Happy Saturday!
I wanted to take a moment to highlight some products I have purchased recently from other TpT sellers. I have spent the majority of my day printing, cutting, laminating, and filling out the information for these products and I genuinely feel every teacher could benefit from both of these items.
First, this Teacher Binder by Blair Turner has changed my life overnight. Yes, it looks adorable and cute, but that is only the tip of the iceberg! The options for this planner are endless. She has a custom folder included in the download so that you can make the planner exactly as you need it. I am a huge proponent of being organized and am complimented by my peers on a regular basis about my organization, but this binder has put everything I have ever done to shame. My substitute information is now so clear and easy to see. My lesson plans will soon be all in one place as opposed to various files all over my computer. I teach two subjects over three grade levels, as well as a fourth single grade level, so finding a planner that fit my needs was not easy. Set-up, printing, and creating the binder was also simple and easy. If you have never thought of using a teacher planner created by TpT, there are so many products out there that are available to fit your needs. This planner only cost $8.00, while I've seen others cost as much as $16. The more expensive binders typically have digital planners included, which is great for a lot of teachers! I prefer a hard printed version so this product worked great for me, but like I said, there as so many amazing products like this on TpT! I may even consider making my own, but that will take me quite some time, especially if I want to make it a quality product.
Secondly, I am in the process of redecorating my classroom. One of my bulletin boards focused on the Green Bay Packers and quotes by our beloved Vince Lombardi. Sadly, the Packers season has come to an end, so I believe it is time to move on to my next great idea! Ever since I started selling and buying on TpT in December, I have become slightly obsessed with flag banners. The things I have seen done with them are so adorable and perfect for my classroom. I ultimately decided to go with a grey chevron banner from Aunties Sweet Life. I enjoyed the neutral color scheme so I can match it to any color combination on my new bulletin board. I finally printed and laminated the banner set this morning and the excitement to hang them is overwhelming. Thankfully, we have a work day on Monday and my grades are already submitted! I will make sure to post pictures of the final product so you guys can see the banner in action!
Finally, I'm going to begin work on creating sports themed digital papers. I had a request from a seller earlier this week about a product line dedicated to sports digital papers and I've been doing some research all week in regards to how to make professional digital papers. I look forward to creating those and sharing them on my store soon. My biggest challenge will be finding clip art that the sellers allow use for in commercial designs as opposed to teaching products with substance. Most artist clearly state in the TOS that they do not want their clip art being used as more than 50% of the product and I would require more than that. If anyone knows of a clip art designer who allows their designs to be utilized in other design products, please let me know!
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
January 30, 2016
Newest Purchases and Future Plans
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January 28, 2016
TpT Seller Debate: Traditional Size vs Square Cover Pages
Per usual, I was taking my daily stroll through the TpT forums and saw a new{ish} post about cover pages and whether or not it's better to keep them as traditional full pages or if it might benefit the seller to convert them to square pages. Since I am still relatively new to selling, I really feel like I need to make this decision now, as opposed to later on when I have a larger number of products.
So tonight, I want to end the debate... Traditional full page or squared covers? YOU TELL ME! Leave your vote in the comments below and check out my two cover options below.
So tonight, I want to end the debate... Traditional full page or squared covers? YOU TELL ME! Leave your vote in the comments below and check out my two cover options below.
Traditional Size |
Square Size |
January 27, 2016
Product Descriptions and Why They Matter
Day Four: Roads are perfectly fine, but to be safe we've been given yet another snow day. There is only so much lesson planning and TpT production a girl can handle! Needless to say, my sixth grade nutrition unit is going to be BANGIN! I can't wait to see how it goes with my students and hopefully upload it for TpT.
7. A salutation is always important to ensure your buyers know you appreciate their business and the time it took them to read your descriptions. It's all about showing customers that you appreciate them!
8. Finally, a lot of buyers may not realize that they can obtain credits from TpT for all purchased products. It's always a good idea to remind them of how to do this... It's also great for you and your store because it requires them to leave feedback on your items! Since we know your items are well made, well thought out, and amazing in general, we know your buyers will leave positive feedback! Although, even if they don't leave the best feedback, what they do leave can help you make your products that much better in the future:
9. Keywords. I am new to this realm of TpT, but most of the top sellers have this stuck down on the bottom of the product. It doesn't benefit the buyer, it only benefits your store. TpT uses keywords within your product for search results, among many, many other factors. Adding keywords is not going to automatically put your product on page one of the results in a search, but it will help TpT searches identify your product as a factor for which order it posts something in.
Well, there you have it! These are the nine steps I have found to be useful when creating my own product descriptions and I hope they can help as you create your own store or go back and recreate your product descriptions.
