Tips & Tricks :: Using Creativity to Help Others!

One of the biggest obstacles I first faced when becoming a school social worker was that I literally started with office supplies and 2 books that my internship supervisor gave me. One of the schools I first worked in had a bunch of VHS movies (even though we were well into the 2000’s) and super outdated materials, but nothing I felt would be helpful at ALL for students on my caseload. I mean, most of it looked like it hadn’t been touched in years and had questions related to record players and type writers!

I quickly learned that if I wanted to have updated, attention-grabbing activities and resources for my students I had to either make them myself or spend a good portion of my paycheck paying a publishing company for some $50 activity books. So during my first several years, this is what I did….buying a bit, but making a ton!

Then, in September of last year I kept thinking…”wow, it would have been awesome if I could have had access to all the things other counselors have made and tested on their own kids!” Literally a week later (I’m not even kidding), one of my other social work friends asked me if I had heard of TeachersPayTeachers. I hadn’t, but checked out their website later that evening. It was there that I came across thousands of free and paid resources that I could download directly onto my computer and use with my kids! Then, I thought, “Maybe I should try sharing some of my stuff!” I figured I could save others tons of time and maybe make a bit of pocket change too, so at the beginning of October, I opened my store…with something like 4 products.

Just a few short months later, I was making tons of supplemental income, which I could put right back into my classroom or help with my mortgage. And with each day that went by, I felt more and more proud that I’d be able to help out so many other teachers, counselors, and SLP’s, while saving them precious time and energy that they could then pour into their kids. Not only could I impact the 70 kids I see each week, but I help reach thousands of kids all around the world each day!

So instead of spending $30 on an activity book and using 3 or 4 pages out of it, you can look through the thousands of resources on TpT, read user reviews, ask the creator questions, and download it instantly. How awesome is that!? Here’s the only problem: there’s not a ton of us social work/counseling types!

Well, consider this your invitation! If you use my referral link here, you can sign up for a free account and get ready to buy or sell resources you think will be helpful to others! You can spend as much or as little time as you’d like and TpT handles all of the transaction. Your only time commitment is whatever it takes to make your products and upload them to their site. Then you’re done!

Have questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments below! I’d love to help you out 🙂 Already a member of TpT? You can link your counseling/social work-related store in the comments as well!

Enjoy and happy creating!