Featured Website of the Month (July): + Q & A with Chris Kesler!

7/7/2014

This month I am bringing you a "double feature"! Two great educational websites by the same author, Chris Kesler. I recently discovered his websites through the seller's forum on TpT and have been

a subscriber ever since.

Chris is a fellow TpT seller who has put together TpTSchool.com, a website to help other TpT sellers learn the ins and outs of having a successful on-line business. Even though I've been a seller for a little over a year I'm still learning new tricks like batch processing social media posts! I love that I can write all my social media posts while my kids are napping and schedule them to publish while I'm putting them to bed at night! No more missing important family time!

Chris also has a free e-book called, "25 Things I Wish I Had Known as a New Teachers Pay Teachers Seller". It is a must read for new and veteran sellers alike!

Another awesome website that Chris has co-founded with fellow teachers Todd Nesloney and Stacey Huffine is called EduAllStars. This website is full of podcasts (or video interviews) with educators from around the world. It is like free professional development! To date, there are over 50 podcasts to chose from. One of my favorites is

with top TpT seller Deanna Jump. 

Since Chris is known for interviewing educators in his podcasts, I thought it'd be fun to get to know him better by interviewing him with a little Q & A session! Here are my questions and his responses.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Do you have a family? How long have you been teaching? A: I’ve been teaching middle school science for 5 years in the Houston area.  This year I’m moving to a brand new school in the Cy-Fair school district, and I’m super excited about having a state of the art science lab to teach in.  My wife teaches elementary school and last summer we adopted a baby boy named Colin.  He is the joy of our life, and we’re having a ton of fun this summer together. Q: How & when did you get started with TpT? A: My wife introduced me to TpT last fall after she purchased a couple of products.  She felt like I could sell products on the site and that it would be a great fit with my skill set.  I poked around the site for a few days and then stumbled onto one of my friend’s stores, Math Coach’s Corner.  I was floored by the following that she had and saw the potential immediately.  I reached out to her on Twitter and we setup a conference call.  I fired dozens of questions her way, and I’ve been full force ever since.  I’m forever grateful

for her mentorship that day.  

Q: Where & when did the idea for Eduallstars.com and TpTschool.com come from? A: The idea of EduAllStars started last spring when my co-host, Todd Nesloney, and I were talking about all of the incredible educators that we were connecting with on Twitter.  A friend of ours has a podcast called Techlandia, and we setup a Google Hangout with him to talk through some of the technical aspects of hosting a podcast.  From there we have done a weekly interview with some of the biggest game changers in the education field.  We’ve even been able to interview the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.

The idea of TpTSchool came about because I felt like there wasn’t a place that had good information for someone new to TpT.  The forums are a great start, but to assimilate all of that information can be daunting for a newbie.  The blog is also a  place for me to reflect on what works and doesn’t work for me on TpT.  Hopefully others can learn

from my experiences through that process.  Q: Do you have other websites? A: I have a couple of other websites that I maintain as well.  I blog about my science classroom at KeslerScience.com I also run GeniusHour.com which was a lot of fun when I had some autonomy in the classroom.  Lastly, I own StubSearch.comwhich has nothing to do with education, but has provided me with a supplemental income for the last 8 years.  Q: Can you give a short description of each of your educational websites? A: KeslerScience.com – My personal blog where I talk about the on goings in my middle school science classroom. GeniusHour.com – A movement that allows students to take charge of their own learning by allowing them to learn about whatever they want to for 20% of the time that they are in class.  It’s modeled after some major corporations that offer 20% time projects for their employees EduAllStars.com – A podcast that does weekly interviews with the difference makers in education. TpTSchool.com – A resource for Teachers pay Teachers sellers that helps them to increase productivity and maximize profits.

Q: How do you juggle teaching, TpT, blogging and family life? A: This is a great question.  On top of everything that I’ve already listed I’m also in grad school which takes up a considerable amount of my week.  Our son is still young and fortunately has a great sleeping routine.  I try very hard to work on a lot of my projects when he is asleep because I don’t want to miss spending time with him.  My wife has been super supportive of my efforts over the last year and has taken on more responsibility around the house to allow me to grow my business.  I’d be lying if I said that there weren’t some sacrifices along the way.  You won’t find any successful entrepreneur that will tell you differently.  I try and limit my tasks to 1-3 highly focused things per day.  That saves me from feeling overwhelmed and helps me manage my time.  The potential of a widely successful TpT store is such a great motivator, but nothing good comes without hard work.

Q: What are your top 5 must check out blog posts and/or podcasts? A: 

In no particular order: Teach Like a Pirate Interview with Dave Burgess Interview with Todd Whitaker The Ultimate Guide to Getting Started on Teachers pay Teachers Analyzing TpTConversion Rates Open Notes Assessments in the Science Classroom

Q & A with Chris Kesler