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
Speaking of TpT, I just spent the majority of the day updating my product descriptions. Why? They are the second most important piece of making a sale and mine needed a lot of work. Prior to the sitewide fix, none of my descriptions where the same, they were a tad bit messy, and I think they were losing me business. I took the liberty of looking at a number of top sellers to see what their descriptions looked like and wowsers, could I tell the difference. I tried to take inspiration from each of them to create a formula that worked for me. I wanted to take the time to share that with you!
The examples for this post will be taken from my Circulatory System Review Game.
1. The initial "grab" for my products was often a paragraph long, jumbled, and a total turn off to buyers. I took the time to shorten these introductions to keep potential buyers reading:
This Circulatory System Review Game is based on my circulatory system unit formed, with help, from Teen Health: Course 3 by Glencoe and is the prefect review game for students!
2. After the shortened hook, I jump right into what my product is offering. I prefer to see a list format so I can go through and see exactly what I'm purchasing as buyer, so I incorporated that into my own descriptions. I also put the category in bold style so buyers can easily distinguish what they're looking at. I also include my initial pitch on commercial and personal use here, as well as a tip for buyers to view the previews before purchasing so they know exactly what they are getting:
INCLUDED ITEMS (1):
PowerPoint Presentation
• Four Question Categories {16 Questions Total| Four per Category}
• Editable Final Jeopardy Question
• Easy Hyperlink Navigation
This set is available in a single PDF file for personal use and cannot be redistributed. Please view the thumbnail and downloadable previews to see some of the included images prior to purchasing.
3. It is said everywhere in the TpT forums to link additional products in your descriptions so potential buyers are exposed to more of your products. It is so true! I did, however, realize I was doing it all wrong. I used to link single items that were similar to the product within the description, but I've now seen that many top sellers link to an entire category of similar products! For example, in this product, I've decided to link to my health category and my integrated activities category:
RELATED PRODUCTS:
CLICK HERE to see my other health activities.
CLICK HERE to see all of my integrated physical education products.
4. Remember how I eluded to personal versus commercial use within the included items section? Well here comes the follow up, next is my terms of use section. I give a brief description about the terms and provide a link to my TOS page in my store. I uploaded it as a free download so potential buyers are able to easily see what my terms are. I also include a brief return policy:
TERMS OF USE:
Please review my TOU prior to purchasing. You may use these images for commercial or personal use, so long as you abide by those terms. You can view my TOS by clicking here. Since this is a digital file, and therefore provided as an instant download, no returns or refunds are available.
5. This next section is something I added. When it comes to providing credit, most sellers do so within their products, but I don't like this method. I feel like buyers won't scroll down to read them and the sellers who helped me create this product deserve more attention than that. So I include a credits section that links directly back to the product I used from that store:
CREDITS:6. We're almost done {promise}. Next up is file details and this is pretty standard, but a lot of the top sellers include this. I'm assuming it is because they have a higher volume of buyers and they've had multiple people contact them for tech support opening files. I hope to become a high volume buyer some day, so why not get into the habit of including this now, so I won't have to come back and do it later:
COVER BANNER
COVER FONT
FILE DETAILS:
This product is contained in a .ZIP file. Please ensure you know how to extract/unzip the file to use it prior to purchasing.
7. A salutation is always important to ensure your buyers know you appreciate their business and the time it took them to read your descriptions. It's all about showing customers that you appreciate them!
HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON!
I hope you enjoy using this product in your own classroom as much as I have in mine! Be sure to check in to my store frequently for more freebies, design, and PE inspired products!
The Sassy PE Teacher
8. Finally, a lot of buyers may not realize that they can obtain credits from TpT for all purchased products. It's always a good idea to remind them of how to do this... It's also great for you and your store because it requires them to leave feedback on your items! Since we know your items are well made, well thought out, and amazing in general, we know your buyers will leave positive feedback! Although, even if they don't leave the best feedback, what they do leave can help you make your products that much better in the future:
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Customer Tips:
How to get TPT credit to use on future purchases:
•Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you feedback credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you.
Be the first to know about my new discounts, freebies and product launches:
• Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower.
Voila! You will now receive email updates about this store.
*****************************************************************************
9. Keywords. I am new to this realm of TpT, but most of the top sellers have this stuck down on the bottom of the product. It doesn't benefit the buyer, it only benefits your store. TpT uses keywords within your product for search results, among many, many other factors. Adding keywords is not going to automatically put your product on page one of the results in a search, but it will help TpT searches identify your product as a factor for which order it posts something in.
keywords: health, health education, circulatory system, test prep, review, powerpoint, game, Sassy PE Teacher
Well, there you have it! These are the nine steps I have found to be useful when creating my own product descriptions and I hope they can help as you create your own store or go back and recreate your product descriptions.
