May Goal // Sell My Lesson Plans

Holy cow! It is already the last full month I will be teaching indefinitely! I only have 3 days in June, but those are cleaning, yearbooking, field-day-ing, award assembling, and packing...not teaching. I can't believe it! I'm gonna be real nostalgic on the blog this month!

I decided that this year, my word would be motivation, so I'm trying to keep that in mind each month.

April's goal was to Learn My Camera.

Here is how I did with my subgoals:
- Participate in (or even create!) a photo-a-day linkup on Instagram
I participated in the Facebook blogging group, Let Your Blog Shine's daily Instagram challenge for the first half of the month, then kind of simpered out...The problem is that my iPhone 4 has a messed up camera lense and won't take good photos...and it's such a hassle to take pictures via DSLR and transfer it over!
- Do a fashion-post with my own photo skills
I participated in Jana's Creative Closet this month, photographing myself!
- Read all the manuals and watch all the instruction videos for my camera
Hahahaha. Nope.

- Learn some photography skills
Hahahaha. Nope.
- Explore picmonkey more and do the free-month trial
Hahahaha. Nope.

Man, I kinda really sucked this month. But, I do have excuses: teething, ornery baby. Ornery students. Stressed husband. Stressed and ornery self. Family sharing in stomach flu. Small bout of anxiety/depression. 

But, I am determined to do better this month!

May--Sell My Lesson Plans

Every single unit I have taught, whether history or English, I have created a full-blown unit plan for (that's just how I was taught, as well as being a Type-A). Well, most are on my computer, pretty unorganized, and a lot were lost when my school laptop died the blue death last year. So, I'm going to redo them and format them all professionally and upload them to my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. I've already sold a handful of lesson plans and projects, so I can't wait to put my full unit plans on.

Sub Goals:

- Organize my classroom binders to make sure they have full copies before I leave

- Redo all my unit plans and format them into PDF's

- Upload and update my shop

So, as a shameless plug...have all your teacher friends check out my burgeoning shop where I am starting to sell my lesson plans and unit plans! Just click on the image below!

What are you going to work on this month? What is your motivation for that?

Platinum Dental Review

First of all, everyone, please check out my new Shop at teacherspayteachers.com. This website is a wonderful place for teachers to earn a little money from their hard work. You can put up handouts, assessments, power points, lesson plans, even entire units and sell them to other teachers in need. So, spread the word to your teacher friends! I will continue to update the shop and add more and more throughout the summer.

Just click on the button!

Last week, I had the absolute amazing, life-saving opportunity given to me by Platinum Dental in Provo, Utah.

At the beginning of the school year, I only signed up for health insurance (as that is an absolute necessity) and eye insurance (because it was less than $10 per paycheck and I need a new prescription). I didn't sign up for dental because it was expensive.

Well, that was dumb on my part. During the winter, some of my molars started to bug me when I ate cold/sugary food, especially chewy candy, which caused an issue because fruity chewy candy was a pregnancy craving of mine. Sharp pain would radiate in my gums above those teeth. Finally, it got to the point where I searched an inexpensive (out of pocket) place to get a cleaning and exam.

Bad news...I had 3 cavities.

I was down-trodden. I knew fillings were expensive and I wouldn't be able to change my policy until August! Luckily, I was emailed by Platinum Dental only a week later asking if I'd like to do a review for a free cleaning and exam....That was bittersweet. I just had one done. But, I emailed them back asking if they'd be willing to do discounted fillings for a review instead. I didn't think they would because it is expensive work, but what a nice surprise when they said they would for half off!

From the very start, Platinum Dental was amazing and the workers were awesome and on the ball! They called me  right at home to set up an appointment. Then, when I mentioned I just had an exam from another dental office, they asked which one and called themselves. Typically, that'd be up to the person to get the dental office that information, but the receptionist talking to me called herself! Then, she called me right back to finish setting up the appointment. Wow! I've never had any medical/dental/etc office take that responsibility upon themselves and to answer back with that speed!

When my appointment date came, I was ushered right into a room. The dental assistant was very friendly and kept a conversation going as new xrays were taken and while we waited for the dentist.

Now, I was very nervous. I have a low pain tolerance. The last time I had a cavity, I was like 10. The last time I had dental work was getting my braces off in 9th grade. That was a long time ago. But, the novacaine shots weren't painful like I remember them being. They also had a little bridge/block to help keep my jaws open.

Via

The dentist worked very fast. I thought I'd be in there for at least two hours since I had 2 3-sided cavities and 1 2-sided cavity. But, he worked fast and efficient. I was given a perfect dose of novacaine--I felt vibrations, but I didn't feel any pain at all, not even pressure! As the dentist worked on the first cavity, he didn't like his work, so he redid it. I love that he was honest about that and wanted to best quality possible for each and every patient!

They were done within an hour. He mentioned a few times, making sure I knew, that if there was anything wrong, or it didn't feel right, etc. After my numbness went away, my teeth feel great and normal! Justin bought me a Lindt chocolate bar and I used that as a test. I smothered the chocolate on the teeth where the cavities were. Guess what! No pain! It was so weird to not feel anything after dealing with it more more than half a year!

I would definitely recommend Platinum Dental to anyone! They have a few locations in Utah: Provo, Wasatch, Murray, Salt Lake, and Sugarhouse!