I am a fan of taking a moment to reflect. And it’s been a big, good year, to say the least. A lot has happened here in TpT Land and there’s so much more to come.
It’s clear that teachers are the heart of what makes TpT so special. You are what make TpT so special. Thank you.
- Thank you for being an educator.
- Thank you for caring about our kids, all kids.
- Thank you for always striving, innovating, improving, growing.
It is not an easy time to be a teacher. We know that. We also know that you have so much to offer and we hope that TpT is a place where you feel respected, supported, and appreciated every time you visit.
Let’s take a Top 10 TpT look back at 2013. Here are just some of the ways we’ve worked to make TpT a better place for you in the past year:
- We started this blog. We wanted another way to share information, tips, and great TpT products with you.
- We invested in adding the Norton Secured Trustmark to our site. You’ll see it at the bottom of TpT content and commerce pages. This mark tells you that you can always count on a safe experience on TpT — that’s important. (Click on the mark for more details.)
- We made small improvements with a big impact, like the countdown clock on the top of every page during the last sitewide sale that made it really easy to see how much time was left to save.
- We made big improvements that are harder to see. One example is that we continue to work to improve search results to get you what you need, faster. One way we know we’re making progress is the number of times a search term turns up a “no results found” page has dramatically declined to nearly never.
- Behind the scenes, we’re continually working to make the site faster, stronger, better able to keep up with our growing TpT world.
- We created a new About Us page with a sharable infographic.
- We added an FAQ area (and 3 new Customer Service reps) to help you get the info and support you need.
- We brought Common Core State Standards to product tagging.
- We developed a page for New Teachers to help ease them into the year.
- We redesigned product pages and our homepage and our weekly newsletter — all with an eye toward a better experience for you.
And what has all of this resulted in? More TpT Teachers than ever. Great news because that means more students than ever before are benefiting from new perspectives, new approaches, new takes on making learning fun, accessible, meaningful, and steeped with rigor.
That’s success! We also see success in:
Our TpT Facebook community at over 141,000 likes! (Maybe you’ve noticed the flash freebies and other interesting tidbits we’re regularly posting there?)
Truly impressive achievements including what Deanna Jump was able to do with her TpT store as well as over 300 TpT Teacher-Authors who have each built a following, found a niche, and provided a volume of excellent resources to earn a spot among our Milestone Achievers.
News stories like these:
- ‘Babbling Abby’ goes viral
- Million Dollar Teacher: Deanna Jump
- How These Public School Teachers Made $4.4 Million Selling Lesson Plans Online
- Teachers are earning millions of dollars selling their lesson plans on the “iTunes of education”
Most of all, we are successful when you find value in our site.
When you are able to log in, quickly find a fantastic Seasonal Resource or Interactive Whiteboard Lesson, maybe a Math Center or a Novel Study. We are successful when you find TpT Teacher-Authors to follow, so you’ll hear first about new products, sales, and special discounts.
We are successful when TpT helps you be the best teacher that you can be. That’s why we’re here. That’s what we love.
Happy New Year!
