It’s the end of the semester for my husband’s school and we will be traveling to America for the summer. As a stay-at-home-mom who likes to dabble in TPT but wants to be more consistent in her little TPT business one day, any sort of structure is self-imposed. Let’s do a bit of a check in like I used to when my principal would sit down for a year end review…
TPT goals
Upload 50 Lessons
This is what you are supposed to do as the first step. I have uploaded 16 and plan to upload the 17th today. At this pace, I don’t even know if I’ll get to 50 by the end of the calendar year. I think there are a few explanations for my slow going- priorities, little fires, and perfectionism.
My priorities are my family, my health, my job. I want to keep it that way and I have no qualm with the fact that I don’t upload lessons quickly because I’m abandoning “work time” to go to playgroup on days the husband can join or when there’s messy play and the daughter is beside herself excited. In the last two weeks, I’ve abandoned prime lesson planning time 5 times in order to play with my daughter. I’m good with that and will continue!
My health- and here I mean mentally. The daughter takes 2 naps a day and the first one is during the time with our part-time nanny and I’m supposed to spend time on TPT. Then second one is with just me and I clean the house and do chores, when I have spare time- maybe I should be TPTing but I don’t. I read my sci-fi book or play a bit of Stardew. When she is asleep at night, I spend time with the husband watching TV, not TPTing. If I were serious about making a profit, I would need to put aside me-time for it but I haven’t yet. When I was a teacher, I often would be grading or planning outside of school time and foregoing me-time for my job. This year, I’ve put up firm boundaries to protect the me-time I need to rest and adjust to mom life. Maybe in the coming term I can focus more time on TPT if I really want to see it succeed. Mark this as a potential goal.
Perfectionism… Here’s a problem I want to focus on in the next term. I have some amazing lessons that I’m proud of that work. But they aren’t ready for TPT and I have to polish them so they are ready to sale. I want to write up a lesson plan with explanations. I want to correctly credit my images and sources. I want to create presentations that guide the students more seamlessly so that the teacher has all the support they need. I’m currently working on a lesson about the Russian Revolutions and I’ve been agonizing on removing my little blurb halfway through the lesson because it might seem trivial to other teachers. I pause the lesson about the revolutions and teach about art history. My kids find it interesting but I also have been inserting art history all year so it doesn’t come out of left field for them. Will a teacher buying this one lesson find it odd… maybe. Why am I agonizing over it though??? Perfect is the enemy of the good. -Wheezy Waiter -probably someone else, Oscar Wilde?
Consensus: next terms goal is to do good work.
Branding, marketing, blogging
Honestly, I enjoyed deciding on branding and have a consistent look to many of my icons and pins. I will say that was a success and don’t think it will need to be revisited in the next year.
Marketing has slowed because posting has slowed. I know that pinning and posting about lessons is one of the advices given when starting but I may let this continue to take a back seat while I focus on getting lessons posted. Posting on Pintererst multiple times a week isn’t working so I’ll need to revisit the schedule and alter it to once a week for now.
Blogging has been a chore. There aren’t many views at all so it feels useless but I know that could change. I find myself struggling to say what I really think because the internet can be so judgmental and why subject yourself to that type of scrutiny if you can help it. On the flip side, I have things to write about. My blog post on posters and note-taking, I found myself realizing I have a lot of pointers to share and how my experience has helped me to iron out some issues. I like the “Dissect-A-Lesson” approach as well. I’ll keep at it till I’m not so shy!
Consensus: next terms goal is to continue with my blog schedule and adjust Pinterest to once a week. Priority of my time will be dedicated to uploading lessons.
Moving Forword
As my own boss, I get to choose the calendar and goals. As a former (and eventually returning) teacher, my mind works in semesters and breaks. While a small business like a TPT shop does not, my family still does since the husband is a teacher.
This summer is full of visiting family and a major surgery for the husband and his father. I will be present for tests, appointments, and recovery. There won’t be a lot of time for TPT but when there is, it will be for uploading lessons. I will not be blogging or marketing.
Fall Semester when the husband returns to school and we return to routine, I will market and blog again and likely revisit the goals for the next semester.
So~~
This is the final blog of the Spring Semester! Signing off till late August
HAGS
Devin