wish everyone was on TPT, how do we get others to use the resources in the best possible way?

Matt, I would like to thank you for changing the image at the top of this post. I mentioned in the other blog post that I do agree with you on certain points, and I felt the image was very misleading on what the real issue is here. As a teacher for 13 years, I saw many teachers, veterans and rookies, reach for their basal texts to plan lessons and activities, write it word-for-word in their lesson plans (or just write “See TE pages 13-15). Often times, that basal text was opened up and used cover to cover. Perhaps the order of the lessons were changed, but many teachers felt like if they “taught” the whole text, then they had taught their students all they were supposed to learn. I would love to see you have a follow-up post on what the real issue(s) seems to be here (or at least what it is in my mind): how do we, as educators, navigate the wealth of resources out there in cyber-world as well as in brick and mortar stores, be selective with a critical eye, utilize these lessons/activities in our classrooms that are differentiated for every child, and (my favorite part- seriously, not being sarcastic) ensure the curriculum we teach is cross-curricular and includes authentic performance tasks in a meaningful and seamless manner?

The answer is certainly not easy. Matt, as a 2nd grade teacher I LOVE TPT, Pinterest, and cuteness. I get what you are saying though about the pressures to keep up with others and that some people might think that as long as their room is cute they have done a good job. Or that purchasing something cute makes it quality.

I originally came here to dispute everything you and everyone else said against TPT. Instead I appreciated ( most) of the points being made here by yourself and others.

I like being made to think and so I will be your newest follower. Some people have probably already said what I’m going to say.

Here it goes anyway. First off, everyone’s teaching style is totally different. If you like a cutesy room, go for it. If you don’t that’s ok toobut look around at products made for kids.

They are bright and CUTE. Don’t you think there’s something to that? Bright colors/ cute graphics = kids looking.

Does that mean that you don’t have to teach? Uh no, but why can’t things be cute AND full of content? If you don’t like TpT, that’s fine, but not every seller is the same. That’s why you don’t go onto the site and purchase a grab bag. You go on, search for what you need, look previews and reviews and make wise purchases.

The reason I love TpT is because we’re paying for materials that have actually been tested in a classroom and have been created by a real teacher. Not some corporation that sells teaching materials. Why not put a little extra cash in the pockets of people who will likely put some of it back into our classrooms instead of some corporation that already has their pockets full? It’s kind of like Walmart vs. The mom & pop store. Walmart is a necessary evil sometimes, but when you can buy something from the little guy and help him feed his family well, it’s just a good thing.:-) I know it has been amazing for me.

It has helped me when I didn’t have the time to create what I needed and it has helped me financially since I created my store. PS the lamination machine really didn’t get much busier because of TpT. Believe me I know. We’re always running out of lamination and we have been since before TpT existed.

If it’s there, teachers will use it up.:-) lol •. This was a very thought provoking post. I think it’s all about balance, there are some things on TpT that I might purchase because it would go well with a mini lesson, math activity or inquiry based unit I’m planning.

I have mixed feeling on the cuteness factor because how I set things up organizationally is my room can sometimes lend itself to cuteness, but the shell of my room is just that, until my students fill it with their work. There is some pressure to have exquisite rooms where everything is matchy matchy especially with the explosion of teacher blogs where most posts are dominated by the aesthetics of their rooms and the cute artsy crafty activity they did with their students where everything was cut out before hand and they all look the same. What beginning teacher wouldn’t feel the pressure of that?

I think the most popular teacher blogs and TpT operate in a relationship. They present to you in a pretty format then link you into their store to purchase. I’m in no way bashing teacher blogs but it is something to think about. It seems like it is becoming big business now, where groups of bloggers get together to hype up each others products for their small circle of blogging friends. I mean if your favorite blogger/TpT seller hyped their friends products you’d probably be more inclined to purchase it. Which is fine but like you said how do they know that would work across all classrooms?

Thanks for giving me something to think about. Thank you for this – what an amazing conversation you have started! I have bought from TPT – some great things some not. I worry, as you say, about new teachers. At 17 years of teaching, I can pick and choose what is best for my class but, when you’re new, it’s much more difficult.

I wonder about all the teachers that do only the themes done on TPT type blogs and stores or think their classes have to have all the cute signage. It’s like colouring in the lines and worrying all about the finished product. Teaching is messy and, at times, doesn’t look pretty even when it’s finished. It’s the whole process – the ins and outs and working with each other that is so important.

If a new teacher is worried that her class doesn’t look like the pinterest classes and her lessons aren’t as polished looking as TPT lessons, he or she might feel a sense of failure or inferiority. I t’s just that it’s difficult to pin what that great moment when your class finally gets what you have been teaching and takes it so much farther than you expected or that student who struggles with making friends is sitting on the carpet holding hands with another student. Those great times can’t be captured on Pinterest or TPT. We have to talk and connect more to do that. I hope this made sense – it’s difficult to explain it.

I’m so thankful that I went to I Teach K and that I heard about your great blog and #kinderchat and all the rest. I’m the only K teacher in my school and it’s great to be able to be part of these discussions.

Thank you for making me think about TPT and how I feel about it. Michelle #togolightly •. I agree about the pressure to make things cute, but I don’t know how to stop that.

I really think that comes from Pinterest, though, and not from TPT. Pinterest is a wonderful/addicting/fun stealer of my sleep but it is also a powerful and full of peer pressure marketing tool. I, thankfully, got married pre-Pinterest and I feel bad for people that are being influenced to make everything live up to other people’s standards. I LOVE all of the ideas I see on Pinterest and LOVE seeing them once people bring them to life in their classrooms, weddings, showers, baby’s first birthday parties- but wow, it looks like a lot of work! As a TPT seller, I came to this post unsure of what I was going to think (and ready to be mad at you), but after reading your post and ALL of the comments, I realize that you are not attacking TPT and I hope other people can see that, too. I think all of us can admit that we sell on TPT to make money.

Yes, we all need it to supplement our salaries, yes we most definitely use the profits for our classrooms or to do other great things, but bottom line, the point of selling something is to make money. I can say that and then in the same breath say that I have truly enjoyed connecting with other teachers through TPT and then through Facebook, blogs, etc. It is so much fun! TPT has a wonderful set of forums where we talk about products and selling tips, yes, but we also talk about book recommendations, scary job interviews, weddings and babies being born, deaths and tragedies and even just the amazingly random stuff that our kiddos say in our classrooms! I have found TPT to be an wonderful community that is full of hard-working teachers who are willing to help each other and share with each other.

