Winstead Wandering

Prone to Wander

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Free Teacher Appreciation Printables

April 27, 2017 by Abby

These adorable printables are perfect for showing teacher appreciation any time of year. There are a ton of cute gift ideas, too!

These adorable printables are perfect for showing teacher appreciation any time of year. There are a ton of cute gift ideas, too!

Free Teacher Appreciation Week Printables

Did you know next week is Teacher Appreciation Week? It definitely is.

If, like me, you’re super grateful for everything your children’s teachers do and, also like me, you want to show them even a small measure of that gratitude, I’ve got you covered.
I made nine cute, fun printables that I’m giving away for free. I even added a list of inexpensive gifts to go along with each printable, as well as my best tips for getting prints for cheap.
All you have to do to get access to all nine teacher appreciation printables is subscribe to my email list below:

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Once you’re subscribed, you’ll get an email from me with easy-to-follow instructions for accessing the printables library.
Free teacher appreciation printables in a bunch of fun colors. Inexpensive gift ideas included!

But wait, there’s more!

I’ve got more printables on the way in the next few months. Subscribing to Winstead Wandering’s email list one time gets you access to all the printables in the library.

Not interested?

If tangible gifts aren’t in your budget, or if you don’t have the time to make them happen this year, know that you child’s teacher isn’t expecting to be showered with presents. Obviously being recognized for working hard feels good, but you can show your gratitude in other ways. As a teacher, the sweetest gifts I’ve received have been handwritten notes of appreciation from students.

If you’re child is old enough, consider having him write a thank-you note. If he’s too young (or even if he isn’t), you can write one yourself. Be sure to mention anything specific your child’s teacher may have done, like showing extra patience with a personality quirk or providing additional remediation or enrichment. Chances are your child’s teacher pours her heart into her work; recognizing that is one of the kindest gifts you can give her.

These adorable printables are perfect for showing teacher appreciation any time of year. There are a ton of cute gift ideas, too!

Filed Under: DIY, frugal living, Parenting, teaching — Tagged With: free, gift ideas, gifts, gifts to make, printable, printables, teacher appreciation, teaching

Free Teacher Appreciation Printable + Inexpensive Gift Ideas

April 13, 2017 by Abby

Snag a free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Find inexpensive gift ideas from a teacher, too!

Teacher Appreciation Week is the first week of May — that’s so soon! Don’t wait until the last minute to get your act together. Just snag this free printable, pick up a few inexpensive gifts, and you’ll be all set.

Snag a free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Find inexpensive gift ideas from a teacher, too!

Free Teacher Appreciation Printable

Both of my kids love their teachers, which means I love them, too. In addition, we also love the teachers’ assistants, librarians, principals, counselors, secretaries… yup, we pretty much love everyone, and that isn’t even counting Sunday School teachers or daycare workers.

Basically, there are a lot of people I want to show appreciation to for Teacher Appreciation Week. With that in mind, I created a bunch of cute printable tags — complete with puns, because of course — that are ready to be paired with fun, useful, inexpensive gifts.

This printable is one of my favorites: “How Sweet It Is to Be Taught By You.”

Snag a free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Find inexpensive gift ideas from a teacher, too!

There are so many possibilities with this printable!

This is an example of when it’s convenient to know a bit about your child’s teacher. If possible, do some recon and find out her favorite treats or sweets. One frugal way to gift lots of different people is to bake the treats yourself. I have a ton of dessert recipes, but some of the easiest and most popular are: cinnamon roll bars with cream cheese frosting, double chocolate brownies, Oreo cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and homemade peanut butter cup bars. Don’t forget the cute bakery containers for your homemade goods!

Snag a free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Find inexpensive gift ideas from a teacher, too!

If you’re going the store-bought route, I don’t think you can go wrong with dark chocolate; this 12-pack from Amazon would allow you to show your gratitude to everyone who shows love to your children throughout the day.

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Snag a free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Find inexpensive gift ideas from a teacher, too!

Filed Under: DIY, teaching — Tagged With: diy, gift ideas, gifts, gifts to make, teacher appreciation, teaching

Free Teacher Appreciation Printable + Inexpensive Gift Ideas

April 12, 2017 by Abby

Free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Inexpensive gift ideas included!

Teacher Appreciation Week is the first week of May — that’s so soon! Don’t wait until the last minute to get your act together. Just snag this free printable, pick up a few inexpensive gifts, and you’ll be all set.

Snag a free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Find inexpensive gift ideas from a teacher, too!

Free Teacher Appreciation Printable

Both of my kids love their teachers, which means I love them, too. In addition, we also love the teachers’ assistants, librarians, principals, counselors, secretaries… yup, we pretty much love everyone, and that isn’t even counting Sunday School teachers or daycare workers.