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
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January 24, 2016
Jonas and TpT
Winter storm Jonas has come and gone. Here in the Richmond area, we are seeing abandoned vehicles everywhere. The roads in the apartment complex are impassable, there is no status and no hope for the main roads... We are beginning to lose hope. Digging out is impossible. HAS JONAS NO MERCY!?
But in all seriousness, we are finally seeing the sun again! I went out to explore the aftermath this morning and laughed when I came up on the items in this picture. Needless to say, I took full advantage of the opportunity for some humor.
I've seen many forum posts about fellow sellers experiencing "Blizzard Sales" and I must say, an unexpected boost like that was largely in part to my own banking account dwindling away, slowly but surely! Cabin fever set in within the hour and I just kept seeing so many amazing resources and came up with a reason to buy every single one of them! NO REGRETS! But it did get me thinking about something... When teachers are out of school for unexpected reasons, are they more likely to buy? If I had access to that scale of data, I would absolutely conduct a research study on that to see if it's true.
What have been some of your inclement weather sales experiences? Have your sales gone up, dipped, or stayed the same? Share your experiences in the comment section below!
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
January 23, 2016
Snow Day Productivity
Snowpocolypse Day 2: So many new products... So many new possibilities! Between what I created and the amazing products I've purchased, I am on TpT overload. Thankfully for you, I'm equally excited to share those things with you tonight.
Let's get this show on the road by sharing my own new products!
Heart Clip Art Collection | FREE
This set includes:
Let's get this show on the road by sharing my own new products!
Heart Clip Art Collection | FREE
This set includes:
- 14 Heart Images
- 3 Different Styles {Brush Border, Handwritten, and Film}
- PNG formatted for easy use and printing
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Heart Borders: 2nd Edition | $1.50
This set includes:
24 unique borders
4 varied base backgrouns with heart overlays
PNG formatted for easy use and printing
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Heart Borders: 1st Edition | $1.50
This set includes:
- 24 borders
- 12 rectangular and 12 squared
- PNG formatted for easy use and printing
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What's the Word? | $3.00
This is an integrated PE lesson that utilizes vocabulary to promote fitness. Students spell out words, where each letter is represented by an exercise. My students have loved it in my own classroom!
This set includes:
Game directions, setup, and variations
Alphabetical letters cards
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Aside from my own products that I've been busy creating, I have also found, purchased, and utilized many products from other sellers that I would love to take time to highlight as well.
I have searched through what feels like an endless sea of arrow clip art, a lot of which is tribal, but this set was well made and priced even better. The seller makes the product available in JPEG and PNG, it looks great in the products, and I loved it so much I remade my entire store profile utilizing them. If you are need of some awesome arrows, this is the product for you!
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TALK ABOUT A PRODUCT, I could not wait to get my hands on this one... Sadly, I had to because of that teacher pay gap over Christmas break, but I took full advantage of the TpT sale to purchase these beauties! I cannot wait to print and utilize these on my classroom bulletin board. They are so cute and perfect... They also come in teal as opposed to grey.
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I found this in a blog post recently and utilized it the next day. I feel like many teachers can identify with not being able to keep track of everything when a student is absent. For my classes, we switch between health and PE every two weeks. Over the course of two day, I teach 140 different students and I am also human... I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have forgotten to give my students their make-up work. Thankfully, they are always responsible and come ask for it, but they shouldn't have to. I already used these for two of my students and it made me feel so much more organized! It's a free download and I can't recommend it enough.\
Well that is all I have for now! It is time to take all of my new products and post them to Pinterest for others to find and hopefully purchase.
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
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January 22, 2016
All About the Valentine
As we come to the end of January, we quickly begin to approach {in my opinion} one of the most fun holidays of the year, Valentine's Day! I love this holiday for school, especially physical education, because there is virtually an endless supply of topics we can cover that coincide with the day. Heart health is a huge topic, both in PE and while in health. Since the we are quickly approaching this magical day full of hearts, love, and all the feelings, I wanted to highlight a few of my products that go with the day.
Valentine's Day Fitness Bingo | $8.00
This is the most expensive product in my store, but holy moly is it worth the money! I am so thrilled about this set and incredibly proud of the hard work and detail I put into it.
This set includes:
• 40 unique bingo cards
• 7 even sets of space covers {heart shaped - 62 each}
• Instructor Call Sheet
• Directions, Set-Up, and Game Play Information
• Exercise Zones for activities that require a mat or additional space
• Multiple Bingo Calling Pattern Ideas
• PDF formatted for easy and differentiated printing
I will note that this set does require a fair amount of work on the buyers end, but once it is complete, you are going to LOVE this amazing bingo game. I highly recommend laminating everything that comes with this product.