Anyway, thanks for starting this discussion, I hope people can see the points you were trying to make. And p.s.- I feel sorry for you and other people whose administrators made you feel bad about the way your classrooms look! I love setting up my classroom each year and while I do make things cute, I also do set my room up differently every year, always looking for the best set up for me and my kiddos that year. And I’ve been known to rearrange my classroom mid-year just to try something new! I’ve had a lot of fun with a class of 7 year olds, pushing things around and moving tables- they love to help and be a part of it all!! From an Early Childhood (20 years experience) perspective I couldn’t disagree with you more about TPT.

My state uses daycare for PK3 and PK4 and the teachers, and YES we are real teachers, make a just above minimum wage salary (we do not get paid for overtime either). We do NOT get paid the same as a public school teacher and have to vigorously fight for our recognition as educators. FREE is a wonderful word in my profession so TPT is a blessing for those of us who do have money issues.

The, as you say, “cutesy” material is an added blessing to those of us who lack the resources to buy polka dot or owl paper. Most of the teacher created materials can be modified for use in preschool so I for one am very grateful for TPT and will continue to be an avid follower.

I am a think outside the box thinker and love creating materials (or better yet letting my children create materials) that fit our unique learning situations, however, I have no problem using already created materials that will enhance our journey of discovery. I taught Kinder for several years and would love to have known about TPT then because after a few years new ideas that can be modified to my unique students would have been a welcome addition.

Not all teachers are in the same boat so what works for some may not work for all so don’t throw the baby out with the bath water ’cause you may be overlooking the bigger picture – educators come in a variety of forms. As usual Matt, you have created a thought provoking and intelligent conversation underway here. I too have thought much about TPT both loving it and hating it. There are times I need a particular spelling game for our spelling center, for a specific group of kids for example, and for that, I find it particularly useful. However, I have been amazed that all the graphics and fonts are so alike. I teased with colleagues once, that there must be a TPT graphic requirement! I would much rather see teachers post long term units that can be developed individually for each class and group than worksheets.

For example, after teaching about bridges for first grade for many years now, I have thought about putting together a long term bridge unit and selling it, but don’t want to have to do all the cutesy graphics that make it sell. On the note of cutesy, I have never been one to buy “teachery” posters or decorate my door with store bought apples or bees. I create an original door, (after school starts) most frequently with the kids assisting, to create work that correlates with our units and is authentic.

It is important for children to have color and beauty in their lives. Cutesy is another thing One more issue I have is the constant focus on holidays. Children do not need shamrocks, hearts, and wreaths on everything. In a global world where we need to respect diversity, holidays can be celebrated in special ways without stamping every piece of work with a Santa (and shouldn’t be unless all the holidays are being respected.) Keep talking everyone!

Lenae 35 year teacher •. Well Matt, you started a great discussion with your assessment of TPT. I just recently stumbled across the site as I began searching for ideas for the upcoming school year where, after 20 yrs, will be moving to a new grade level.

I agree that as the years change so do our students. Anything I might purchase from TPT would be because I thought it might be a fit for something I wanted to try in my classroom. The items I picked up often had a piece that was able to be edited to suit my classroom needs. Like Pintrest, I found it to be a good place to browse for ideas, not always to purchase, but to use as a springboard or tie-in to an idea of my own. I don’t look for “cute” in my classroom either, but something that is fun can be a kid pleaser and help to get them to buy in to some crazy idea I might have! Many of the posts spoke of TST, teachers sharing with teachers, I do that all the time within my building/district.

Not sure that I would want to put a price tag on any of my ideas. I think it’s a matter of being selective about what you buy (can you adapt it for individual student needs). Before TPT, most teachers subscribed to magazines like The Mailbox and purchased their books. I don’t think anything has really changed except that TPT enables real teachers to publish and sell their work. So, it’s a product made by a real teacher vs. Made by someone who works in an office for a company.

Some things on TPT are quality & some are not. I don’t believe in using worksheets, and although I enjoy making printables, I don’t believe we should rely on them too much. I don’t see anything wrong in decorating a classroom as long as it is not the cluttered kind of decorating. People decorate their children’s bedrooms, so why not a classroom? I think most teachers decorate at the beginning of the year before the kids come and then leave it alone for the rest of the year, so I don’t see how it interferes with education (as long as it is not cluttered and over decorated).

I also don’t believe in putting charts on the wall unless made with the children. Bulletin boards should showcase children’s work. As for photos vs. Clipart – its very hard to find real photos that you can use without violating copyright. On the other hand, there’s lots of clipart you can use. I’ve seen TPT teachers using photos from Flickr that are creative commons, but they are walking on thin ice. Many Flickr members may not completely understand the creative commons license and may not like someone putting their photo in a product to sell.

Flickr members can change their images to Copyright in an instant with a click. Even the majority of purchased photos (istock etc) cannot be used in digital files whether you sell it or give it away.

Hello, This was fun to read. I have lots of thoughts because I’m a high school teacher and I get made fun of for my “cute”. But my students love it; they always comment on how bright and happy my room is. I do it for students, but I also do the cute for me, but also because at the high school level teachers think kids don’t care about it anymore so they don’t decorate anything and rooms can be very depressing.

As far as worksheets or materials go, I tend to just add one or two small pieces of clip art as decoration. As for photos vs. Clip art, I tend to use photos in Power Point presentations. I teach Spanish so I use photos for vocabulary.

I also tend to do “cute” when it comes to activities and games. I use colorful cutouts from the teacher store instead of index cards, for example. For me, sometimes the cute comes from the need to make the repetition of language practice have some variety so it is for the students and the learning. I need to make the same verb practice seem different when we do it for listening, speaking, writing, reading practice over and over and over again. As far as TPT, I don’t care for it because it doesn’t feel like “mine”.

I like Pinterest because I get the idea and then I make it so I feel like it’s mine. I don’t like using someone elses actual work. I like to pick out my clip art and my sentences and my layout, etc. I don’t mind sharing things I make and I do with teachers in my district. And if TPT helps others, that’s great. It does seem like it has become more of a business and I don’t know how those teachers can splinter their focus between creating for TPT and creating for their own students, but that’s out of my worry zone.

There are 164 comments to this post and I am not interested in reading through them all. I have read your post and even the follow-up post since I am so late to the game. For a couple of years, I took a look at tons of free offerings from a couple of the above mentioned sites.

I saved them and rarely got back to them later on. I thought there were so many great resources there and I only saved the ones that I thought would stand the test of time. (Seeing how much school has changed tells me many of those things wouldn’t work in today’s classroom.) What I really want to get to is this. The products need to be photocopied and yes, oftentimes laminated. That is a lot of paper and that adds up to a real lot of the ubiquitous WORKSHEETS!