Basically, there are a lot of people I want to show appreciation to for Teacher Appreciation Week. With that in mind, I created a bunch of cute printable tags — complete with puns, because of course — that are ready to be paired with fun, useful, inexpensive gifts.

My first printable says “We’re in Good Hands with You.”

Snag a free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Find inexpensive gift ideas from a teacher, too!

I’ll be attaching the tag to a bottle of nice hand soap; you could go with hand sanitizer (I promise your child’s teacher needs some at this point in the school year) or nail polish. If you’ve got more room in your budget, a gift certificate for a manicure would be a sweet gift.

Many teachers say they’re inundated with more scented lotions than they can handle. Unless you know your child’s teacher has a specific need for a preferred scent, I recommend avoiding lotion as a gift.

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Snag a free teacher appreciation printable in a bunch of fun colors. Find inexpensive gift ideas from a teacher, too!

Filed Under: DIY, teaching — Tagged With: diy, frugal living, gift ideas, gifts, gifts to make, teacher appreciation, teaching

Why I Love Teaching

November 13, 2015 by Abby

Why I love teaching: the reasons why, crazy or not, I enjoy spending my time in a classroom surrounded by teenagers.

Why I love teaching: the reasons why, crazy or not, I enjoy spending my time in a classroom surrounded by teenagers.

When I meet people for the first time and I say that I’m a teacher- that I voluntarily spend the majority of my waking hours in the presence of teenagers- I often get the same reaction: “I could never be around immature teenagers all day.” My response is always something like, ‘Immature people are everywhere. Some of the most immature people I’ve ever met were my coworkers and (adult) customers during the three years I spent in banking. At least with education, the students are expected to be immature. Their hormones are raging, their brains are still developing; they have an excuse for their behavior.”

While that answer is true, it isn’t even a drop in the bucket of reasons why I love what I do. The full answer is much more complex, and would take much more time than a brief introduction allows for. In fact, there are so many reasons I love my job that I decided to compile several of them here.

Why I Love Teaching

Their Optimism

For the most part, my students remain unjaded and unfazed by the cruel realities of life. Some might call that naivety, but I think it’s fresh-faced optimism. These kids know hard times; they know abusive parents, they know the choice between buying groceries and paying the power bill. They know what it’s like to suffer, but they still believe there is good in the world. Often, their optimism is contagious.

Their Inquisitiveness

I had to take a screenshot of the search history on my phone after I realized how many curious questions our lessons on economics have spurred.

I had to take a screenshot of the search history on my phone after I realized how many curious questions our lessons on economics have spurred.

As a teacher, there are few things more rewarding than witnessing a student’s genuine thirst for knowledge. I’m currently in the middle of a large unit on economics in one of my classes, and I’m constantly amazed at the thought-provoking questions my students ask. They want to know why this happened, how that event changed history, what the world would look like without this.

They really do want to learn, and they want to interact with the world around them. Sure, most high school students have at least three different photo editing apps at their fingertips at any given time, but they also have access to limitless information. They use that access because they want answers to their questions.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: teaching — Tagged With: teaching

5 best teaching resources

September 25, 2015 by Abby

The 5 best teaching resources I use and love in my classroom.

Between creating quality lessons, dealing with discipline issues, and chasing CEUs, teaching can seem like a futile race against the clock. There are plenty of areas that require our whole focus, but there are also areas where we can accept help. I’ve compiled a list of the 5 best teaching resources for easing the burden in the classroom.

5 resources to help you be a rockstar in the classroom.

1. remind

Remind is a free app that allows you to communicate with students and parents through the app. You create a Remind account, using the app, and students and parents sign up via text message to receive your communications. When you have something to say, you use the app to send a text to everyone signed up for your class. What makes Remind so great is you don’t ever see or know the phone numbers, so you aren’t violating any state or district policies.

I use the app to remind students about homework or tests, to remind my FBLA members about upcoming meetings and due dates, and to communicate with parents when I’m taking FBLA members on a trip. Remind would be especially useful to a coach.

2. teachers pay teachers

Teachers Pay Teachers is an open marketplace for teachers to buy and sell teacher-created resources. Regardless of the subject or grade you teach, it’s likely that TpT will have an activity or a unit to fit your needs. My TpT store sells all kinds of business and technology related activities, as well as generic resources like parent letters and attendance trackers. Overall, you can find anything from PowerPoints to posters to projects. TpT is my first stop when I’m stumped about an activity for a unit. [Read more…]

Filed Under: teaching — Tagged With: education, teacher tip, teaching

how to get fancy fonts on your computer

July 31, 2015 by Abby

Step-by-step instructions for finding, installing, and using any font you want to create premium worksheets, printables, photos, and more.

Step-by-step instructions for finding, installing, and using any font you want to create premium worksheets, printables, photos, and more.

If you spend much time designing anything on your computer, you know the standard fonts can quickly become boring and trite. If you want your creations to stand out- and who doesn’t?- you need to install fonts that go beyond the basics.

