I’m ALL about “Small Business Saturday”! As a teacher with a “side hustle” that is also my passion, I see the importance of supporting others that have similar interests as me.
I see my journey as an aspiring teacher blogger as a “small business” that offers lessons, resources, and motivation. I also see it as my contribution to a huge teaching community that has opened so many doors for me in my career. Since I’ve started blogging and selling products, I’ve met some amazing Insta friends and encouragers that I HIGHLY recommend you follow. They have helped me reflect on my practices, improve my lessons, manage my classroom more efficiently, and motivate my students to LOVE school.
I’m no particular order, here are my top favorite 7 small businesses (some, of which, have grown and can hardly be called small anymore). They helped me do all of those things that I believe are worth supporting.
1. Hope King (@elementaryshenanigans)
I can’t even put into words how phenomenal this woman is. To fully grasp everything she has to offer the teaching community, please go order her book The Wild Card right now. Her and her husband (Wade King) teach at The Ron Clark Academy together and their whole message is about motivating students. The concept of their book is that every student is dealt a hand of cards that is unpredictable. When we have students that get a crappy hand, we need to act as a Wild Card to improve their situation. Powerful, right? While you are at it, follow Ron Clark and some other teachers that teach there to watch the magic that happens everyday. In addition to Hope's professional outlook, I appreciate how strong her religious conviction is. Watching someone be so firm in their faith is always inspiring to me.2. Wright Stuff Chics (@thewrightstuffchics)
This Shop has a HUGE selection of cute, funny, and POSITIVE teacher tees along with some adorable boutique items. These comfy shirts have become a staple in my closet and they are positively my favorite thing to wear to school. I always get compliments from other staff members asking where I got them, and my students think they are so awesome. I have to believe that showing kids that I’m excited about teaching will get them excited to learn. If a T-shirt helps do that, then TAKE MY MONEY!!!3. Steph’s Scentsy (Stephanie's Scentsy VIP group!)
Close your eyes and try to match the following smells of your classroom: Your students coming into the classroom right after PE 😓 Someone left their lunchbox in the classroom over winter break 🤦🏻♀️Another kid took their shoes off because it was “comfy” 😨 It was burrito day in the lunchroom 😳 Some kids got a little too into your Go Noodle 💦
My guess is that if you’re a teacher, you know exactly what smells I’m talking about. Gross, I know. But it’s reality! Solution: SCENTSY!!! My friend, Stephanie, is like a drug dealer around my school helping everyone’s classroom smell less like a workout facility and more like a cozy workspace. Check out her site to stock up on some AMAZING smells to help out your classroom. My favorites???? Obviously all of the Christmas scents during the holidays, and Lavender to help on those “full moon” days!
4. Brooke Brawn (@teachoutsidethebox)
Let me introduce you to the "Queen of Stem". Brooke has dramatically changed how I implement STEM activities into my classroom this year. Before following her, I tried my best to find fun STEM activities during our science lessons, but ended up spending WAY too much time planning and prepping, and I spent WAY too much money using extra materials. If you do that, STOP NOW! These pre-made bins and task cards give students the tools to think outside the box and create things that I never would have thought to do. I was incredibly hesitant when starting this because I was worried my students would mess around and not follow the task cards, steal/ruin the materials, not see the educational value of the bins and not complete the writing assignments, or find another creative way to make me regret doing this. WRONG. None of these things have even come close to happening. In fact, I rarely even give directions for these anymore. I might assign a writing assignment to go with it, or even come up with a "theme" of something they have to build that supports a cross-curricular subject we are learning about. But let me tell you, whenever I bust these bad boys out, my kids are on task and attentive. They LOVE the hands-on aspect and being creative! I am truly amazed at what they can accomplish and create. Do yourself a favor and follow her and community to see all the things teachers are doing with their STEM bins, it's so inspiring!
What do you call a teacher who has to meet the needs of the curriculum, state standards, and teacher evaluation standards in a limited amount of time?? NORMAL. You call her normal. Our superintendent once told us as a Back to School training to “teach with urgency”. I have no problem doing this because I constantly feel like I don’t have enough time to teach what I need to. This Language Wall by Hello Fifth has been a wonderful way for me to teach writing targets indirectly. Each week I post a new paragraph and have students work during one of their stations to identify sentence types, parts of speech, punctuation, etc. I also have them edit sentences and practice using revising marks to fix misspellings and other mistakes. I'm currently working on providing my kiddos with more resources for students to access when trying to remember a target (STAY TUNED) because I'd love to see how independent my students can be when doing this. My kids also love seeing what the new paragraph is doing to be about. I try to make them silly or include their names in it, and they just think it's hilarious!
6. Bethany Humphrey (@teachingandsofourth)
Ok I don't' want to sound like a broken record as I talk up the Ron Clark Academy, but this teacher does a TOP NOTCH job of being the Wild Card for her students. She is so stinking cute, and is clearly adored by her students. I would love to be a student in her classroom! A part of me wants to teach 4th grade standards just so all of her TPT products would be relevant to me, but I've still used a lot of it! Her class songs are so hilarious and creative, and watching her kids get engaged puts a smile on my face every time. I started using her morning song during my morning meeting and my kids LOVE starting the day off that positive. I'm trying to tap into my own creative mindset to make a song relevant to my class and our community inspired by this gal.
This Etsy store is ADORABLE. Alyssa Pierce works with another one of my favorite teachers to make these cute headbands. She has a selection of school-themed headbands, but also just some other ones that anyone would love. I am anxiously awaiting her next stock so I can order up as many as I can! These headbands are a lifesaver on days when my hair is "eh" and just needs something to distract from all the dry shampoo I've used.
Do yourself a favor, and go follow all of these wonderful businesses that I love dearly. And please, help me find MORE small businesses to support! Please share some other stores and products!
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