Another physical education resource I created specifically Valentine's Day is a fitness circuit that specializes in cardiovascular fitness:
The presentation does include a final jeopardy question that was not included in the text the other questions were taken from. You can easily change any questions or final jeopardy once you've downloaded this product to fit your needs!
Valentine's Day Fitness Bingo | $8.00
This is the most expensive product in my store, but holy moly is it worth the money! I am so thrilled about this set and incredibly proud of the hard work and detail I put into it.
This set includes:
• 40 unique bingo cards
• 7 even sets of space covers {heart shaped - 62 each}
• Instructor Call Sheet
• Directions, Set-Up, and Game Play Information
• Exercise Zones for activities that require a mat or additional space
• Multiple Bingo Calling Pattern Ideas
• PDF formatted for easy and differentiated printing
I will note that this set does require a fair amount of work on the buyers end, but once it is complete, you are going to LOVE this amazing bingo game. I highly recommend laminating everything that comes with this product.
Another physical education resource I created specifically Valentine's Day is a fitness circuit that specializes in cardiovascular fitness:
This set includes:
10 Cardiovascular Fitness Stations
Minimal Equipment Required
PNG formatted for easy use and printing
Great for grades 5 - 8
For the health classroom, I have a fun, educational review game for the circulatory system. This Jeopardy game is the perfect review tool for grades 7-9, depending on your school and curriculum.
The PowerPoint presentation includes four question categories, with four individual questions (and answers) in each. Categories include:
• Parts with Heart (reviewing parts of the heart)
• Feeling Veiny (reviewing different types of vessels)
• What's Wrong (reviewing cardiac illnesses)
• Dracula's Tastebud's (reviewing blood types)
• Parts with Heart (reviewing parts of the heart)
• Feeling Veiny (reviewing different types of vessels)
• What's Wrong (reviewing cardiac illnesses)
• Dracula's Tastebud's (reviewing blood types)
The presentation does include a final jeopardy question that was not included in the text the other questions were taken from. You can easily change any questions or final jeopardy once you've downloaded this product to fit your needs!
In other exciting news, I now have a grand total of 13 followers on TpT! I know that probably isn't a large number to other teacher authors, especially those who have been doing this for quite some time, but it is a big deal to me! I look forward to continuing to grow and learn in this amazing community.
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
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New and Improved!
Today's events are those that ever teacher dreams of in January... My district received our first snow day! Winter storm Jonas is coming in hot tomorrow... We are expected to receive 6-12 inches of snow and it occurred to me around midnight that I left my health curriculum books at school. I start health on Monday, so needless to say, I now have to wake up early on my snow day to retrieve them. Don't work though, the snow won't get here until noon and I'll be heading there around 8:00am.
Across the USA Fitness Station | $5.00
This task card set includes:
Anyway, on to the new for today regarding my TpT store! After busting out with my first two sales on the 19th, I have hit a bump, whomp. I was hoping the Start Your Year Inspired Sale would draw in some potential sales, but sadly it did not. That is okay though! It is my first sale and I still have a lot to improve on before I can really break into this market. I also looked over some of my products and I ended up deleting them... I'm not at a point in my clip art genius that I feel comfortable making certain items {specifically volleyballs} and the clip art I have specifically asks for the products to be used in something more than just decorative designs. I also removed my weight borders... Good idea in theory, but again, I'm not skilled enough in clip art to make that pretty yet. I believe with more practice I will improve and post better versions down the road.
In bigger news today, I completely revamped my Across the USA Fitness Station task card set! For whatever reason, when I created my chevron background in publisher, it looked great, but when I converted the publisher file to a PDF, it completely wonked my product! I didn't even notice until I reprinted the cards for myself and I was quite upset. I really tried to embrace the American theme for this card set with patriotic backgrounds, clip art, and I utilized a prettier font than before. I have always loved this product, but with the face lift I gave it this evening, I love it even more! Please check it out below:
Across the USA Fitness Station | $5.00
This task card set includes:
- 20 fitness stations in 20 states across the US
- Map for placing task cards
- Minimal equipment needed
- Great for grades 5-9
- Integrated activity with opportunities to work with social studies departments
Stayed tuned for more as I move into a new 3-day weekend. Hopefully the snow doesn't knock out our power!
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
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January 20, 2016
Upcoming Ideas
Happy Wednesday! We are getting ready for some winter weather here in Virginia and with that comes a much needed snow day so I can work on some awesome ideas I've been thinking of. Is it weird that I want to take my day off to do more work? Sometimes I think I'm crazy... Oh well, to each their own!
