About

What is Teaching Resources? Who is Laura Candler? How did this site develop? If you’ve ever wondered, this is the place to find out! To begin, I’m a classroom teacher who has spent years writing books and developing a huge collection of free online printables. If you visited this page to learn more about my qualifications, you can visit Laura’s Bio for general background information and a list of my published books. If you want to learn the Teaching Resources story, read on!
 

The Evolution of Teaching Resources

Before the Internet

I’ve been teaching for almost 30 years, and I’ve always loved to collaborate with other educators and share teaching ideas. I enjoy attending workshops and learning new strategies, and when they work for me, I want to share them. The most powerful workshop I attended was a cooperative learning workshop by Laurie Kagan of Kagan Cooperative Learning. Those strategies revolutionized my teaching, so I submitted a book proposal that combined my lesson ideas with Kagan’s cooperative learning methods. My proposal was accepted, and I eventually wrote six books for Kagan; those books are still in print and available from www.kaganonline.com.

Creation of Teaching Resources

A few years later, in 1997, I logged onto the Internet for the first time. I immediately loved its collaborative spirit. I joined an active discussion group and enjoyed learning new ideas and sharing materials online. I knew I wanted my own website, so I taught myself FrontPage and created Teaching Resources. I needed a way to organize all the activities I wanted to share, so it seemed natural to create an online File Cabinet organized with file drawers for each subject. Through the years I added other webpages with strategy information such as Cooperative Learning, Literature Circles, and Mastery Learning

From Amateur Site to Online Business

For the first 10 years of my website’s existence, everything was free. It gives me great pleasure to share my blackline masters with other teachers and I love getting emails from teachers who used my materials in their classrooms. Earning money from my site wasn’t even a consideration at that point. Then reality hit in 2007 when I realized that my two teenage daughters, Wendy and Amy, were getting close to college age and my teaching salary wouldn't cover the cost of their education. I decided to turn my website into a business by writing some books and offering them for sale on my site. I hoped that if people liked my free materials, they might be willing to pay for additional materials that were more comprehensive and complete. Thankfully, I was right!

Becoming an Entrepreneur

As a teacher without any business experience, learning how to turn an amateur website into a business was quite an experience. Quite by accident, I connected with just the right person at just the right time - someone who guided me through the whole process in a step-by-step manner. Soon I began sending out Candler’s Classroom Connections, my email newsletters, and I wrote my first Power Pack. I also had to figure out how to put a PayPal button on my site, but all of these learning experiences were fun! Later I moved my newsletter to Constant Contact which allowed me to reach even more educators. I’ve been amazed at how much money it takes to run a website as a business! It takes several hundred dollars a month to pay the basic expenses, so I’ve had to find creative ways to cover these costs. By adding links to my favorite books at Amazon.com, along with ads through Google, I’ve been able to generate enough money to keep my site online. My biggest obstacle was lack of time; as a practicing classroom teacher I wanted be sure my students were never neglected. Fortunately, I found that creating materials for my website made me an even better teacher!

Time for a Change

After a few months of operating as a business, I took a long, hard look at my site. I realized that the whole website needed to be overhauled and rebuilt. It was like an old quilt that had been patched together in too many places, and it needed a fresh new look. I also realized I needed a shopping cart system which would be easier and more reliable for customers. I knew that the scope of this project was beyond my basic programming skills, so I began looking for a web designer. I thought I found someone reliable and professional, but that company dragged the project out for months and eventually the whole thing stalled. I cut my losses, which amounted to several thousand dollars, and began looking for another designer. By following links from a site that I liked, I found Doug Brown Design, a company located right here in North Carolina. Doug came up with the design for this site, and I loved it immediately. But it took many more months and many thousands of dollars to create all the pages, move all the content, and link all the files. I’m pleased with the final result, and I hope that you will find the new site easy to navigate and a pleasure to use.

Thanks to My Supporters!

Thanks to the thousands of teachers who visit Teaching Resources every day, my site remains profitable. In fact, I’ve been able to pay for Wendy's first year of college without going into debt! I am so grateful for the teachers who use my site regularly and share it with their colleagues. My subscriber list for Candler’s Classroom Connections has grown to over 14,500 members! Every time you purchase a Power Pack or buy a book from Amazon through my site, you are helping me to keep the Teaching Resources site online. Thanks for your ongoing support!