Mary’s Blog

September, 2022

I worked with schools from 1995-2020 assisting with the use of technology to promote teaching and learning. Prior to 1995, I worked for a variety of companies as a programmer and end-user trainer.

In 2019, my husband retired and we relocated from St. Louis, MO to Lido Beach, NY with my mother. The plan was for me to continue to provide technology training to teachers (in-person and online) as well as teach online. Like everyone else, my life changed drastically in 2020.

The pandemic was not the only issue for us. I was also diagnosed with cancer in January, 2020, had surgery in February, and went through my first round of chemo (April, 2020 – June, 2020). We did fine. Made it through. And let me say, do the cancer screenings! Colonoscopies, mammograms, etc. If caught early, cancer is beatable.

The funny thing about having cancer is they continue to do tests after the chemo is over. Those tests caught my second cancer in April, 2022. So once again, I had another round of chemo (May, 2022 – July, 2022) as well as two surgeries. Once again, I will be going through additional testing. Hopefully there will not a third cancer diagnosis in my future.

So where do I go from here? I am not ready to retire! I have decided to focus on building content to support curriculum using various technology apps. Stay tuned, but please give me a couple of months! As I begin revamping the TISHelp webpage and building content apps, I will post additional information.

Oct, 2022

I’ve decided to start a weekly/monthly blog to add some accountability to my work schedule. Being self-employed/semi-retired, it is easy to let things slide. So I thought I would post the various things I have worked on every Wednesday. I have been working on updating the Backdoor Project workshop, videos, etc. The Backdoor project is designed to use online products (like Boom) using teacher submitted content. It is difficult for some teachers to create their own content due to lack of time, skills, etc. Using ready-made content can be difficult, because it doesn’t quite match (like putting a round peg in a square hole). Our goal with the Backdoor project is to create products using teacher submitted content. The submitting teacher would get the product for free. TISHelp will offer the product to other teachers using our online stores for a nominal fee ($1 or less). We really are just trying to cover the cost of this website as well as the subscriptions to Teachers Pay Teachers and Boom. If you are interested in finding out more, click the link above or contact me at mary@tishelp.com

Dec, 2022

So much for sticking to writing a weekly/monthly blog! I have been brainstorming projects/apps that would help teachers. I especially want to offer services that would allow teachers to submit their content. If you have some vocab words you would like to use with your students, check out the 3rd Grade Vocabulary Matching app on Boom. If you like, just send me (mary@tishelp.com) your vocab words with definitions and I’ll make a similar app for you.