Finding and installing fonts is easy, fast, and free. Here’s how to do it:

1. Find a font you like and download
There are plenty of free font websites out there; my favorite is dafont, so I’ll use that one as an example. Browse your site of choice and decide which font(s) you’d like to be able to use on your computer.

Step-by-step instructions for finding, installing, and using any font you want to create premium worksheets, printables, photos, and more.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, DIY, teaching — Tagged With: blogging, blogging tips, computer, teaching, technology

march’s most popular posts

April 1, 2015 by Abby

recipes, frugal tips, personal stuff: the top posts of march | winstead wandering

Um, where did March go?

Between the whirlwind of the end of one term and the start of another, a week out of state for spring break, and all of the final decision-making before construction of our house is complete in a couple weeks, I feel like I barely blinked and the month is gone.

I did manage to write some posts in the midst of the craziness, though. Here are the most-viewed posts of March:

5. cinnamon roll bars

the delicious richness of a cinnamon loaded with cream cheese frosting is combined with the ease of a box cake mix. the result is a must-try | winstead wandering

This is a recipe I posted a couple months back. The fact that it’s still getting a lot of hits is a testament to how ridiculously tasty it is.

4. how to maximize your wardrobe on a budget

some unique tips for making the most of your wardrobe, even when you're on a budget | winstead wandering

Have a budget? Want to be clothed? Check out this post.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: food, frugal living, in the kitchen, life, motherhood, pregnancy loss, recipes, sweets, teaching — Tagged With: dessert, miscarriage, on a budget, recipe, sweets, teaching

how to maximize your wardrobe on a budget

March 16, 2015 by Abby

some unique tips for making the most of your wardrobe, even when you're on a budget | winstead wandering

I learned lots of useful things in college. Things like, in Economics, you can probably pass the test by answering “supply and demand” on every question. Or, when it comes to lit classes, SparkNotes- plus anything you might have retained from high school- is usually good enough to get you a B.

There’s a moment I remember quite vividly, though, that has little to do with academics. It was in statistics class with one of my favorite teachers, Dr. Gann. She showed us a problem on the board: if you own 3 pairs of pants and 4 shirts and 3 cardigans, you can create a total of 36 different outfits.

Dr. Gann stressed to us that, as fresh college graduates, we would appreciate the ability to make a month’s worth of outfits with only a few pieces.

I know that concept applies to just about any broke 20-something, but now that I’m a teacher, it’ll pretty much be a way of life. Since I don’t want to literally own only four tops, I’ve found a few others ways to maximize my wardrobe and stretch my clothing budget.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: frugal living, life, teaching — Tagged With: fashion, frugal tip, teaching

what public school teachers want parents to know about education

March 2, 2015 by Abby

what public school teachers want parents to know about education | winstead wandering

Not a week goes by without a national news story proclaiming the latest sins of a public school teacher. People love to like, share, and comment on any story that exposes even the smallest wrongdoing on the part of an educator.

I get it, I do. “Teacher Gives Own Time and Money to Buy Supplies for Students” lacks the sensationalism that most media outlets prefer.

“Teacher Spends Hours Each Evening Planning Lessons and Grading Papers” wouldn’t garner many readers.

“Teacher Voluntarily Supports Students at Sporting Events” would be downright laughable.

With so much negativity out there- including all the comments of “we need more teachers like this” on any story that manages to show educators in a positive light- there are a few things parents should know about the people who spend so much time with their children.

1. I believe in what I teach. School is not, despite what you may have heard, an endless parade of textbooks and worksheets and lectures. We prepare these kids for life, as best we can at least, considering our somewhat reluctant audience. And I can promise you that I know my curriculum, inside out and backwards, and I’m passionate about its ability to make your child a better adult.

2. I understand the system is broken. I know that public schools, as a rule, are overcrowded and underfunded. Student to teacher ratios are rising at an embarrassing rate, as are drop-out numbers. If your child is gifted, he’s likely doing fine, but the same probably can’t be said if he has unique learning needs.

If that’s the case, chances are you and your student both feel forgotten and unimportant. I’m just as frustrated as you are, maybe even more so, because I see your concerns magnified across an entire student body. I see all of these flaws, and more, and I wish I could fix them. I even have a few ideas about that, not that anyone is asking.

3. I love this job. The days can be long. The students can be moody and argumentative. The administration can be inconsistent and short-sighted. There are dark moments, moments when I wonder if I’m doing my job well, if my passion for the curriculum is evident.

Sometimes I run out of patience and snap at a student. Sometimes my personal life gets in the way and I don’t start the school day as prepared as I could be. Sometimes I’m rooting for that snow day just as much as your child is.

Even on days when I question my ability to teach effectively, when all I can do is close my eyes, breathe deep, and pray for patience, I can’t imagine doing anything else, being anywhere else.

