<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Innovative Middle School STEM]]></title><description><![CDATA[Innovative Middle School STEM]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:57:34 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[From 94th Percentile on TPT in 2 Months To 6656 Best Store and No Time to Grow]]></title><description><![CDATA[I hit the 94th percentile on TPT in 2 months, saw my store ranked around 6,656, and instead of calmly building a beautiful business plan, I stared at the screen like a raccoon holding a shiny spoon. Proud? Yes. Confused? Also yes. Ready to scale? Absolutely not. I have lesson plans, life plans, laundry piles with their own zip codes, and a brain full of product ideas that arrive at 11:47 p.m. like tiny caffeinated gremlins. This is the weird part of growing a TPT store. The store can start...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/from-94th-percentile-on-tpt-in-2-months-to-6656-best-store-and-no-time-to-grow</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aad7629df3a8fe3ae4ce536</guid><pubDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2026 17:34:39 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Never Enough Hours in the Day Teacher Burnout and the Struggle to Do It All]]></title><description><![CDATA[There is a particular kind of tired that only happens after teaching five different classes, coaching after school, answering seventeen variations of “Can I still turn this in?” and then realizing you never updated tomorrow’s learning intention on the board. It’s not regular tired. Regular tired can be fixed with a nap. This is teacher tired. This is “I opened my laptop at 8:47 p.m. to grade one assignment and woke up to my cat judging me” tired. And the worst part? It’s not even that...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/never-enough-hours-in-the-day-teacher-burnout-and-the-struggle-to-do-it-all</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aa2f2b87f7369fb3bd09239</guid><pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2026 18:23:09 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[10 AI Prompts Every Teacher Can Use to Save 5 Hours of Prep This Week]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some weeks, lesson prep feels less like planning and more like wrestling a printer that smells fear. There’s the worksheet that needs a refresh, the lab that needs safety notes, the reading that needs three levels, the emails, the rubrics, the feedback, the “Can I have an extension?” messages, and somehow a copier jam featuring one heroic crumpled page from 2009. AI will not grade your essays perfectly, manage bathroom passes, or stop a pencil sharpener from sounding like a chainsaw during...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/10-ai-prompts-every-teacher-can-use-to-save-5-hours-of-prep-this-week</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9b16b65936f8fee6c2dee7</guid><pubDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 19:10:14 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Veteran vs New TPT Sellers Why AI Is Dividing Teachers]]></title><description><![CDATA[A funny thing happens when teachers start selling resources online: the same people who can calmly manage 32 seventh graders after indoor recess can absolutely lose it over a thumbnail. And lately, the spark is AI. The split between veteran TPT sellers and new TPT sellers is getting louder. Some experienced sellers are generous, encouraging, and full of practical advice. They answer questions, share mistakes, and remind everyone that no one starts with perfect previews, perfect covers, or...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/veteran-vs-new-tpt-sellers-why-ai-is-dividing-teachers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a90e82d35809d196a3f5e64</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 01:45:40 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Classroom Decorating Dreams vs Fire Code Reality]]></title><description><![CDATA[I have a beautiful classroom in my head. It has cozy lights, flexible seating, student work everywhere, clever STEM stations, a holiday corner that looks like joy put on a sweater, and enough outlets to power a small moon base. Then I open my actual classroom door. There are two 3D printers humming like tiny factory robots, touchscreens, pencil sharpeners, chargers, printers, cords, bins, mystery adapters, one ancient wall outlet doing the emotional labor of twelve devices, and a fire code...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/classroom-decorating-dreams-vs-fire-code-reality</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8e2eb728d0cf71ca03e4bf</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 00:14:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/38d64b_a681bb926eb3454bac8ab3b8a0e7c444~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[From TPT Creator to Coach Juggling Business Teaching and Two Flag Football Teams]]></title><description><![CDATA[I thought uploading 200-plus products to TPT while teaching full-time and building a website was enough chaos for one human life. Apparently, I was wrong. Because now I have added a new title to the collection: Coach. Not assistant coach. Not “I’ll help pass out cones” coach. I’m talking actual coach. And not for one team either. I’m coaching the boys flag football team and the girls flag football team at the same time, with coed practices, limited field space, a clipboard in my hand, and a...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/from-tpt-creator-to-coach-juggling-business-teaching-and-two-flag-football-teams</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a87b92ea474e2c461fa66b1</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 02:36:29 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What I Learned From Creating 200+ Middle School STEM Resources on Teachers Pay Teachers]]></title><description><![CDATA[By the end of summer, my laptop and I had developed the kind of relationship usually reserved for survival movies. I spent almost my entire break creating, revising, organizing, formatting, and uploading resources. Not casually. Not “I worked on this a little between pool days.” I mean close to 16 hours a day on many days, with snacks for meals and that weird teacher-summer energy where you forget what day it is but somehow know exactly which fonts look best on a student handout. What started...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/what-i-learned-from-creating-200-middle-school-stem-resources-on-teachers-pay-teachers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a864d426c395e7dcc3a07fd</guid><pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:51:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/38d64b_ad7fe685f962466bbcd04acd250ee84c~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[From TPT to My Own Website: How One STEM Lesson Grew into Something Bigger]]></title><description><![CDATA[I didn’t start this with a logo, a launch plan, or some perfectly organized business notebook. I started with classroom lessons. On July 14, 2026, I opened the door to something I thought would be pretty simple. I had already made a bunch of STEM activities for my own middle school students, and I figured I might as well put them somewhere other teachers could use them too. If it helped me make a little extra income, even better. That was honestly the whole plan. I wasn’t trying to become a...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/from-tpt-to-my-own-website-how-one-stem-lesson-grew-into-something-bigger</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8504dd6e0912670a0979e6</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 01:28:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/38d64b_ee09d7c5604544568e2ebf24c7caef30~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Index Card Tower Challenge for Middle School STEM That Actually Works]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some STEM challenges look great on Pinterest and then fall apart the second 28 seventh graders touch them. The index card tower challenge is not one of those. This one is cheap, fast to set up, easy to explain, and just chaotic enough to make the room feel alive without turning into a full indoor weather event. Students build, test, fail, redesign, argue lovingly about triangles, and suddenly they’re using engineering vocabulary like they’ve been hired by a tiny architecture firm. Even...]]></description><link>https://www.innovativemiddleschoolstem.com/post/index-card-tower-challenge-for-middle-school-stem-that-actually-works</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a84cc1608752169b9aa92fd</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 21:20:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/38d64b_5796a4f052eb48c4bdbbff23ccf755f1~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_768,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Justin Allemang [Cashman MS]</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>