My name is Mel and I live in New South Wales, Australia. I have created this blog - Frog Spot - as a place to share photos and stories about teaching, learning, creating, document design, motherhood and loving cups of tea!
I am a teacher, mother, wife and business owner to name just a few - and quite often my blog posts will be about one of these!
My husband and I started our business From the Pond as a hobby back in 2005. It has been a lot of hard work but a wonderful journey. We started selling hand made teaching resources on eBay - lots of printing, cutting and laminating! I had a dream to make my resources "instantly available" and so learned all about pdf files and downloadable files. We started our own website in 2009. We have sold lots of resources to teachers across Australia from our website. Our main aim has been to make our resources affordable to teachers and offset the cost of running the website. Thankfully I have needed to remain teaching in the classroom to make an income - as this is my main passion!
I entered the world of "blogging" through friends I have made on the website TeacherspayTeachers. We also sell our digital teaching resources on this website. Our TpT store sells many of the items that are available on our website, but in fonts and spellings that better suit a global market.
Our blog is not a traditional classroom blog. I am a classroom teacher but for many reasons, I am not comfortable blogging about what specifically happens in my classroom. I do love reading other classroom blogs, and have no problem with the idea of classroom blogs in general. I also do not sell and 'market' resources that I make for my students or classroom. I have always seen From the Pond as a commercial venture (even as a hobby I was taking it in that direction) and teaching as an incredibly personal and private venture, between my students, the families, the school and I. I am not sure how I could mix the two.
I have always kept my life as a teacher, and my life as a teaching-resource-designer (whatever you want to call it!) entirely separate. I will always blog about my experience as a teacher in general. Teaching and learning is the foundation of my whole life. It has been for as long as I can remember. Even without my classroom and school, I would remain a teacher. But my classroom and my little people are separate. What I do here is just me. I cannot explain it any other way, but I hope that makes sense.
Our blog is not a traditional classroom blog. I am a classroom teacher but for many reasons, I am not comfortable blogging about what specifically happens in my classroom. I do love reading other classroom blogs, and have no problem with the idea of classroom blogs in general. I also do not sell and 'market' resources that I make for my students or classroom. I have always seen From the Pond as a commercial venture (even as a hobby I was taking it in that direction) and teaching as an incredibly personal and private venture, between my students, the families, the school and I. I am not sure how I could mix the two.
I have always kept my life as a teacher, and my life as a teaching-resource-designer (whatever you want to call it!) entirely separate. I will always blog about my experience as a teacher in general. Teaching and learning is the foundation of my whole life. It has been for as long as I can remember. Even without my classroom and school, I would remain a teacher. But my classroom and my little people are separate. What I do here is just me. I cannot explain it any other way, but I hope that makes sense.
I have also recently explored a long held interest in "graphic design". I use that term cautiously, as I am aware that I am only an amateur and just learning skills. It is something I have wanted to do since I was a child really. Drawing and making have been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have done a night course at TAFE to get me started and I continue to learn the way I learn best - by trying out things out and having a go. Consequently, I share many of my graphics for free through my TpT store for other teachers to use.
From the Pond, and this blog, have allowed me to combine many of my interests and abilities. It has allowed me to pursue areas of my teaching that, to this point, I have not had the opportunity or encouragement to develop in my paid employment. I have been able to network with other teachers across the globe. I am loving every second of it! Thank you for visiting and I hope you will follow me and leave some comments too!
