TPT Tips Tuesday #1 - Own Your Progress

HI Everyone. This is me, Gina, of the PerfettoWritingRoom. I take only a wee bit of responsibility for the WONDERFUL

STORIES . . .
ADVICE . . .
TIPS . . .
And Guidelines
That you are going to read about. I am an award-winning reporter, I am a published fiction writer, and I've been teaching for a long time and now create full-time on TpT. I have a blog, and all the other usual outlets, but I love making writing products.

I started a thread on the Tpt Forum. . .

The clunky title - because I am not gifted at titles - is When did you hit $1000 a month? Advice, war stories and laughter here!

This one thread started what I'd like to believe was a firestorm of helpfulness and generosity on the part of some very successful creators, and a natural feeling of excitement and inspiration on the part of many folks who are already quite successful in their own right, but who perhaps want to grow some more.
     So many of you have commented that you appreciated it, that you found it helpful. Some sellers are nearly at $1000 a month, or were happy to announce ON THE THREAD that they JUST broke $2000. Others regularly make $8000. I'd like to think everyone received something from reading, sharing and visiting.
   
                   First Some Simple Advice:
                   OWN YOUR PROGRESS!

Do You Compare? Do You Despair?
    (You might find comparing leads to despairing) 

One of the most beautiful findings from the lengthy thread was how grateful visitors were. Comments that "it is in fact possible" to work from home, to increase one's income, or simply to improve! The idea is that TpT is wonderful because we help each other, we share ideas and we support one another. Teachers are a singular and wonderful type of people. And TpT is in many respects a singularly wonderful place.

One of the most upsetting realizations from the thread is something I find I do myself: comparing. There are many comments: wonderful, blessed, comments in which a person nearly rocketed to $1000 a month (and far beyond) within months. This led some readers to gasp in relief and awe, and many readers to compare in their follow-up comments. Even I, in some weak moments thought, "Oh gosh, my store is terrible, my products are not good, is it because I sell for high school?" etc.
      While I know that I can't prevent people from self-doubt or upset in the wake of a poor month or lagging sales, especially after redoubled efforts or high expectations, I will say that it is both human and understandable to feel disappointment when we

        Try
                  Try
                            Try

And it feels that others whiz on by...

Know also that comparison will not be a part of Tpt Tips Tues.

INSTEAD TRY THIS - OWN YOUR OWN PROGRESS - ADVICE FROM TWO WOMEN

Part ONE - COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY - SCIPI
It was SCIPI, a fellow TpT materials creator who once mentioned to me (and a sincere and warm thanks to you), for mentioning once to me that COMPARISON is the THIEF OF JOY. I HOPE we all remember it. No matter WHAT, remember what you do and can accomplish, and feel blessed by your forward movements in the world.

 Show Scipi YOUR Love and Support, Visit her Store today!


Part TWO
YOU REALLY DO GROW; MAYBE YOU SHOULD KEEP TRACK!!??

It took Teach-123-Michelle about 7 months before she made over 1K a month. Before anyone breaks the rule above and starts comparing again, lets look at what Michelle advises. She says that "the first year was the hardest. It is hard to stay motivated when you don't see the sales and you are spending . . .time and effort making . .  .lessons." Doesn't that sound familiar?

One thing everyone should keep in mind is that growth and success is not about money at all unless that is all you care about. In fact, I am going to argue that if all you care about is money, you probably are in the wrong field. Some of the greatest thinkers advise that money is love, and energy - well I could go on. What we do, and I am sure you will agree, is put our hearts into our jobs, into the products we create and into those people we want to delight, educate, and help (in all of the myriad ways we know that we can).

So instead of focusing on the dollar, let's focus on real benchmarks of success that will eventually bring abundance towards us.

Success can be seen in so many ways:

• number of products in your store;
• how many, or any, repeat customers we have this month
• number of positive reviews you get on your paid or free products
• what you have done this month (did you start a blog; open a FB page, pinterest, twitter, etc.)*
• the number of likes on ANY advertising outlet you have (do any of these numbers grow?)*
• Pinterest pins or repins, OR  likes/ comments on your products
• your store likes - has it improved since last month?
• the degree to which you are participating on TpT
• the degree to which you are collaborating or leading something on TpT
• If you "built your store" this month (even a single product is great)
• your sales in units
• your sales in dollars
• your freebie downloads
• MORE and other!

*Note that two of the above can be broken down even further. Can you see how REDUCTIVE it is to be sad and hard on yourself because you didn't make more money? There are SO many ways to IMPROVE on TPT!!! Many of your improvements are slow, but result in cash growth later.

Let's go back to Teach-123, (Michelle), who said that "finally, one day I decided to do data collection with my TPT'ing. I made a chart. Each Friday, I checked my numbers (number of blog followers, weekly page views, TPT followers, Pinterest followers, number of sales, sales in dollars, etc.).  Out of all the things that I looked at, I could count on at least one area I would see growth which would motivate me to work harder.  I also picked one area to concentrate my efforts for the next week.   It was like a weekly progress report." (Italics mine).