I have a few ideas cooking in the old noggin and I'm really excited to share them! With Valentine's Day approaching, I want to create some holiday specific lesson ideas. I thought a "heart hunt" would be a great addition to my store. The concept would be to have a "scavenger hunt" with seven stations and circuits. Each station would allow the students to collect a unique heart. In order to earn their heart, they must perform a cardiovascular activity and answer a question on the circulatory system in order to find their next clue station. I could even create three separate events, one for sixth, seventh, and eight grade.
Another idea I have is to create instant activity sheets, similar to my Five Large Group Games collection that I currently have on my store. I would love to continue to add similar products for various PE games.
I would also LOVE to create a Valentine's Day Bingo set for physical education as well. The only downside to this product is that there would be a lot of work for the teacher who utilizes it. They would have to cut out the cards, cut out the pieces to cover the bingo, or invest in a class set of sharpies which would force the teacher to have them laminated unless they want to reprint cards for every class which isn't practical. I love this idea, but I'm unsure of its practicality. Any ideas on this front?
Thank you for reading! If you think of any helpful suggestions, please leave me a comment!
Until next time,
xoxo. The Sassy PE Teacher
I have a few ideas cooking in the old noggin and I'm really excited to share them! With Valentine's Day approaching, I want to create some holiday specific lesson ideas. I thought a "heart hunt" would be a great addition to my store. The concept would be to have a "scavenger hunt" with seven stations and circuits. Each station would allow the students to collect a unique heart. In order to earn their heart, they must perform a cardiovascular activity and answer a question on the circulatory system in order to find their next clue station. I could even create three separate events, one for sixth, seventh, and eight grade.
Another idea I have is to create instant activity sheets, similar to my Five Large Group Games collection that I currently have on my store. I would love to continue to add similar products for various PE games.
I would also LOVE to create a Valentine's Day Bingo set for physical education as well. The only downside to this product is that there would be a lot of work for the teacher who utilizes it. They would have to cut out the cards, cut out the pieces to cover the bingo, or invest in a class set of sharpies which would force the teacher to have them laminated unless they want to reprint cards for every class which isn't practical. I love this idea, but I'm unsure of its practicality. Any ideas on this front?
Thank you for reading! If you think of any helpful suggestions, please leave me a comment!
Until next time,
xoxo. The Sassy PE Teacher
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January 19, 2016
BIG DAY, BIG NEWS!
Today, I hit my first TpT milestone... I MADE MY FIRST SALE! {In the process of writing this post, I MADE MY SECOND SALE} I am thrilled beyond words that someone valued my work enough to purchase my product. It also reaffirmed my decision to upgrade to a premium seller two days ago. Needless to say, that was a smart idea!
I have also added some holiday themed materials to my store! My new product is all about promoting heart health and fitness for Valentine's Day! Check it out below...
Heart Start Fitness | $3.00
This set includes ten task cards:
• Wall Sits
• Jumping Jacks
• Mountain Climbers
• Jump Rope
• Lunges
• Push Ups
• Squat Jumps
• Crunches
• Hula Hoop
• Plank
Cover Font | Cover Clip Art | Slide Title Font | Border
Exercise Clip Art 1 | Exercise Clip Art 2 | Heart Art
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Good luck with the Start Your Year Inspired sale on January 20 and 21st!
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
I have also added some holiday themed materials to my store! My new product is all about promoting heart health and fitness for Valentine's Day! Check it out below...
Heart Start Fitness | $3.00
This set includes ten task cards:
• Wall Sits
• Jumping Jacks
• Mountain Climbers
• Jump Rope
• Lunges
• Push Ups
• Squat Jumps
• Crunches
• Hula Hoop
• Plank
Cover Font | Cover Clip Art | Slide Title Font | Border
Exercise Clip Art 1 | Exercise Clip Art 2 | Heart Art
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Good luck with the Start Your Year Inspired sale on January 20 and 21st!
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
January 18, 2016
Rolling Out the Red Carpet {And a few products}
WHAT A DAY! I am so excited to share some new things I've been working on {and recreating} for my store. I became so wrapped up in these projects that I was up until 3am {don't judge me} and I've been working on them since I woke up this morning. So without further ado...
