How to Upload and Item to Teachers Pay Teachers

I’ve supported a few wonderful new teachers over the years.  You’re first years are hard.  There will be things that pop up and surprise you.  Just breathe.  You can do this.

Make sure you have a clear behavior plan in place.  Whether it’s a clip chart or something else, make sure it is simple and not time consuming for you.  The more complicated it gets, the less you’ll use it.  Be positive.  Make sure you are recognizing good behavior, not just bad behavior.

Have a procedure for everything.  Teach the procedures. Kids will need to use pencils.  Have procedures for sharpening, or trading pencils.  They’ll need to go to the bathroom. Have a clear procedure for that.

The kids only know what you tell them.  This goes for a lot of things, but I’ll use a procedure as an example.  You realize in the middle of class that you didn’t plan a procedure for something, like what to do when they loose their eraser.  You don’t have to tell them that.  You can say, “We’ll talk about our procedure for that tomorrow.  In the mean time why don’t you….”

They will mirror your attitude.  If you tell them it’s fun, they think its fun.  I’m so excited today because we get to take the SRI test for the first time today.”  I said that every year, and all year long when it was time for that test, the kids would cheer.  “I’m really sorry, but we have to take this test today.”  will lead to a complaining, grumpy class.

Call it a game or contest.  Picking up trash is a game if you call it that. Younger kids love the Who Can Find the Most Trash Game.  Older kids like Let’s See Who Can Find 30 Pieces of Trash and Then Cross Their Hands First Game.  Yes, I make it up in the moment.

Collaborate.  Work with other teachers.  Listen to their ideas.  Share your own.  Don’t think that being new doesn’t mean they don’t care what you think.

Teach them to read and write all day long.  I’ll be a math teacher this year, but I will spend time on math journals, vocabulary, etc.  

Set a curfew, go home, and relax.  I know you won’t take this advice right away, but seriously, just go home and relax.  Really, relax.  Don’t spend every waking moment grading papers and planning.  You are a human being.  You will be a better teacher rested.  

First, set up your account.  Click HERE if you haven’t set up a selling account yet.

If you’ve been buying items you can easily have free a Basic Membership.  If you have a Basic Membership TPT will charge $0.30 per item sold and take a percentage.  For example, if an item sells for $2, you will make $0.90 after TPT takes the $0.30 transaction fee and $0.80 in commission.

If you choose Upgrade to Premium you will get 85% royalties with no transaction fees.  It costs $59.95 a year to upgrade to premium.

Once you have made something you want to add to your store, there are few things to consider and have prepared.

*The item you want to sell:
Be sure to include (c) info and your store link.  Make sure you credit anyone that made graphics for your item and that they are allowed to be used for Commercial Use.  Consider including directions for use.

*Create a preview picture.

*Know how many pages/slides long your item is.

*Look at a few similar items and see how much they cost and make a decision about your item.

*Consider having jpegs for pages to put up as thumbnails, and a description prepared.

Let’s get started!

Open your store.  Click on “My Sales Dashboard”.  Click on Add a New Product on the bottom left.

You promise to respect copyrighted material.  Make sure that you are allowed to use the images that you used and that you credited the artist.

You choose This Item is Original.  Make sure it is.

This How To is about Digital Items.

There is a limit to what you can upload.  Be sure to notice the limits because if you try to save after all of this and something is too big, it makes you do a lot of it all over again.

 Take the time to consider a title that will catch attention and has great key words for searches.  Be very clear in your description.  You need to add at least one resource and subject (max 3).