Those are the bane of the kindergarten classroom. Many of them may be “cute” as you say, but more often than not, parents complain “My kid does nothing but worksheets all day.” I realize they don’t know what else is going on all day but a few papers home at the end of the day tell them one side of the story. Back to the photocopying. Our principal shut us down on copying and using paper.

When that happened I completely stopped perusing the teacher materials sites and found more hands-on ways of teaching and learning. Yes it took more time and thought but in the end, everyone is happier. I will add that we do not have good tech resources to use – no iPa#s or iPo#s, no IWB, not even a working projector for the document camera. These are really hands-on lessons now. I like the paying teachers sites for quick and fun activities to fill in some time or enrich a lesson with visuals.

I do not recommend them for units any more than I liked boxed curricula from Pearson, Macmillan, and other publishers. I do like the idea of teachers being able to profit by their cleverness. I think my biggest question to you is, where is your information coming from? How many teachers have you observed that simply download cute things, laminate them and use them every year without thinking about their current group of little ones? Are you just assuming that teachers are doing this mindlessly?

It’s a pretty big accusation to place on a group of professionals. I also think it’s wrong and have no idea how you would have come to such a conclusion. Regardless, if teachers decide to take that route, that shows they’re not a great teacher. It has nothing to do with TPT. TPT is simply a community of sharing ideas. How you use them is up to you as a professional.

I completely agree with your statement about losing the polka dots and owls! The worksheets and activities on TPT are over designed. You call them “cute.” I say hideous! Having all the nasty clip art images all over the page makes it difficult for kids to read and understand the activity. Plus, they look dated, like from the early nineties.

Real images are always better and are more educational. When creating things for kids, I stick to primary colors and black / white. Simple design is timeless.

The owls and polka dots don’t look modern. Teachers PLEASE stop using comic sans and clip art!!!!! KISS (keep it simple stupid) and don’t be afraid of the white space! Erin E is for Explore!

I haven’t gone through all of the comments yet, but I wanted to come down really quick to talk about the cute factor. It isn’t overrated in my opinion. My room is always bright, welcoming, colorful.and most importantly, USEFUL! There is very little on my walls that are not used at some point during my day.

Please don’t assume that because I have a lot of anchor charts on my wall that I just put them there for you (adults) to stare at and think awwww. I couldn’t care less what the adults think about my room. My room reflects my personality but it also reflects what I do on a daily basis and who lives there, and that should never be disrespected by discounting the thought that goes into my ‘cute’ classroom.

My room also looks quite different at the beginning of the year than the end. Because it is forever evolving. We need and use different things throughout the year. When we no longer need things, I graduate them to storage.

And if I was wrong about needing it, it comes back to visit. And yes, I say these things and I teach fourth grade emotionally disabled students. I did a lot of switching with a coworker last year. And let me tell you, those boys commented about the differences in the rooms. No, I don’t do the owls and polka dot things, but my word wall letters were personally made by me and were pink with Disney characters. It was for me, not my kids.

I could have put up simple letters, but that’s boring and that is a word that has never been used to describe me. But that in no way means that I ‘focus’ on cute. I focus on practicality, usefulness AND cute. You know what else decorates my walls? STUDENT DRAWINGS. My students always want to be part of the decorum in my room and are always drawing me things to add to the walls. And I make sure that happens because they are as much apart of that room as I am!

I appreciate that we all have opinions, but I must say that take offense to having what I do downgraded because you don’t see the merit. I will end with thiswhen I began working at my school, many teachers didn’t decorate much of anything.

My wing, which houses emotionally disabled students, looked like a prison, not a school. It was pretty miserable. No one can deny that this would put a damper on your mood! I do my best every year to avoid living (because I spend so much time there that it is absolutely my home) in a place that feels miserable just walking in the doors. I know for a fact that my students (spanning years) feel the same because they say so when I have to take everything down for our state testing. They walk in and say EEEELLLLLL.

I think it is important to note here that Matt’s criticism of “cute” was not of cute, per se, but of the CULTURE of cute that runs rampant in early childhood and primary education. It is a problem in our field that teachers who are less into cute often feel alienated and alone in their preference for simpler, plainer, more child-created classroom design, decor, and materials.

When we use a teacher’s classroom decor (and the time he or she is willing or able to put into that decor) as a proxy measure of that teacher’s dedication and competence, we do our entire profession an enormous disservice. The fact that EXCELLENT teachers and student-teachers receive poor evaluations, bad grades (see Matt’s next post for an example), and parent complaints because they have thoughtfully, deliberately chosen a simpler classroom environment is a A PROBLEM in the culture and perception of our entire profession. Cute, on its own, is one thing (and perhaps one day I will have the courage to tackle the debate over the true place and value of cute in ECE), but the CULTURE of cute is truly problematic, and we ALL need to work to diminish it. Hi Shirelle, you are correct and I should have been more clear. I should have said “child created.” What I meant was that many teachers who are judged based on lack-of-cuteness start the year with plainer classrooms because they have their students create the majority of the educational materials that get posted — not just student work, but calendar, letter and number charts, and other anchor charts that are made by students. Matt, is it possible to edit my comment to reflect that?

I agree with Shirelle that we need to choose our words carefully in order to keep this conversation going. I waited and waited to comment and then Gail (see above) got to even more of what *I* was going to say than what has already been said. So, here are just a few more thingssome may be new/different, some may be piggybacking on what has already been said. I think that teacher collaboration is fantastic, I love the fact that I can get ideas from a vast array of places, ages, curriculum types simply by perusing the site. I might not be able to change/edit what I see but if I work hard enough at it (with my limited tech skills- fine, pen/paper) I can capitalize on an idea and use it to fit my students needs.

I, like Gail have looked at and saved many activities, I have a “to be used or looked at later” file and I know I can do that if I need to. Here are my *main* points, I use a) freebies and comment b) print in b and w (I know, it still wastes paper/ink) c) rarely laminate anything that I print until I know if the class in front of me is actually going to use the game/activity. In fact, I never laminate it until I’ve used it with 2 years worth of students. I also try to make sure I can replicate the game/activity in some way so that students can play it at home. One thing that has really made me all fired up this year and it’s not a reflection on TpT at all, is that with our new Educator Evaluation policy in MA and the requirement to set personal and professional goals in a hurry, we’ve lost sight of what it really means to educate and support- and our focus is on testing and data.

Because of this, and additionally the CCSS, people in my building are printing out from TpT and pinterest like machines. There are no restrictions on color ink, paper OR laminating film in my building so before anything gets “kid tested” its printed, copied on cardstock/construction paper and laminated. It takes time away from people doing “teaching” or intervention bc they are cutting game pieces, it takes resources away if consumables run out and underneath it all- what if the games/activities aren’t useful to the kids?!