While no one is her, (selling like her, in her grade with her materials), and let's all be clear that making a chart doesn't MEAN you too will all of sudden make lotsa lotsa money soon   - there is a very valuable lesson. Making a chart helps for many reasons. Michelle is onto something and we thank her for this suggestion. Here is one more lesson:

The lesson is that progress is constant. And there is joy, pride and motivation to be found in that. 


Visit Teach-123-Michelle! See what she has in store!

GOALS for TPT TIPS TUESDAY

• Champion Success
• Learn from others
• Be happy for those who do well
• Visit others to see what they are doing RIGHT!!!

EACH TUESDAY . . .

1. I will CURATE comments into an ARTICLE
2. Creators from TpT and the TpT thread who are featured will have their store linked back
3. All readers are welcome to discuss and comment on the topic (agree or disagree - too)

please join this blog!


VISIT US AGAIN ON TUESDAY - 
WE'll KEEP the Coffee Brewing! 

Gina - ThePerfettoWritingRoom
Do you want you join TpT but havent? Let Me Refer you!
Take a gander at PerfettoWritingRoom's Store         

Why is Sonnet History AS IMPORTANT as The Sonnet Itself? - A Primer for Writers and Teachers Alike with Free Lesson Ideas and a FREEBIE!

Pin of my newest product - History of the Sonnet - a Common Core Presentation (Gr 8-12)

I am just going to TOWN with freebies now that a wonderful lovely superwoman teacher, blog tutor extraordinaire, and new friend has taught me to provide freebies (Kristy Bearfield, I salute you!).  You the reader of course benefit, and you can follow me on Bloglovin' so there's always that to get excited about.

WHY We Are Really Here - The Sonnet!

Today we are coming to the PerfettoWritingRoom(c)  to discuss the benefits of introductions in general, the history of form and the history of the sonnet in particular!

First of all, the benefits of introductions, history lessons, backgrounds, or fun Power Points: 

1. Interest - In the typical English classroom or language arts, the current lingo for creating interest about a topic, and, the first part of a lesson plan, is the anticipatory set. To start a unit on sonnets, or really ANY poetic form, it creates interest to talk about its origin.
2. Groundwork and Foundation - in order to teach rhyme, meter, form, and themes, eventually you may face a problem. You will end up having to go back. Back WHERE ask? Well, to the beginning. Perhaps not to Giacomo Da Lentini, but at least to Petrarch and his conventions. . . right? Why not save yourself and your students the trouble by doing a formal introduction, hmmm? 
3. Counter-intuitively, it may save you some time. Sure it will take a day or two to start from the 13th century. Once you are analyzing Shakespeare, and the students are finding the theme or the conventions and the rhyme scheme, it just might go faster, and you'll make up the time!
4. Retention and a deeper learning experience. There is nothing like understanding the background and history of a form to provide a sense of respect for the subject matter at hand. Students are more likely to retain information about the sonnet when that information is WHOLE. Its beginning and its story, its structure, and then, some examples. Teachers are always busy and have to make tough decisions about what is valuable. It doesn't take a lot of time to review the history of the sonnet, but it will make the iambic pentameter that follows a whole lot more enjoyable. 

And Now a FREEBIE FOR YOU!!!

The following is one page of the notes overview - a compilation from the Power Point - but I think it is fun and helpful. I have seen some of the wondrous K-8 freebies - my material is for high school all the way up to college (sometimes!), so it is never as cute. Sorry about that.
       This FREEBIE is the first page of the Sonnet history. 

The definition doesn't include the rhyme scheme, the volta or turn - I leave that for the SECOND part - the teaching of form, which I am currently working on. 

but it is complete in the Petrarchan Conventions, which is very cool, and a great bargain. YOU CAN'T beat FREE!

Grab the First Page of Sonnet History! 

I hope you enjoy it!!!

Keep learning, living, working and playing, 

PerfettoWritingRoom(c) 

- Gina

A love letter to creativity in general and creative writing too

I have often lamented the loss of art, music, creative writing and other creative arts in the school system. I also tire of the never-ending struggle to keep these classes, the anxiety about funding cuts, or the feeling teachers have that they need to "justify themselves" when they add creative elements that may "detract" from other lessons deemed more essential.

I am astounded that some people still think creativity = easy and bad. Is learning a musical instrument and musical notation easy? Is writing a short story easy? I can attest, as can many of my students (and I'm sure you can as well) that creative tasks require more of your faculties and brain power, a wider array of skill sets, and both sides of your brain than many other tasks do.

