Monday, March 30, 2015

What does it take

What does it take for anyone to comment here just to let me know I'm alive?

I have a doctor's appointment in a couple of hours about my pending knee surgery. I really am starting to again have second/third/so on feelings about this. I want to walk normal. You never really think about walking until you can't. I have and am thinking about how I can cure my drop-foot. My knee really DOES NOT hurt. I tell my wife, do I just start lying to my doctors or do I tell the truth?

I really don't know, but I do know, hobbling around is just not the way to go. I can't sub teach, I can't coach, I can't enjoy church, I can't enjoy my granddaughter. This mini-stock has really shut down what I would normally do. I don't want this life.

What does it take for anyone to comment here just to let me know I'm alive? Do I need to just die and be done with all this? Yes or no?

- - - - - - -
Just came back from orthopedics and doctor there who said the knee replacement surgery would not do what I need. He said I would be VERY  disappointed in the results due to what I want. He suggested me spending time with the X-Strap and seeing if that helps. He said I have arthritis in both knees but since they are in no pain yet so we need to try a different route. He felt the problem is more the drop-foot and he does not want to fix that due to the results and I really would not be happy with it at all.

My frame of mind would be better if I could solve that one problem first and get back to subbing. I know I've lost everything else but please give one thing back - P-L-E-A-S-E !?!

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Boring day

Here it is, the first day of spring, my daughter's birthday, the day I went to a knee seminar, and finally made the decision to go ahead a have my knee surgery. I even scheduled my first appointment. It's not that I don't know the doctor. He did my wife's two shoulder surgeries. It's coming after a year of putting it off but dealing with the heartache.

I have been surfing the web looking at the item called AFO and Drop Foot and I came across X-Strap.com and they have product called a Dorsi-strap. After reading all the reviews about it I ordered one to try to slove my drop foot problem. It sounds almost to good to be true. We'll see when it comes in.

Today I got the FIRST purchase on my side shop at TN. It was not much but at least I now know there are real humans out there. The sale was for nothing but a $1.50. But hey it is something. My TPT store will be sending me a PayPal deposit of over $125. Still not as much as all those elementary teachers but it is at least something for this retired, crippled, old former middle school Louisiana history teacher.

Been sitting outside just enjoying this spring-like weather and breeze. It has been so nice. No rain, no coldness, no strong winds, nothing like some of the rest of the countries getting.

Monday, March 16, 2015

7 new products today

I have been very busy today. Almost too busy. I created 7 new items to upload today. Now understand none of them are on sale but they are cheap enough anyway. I have uploaded them to both TPT and TL. The other sites will just have to make do without them

Why do I even post things here. No one reads this. Even since I have posted this on my websites, Tweeter, and Facebook and it does nothing. Oh well. This is just therapy for the soul I guess.

Even with all the mistakes I just made a few hors ago, no one commented on them. I cleaned them up so it should be okay for now. But anyway, I just blog here because I feel I need too. E my tweeter account does not seem to get any hits. Am I just alone in this world as a retired teacher?

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Tweet, twitter, talk, post

Tweet, twitter, talk, blog, post, all day today. That's what I've done. I'm sure I made people mad but hey, I had to get the word out somehow. I figured today was as good as ant. I tweeted it and Facebooked it all day. I have been Pinteresting items too.

It seems strange but I just need to get the word out. And getting the word out I am doing. Not getting any results but that part I will never know for sure. All I'm asking is that they LOOK and that doesn't really show up anywhere.

All this seems just as strange as this blog not getting any readers/commenters. I do KNOW there have been readers but most people don't comment anymore. I know I do, because I'm getting emails back. At least I can tell what's I see and hear.

This post has taken most of Saturday between all my tweeting and posting. Plus we have been "baby-sitting" - or "girl-sitting" as she says, because she is NOT a BABY.

I'm still tweeting, posting, and blogging in hopes - just hope - that something will click and bring more customers to my sites. Both have sales and one is better than the other but even those are not doing better. But you just have to do what you gotta do.

I suddenly now have 10 friends connected to my TL page. At least now I can look through their worksheets. Maybe I can even buy some.

Made the $49 committment to "nothing"

Okay. I spent my money and just have to play the waiting game and see if anything grows from my new shop at TeacherLingo. I have to pray that this work just as I prayed about TPT and ultimately it did begin to work. Sure, I'm not making a killing but at least the site is now turning a profit. Hopefully, Lingo will do the same.

It did take a lot of agonizing over it yesterday but in the end, it seems like the better site. I am going forward with the choice an copying things over from TPT in hopes that something will click.