**NEW PRODUCT**
Five Large Group Games | $3.00
Includes
Pin Fall Ball
Thief in the Kingdom
Shark Island
Pizza Tag
Math Match
**NEW PRODUCT**
Five Large Group Games | $3.00
Includes
Pin Fall Ball
Thief in the Kingdom
Shark Island
Pizza Tag
Math Match
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**Revamped Product**
Polka Dot Backgrounds | FREE
Includes:
20 unique colors
PNG formatted for easy use
Personal & Commercial Use Allowed {See TOS}
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**Revamped Product**
Polka Dot Borders | FREE
Includes:
20 unique colors
PNG formatted for easy use
Personal & Commercial Use Allowed {See TOS}
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*Revamped Product*
Circulatory System Jeopardy | $5.00
Includes:
16 Jeopardy Questions & Answers
Four Question Categories
Hyperlinks for easy navigation
Final Jeopardy Question
Editable Presentation
Product is for personal/classroom use {Cannot be resold}, see TOS
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**Revamped Product**
Striped Borders | FREE
Includes:
30 borders
Three different base colors {white, navy, and grey}
Varying stripe colors for each base color
PNG formatted for easy use
Personal & Commercial Use Allowed {See TOS}
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**Revamped Product**
Basketball Borders | $2.00
Includes:
Three border styles {polka dots, thick stripes, thin stripes}
Multiple color variations
PNG formatted for easy use
Personal & Commercial Use Allowed {See TOS}
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**Revamped Product**
Basketball Station Task Cards | $5.00
Includes:
16 Station Cards {8 Basketball & 8 Fitness}
PNG formatted for easy use/printing
Product is for personal/classroom use {Cannot be resold}, see TOS
Font | Clip Art 1 | Clip Art 2 | Clip Art 3 | Cover Page Background | Product Background | Basketball Player Clip Art
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I am so excited to have the products on my TpT store! I have worked incredibly hard to create or recreate them. I have been reading the seller forums like a hawk, taking in advice, researching product tips, and really trying to improve my products! I know I still have a lot to learn, but I'm thrilled to be doing this.
Until next time,
xoxo. The Sassy PE Teacher
January 17, 2016
Cover Pages and the Art of Creation
What a wonderful weekend it has been! Snow was coming down when I woke up the morning and I had the opportunity to see a teacher friend from my former school for lunch. Needless to say, I am glad we have a holiday tomorrow because I need some extra time to make my new store beautiful!
That being said, today I am focusing on cover pages. The possibilities for these bad boys are endless and the thought of coming up with one from scratch can be somewhat overwhelming to a new TpT seller, but I think I am up to the task. I've decided that for my post today, I am actually going to create a new cover page design step-by-step and post the progress photos within this at the same time, almost like creating a small guide.
To begin, I prefer using Publisher to PowerPoint (moving items is easier and they don't jump around as much). I am working on Windows 7 (versions 8 and 10 simply aren't for me) and I'm using Microsoft Office 2016 software. My goal is to create my own cover page template that I can use in all of my TpT products. I really want clean and consist product listings and CPs... So let's get started!
1. First things first, I love nice thick black lines. So when I'm creating my cover, I want that aspect to stand out. This may not be everyone's style, but that is okay! In order to accomplish this look, I simply go to the top bar and select insert shape, click on the rectangle, and draw it to match the blue lines on the sheet. I then click on Drawing Tools Format in the top bar to edit my shape. Select shape outline, slide down to weight, and select 4 1/2 pt.
2. Now that I have my base shape and outline completed, I want to add a place for my product title and a very brief description. In order to place these areas, I will be using the principle of thirds. To learn more about this, check out an awesome {and free} product by Tracee Orman that can be found here. When completing this step, I inserted a text box and centered it based on the green lines I placed in those third categories. I then when to format shape, outline, and selected a short dashed line for the border of this box. I also made the line thickness for this object slightly thinner at 3 pt instead of the 4.5 pt I used for the outer border. If you'd like to make more work for yourself, you can also insert a regular rectangle {as opposed to the text box}, format the outline of that box and then insert a text box. This does allow you to move and play with the font inside the box as opposed to the box only fitting to the font. Just some food for thought when designing your CP.
3. Now I need to spice up the CP with some fun fonts! I have downloaded my fonts from a lot of different sources, but I find myself constantly going back to Graphics from the Pond. They have some amazing fonts at low prices, as well as free font options that they allow for use in commercial products. I also enjoy fonts from Teach To Tell. The 15 font bundle cost $5.00 and the fonts are fantastic. Today I downloaded a new font from Kimberly Geswein Fonts which I will be using in this mock up. Now that my text box is set up, I'm going to insert the title of my product. I'm following the principle of thirds by equally filling the entire upper third {horizontally} and each upper third {vertically}. My font is set at size 65 so that it is the center of attention. You can make it more attractive by adding colors, however some people like it to remain black and that's fine too.
