Why I love TpT & Blogging + 1 Year Bloggiversary Giveaway! {w/ Mrs. Dailey's Classroom}

I am kind of shocked that a year has come and gone already! It makes me feel so happy that we have become a little blogging family over here and that you, the viewers and teacher friends, have stuck with us to hear about all of our ideas that we have shared! I love looking back and seeing our monthly themed ideas and I know that as a teacher, I have found collaborating with these lovely ladies (and gent) has made me a better teacher. And yes, I do feel one year older! 

For the beginning of the month, we are sharing a HUGE giveaway with you to celebrate our one year blogging birthday! We are giving away a blog design from our friend Alexis over at Laugh Eat Learn Designs. You can pop over there and see all of the lovely designs she has done to gather some ideas for your potential WIN! 

I am also going to tell you in this post why I love TpT and blogging! This might bring some tears to my eyes because both of these topics are seriously so close to my heart. Cue the box of tissues!

I've been blogging for a little over two years now and boy has it been a learning process for me! I have never thought of myself as "tech savvy" or even all that good with technology and design. But, I knew that I wanted to share my teaching ideas with the world and connect with other fabulous teachers out there so I plunged into blogging and selling on TpT. 

I decided to call my blog, Mrs. Dailey's Classroom and I knew that I wanted our husky, Shilah, to be part of my blogging classroom because she really is part of my real life classroom! 

With all of that being said, I have come up with three main reasons why I have loved my journey so far! But trust me, I could come up with many many more reasons and ramble on for days. 

REASON 1:

I have met some of my closest friends through blogging.

A year ago I had a little big dream of starting a collaborative blog with a group of knowledgeable teacher-bloggers who could share ideas and resources for all of the other teachers out there who also wanted to connect. Let me just stop for a moment and give credit (bowing down) to my right hand wing-woman Jessica from Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten. She was the first person who offered to "help" with anything I needed and you  better believe I took her up on that offer. We worked pretty close together, almost daily, for the past year and I know our collaborative blog wouldn't be the same without her. This girl is seriously more then my blogging BFF - she is my REAL life friend! **I love you, Jess!** We've even shared a bed together at more then one blogger meetup across the country, but that's a story for another time. And see that other beautiful lady up there? Brittany from Tickled Pink in Primary has also been by our side this whole time. We've all become pretty close and without blogging and TpT, I never would have met these special ladies who I call some of my closest friends!

These photos are from the TpT conference this past summer. We had so much fun!!

REASON 2:

Blogging and TpT has made me a better teacher.

Through blogging I have begun to take the ideas that I would like to do with my class, to resources that are ready made and {hopefully} easy for other teachers to use too. I also have joined up with other teachers for things like Stephanie Chamber's postcard exchange and become pen-pals with classes across the US! Through TpT I have found so many cute and engaging ideas from other sellers! I even love using clip art around my room to make kids happy and to see them smile, like in those star sticks up above. If I never would have started on TpT, I never would have learned how to design resources and I still would be dusting off the same old resources from years ago. 

REASON 3:

I have learned to become a better photographer.

I have loved photos since I can remember holding a camera, but it hasn't been until blogging that I really pushed myself to take better photos. I've always been a wanna be protectionist and when I decided to share my teaching ideas online, I knew I wanted to learn how to use a camera to showcase my best work. This has also been so valuable to me in my personal life because I get to capture photos of my family, friends, Shilah, and events at a better quality (and maybe even frame them when I have time!).

Well friends, thank you for taking the time to read this heartfelt entry. I value the time that each and every one of you has invested in our blog. I know that I can speak for The Elementary Entourage as a whole when I say that we all look forward to another great year of blogging! xoxo! 

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