Guys, I’ve got this really flashy cool new resources to find teaching materials.
You ready?
It’s called TEACHERS PAY TEACHERS.
Sure stuff costs money, But is $14.99 worth the 500 hours it would take me to meticulously create these templates on Canva myself out of my own brain?” Absolutely, times 100, or to quote my dad, the worst haggler of all time: “Are you sure I can’t pay you more? This is certainly worth more than THAT.”
Still, a few years ago, I would’ve sworn I’d never utilize the website. Just put it up there alongside all of my pre-parenting “never would I have ever” statements of pure ignorant pride. My reluctance originated from my very stubborn brand of frugality. Back in my day when I started teaching, all the things were free on the interwebs. Teachers shared their stuff as a matter of kindness, pride, profession. Then something changed between when I started grad school in 2008 and started teaching college students at Millsaps in 2014. All of a sudden, if you wanted access to that cool sketchnotes template, you had to pay $2.99. What?! Shock to the system. To add to this, I had seen SO MANY “teachers pay teachers” fails in my student teachers’ lesson plans. The danger of using a thing you didn’t create is you don’t take the time to really go through if it matches your aims. The stuff may be cute, but is it appropriate for your class? Never would I EVER even darken that door. I am an expert! A professional! I have the creativity and the will!
Then I decided to add teaching a section of English 12 to an already too-full-time-job (because SO MANY good reasons) and I lasted about 12 months until I succumbed to its Siren-like-call. I bought the Macbeth unit packet. Call it purely experimental if you’d like, but if I’m being honest I needed some quick activities and templates for holding my students accountable for comprehension of the play. It’s rated 4.9 by 170 reviews. It can’t be that bad, right?
The truth is it has been marvelous. The Act-by-Act interactive notes have created a routine for my students to track their understanding or the lack there-of. The initial center-like get-to-know-Shakespeare activity fell a little flat, but the variety of acting troupe small group exercises have been a hit. Sure I’ve had to adapt a TON in terms of pacing and approach and depth. But it’s given me a storehouse of clever little hooks (e.g., play this Harry Potter scene with a song featuring “double double toil and trouble”) and journal topics (e.g., “are self fulfilling prophecies real?”) that have resonated with high school seniors more than I thought. Without this set of resources, I never would have thought of having students reenact a scene with finger puppets (templates of characters provided!), which completely jazzed two very creative-artistic students who often are less-than-enthused by the kinds of assignments I dream up.
Me: “Why are you two suddenly so engaged in a class activity?!”
Students: “We get to color and play! It doesn’t feel like work!”
Sidenote: Seriously guys, asking students to hide under their desks to re-enact Shakespeare is my top teaching tip of the year. Somehow it frees the more self-conscious ones to use crazy accents and the shy ones somehow feel protected.
I’m still not a superfan. I would never advise an entire year designed by TPT. I still think you start with your objectives in mind and go backwards. I think things can go very wrong very quickly if you don’t create something and you instead, at the very least, should go through the process of “trying out” the worksheet of activity before assigning it to students.
But when you are feeling very very pressed for time, I am 100% in favor of a little TPT browse situation.
In all things, my biggest revelation of aging is this humbling truth: Never say never.