4. Now I'm ready to add some pop and clip art! Using the principle of thirds, I want to place my clipart where two of my third lines meet. In this circumstance, I'm going to place my clipart in the lower right thirds. The clipart I've been using in a lot of my products come from The Imaginative Teacher. He was some great physical education clipart that I really enjoy using. I've elected to use his running man for the sake of this CP. What's nice about this style of clipart is that you can also change the color of the image if you'd like, but for now, since I've used a lot of color in the title, I'm going to keep this image simple. Now that I've added an extra element, it's time to add some features. This can be a multitude of things so bear with the next section.
5. When adding highlights of your product to the CP, you can go in many different directions. I prefer to showcase the product itself as opposed to adding a bunch of clip art pictures. For this CP, I'm going to add PNG files of my product pages on the left hand side to fill all the leftover white space. To make your products into PNG format, simply select them all, right click, and select save as picture. You can then insert it into your CP product later! I like the feel and appeal of this layered look for highlighting the content in my product. You get a feel for multiple pages within and have the opportunity to highlight two titles you're excited about. I also decided that once I added the two PNG's that I wanted my running man to face the opposite direction, so I simply performed a rotate horizontal function on him and bam!
6. We're almost there! We've followed the principle of thirds throughout our CP placement, but we're still looking a little plain. I personally enjoy how clean the white looks, but we're missing something... When in doubt, I firmly believe in BORDERS. They can take a plain paper and make it look quite nice. For the sake of this example, I'm just going to add two new rectangles to my page, each slightly smaller than the larger border. I want to make sure to set the fill to "no fill" so that it doesn't block the elements I already have on the page. Once you've done this, pat yourself on the back because YOU DID IT! You've created your own awesome cover page for your next TpT product! Now go celebrate by posting that bad boy and hopefully making some sales!
Until next time,
xoxo. The Sassy PE Teacher
That being said, today I am focusing on cover pages. The possibilities for these bad boys are endless and the thought of coming up with one from scratch can be somewhat overwhelming to a new TpT seller, but I think I am up to the task. I've decided that for my post today, I am actually going to create a new cover page design step-by-step and post the progress photos within this at the same time, almost like creating a small guide.
To begin, I prefer using Publisher to PowerPoint (moving items is easier and they don't jump around as much). I am working on Windows 7 (versions 8 and 10 simply aren't for me) and I'm using Microsoft Office 2016 software. My goal is to create my own cover page template that I can use in all of my TpT products. I really want clean and consist product listings and CPs... So let's get started!
1. First things first, I love nice thick black lines. So when I'm creating my cover, I want that aspect to stand out. This may not be everyone's style, but that is okay! In order to accomplish this look, I simply go to the top bar and select insert shape, click on the rectangle, and draw it to match the blue lines on the sheet. I then click on Drawing Tools Format in the top bar to edit my shape. Select shape outline, slide down to weight, and select 4 1/2 pt.
2. Now that I have my base shape and outline completed, I want to add a place for my product title and a very brief description. In order to place these areas, I will be using the principle of thirds. To learn more about this, check out an awesome {and free} product by Tracee Orman that can be found here. When completing this step, I inserted a text box and centered it based on the green lines I placed in those third categories. I then when to format shape, outline, and selected a short dashed line for the border of this box. I also made the line thickness for this object slightly thinner at 3 pt instead of the 4.5 pt I used for the outer border. If you'd like to make more work for yourself, you can also insert a regular rectangle {as opposed to the text box}, format the outline of that box and then insert a text box. This does allow you to move and play with the font inside the box as opposed to the box only fitting to the font. Just some food for thought when designing your CP.
4. Now I'm ready to add some pop and clip art! Using the principle of thirds, I want to place my clipart where two of my third lines meet. In this circumstance, I'm going to place my clipart in the lower right thirds. The clipart I've been using in a lot of my products come from The Imaginative Teacher. He was some great physical education clipart that I really enjoy using. I've elected to use his running man for the sake of this CP. What's nice about this style of clipart is that you can also change the color of the image if you'd like, but for now, since I've used a lot of color in the title, I'm going to keep this image simple. Now that I've added an extra element, it's time to add some features. This can be a multitude of things so bear with the next section.
5. When adding highlights of your product to the CP, you can go in many different directions. I prefer to showcase the product itself as opposed to adding a bunch of clip art pictures. For this CP, I'm going to add PNG files of my product pages on the left hand side to fill all the leftover white space. To make your products into PNG format, simply select them all, right click, and select save as picture. You can then insert it into your CP product later! I like the feel and appeal of this layered look for highlighting the content in my product. You get a feel for multiple pages within and have the opportunity to highlight two titles you're excited about. I also decided that once I added the two PNG's that I wanted my running man to face the opposite direction, so I simply performed a rotate horizontal function on him and bam!