You know that even after I have paid my premium, my comments to the forums still do not post. I emailed them and hope to get a reply soon.

I just checked my email and had 17 emails about items that just sold on TPT - 17. Wow. Yet still NOTHING on any of the other sites.

I also have been posting "Which SALE is better, the one at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Louisiana-History-Teacher or the other at http://teacherlingo.com/resources/latraveler/productlist.aspx
tell me?" comments on my Twitter and Facebook pages just to see if it gets ant responses.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Zero, Nada, Nothing, but Money, money, money

Seems all these new stores talk about being FREE but what they really are is a "bait-n-switch scheme" so they can get you to work but then PAY them. Most want $50.00 a year to join.

Now I did pay to open my store at TeachersPayTeachers and it has paid me back many times over but the other sites....I will have to decide if they are worth the cost. My Teacher'sNotebook shop has been a dud so far. 1,444 product views and not one sale in two and a half months. That's sad. Real sad. I'm not looking for a lot, just something, anything. Just prove to me that it was worth opening here. At least I have 20 "followers", guess that's something, but out of a 1,000?

TeachWise is simply a waste of time. Every time I go there I can't "find" my own store. I have to login each time and there have been on 32 views so far.. Nothing to speak of. Just a waste.

At TeacherLingo things are a 'little' better. I'm limited to only 10 items and one freebie until I go premium which is $49.00. I have some 30 views but no sales. And most of the links do not work without premium. Almost sounds like a gas war. This site I just might go with and pay the fee. But it is super hard to get around to look at teacher's pages. Middle school is even harder.

The other potential shop sites went down the tube yesterday. I checked them out, weighed them againist what I already have or tried and they did nothing for me.

Of the four sites above one - TPT will stay and one of the others will get my money. Probably, TL or TN other than that TW was and is just a waste of time. So now it is down to two extra sites. Visually TL looks better but link-wise it is poorly constructed. TN does not have the appeal but the links work better but on the same side. They don't answer them very often - better said, not at all.

TN has not asked for more money but that don't do much in the way of supporting their site either. TL seems to be emailing me everyday but they want more money to go to premium but I guess that means better service,

TPT overall is the best site out there. Guess I will just have to wait and see how things play out.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

got 'em, get 'em, buy 'em

I finally did it. I have posted some of my stuff on four different sites plus I have two more in the works. The major issue is that almost no-one seems to want "Louisiana" history stuff. I do what I can and I should be grateful for that.

It all started a couple of years ago at TeachersPayTeachers. It took that long before I really started selling a few worksheets/activities. I know teachers who are making good money on the site - one is my former student teacher who worked for a long time in elementary and now is teaching 6th grade.

In the past month I began to start a shop at TeachersNotebook and as of this time it is not doing well but I know that from several things I've learned along the way. First, it will take a while but there is not a lot of middle school teachers there.

In the past week I have opened another shop at TeachWise and it too is doing nothing yet. However, I know why. II have checked all my items, checked my PayPal links and it all seems to be in working order. At least I'm only their email notices each day and that makes me feel better.

I  also opened one shop at TeacherLingo and hope it will start to bring in a few dollars. Now these administrators are at least emailing about issues I have and information I need.

I still have a couple of shops I'm working on right now but I will hold their names back for a couple of days.

Being "retired" does not mean 'do nothing'. I am on my laptop day-in and day-out. I do have a little extra money to spend on things we need from time to time. I can even move it down to my 'savings account card' if I need something I can't get normally.

I also went by Lesson Planet but they are like so many others saying you can get a FREE trial but their FREE is not really free. It cost you a minimum of $3.33 per month on a credit card.

Please be sure to go by educator, Justin Tarte before you leave to the otherworld.

Saturday, March 7, 2015

The "new" Louisiane Puchase

It has been a while since I have been here but it's time to take one last stab at this. Currently I am running a major sale of my online Louisiana items on both of my teacher websites,,,https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Louisiana-History-Teacher and http://www.teachersnotebook.com/shop/LaTraveler both are deep discounts. One site will only allow me 20% off everything and the other will allow 50%. I've done both. We will just see which does the best. One still I am only doing the items that have done nothing in the last two years the other everything I have posted the last two months.

It's not about the money...it's about the sales, the interest, to emails, the comradery amongst teachers.

I really just want to help build a base of Louisiana teachers around the state. Heck, I really do not even get people here who read this site so I feel like I am just talking to the wind.

Ten things I am thankful for today

It does not take a lot of time to tell you what I am thankful for - not today or this week or.... 1. I am happy because my wound care doc...