Goal Setting & Sarah's Font

I've been saving up to buy an iPad. I'm quite close to my goal for the one I want. Hopefully I'll have it by Christmastime, or mid-January. I'm crossing my fingers for the former. My goal is to only pay for it with earnings from Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook (If I don't state my goal, I may not keep it in the forefront of my mind). 

Because of this goal, I find myself being inspired, almost daily, with new ideas for creations as I'm in the middle of teaching. I quickly jot down my idea on a Post-It and then hope to all hopes I remember where I placed it! After I put my son to bed at night, I fire up the computer and begin working on my latest idea. I find that if I didn't have to work the next morning, I'd probably be up all night working on these ideas. It is relaxing and exciting to have an idea, make it happen, and then find other people enjoy the idea too! I think THAT'S what's so addicting about being a seller on TPT. Hence, my goal. It would be awesome to say, "Yes, I earned this iPad solely through hard work in my spare time."

One thing I'm looking forward to doing on my iPad, is creating new fonts. I'm always looking for the perfect font when creating. It seems the cute fonts aren't necessarily the fonts that students should be modeling. The lowercase a has a hat on, or the I doesn't have lines across the top and bottom, thus creating confusion when copying from the Promethean Board. Or worse yet, the uppercase is just as small as the lowercase.

I have my "go to" font from another seller on TPT, but I had always wanted to create my own. How nice it would be to not have to give someone else credit on my products, right? When I mentioned this to a friend, she kindly let me use her iPad to create my first font. SO EXCITING! I wanted a font that my first graders (and some of my second graders) could read that didn't have the above problems. So I made the uppercase letters not only larger, but bold too! And I made the periods bold as well. This way, when they are copying from the board, they are better able to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase. I also made sure to make the letter "I" look like an "I" and not an "L". VERY important in my book.

I can't wait to create more! Just knowing that it's a possibility, it keeps my goal in my mind at all times. To purchase Sarah's Font at a super cheap price, click the picture above!

Nature Inspirations

This year I have an amazing group of students. For the most part, they are well behaved, helpful, self-motivated, kind to each other, and respectful to all. I feel very lucky to be teaching such a great group of kids. When behavior isn't an issue, it's AMAZING what you can accomplish! I don't feel like a broken record and I feel more calm. I have been re-energized and reminded why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place. Such a nice feeling.

With this group of kids, I'm finding myself wanting to incorporate more fun activities and lessons. It seems natural, right? You behave well, you get rewarded. You complete your work, you get rewarded. You're kind to others, you get rewarded. So why not have a fun little art project combined with the beauty of autumn's nature?

I gave each kids a piece of large yellow construction paper. We did a step-by-step drawing of a turkey body. We colored it, then went outside and collected the most beautifully colored leaves and used them to make the tail! So simple, and so adorable!