4. I love your child. Yes, even yours. The one who never remembers to raise his hand in class. The one who spends more time visiting with her classmates than participating in discussions. The one who roles his eyes at every other word I speak.

I love them all. Sometimes I lay awake at night, worrying about the girl with a history of self-harming. Wondering if that activity we did in class had an impact on the quiet one in the back. Hoping that boy’s failed test was a one-off and not a sign of bigger issues.

I want every single one of my students to succeed, because I see huge potential in all of them.

5. I need your help. I think you need mine, too. We both want your child to grow into a responsible adult, making his or her unique contribution to society. You know your child better than anyone, but can I share something I’ve learned from experience?

Coddling her isn’t what’s best for her. Making excuses, transferring blame, hand-holding. I know you do those things because you love her, and because the world is harsh and why not protect her from that for as long as possible?

But an inward-focused teenager will grow into an entitled adult. The kind of person to whom regular rules don’t apply. The kind of person who doesn’t get along with others, but it’s never her fault. The kind of person you wouldn’t want as a coworker or as a friend.

So, while I know it’s tempting to smooth her ruffled feathers, please consider a different tactic. Consider urging her to work even harder on that group project, even though the other members are mean to her. Consider encouraging her to work extra hard in that class, even though she doesn’t mesh with the teacher.

She might be angry, and it might be hard, but you’ll be raising a child who possesses the kind of qualities we educators just can’t teach.

6. I think the media has it wrong. If you take only one thing away from this post, let it be that. If they had it their way, news outlets would have you believe that public schools are full of harried burnouts who couldn’t cut it at a real job.

That’s simply not true.

Your public school has some of the brightest, most patient people you’ll ever meet, in education or elsewhere. It has employees who could be working somewhere else, making a lot more money and facing a lot less criticism, but who stay because they believe in what they do and in the students they teach.

I know this because I work in a school full of teachers like that. I know this because I wonder every day if I’m doing all I can to be one.

what public school teachers want parents to know about education | winstead wandering

Obviously, this is a personal blog and these are my personal thoughts. I can’t actually presume to know what every public school teacher would like to say to students’ parents.

Filed Under: teaching, Wandering — Tagged With: personal, teaching, wandering

10 steps to a successful t-shirt fundraiser

February 16, 2015 by Abby

how to have a successful t-shirt sale fundraiser: it's easier than you think | winstead wandering

Note: this post is written from my experience using t-shirt sales as a fundraiser for a school club, but the tips here are applicable to any organization.

This post contains affiliate links. When you click those links and make purchases, you support me, this blog, and my family For more information, read my disclosure policy.

I’m the sponsor of my high school’s FBLA club. In addition to the state and national dues that students pay, we also travel to a district leadership conference every February and a three-day state leadership conference every April. Beyond that, any students who place high enough in competition at state qualify for the national conference, which is held in a different city each year (anywhere from Nashville to Chicago to Houston to Anaheim).

All of that to say I know the expenses associated with various clubs and I know that the fees can add up. Most of my FBLA members are also members of other clubs and athletes on various sports teams, too. I try hard to hold a few fundraisers throughout the year to help offset the costs associated with FBLA.

how to have a successful t-shirt sale fundraiser: it's easier than you think | winstead wandering

We sell Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee twice a year. That fundraiser is always a hit, and I allow club members to apply the proceeds of their sales directly to their own entry fees and lodging costs. What that fundraiser doesn’t cover, though, is the cost of the bus to get us where we’re going or the chaperon expenses: lodging and meals for the 3-4 adults required to supervise 30-40 high school students.

That’s where our t-shirt sales come in. Every year, FBLA creates and sells a Spring Break-themed t-shirt. We don’t make thousands of dollars from the project (we’re a small school), but we make enough to cover the bus costs for all of our travel and to pay for chaperons, which means we don’t have to pass that expense along to the students.

Having a successful t-shirt fundraiser doesn’t require a degree in graphic design or marketing. Here’s how I do it.

1. choose a universal event

how to have a successful t-shirt sale fundraiser: it's easier than you think | winstead wandering

We sell spring break t-shirts because that’s what FBLA did before I took over. You could do Homecoming, Back to School, or just a generic spirit shirt. To maximize profit, though, choose an event that appeals to as many students as possible. Prom, for example, would likely only appeal to high school juniors and seniors. The more students involved with or participating in the event your shirts portray, the more opportunities for sales.

2. design a shirt that appeals to both genders

how to have a successful t-shirt sale fundraiser: it's easier than you think | winstead wandering

This is probably a no-brainer, but I pay careful attention to colors and fonts when designing my shirt. I avoid anything too girly or too masculine, as I obviously don’t want to alienate half of my potential customers.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: frugal living, teaching, Wandering — Tagged With: frugal tip, fundraiser, teaching

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