How about trying them first? Or maybe one a week? Maybe one a month? I’m seeing 1 a day! I think that in this frenzy to be on top, some of the ready made, things that look good, are fueling the fire and through really, no fault of their own. Like I said, it’s not TpT or the teacher’s who sell there fault that this is what it looks like at my school. For me, it’s letting the dog/pony show-ers make it easier to dog and pony show- the cute gets cuter, the bling gets blingier and takes away from what the real teaching is.

My problem isn’t necessarily with cute or blingy per se- it’s about authenticity, taking away distractions and focusing on the teaching. Is what we’re putting in front of the students a “hands on” activity that teaches? Or is it simply moving things around on a board?

At the same time this is also true with products we buy from brick and mortar stores, this is just the newer, shine-ier way of doing it. I’m going to stop now- thanks Matt.

Thanks to everyone who commented before me and who I presume will come after me. Thanks to all those who post/sell on TpT I’ve learned great things from ideas I’ve seen there, and also things that remind me why I do what I do. I have a site similiar to TPT that is called buysellteach.com. I actually like TPT, but I also found that some of the lessons did not work for my students. So I created a program on the site called Create-a-Doc that allows teachers to create their own lessons to meet the needs of their students. I also have Common Core Standards available to reference when creating a lesson. I try to post most of my lessons for free, but I also enjoy seeing other teachers sell and make moneythat fills my bucket just as much:) I have enjoyed reading all the comments.

It’s so funny because the opposite is true for me in high school. Other teachers look at me as though I’m too “easy” of a teacher because my room is so bright and colorful and because I do many games and fun activities and use lots of graphics and make my Power Points image and visual heavy because I teach Spanish and we are learning quite a bit of vocabulary. I agree that nobody should be judged as a better or worse teacher because of how they decorate or don’t decorate their room. Personally, I think it’s more enjoyable to learn or just be in an environment that it uncluttered and pleasant.

I don’t think that it needs to be “useful”. I don’t need to use the decorations in my home to enjoy being there. If the decorations in my room are useful, that’s a bonus, but they are there for storage or to make things more attractive. I like decoration that is very simple and clean and uncluttered. Something else to throw into your conversation just for the fun of it because I teach high school. The boys are the ones who enjoy my basket of stuffed animals that they may take to sit with and the cut outs I use instead of index cards. They often say things like, “Can I have a blue one instead of a red one, or look, fish, etc.” Lol.

Lastly, even though I use lots of graphics, I am very conscious of making them crisp and not overdone and very uncluttered. My Power Point flashcards have ONE image on them and ONE word one them and I use consistent transitions and things like that. I think that the splintering of effects and colors and themes is overstimulating and off-putting. I was just reflecting along these same lines earlier this month! I think that you hit the nail on the head. The problem is not the cute – people who want to use cute should.

The problem is the implication that those who choose not to are somehow inferior or not doing their jobs as teachers. If I plan a lesson well, my students are interested, or curious, or challenged, or otherwise engaged. No amount of clipart makes a poor lesson engaging. A cute worksheet is still a worksheet. A hall pass that doesn’t match the curtains is no less functional.

I have a hard time with the idea that using materials from tpt saves time. Searching for a lesson that truly fits your needs, your curriculum, and your students is time consuming. Then, if you must ask a seller to modify a pdf for you, takes even longer.

I often find it much faster to create exactly what I need myself. While I may add a small image in a corner, clean and clear is important. When I create myself, I keep the file saved on my computer. I can revisit it in years to come if applicable. Since it made it myself, it is easy to modify, fixing bits that didn’t work so well, changing emphasis or directions for a new group.

I rarely use my previous lessons exactly as-is, but they are quick to find and to modify. Thanks for posting and hosting such a great discussion •.

I have typically created what I’ve needed in my classroom but have appreciated TPT when I needed items such as book bin labels and things that were similar or better than what I was searching for and the activities and ideas were very well received by my students And as far as cuteness on the worksheets etc., I believe it is just a paper form of computer graphics- our students are emerged and learning using graphics in many of the programs, videos and apps and that is one reason they are so engaged and highly motivated and we encourage that creativity! Does it matter whether it’s on a piece of paper or an electronic screen?

Many teachers are lifelong learners – why should our creativity be stifled? I am happy to pay a fellow teacher for something they’ve created that I can use in my classroom. Also, the cuteness conversation falls along the same lines Let me be creative in my classroom- my cuteness is primarily coordinated blank bulletin boards and curtains to make it homey and comfortable, and all my cute happens in the summer- once students are there I don’t have time for that- not once in 20 years have I thought about competing with other teachers on my classroom decor, I do it for me and my students If you are not into the cute- don’t be- your personality is probably better at something else in the classroom than mine! Let’s just focus on the students in our classrooms and respect each other’s teaching styles and choice of resources •. As a male teacher in the elementary grades, I agree with your statement on cuteness. I focus on practicality with anything I use in my 2nd grade classroom. I do feel that TPT offers teachers a reliable source for quality items, but I also believe the products should be in an editable format; this is what I try to do with all the items I post on TPT.

There are many free items available, as well. Thank you for starting a legitimate discussion and not just slamming TPT and all of its hardworking members. Matt, I am currently a secondary education teacher, in Math, and recently discovered TPT. For me the most shocking thing was the fact that teachers were actually selling their ideas/products to other teachers.

I would think we would come together as a community and help each other out. I also like what you had to say about the making of a “cute” room, however, I must say that we were actually taught that we need to consider our decorations in our classroom to attract the students. It is much different on the secondary level than it is in primary school. Thank you for creating such a great topic! I think I understand why teachers get paid so littlewe seem to think we SHOULDNT make money.would you ever imagine a bank or other business talking about thiswe should share, we shouldn’t be selling, etc. Of course sharing and kindness is a good thing, but that doesn’t mean that making money and supporting a family is a bad thing. No teacher is making up all of their own curriculum, and certainly not new curriculum year after yearwe just usually buy it from big companies.

TPT gives you the opportunity to supplement your curriculum for small money. It’s an add on to what you all ready have. Alesson here, a game there.

PDF or not, you can always tweak and must. Having an option to buy something to add to your classroom is great. I seriously doubt teachers are depending completely on material from TPT.

Again, I believe it is supplemental. And for those in schools with low budgets, the prices on TPT are very affordable. As for the cute issueI guess everyone’s idea of cute is a bit different but some might say realistic pictures of animals is cute.

