Why I Ask Educators To Review My Free Classroom Resources
The bell had rung 12 minutes earlier, and I was stacking ungraded math quizzes on my desk when Mia poked her head back through my third-grade classroom door. She’d left her neon pink water bottle by the reading nook, and stopped short when she saw the stack of emotion check-in printouts I’d just trimmed on my corner table. “What’s that?” she asked, stepping closer. I told her they were sheets kids could fill out to tell me how they were feeling before class started, if they didn’t want to say it out loud. She picked one up, ran her finger over the small blank box that says “I need help with: ___” and looked up at me. “Can I take one for reading? My stomach hurts when I have to read out loud and I never know how to tell Ms. Lee.”
I made those check-ins after a semester of noticing half my quiet kids never spoke up when I circled the room asking how everyone was doing. They’d just shrug and say “fine” even when I could see they were twisting their hoodie strings so hard their knuckles went white. I adjusted the sheets over 16 weeks: I made the font 2 points bigger for kids who struggle with small text, cut out the cutesy graphics that distracted my students with ADHD, and left extra blank space instead of forcing kids to pick from pre-written options that never cover things like “my dog is sick” or “I fought with my best friend this morning.” I fixed the formatting so it prints right on any home printer, and added a plain black and white version so teachers don’t waste colored ink. Then I uploaded them for free to my teacher resource page, because I wish I’d had something like this when I started teaching eight years ago.
But I ended every download prompt with one request: if you use this, please leave a quick review. I get a lot of quiet questions about this, from other new teacher creators who think I’m chasing high ratings to boost my profile. I don’t make any money from any of my resources, so that’s never been the point. I learned how useless most un-reviewed resources are my second year teaching, when I printed 30 sets of morning meeting prompts I’d downloaded for free that claimed to be perfect for 8- to 9-year-olds. All the prompts were about summer camp and family ski trips, and I had five kids who’d never left the state for vacation, let alone gone to camp. Half the lines were too small for my students with dyslexia, and I wasted an entire evening and a full ink cartridge on something I couldn’t use. If just one teacher who’d used it before me had left a 2-sentence review noting that context, I could have saved that time.
That’s all I want: honest, context-rich notes that help other teachers and caregivers figure out if a resource will work for them before they invest their time and supplies. Most reviews on resource sites are generic “great resource!” or “love this!” That doesn’t tell you anything. What does tell you something is a review that says “I used this with my small special education 4th grade class, and the big font worked really well for my kids” or “I teach 1st grade, and the cards were too small for my kids’ hands, so I enlarged them 120% and that fixed it.” That kind of review takes two minutes to write, and it’s worth more than any generic 5-star rating.
It’s not just for teachers, either. A lot of parents download my free homework and practice resources to use over summer break or for extra help at home, and their perspective is just as useful. Last year a grandmother left a review on my multiplication fact flashcards that said “I’m doing at-home practice with my grandson, and these printed great from my old phone. I cut them out and we play war with them every night.” That told me the file works for people printing from phones, which I’d never tested myself, and gave other caregivers a new way to use the resource.
I don’t need everyone to love what I make. If you use my emotion check-ins and your kids think they’re babyish, that’s fine—just say that. If you’re a middle school counselor who adapted them for hallway check-ins and they worked great, say that. Any detail helps. A few months ago a 5th grade teacher left a review noting that her kids didn’t want other kids to see what they wrote, so she kept a locked folder by the door for kids to turn them in privately. I added that tip to the resource description the next day, and now dozens of other teachers use that trick. That’s the whole point of sharing resources, right? We all tweak what we use to fit our own kids, and sharing those tweaks helps everyone.
Concrete, low-effort action is all I ask. You don’t need to write a paragraph, you don’t need to proofread, you don’t need to be polite if something doesn’t work. Just tell other people what your setting is, and one small thing you noticed. That’s it. I’ve adjusted six of my most popular resources in the last year based on small review notes, and every change has made them work better for more people.
Last week Mia stopped by my room after school again, and told me her check-in worked. Ms. Lee let her practice her reading in the empty hallway before she presented to the whole class, and her stomach only hurt a little bit. That’s the best outcome I could ask for with this resource, but I know it won’t go that well for every kid, in every classroom. Some teachers won’t have extra space to keep the check-ins out, some kids won’t want to write their feelings down at all. I’m still adjusting the resource every few months, based on what other people tell me in reviews. I don’t need perfect ratings, I just need the truth. Right now, that’s more helpful than any praise could be.
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