6. We're almost there! We've followed the principle of thirds throughout our CP placement, but we're still looking a little plain. I personally enjoy how clean the white looks, but we're missing something... When in doubt, I firmly believe in BORDERS. They can take a plain paper and make it look quite nice. For the sake of this example, I'm just going to add two new rectangles to my page, each slightly smaller than the larger border. I want to make sure to set the fill to "no fill" so that it doesn't block the elements I already have on the page. Once you've done this, pat yourself on the back because YOU DID IT! You've created your own awesome cover page for your next TpT product! Now go celebrate by posting that bad boy and hopefully making some sales!
Until next time,
xoxo. The Sassy PE Teacher
January 15, 2016
Updates, Banners, and GIFs... Oh my!
Yesterday was a busy day! Before I jump into all the TpT happenings, I would love to share some very exciting news! I was offered {and accepted} the head coaching job for my schools girls soccer team yesterday! Everything is now official and I've been bursting to share the news! I coached at my former school for two years, but it was in a co-coaching capacity. It will be so refreshing to have my own team and run it solely the way I see fit without the added give and take. Not only that, but this will be my first paid coaching position! Yes, my other three positions were all on a volunteer basis... Needless to say the extra income will be incredibly beneficial, but I'm more excited to just have a team again.
Alright, on to the meat of this post! Yesterday I focused on reading the TpT sellers forum and making adjustments to my store as needed. The challenge I took on involved updating my banner and creating a GIF for my store, as opposed to using a quote in the upper area of the site. My mind was blown by how easy it was to complete and how awesome it looked afterwards. I watched an entertaining {but somewhat hard to follow} video by Kayse Morris about banners and GIFs. You can find that YouTube video here. It was a great resource to use, but while playing around with her suggestions, I think I discovered a short cut. When using Photobucket and GifMaker, you don't have to resize everything in Photobucket, simply adjust the size of your PowerPoint slide to 2.5 inches by 1 inch. You can even stretch this to 3 inches if necessary {it will really depend on the look you're trying to achieve}. By using this size, you won't have to resize the photos within Photobucket!
After watching that video and creating my new banner and GIF, I went back and began reading forums about when to start using a blog or facebook/twitter to promote your products. I'm reading a lot of different opinions on this! Some say to do it all right away, while others say to wait... We'll since I've already started the blog, I'm going to keep it going, but I really want to focus on my products before moving too far into other things. I currently have 12 active products on my store, but while reading the forum today, a lot of people recommended having 12 SOLID products before promoting them in various social media forums. I'm not feeling "solid" about all of my products. I think they're all a great starting point, but they can be better! So, after a quick nap, I decided to re-create my basketball borders! The original clip art basketball I made for myself was not very well made, so I recreated it and reformatted the borders on the frames and now I think they look clean, well-made, and cute! I finally finished that just before this post. You can check out them out by clicking here.
Until next time,
xoxo The Sassy PE Teacher
TpT: All About Linking!
I know this is my second post today, but as I mentioned before, I'm in the process of bringing the content from my old blog onto this one so bear with the extravagant posting for today!
As a new seller on Teachers Pay Teachers {TpT}, I am still learning new things every day. One of the biggest mistakes I made in the beginning of my store was posting entire links to products I've created or used from others in the product descriptions. It caused them to be long, sloppy, and unorganized. Thankfully, I went to the seller's forum on TpT and all of my evil habits are slowly but surely going back into hiding. Today, that habit pertains to linking in my TpT store!
In order to solve my problem many users directed me here. The site allows you to insert the link to the webpage and insert the text you would like the link to say. What then happens is magical! Your product description goes from looking like a hot mess {on the left}into a beautiful display of organization {on the right}:
You can find more information about these links from the forum thread. I hope you found this information helpful! I look forward to continuing my TpT Seller "education" and look forward to posting more information like this in the future!
xoxo. The Sassy PE Teacher
Working Out The Kinks
What a night {and now morning} it has turned out to be! After reading a lot of information and advice from the Seller's Forums on Teachers Pay Teachers {TpT}, I have decided to change my blogging platform now before I get too deep. I was previously using WIX.com to post and the biggest downside was that I could not use html coding {or figure out how to use it}. I learned that most TpT bloggers utilize blogger so here I am!
Any advice on how to make this page beautiful is always appreciated! I am still in the process of reading, trying things out, and completing the design of this site. I will also be transfering the information from my last blog onto this one at some point, but I think I'll focus on the aesthetics first.
xoxo, Sassy PE Teacher
Any advice on how to make this page beautiful is always appreciated! I am still in the process of reading, trying things out, and completing the design of this site. I will also be transfering the information from my last blog onto this one at some point, but I think I'll focus on the aesthetics first.
xoxo, Sassy PE Teacher
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