Not real butterflies! I think it’s a sad day when a 5 year old cant have anything “cute” in his OR her classroom. Life gets serious enough as an adultjust read this thread •. I am a middle school science teacher and a former architect/designer. After changing careers, I started in Kindergarten and then moved to 1st grade for a couple of years before middle school. I started creating my own K and 1st classroom decor because I couldn’t stand the visual distraction of so many different product styles around my room to represent different needs – word walls, math, colors, shapes, alphabets, etc.

So, I made my own, and that started my selling organization decor on TPT. I agree there is too much random use of clip art, but a well-designed and coordinated backdrop makes what you want the students to focus on stand out with less distraction. Plus, from the perspective of a designer for 20 years – all people respond to good design in a subconscious way.

The mind responds to well-organized and designed surroundings and THAT fosters a productive learning environment. The science room I inherited was a visual mess. After redesigning it with mostly paint and changing the furniture and cabinets arrangement, it is the most positively commented on classroom in the middle school. It is the room that the school wants to have its board meetings in, and student that haven’t been in it before always comment on how nice the room is (even the boys)! Many students ask is they can hang out in there during recess or lunch.

So, don’t negate the value of a visually organized and well-designed space. You may think the kids don’t care and notice, but their subconscious does. I completely agree! I’ll admit that I did not read all the comments before posting, but I wanted to add two points. First, I have been heavily influenced by the schools of Reggio Emilia and their idea of the classroom as another “teacher.” I prefer my classroom to be full of the children’s work and to feel like a cozy home (think wicker baskets instead of plastic, primary-colored bins) rather than full of cutesy bulletin board sets and superficial posters.

I also use this quote from Micahel Heggerty as my mantra: Is it cute or does it count? Thank goodness you got a discussion going! I do buy on TpT and have found some things useful. However (going off of Donna’s comment) too many things are copied from other people. I know some sellers and work with one as well. Too many times our ideas that we give her are later found on TpT because she is selling it. She feels that if she adds different clip art it is hers to sell.

TpT does not do a good job of following intellectual copyright laws. How I would love for some of those big sellers and bloggers to be exposed. I have been teaching almost 40 years, most of that in Kinder. I think TPT is the best thing since sliced bread. If I have a lesson I want to teach, I look there. I can find what I want for a couple dollars and not have to buy a whole book for 10 times moreand only use part of itAND my money goes right into a teacher’s pocket and not some big company. Howeverthere have been many things I have NOT purchased because they were just TOO cute.

I see so many ideas for themesand some people change them every yearand that is fine if it makes them happy. (And what is wrong with buying things if it makes the teacher happy?

Hey, we LIVE in that room!) My theme is learning and the decor is whatever-I-have-purchased-over-many-years-that-makes-me-happy-and-works. I don’t get rid of anythingeven if I haven’t used it in years, because NEXT year I might have the kid or class that needs it! A response to Gracieand others who have said similar.why shouldn’t teachers sell to other teachers?! It’s the highest possible compliment when another teacher buys my work and tells me how good it was and how well it worked with their students.

If you feel teachers shouldn’t sell to teachersthan who the heck is going to make all of those big binders full of math, literacy, science, etc. Curriculum that the schools buy us? Who better to get a quality piece of work from than a currently practicing teacher?! The curriculum comes from somewherewhy not support and “share” with each other by buying each others work when we need or want to? We all need curriculum and resources, we all buy it somewherewhy is it suddenly an issue when it’s being bought from a real live person rather than a corporation? This line of thinking makes no sense to me. Additionally, the statement that teachers should “share” really bothers me.

No one can argue that sharing is goodbut there is nothing wrong with making a living. Teachers pay is so poor that most of us want or need to supplement to get. I find it frustrating that if you are a teacher, you are expected to give everything away.I have been teaching special education for 20 years. I do not make enough money to buy a home for my family in the town I live in. I LOVE my job and my students and will always be a sped teacher. I have dedicated my life to helping others.

I have trained many new teachers and have given each one ALL of my lesson plans from years past so that they have a resource and a place to start from. I share and I give. Not because I am a teacher, but a decent human being. On TPT, I sell. Teachers buy my work and benefit from my ideas and experience and all for a very reasonable cost. I have, in turn, also bought some items when I have found a need in my curriculum. It’s a great resource.

So I guess I would want to remind people that just because someone sells on TPT, doesn’t mean they don’t share and give and collaborate like crazy. Lastly, no one ever gets upset when a doctor charges for his or her services? My sister is an accountant and doesn’t ever get told she should do other accountants taxes for free.we seem to have this standard for teachers that we don’t have for anyone else that we must be all giving.

We can be giving and make moneywe can have pretty things in our room and still be good teachers. Hey Matt, I appreciate your opinions, along with everything else you post.;) I have some counter thoughts from my perspective. I think TpT actually provides many teachers with new and fresh ideas. The ideas on TpT can be a positive influence on teachers to try something new they hadn’t thought of before; just like any other resource.

I like lessons coming from teachers who use them in their classroom vs. A textbook that is years out of date and static. In other words, I think TpT is more of a current and relevant source for teaching ideas. Also, I see TpT lessons as disposable; not the pendulum swinging back to laminating. That’s how I personally use the materials. I think of them as materials to use as long as they’re relevant and meet your needs, then ditch them and move on.

TpT has also encouraged me to learn so much about graphic design and creating in order to add to my store. So, it’s actually helped me grow as a producer with improved creative digital skills.

Bottom line, no matter where you get your teaching ideas and materials, it’s up to the teacher to use the tools in a beneficial way. Thanks for sparking good conversation, and for sharing all your great ideas!;) •. I was so pleasantly surprised to read your solid thinking reasons.

As a mentor and instructional coach to beginning teachers, I get so discouraged at the reliance of some teachers (both beginning and established) to use ideas from Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers or using a co-worker’s unit– without modifications and without being able to explain why it is being used. Without being able to professionally explain why an approach might help build understanding, our approach is no different than “marching straight through a teacher’s manual doing every page, every example.” Examination of why an approach may work, examination afterwards to find out just how well it built understanding, and being able to verbalize our reflective findings is essential for our profession. For me, the best parts of TPT and Pinterest are that they have helped find blogs that I love. I like minimal clip art because it copies better in b&w than photos do. I pin or download items to remind me about ideas. I suspect I will do this more as I switch from 14 years in kindergarten to third grade. Even for programmable recording sheets, I sometimes print in color and laminate.

My students (or I) can take a quick photo with the iPad for documentation and reuse over and over. As I read the comments posted before mine, there were many where I needed the Facebook “like” button. When I create notes home or my own materials, I usually add a small bit of simple clipart. I do this for several reasons, but it helps the nonreaders. We encourage them to check the picture.

How many times have you passed out notes and the kids want to know what it is about. A visual clue helps.