I was once accused of not teaching properly, or sufficiently, when I introduced my high school students to children's books. It was a fiction class. The goal of this particular activity was to have the students analyze a number of children's books and picture books and come to series of conclusions about the way these books are written, their font size and placement, etc. in order to learn and then create their own complete creations. The department head only thought I was making a "dumbed down" and "inappropriate" lesson. She thought I was asking them to "write at a kindergarten level" - after all the parents expected a lot more than "Dick and Jane are friends" for sentence structure! She really missed the entire point: creativity, critical thinking, owning the entire process. Clearly I am glad to not be there anymore.

If she misunderstood me, and this was an activity in a sanctioned fiction writing course, I can't even imagine the degree to which other teachers are being maligned for attempting to encourage students to be creative and write stories in regular classrooms.

Turn that Negative into a Positive. . .

Creativity is the most important tool we have in our arsenal against indifference.

Whether we teach math, geography, science, history, art, or physical education and health, we can be creative and fun ourselves, which is how we bring wonder and excitement into the classroom.

What about Creative Writing? Isn't it Just a Waste of Time?
I think this has me a little angry.
I can't tell you how difficult it is to write stories and poems, and to write them well.  True poetry writing and fiction writing aspires, has goals, is work shopped, is graded. While it can be exhilarating, exciting, and great fun, it is challenging and can be frustrating as well. And at times, it is just plain difficult. There are rewrites. The students get stumped and feel challenged.

Story writing is even MORE complicated than the very best of essays and papers. Stories are dynamic and there is no such thing as "how to write a story." No, no formula, despite that drawing of a nifty little "arc" in those fiction writing books. Every single story is unique and varied and is organically derived from the student. There are threads, through lines, dialogue, one character or many, various settings that might or might not occasionally forward the plot, and an arc of some type. One must think of foreshadowing, mood, and must describe clearly. 

Sometimes, students will even do research in order to know more about the topic they are writing about. In fact, the research is not a big deal in the way the "research paper" is; writing a good story is so involved that doing research is usually just background to the story they are telling. Research is simply a part of the job!

So I ask you. REALLY? Fun but a little too easy? A waste of time?

A Comment on the Essay

So writing stories is easy and a waste of time (I haven't even told you how hard it is to write a poem. Maybe another day). Essays and research do not hold high court in the world of words and meaning. In fact, the more capable students are in a multiple of forms, the better. What is difficult about research is thinking critically, making original points out of the points out there, and less so, notating. All of this should be done often and regularly. And, so should many other forms of writing, including poetry, argument, story writing, and OTHER forms. Hey, how about REAL letter writing? Remember that? Now that's something we should all blog about! How's that for a lost art form?

Creative Writing - Of Immense Value - NINE SKILLS (and maybe more)
Of course there will be a transfer of skills. This is not the difference between skiing and learning French.

1.  Learning to organize thoughts,
2. create full sentences, paragraphs, and to a certain extent,
3. argue,
4. look up background information that will be used in the work,
5. use logical order and
6. explain things in a clear way, 
7. practice economy, and
8. obey spelling and
9. grammar rules

are just a few of the transferable skills students will learn through storytelling that will prove a boon when it comes time to writing a paper. In fact, students may even be more motivated to improve if they are working on stories.

I Leave You With This

 

 

Is THIS Why Folks Say It's a Waste?

Don't Judge a Book by it's Paper Bag Cover?

If you look above, I guess if you saw me bring these things into class, and you weren't very open minded, you'd think I was playing games and not challenging my students. You'd think I was going to read a newspaper or something while they fiddled around and then got bored. You would certainly not think I would be engaged the entire class, and that the students would be engaged. You'd never believe this was serious "life or death stuff," ending in a workshop dealing with full length stories about super spies, wars, and other heavy stuff. But you'd be wrong!

 I've mentioned this activity before - It is the SUPER SECRET - 4-SENSES Writing Activity. Take all of your little treasures and garage sale finds, and put them in brown paper lunch bags.

Step one. Students choose only by feeling. Write a description using only touch.

Step two. Take it out and LOOK! Now you can write about what it is and describe it.

Step three. Now only use metaphors and similes.

Step four. Your object isn't what you think. It is a weapon, a spy device, a portal to another dimension, of incalculable worth, has a long story of excitement and adventure, has a spell on it and a story only YOU know, has the ability to heal two warring peoples (offer other suggestions). TELL the full and complete story of this object the day you main character finds it or gives it away.

PS. This is a paid-for product on TPT, (there is extra of course in that one)...but I'm illustrating a point.  The students are pushing to use figurative language, they are using outside of the box thinking, (other senses in order to write, such as feel, and in the paid for version, they are instructed to use sound, etc.),  and they are surprised and told to switch gears. They feel internally motivated to write because they have a lot of options to choose from and it feels very immediate and very cool to them that what they are being presented with is something different. They "play along" - I've even done this in colleges, and they do it willingly. It somehow opens something up in them, and all of the NINE SKILLS are still being used, ready to transfer when you want them to write that argument essay.

God Bless, and happy teaching.

Gina