My name is Jordan, otherwise known as Miss B. I am a 7th grade ELA teacher from New England. As I am writing this, I am just about to start my 4th year as a middle school teacher!

Entering my 4th year as a teacher, I feel that I have changed so much over the past few years. I have learned and grew in many ways. I started my Teachers Pay Teachers store back during my first year teaching but, being a busy first year teacher, I didn’t have the time to devote to my store.

The first year teaching is BY FAR the hardest. Between getting over the fear of messing up, dealing with classroom management, figuring out your curriculum, and more, there is little to no time to actually enjoy yourself and to figure out who you are as a teacher. In my first year teaching, I came into the classroom close to mid-year. My students were thrown back and forth with substitute teachers, other classroom teachers, and administrators before I became their teacher. Therefore, it was a huge struggle to gain authority and respect with that group of students. I found myself trying SO HARD to come up with activities that would make them excited to come into my classroom everyday. But you can imagine, I did not have time to be obsessing over these activities. So, I would scour the web for HOURS trying to find activities to do in my classroom. Oftentimes, I would find myself on TPT at the end of every day. 

Being a middle school teacher is not for the weak. This is the age where they are too cool to do anything silly but too young to find purpose in essays or basic projects. Their brains are so busy thinking about brainrot and hormones, that they don’t have the full capacity to think about grammar or reading strategies. Part of the struggle for me in my first year teaching was figuring out what my students actually enjoyed. I knew they liked working together. I knew they liked scary stuff. I knew they liked to argue. So, that was where I started.

In the very little free time I had, I started making resources that I and my students needed. Resources that fed the minds of any type of learner, whether that be a hands-on learner or a visual learner. Resources that allowed them to not just sit solo at a desk and think about whatever concept we were learning. 

For example, we were working on our argumentative unit. The kids were complaining about when they would ever have to use this in the real world (ugh). So I explained to them a variety of situations when they would need argumentative skills. “What if you want to become a lawyer? Or a journalist? Or a crime scene investigator.” When they left, I began scouring the web again. This time, looking for some real world type of activity that would help them see the importance of this topic, while still practicing the standards. I specifically wanted to see if I could find some sort of “crime scene investigation” because I knew they liked creepy stuff. While I did find crime scene investigations, I found that they were all very elementary. They all seemed to focus on animal characters or light-hearted “crimes.” Not that I wanted something too graphic… but gaining the attention of an 8th grader is not an easy feat… 

I spent that next weekend writing my Crime Scene Investigation for Argumentative Writing. “Mrs. Smith’s body was found in her home with only her dog as a witness, what happened?” I came in the next Monday, crime scene tape in hand, fake tears in my eyes, and I began the act of a lifetime. The kids spent the entire class period shuffling through evidence, arguing their claims, and defending their witness’ honor. This was the first day of my teaching career that not a single student sat out. Every student in attendance was hands-on and LEARNING.

My goal with my TPT store is to create resources like this one for teachers that don’t have the time to do it from scratch. To make resources for first year me, with so much on my plate, and only a vision of what I wanted. My goal is to create resources that are rigorous, but fun. Resources that are visually clean for the young, aesthetic teacher in me, but also kid-friendly and age-appropriate. Resources that will be loved by any student in your classroom.
Behind the scenes, you can find me brainstorming ideas for both my classroom and yours. Still being in the classroom means I 100% understand the struggles that we are all facing as teachers in 2025. I understand the struggle between digital and paper products. The struggle of TikTok stricken, 13-year old brains. The struggle of teaching to the standards while also teaching our students HOW to be life-long learners.

The joy of hearing from other teachers who use my products keeps me going and ensures that I never want to stop creating. I have had the pleasure of reading reviews on how engaged students are using my products, and it ensures me that I am doing the right thing!

If you too are feeling some struggles in your classroom or in your life that don’t allow you the time to create engaging products as often as you would like, follow my TPT so I can do the work for you!

Thanks for reading!

Miss B