In the same way, parents know that if they see a certain bright color or border, it is communication that refers specifically to our class or grade. I want them to know what to look for. Moving to third is not ideal to me, but I had an interesting conversation with an administrator earlier this week. I expressed my concern that I may come across too “babyish” at times, being so grounded in k. He told me, as have others, (paraphrased) that the kids would probably enjoy the mothering touch from kinder infused into the curriculum in third.

I am looking forward to your Pinterest post and hoping the discussion thread matches this one. I want to shout “Amen Matt” from the top of the mountain! I think there are some larger underlying issues here. I personally want to spend my time and energy on content rich materials that lend themselves to student engagement and learning. Often when we decorate or set our rooms up for the arrival of students, it is for our pleasure and maybe that of the parents and colleagues who see it.

For the students it is really just classroom ‘noise’. Please consider your diverse student population. The decorated classroom can act as a stimulant resulting in undesirable behavior.

The desired student response is calm with a goal to have a space that allows for young minds to stimulated by learning and discovery -not the colors and characters all over the walls. In addition, the walls should fill as students learn and post. They are more connected with wall resources that they have been involved in generating. TPT is a great RESOURCE. I do not find it to be a time saver as there is so much searching and evaluating to do.

Also, much of it is WAY too embellished; even when the content is worthy, there is too much ‘noise’ on the page with clipart and themed stuff. Teachers are busy and we have extremely important work to do, so it is critical that we truly reflect on why we choose to do things. Just because something makes us happy or feel good is not justification for using it in the classroom. If an action does not directly benefit our students and enhance their learning, does it make sense? Our student population changes every year.

Their needs, learning styles and more importantly, interests are different. It is logical that our teaching should reflect that. We can stand on the framework of best practice and standards, but what we do within that should reflect the uniqueness of our students. I do not believe that effective teachers can use a universal year-to-year plan. I am a kindergarten teacher who teaches in a school where I am the only kindergarten teacher. I have used TpT not necessarily for what they sell, but to help evaluate what I am doing and see what other teachers at my grade level are using for certain learning modalities. I have been looking for blogs to help in this respect as well.

My classroom is set up with the students in mind. When they walk in the first day there is nothing on my bulletin boards but paper, waiting for their work and that is how I decorate my room each year. There are areas in which I need ideas to help reach students who are struggling with concepts, such as number sense, order, and sometimes with students who have emotional difficulties and would really appreciate having a place to go to that allows discussion in these areas.

I would appreciate knowing if there is a kindergarten forum like that. Thanks for bringing the topic up as it is important as educators to keep ourselves relevant to our students and their learning. I’m a teacher librarian, former grade 3-5 teacher. I’ve been working in K-8 classrooms for the last 4 years. I think we need to really limit the distractors and bring nature into the classroom, a la Regio ().

I believe the learning wall idea () helps us step away from bulletin boards as display for cuteness and move to bulletin boards as display of learning. I watched several teachers in my building move their bulletin boards and classrooms towards calmness through the use of blank space. In our over-stimulating environment, I believe we need to work at making our classrooms places where calm thoughtful learning can occur.

I’m not against TPT particularly but I have never been able to teach ‘from the can’ whether it was an expensive published resource or a teacher friend’s hand-outs, another person’s work didn’t help me create the learning I was working towards. While I agree that all lessons and materials should be tailored to individual students, I find it difficult to understand how your stance against using materials from TpT are any different than purchasing curriculum, teaching books, or supplementary activities from any other source, such as Lakeshore Learning or Super Duper, Inc. As much as I love my job as a school speech-language pathologist, I don’t have the time or energy to create materials for every single one of the 40-60 individual students I am tasked to provide therapy for each year. I have purchased from “real” companies for years, and adapted their materials as needed – and I do the same with materials I purchase from TpT. And I’m sorry – in regards to your comment about not being able to edit the products from TpT – what large educational company allows you to do that with materials that you purchase??? I understand if you don’t like the “cute” factor, but there are plenty of materials without – same as with any other marketplace, you just have to search for specifically what you want.

I am a proud seller and buyer on TeachersPayTeachers. When I create my materials, I focus on the content, not on the “cute,” because at the end of the day, I have specific, measurable goals to accomplish with each student, same as any other SLP. I happen to enjoy good design, but it’s not a necessary pert of any product I purchase. This summer I was invited to attend a “charge” session as part of a leadership team which included the principal, AP, and and two teachers from the school. We listened to a gentleman named Max Thompson speak to us about how to really implement change in a school. (Start with the end in mind, planbooks shouldn’t be M-F type, but rather What is the BIG IDEA, Question, etc., for the week and all the supporting plans; teachers need to SEE in action what is working, i.e. Observing peers; administrators need to be in the classroom a lot, but when they go into a classroom, they should be looking for one or two behaviors/skills, not just a general overlook.) Something he said over and over again was that we shouldn’t have Martha Steward classrooms.

He said NOTHING should be up on a wall, bulletin board, or ceiling that isn’t a teaching tool. But the big caveat was this: If someone walks into your classroom and asks a child about one of the teaching tools on the wall, he/she should be able to tell you how it helped him/her learn THAT DAY. If the child/ren are unaware of how to explain that tool, it should be taken down. Any other decorations are just distractors, he said. As a teacher of 30 years, I have always said that I needed to feel stimulated by my environment. I’ve always had parents tell me how much they liked my classroom environment and they will come back years later to tell me their children really liked this, that, or the other in my classroom decoration.

So, I can’t say that I agree with Max 100%. However, this year I walked into a teacher’s classroom whom I really admire, and even I wondered what the hanging colorful “paper balls/decorations” were supposed to be. Were they symbolizing planets? Then I saw on a blog the same decorations and realized they were just that – decorations. Even I, queen of “I’ve got to create an environment/theme, thought, “No. There’s no educational purpose in those decorations.

As for the TpT themes, I’ve created a few myself and bought hundreds. But I use different ones all the time to serve the needs of my students. However, I tend to go with certain teachers’ units – the ones that really teach, that aren’t just cute, the ones that don’t “distract” from the real concept being taught. Often I take what is designed to be a “center” and use it either whole-class or small group, then I move it into a center for reinforcement. As a middle school teacher, I think I’ve bypassed the “cuteness factor” issues mentioned here about TpT. As a TPT buyer and seller, here’s a little food for thought: * Selling on TpT and sharing resources for free are not mutually exclusive * Buying resources on TpT does not imply that one is going to use materials that aren’t a good match for students * Buying resources on TpT adds to a teacher’s options in ways to approach lessons – to me, having “what I did last year” and new ideas I may have found on TpT only equips me better to meet my students’ needs •.

Disclaimer: I sell (mostly) lesson plans on TpT and I don’t do cute. I think the title of this blog post, “I teach Kindergarten and I don’t like TpT” is misleading at best, because from what I read, and in the comments that have followed, it isn’t TpT that’s the problem, it’s teachers who are not doing their job the way they should. TpT is just a market, a tool, a resource depository. It is no different from a teacher store or a catalog of teaching materials. If teachers are just printing things out and using them whether they are good for their students or not, that is not TpT’s fault.

That is the teacher’s fault. To blame TpT for creating a certain culture is, in my opinion, blaming the wrong thing. It’s like blaming the tools if a contractor builds a substandard house. TpT is not just a worksheet market.

There are lesson plans, powerpoint presentations, thematic units, etc. Any of those items, if purchased in a regular teacher store or from a catalog, would presumably have parts a teacher would use and parts they might not use. As a teacher I have purchased resource books with worksheets in them, some of which I used and some I have not used. Buying from TpT is no different. The responsibility lies with the teacher. The lesson plans I sell I EXPECT teachers to tweak to suit their own students, the same way I would hope they would tweak the lessons in the teachers’ manuals that cost school districts thousands of dollars.

As for the cute thing. That is a completely different issue, and again, putting blame on TpT doesn’t make sense to me.

Don’t like cute? Don’t buy cute. But something else. There certainly is plenty to choose from, if one looks.

There is plenty of cute stuff in teacher stores and school materials catalogs, too. Let’s put the blame where the blame lies. Renee, I don’t disagree with you that the responsibility ultimately lies with the teacher. My belief is TpT can do more to help teachers by encouraging dialogue and reflection among buyers and sellers. I truly believe TpT wants to help teachers! As they grow I feel they can continue to find creative and innovative ways to support teachers in using the resources in the best way possible.

The title of the post is my opinion, I won’t use the site until the pictures are real world images and everything I want is editable to meet the needs of my class. At that point I might start liking the site. I have learned that the people on TpT are passionate and amazing in what they do.

You say, “My belief is TpT can do more to help teachers by encouraging dialogue and reflection among buyers and sellers.” Buyers have two ways to communicate with sellers, with direct rating/feedback after buying products or in the “ask a question” feature. What more do you think TpT should do? You say, “I truly believe TpT wants to help teachers! As they grow I feel they can continue to find creative and innovative ways to support teachers in using the resources in the best way possible.” Are you saying that TpT has a responsibility beyond providing a site where teachers can share resources, both free and for a price, with other teachers? You say, “The title of the post is my opinion, I won’t use the site until the pictures are real world images and everything I want is editable to meet the needs of my class. At that point I might start liking the site.” What about those resources that do not even lend themselves to needing to be editable, like lesson plans, or unit plans, or other “non-printable, non-worksheet” type resources? And am I understanding you to say that you would not use the TpT site unless every product there agrees with your needs?

That confuses me. Do you refuse to shop at a grocery store that carries brands you don’t like along with brands you like? Do you refuse to step into a brick-and-mortar teacher store that has a “cute” section? The fact is that there are many editable products available on TpT.

In fact, I know of sellers who bend over backwards to create editable versions of products by request. Whether or not you want to “shop” at TpT is your business, and I have no desire to try to convince you that you should. But it seems that you are wanting TpT to be something it is not and never claimed to be. TpT is an “open” marketplace for teachers. That means teachers are in charge of what they offer there for free or for sale.

TpT administration is admirably “hands off” unless there is a problem of some kind or there is a copyright issue that is brought to their attention. I, for one, wouldn’t want TpT to dictate to me what my products should be, what I should charge for them, or require them to be editable. That is my business. I don’t force anyone to buy my art lessons. I offer them for those who are interested. You say, “I have learned that the people on TpT are passionate and amazing in what they do.” Thanks!

And frankly, there are some people on TpT who are not. Like anywhere. Another thought. I’ve read more than once in your posts that you wish TpT would allow for dialogue and discussion. Since you do not have an account there, and do not sell there, you perhaps are not aware of the Seller’s Forum, in which there are many, many discussions of all types, sellers helping other sellers with products, presentation, curriculum ideas, technology issues, and, yes, what we should be and can be providing for students. Are some of these discussions pats on the back? But some are not.

I do appreciate this discussion, but wish there was less generalizing. Renee, please show me a post or blog that has the type of dialogue present in this post. I am afraid there is a culture on TpT that does not support anything but 100% positive feedback. That is my concern.

TpT even has a new blog to try and promote collaboration. That is an awesome response form them! I don’t use things from any teacher resource. I make everything for my class and adjust each year.

I don’t laminate or save anything because it forces me to rethink what I am doing each year. That is my way of doing things so TpT does not meet my needs at this time. My opinion is there is an issue with how TpT is being used by some teachers. I have seen it and discussed it with many teachers. I speak from my own experiences and felt compelled to address the issues on my blog. I never claimed to be all knowing and made sure to say “I think” on every point.

My hope is that teachers that might have been using the site without true reflection will do so now. In addition I hope those selling will reflect on how they can better support teachers using their products. Those that are already doing this can ignore my thoughts altogether. I agree, discussion is valuable and I have learned a lot from this process.

I don’t do cute. I also am not a traditional classroom teacher, but God has blessed us with a new (old) home that we are renovating. And in it, we have a LIBRARY that is also our homeschool classroom. I decorate with books and hopefully invitations to learn with spaces that are inviting and encourage our children to explore subjects that interest them along with doing the work needed for foster reading progress and math comprehension. As for TpT, I do sell there, but I don’t make a lot. I sell the things I am already making for our students to use. I have some freebies posted there as well as freebies on my blog that will never be put at TpT.

I think your post leaves a lot of holes and honestly, I am somewhat appalled by your continued misspelled words. Sorry but that is just something that grates on my nerves. And I do agree that you posted this for the hits.

Sorry but that is just my take on it. I think that before you attack a site, you might want to at LEAST have an account and check it out!

I sell on TpT, but my items are digital resources for teachers. Nothing “cute”. No laminating involved. Just resources for teachers to use with their students. It sounds like the ACTUAL statement you are making is against pre-made decorations. This seems kind of like saying that Lakeshore is bad because they sell borders and bulletin board sets.

In fact, they carry a lot of products with educational value as well. I am reminded of somethig my grandma says; “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” •.

Thanks for checking me out! I think the issue here is how teachers choose to decorate their rooms. It does not seem like it really has much of anything to do with TpT. I have taught first grade for the past 8 years. This year, I have a first year teacher next door.

Her room is C-U-T-E! No doubt about it!

The problem is she purchased things (NOT from TpT) that are not kid friendly. They were not made BY a teacher. They were made by a large corporation. They are DARN cute, but the fonts are difficult to read – especially if you are only 6! I did not buy, but made (and perhaps should sell) the same type of signs in my room that she has in hers. My signs have kid-friendly visual clues. The print is comic sans (most like what I am teaching them).

They are NOT cute – but they serve the purpose MUCH better. I think that whatever we do, we have to remember who it is for.

It is not about US. It’s about THEM!

As a first year teacher, she has not yet figured out what works for those little guys. By selling products on TpT, I can help teachers find what works. Tried and true! I make EVERYTHING I use, because I want it to be a good fit for my needs. Not everybody has the time, motivation, or creativity to do that. I get SO many questions from teachers. Many teachers don’t know how to view PowerPoint as a slideshow!

Do you think they could make interactive games to use with their kids? No, but I can make them and teach the teachers how to use them. As for editability, I would like you to read this comment that somebody posted just today: “LOVE IT!!!! Use it every day, along with your other versions of this idea. I work at a special school and have a small class of boys who mostly have autism and adhd. I love that they can learn and move in a structured manner.

It keeps them engaged throughout the entire lesson. They love the whistle! I have downloaded all the Dolch powerpoints but must confess I have altered the actions to be inclusive for one student in a wheelchair. The powerpoint means he can also practice his switching and take control.Thanks for enabling changes and thanks for such a great product.” TpT is about creativity, sharing ideas, collaborating, and becoming better teachers.

Who benefits most? My TpT store is purposeful in every way.

All of my products are of educational value (well, I just made Back to School Truth or Dare that is 100% just for FUN) and I stand behind them. I think that because you do not have an account, you are not aware of some of the collaborating that goes on between buyers and sellers. I have a list of things that I am customizing for teachers this week (and sending them the updates for free).

Not everything works in every class. That is the beauty of TpT. It IS editable and customizable! It is PERSONAL! Not all sellers do that, but I promise you TpT has more willing to work with teachers than large corporations. I made April Fools Phonics Jokes last year and customized them to say each teacher’s name in the punchline.

Where else can you get that? I intentionally make products on PowerPoint rather than a video file because I NEED teachers to be able to adjust them. I give them directions on how to customize it.

YOU may not need any help finding resources, but most teachers do not make every resource they use. I know that it is hard to admit you are wrong, but I think PERHAPS you are generalizing the site and should take another look at TpT! Autumn, I don’t think he’s meaning to attack the teachers who use TpT in a meaningful way, but instead to encourage teachers to really think about those things from any source that they use in their classroom and be sure that they are purposeful for the kids. If you read many of his other comment replies, I think you will see that he is not condemning every teacher who uses TpT or sells on it, but rather how easy it is for teachers to use it wrongly. I’m a seller myself and have found GREAT resources there, too- but I didn’t see this as an attack because I can understand his concerns about how some teachers use the site without adaptation for their own class or emphasize cute over content instead of the other way around.

Honestly, I think if ALL TpT sellers and buyers read this, it would be a good way for us to reflect on how we use the site and what we create for it- and it seems to me that might be Matt’s goal with this post. I know you may not agree with the way he said these things, but TpT is NOT perfect, and as a teacher, I hope you can find a way to learn something from this post! I hope you’ve also read his follow-up post to this one I think it clears up a lot! Hi there, Very interesting discussion. I, personally think the keys to all of this is BALANCE. I am not sure, but I don’t believe anyone mentioned a simple thing called TEACHING STYLE.

Every teacher has their own style of teaching. Some prefer and are comfortable with cute stuff, others prefer to place their focus elsewhere. Does that make one way better than the other?

I don’t believe so. Difference is sometimes difficult for some people to embrace. No one can make you feel pressure to conform, you actually are giving them permission to make you feel or question the way you prefer to do things. I say, to each his or her own. If you do not want cute or glitter in your classroom then yay for youown it and embrace it and so what to the judges!

I have taught both k and 1st for 20 years and have seen ALOT of changes in education over the years. I just chalk it up to another little change in the world of teaching. If you embrace or shun TPT, ultimately it is nobody’s business but your own. I have to question the ethics of signing up for a “seller account” on TpT if you don’t actually intend to sell here, just to see what kind of comments your thread is generating.

Quite frankly, that does seem quite like the actions of an internet troll who is simply out to get attention. Not being sure that you’ll return to the forums, and in the interest of transparency, I wanted to post my response to you here. There are many quality resources here on TpT. Yes, there are subpar resources as well, but most of those are posted by sellers who came here to “get rich quick”, and when they realized they couldn’t do that, left and have never been back. The successful sellers here put a lot of time and energy into their products, marketing, customer service, and into building relationships with buyers AND other sellers. If you’ll take a closer look at the forums, rather than the threads that simply revolve around you, you’ll see that the majority of sellers aren’t here to make a quick buck. Many are here to supplement their meager teacher salaries so they can buy more resources for their classrooms, or so they can make ends meet for their families while still doing something they love and helping students, or paying medical bills for family members, or donating to beloved charities- the list goes on.

And the fact is, 100% of these sellers wouldn’t be able to do these selfless things without TpT. I personally am an ESOL specialist. I started creating materials because I couldn’t find what I needed to meet the needs of my students.

I’m particularly gifted in crafting materials that emphasize the acquisition of academic English through content. My materials can not only improve the performance of English language learners, but of many below grade level learners in mainstream classrooms. Through TpT, in the past two years, I’ve been able to impact approximately 120,000 students. More than I could have in two years with a caseload of 70 each year.

Many of the mainstream teachers that I have met in my career, though talented teachers, are at a loss when it comes to how to best serve their ESOL students and how to teach academic language. It is a point of pride for me that my materials can help already great teachers improve their practice further. Many of my materials are differentiated to reach students at a variety of levels.

Everything that I create is to improve my students. And, my students DO notice that I took the time to create the resources. Everything I do and send home with them has my copyright down at the bottom (C) Laurah Jurca. Your name is at the bottom of this, with the c-bug! Does that mean you MADE this?!?” When I say, “Yes, I created this just for my students, to help them be better readers (or writers, etc),” my students are SO excited and think it is so cool.

They notice what clipart I use and what fonts I use, and are better proofreaders than I could ask for. It is a learning experience for them (and empowering) when they find a mistake that I made. And, it makes me human to them. One year, during one of my pull out ESOL groups, I was using a resource with students that I had developed and was preparing to post on TpT. One student (who was a repeat in the grade) finished a little earlier than other students, so after checking his work, I sent him back to the mainstream classroom. On his way out, another student said “Haha, You have to go back and do work- boring work- with Ms.