Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Polk.
Hi Megan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your back story.
Being a “severe” military brat (both of my parents were in the United States Army), the one thing I did not have when it came to school was consistency. Outside of us moving every 2-3 years, every school my sisters and I attended was vastly different than the previous which made it hard to truly get acclimated. I heavily relied on my teachers to help me, but many of my teachers did not go the extra mile for a transitional child like me.
I knew I had a gift to teach children at an early age. I also knew I had an entrepreneurial passion at that same young age. I got hired for babysitting jobs and where most 13-year-olds would just play with playdough, play tag, or watch movies, I would be teaching kids how to write their names with upper and lowercase letters, how to skip count, and how to write complete sentences. Parents were blown away when they would return from a 3-hour date night to their child writing their name in cursive or even liking to write at all!
It was no surprise I would go to college and get my degree in Early Childhood Education. My first college assignment was to write an essay about the influential teachers in my life. It was then it hit me – I could not recall the majority of my teachers. Not only that, but I also couldn’t remember anything about their classrooms, and I couldn’t remember what the school looked like; everything was a complete blur. I could, however, recall my 6th-grade teacher and my 9th-grade journalism teacher. My essay turned out to be more about how I didn’t have influential teachers and that is why I wanted to become a teacher.
I wanted to create environments and establish relationships for every child, especially children like me. I desire to be a teacher who is remembered when one of her former students has to write an essay like this. I mentioned the two teachers who took the time to notice and help me and ultimately, I knew I was in the right department and got an A+ on my assignment.
I have had the incredible honor of teaching in Tennessee while obtaining my master’s degree and then moved to Georgia followed by Texas. I worked in Title I schools where access to resources and experiences was limited by my students. I was presented with many challenges. As I moved up in grade level, I saw the learning gap widen and widen. Some of my 4th graders arrived in my classroom on a kindergarten and 1st-grade reading level.
This is where I remembered my gift. I would spend hours and weekend after weekend adapting to the curriculum so my students could learn. This required me to simplify the language, create additional examples to model, and gather many visual aids and objects to make learning tangible and fun. Engagement increased, willingness to try increased, and achievement (grades and test scores) improved pretty significantly. Creating resources and learning material became part of my day-to-day life. Always with a student in mind, I would begin making the necessary adaptations to guarantee success.
Eventually, many district-level administrators and other teachers would observe my teaching practices and classroom structure on a routine basis. This landed me an opportunity to partner with new-to-teaching or new-to-the-district cohorts which I would be responsible for coaching and supporting them. Soon after, I presented professional development sessions for the district and then branched out to statewide literacy conferences. I always created material and made it available for educators to take back to their respective schools. After one particular out-of-state conference, a teacher approached me asking if I sold my resources. Awestruck, I had to inquire about what she meant because I never considered such a thing.
This is when I was introduced to Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) in 2015. I thought it would be so rewarding to support other teachers around the world by potentially gaining some of the same results as I was with my varying groups of students. I remember opening my store (Miss P’s Style) at a Starbucks and making my first sale where I pocketed 70 cents because of the huge non-member commission. I immediately paid the member fee and I started to see $1.70 on a $2 product. I instantly thought of how many books and resources I could get for my classroom without solely coming out of my wallet.
I thought about how many resources I could send home with students during long breaks and over the summer with the extra money I could make on the website. After 6 months, I was making a couple hundred dollars per month, and I was ecstatic! I decided to make many of my self-made activities “suitable for selling” and soon the few hundred dollars in a month turned into one thousand. I continued creating, based on the needs of my students, and continued posting my resources for sale. After a few years of hard work and dedication, by 2018, I was blown away to witness TPT exceeding my teaching salary!
I continued teaching because I loved it, and would work evenings, nights, and weekends on my “side hustle”. I resigned from teaching in 2021 ahead of my relocation from Texas to Tennessee. I figured this would be the perfect time to take the big leap and work on my TPT business full-time. I ended up rebranding my business to The Literacy Dive and dedicated my efforts to supporting upper elementary educators and students in the areas of literacy: reading and writing.
I gained a huge Instagram teacher following (@theliteracydive), started a teacher podcast (The Literacy Dive Podcast), and in the last year and a half created a writing membership (The Daily Writing Disguise). I also conduct workshops at various schools and present sessions at the Get Your Teach On (National and Regional) conferences where I get the opportunity to teach and connect with thousands of teachers through that network.
Students are always my driving factor. Every child can learn but sometimes the delivery of the content has to be modified. The life of a teacher is busy, and I am thrilled to have the capacity to create and supply them with resources that achieve the intended results.
I like to say that I am an “accidental entrepreneur”, stumbling into ownership of a teaching and curriculum business, but The Literacy Dive has changed my life and has allowed me to make a greater impact in education.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In one word: NO. I mentioned that I was an “accidental entrepreneur” who went to college for Early Childhood Education. A big challenge for me was accounting and bookkeeping. Keeping track of income, expenses, taxes… all the numbers and percentages give me a headache and that has been a major adjustment for me transitioning into owning a business.
On the creative side, I faced imposter syndrome time and time again. This was a massive struggle for me for at least the first 5 years of my business. The syndrome pops up here and there, but I am much more confident in my role and offerings, and that prevents me from chasing after shiny objects that were not a part of my plan.
Also, I tend to be a perfectionist who procrastinates and that was the very opposite of other business owners I would collaborate with. Schedules and deadlines are tough for me, but they also give me a sense of accountability and routine. I am still in the process of designing a schedule that works for me and it is challenging. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. This allowed me to have a great amount of empathy and grace for myself. MANY things began clicking and making sense to me. Instead of looking at ADHD as a negative disorder, I quickly realized how powerful and supercharged my gift of ADHD was. I have many unique strengths, and I now use those to my advantage.
I love teaching. I was born to be an educator and transitioning out of the classroom after 15 years of teaching has maybe been one of the biggest challenges. I struggle with not being in the same shoes as other teachers right now. Through active teaching, I had a front-row seat as to what my students needed, and they were always a source of inspiration. I do not feel unrelatable to teachers or that I am unaware of student needs, I just really miss being with students every day and teaching them to the best of my ability.
I appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Literacy Dive?
The Literacy Dive aims to close the gaps in upper elementary literacy by providing educators with student-centered activities and scaffolds that will accelerate learning and mastery – all to develop skilled readers and writers. We believe in best practices and stay current in research to design literacy curricula and supplemental material that will provide students with the tools, experiences, and support they need to become lifelong readers and writers.
We make the lives of teachers and homeschool parents easier by resourcing them with the tools and resources needed to meet students where they are. Carefully crafting and curating high-interest activities, anchor charts, and lessons that will spark engagement, increase motivation, and build stamina is our specialty. The Literacy Dive is known for placing a high priority on writing as this is an area where many students experience a lack of foundational skills.
The Literacy Dive considers the whole child. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach, so the way we differentiate our material to support the different learning styles and learning differences that are present within a single classroom sets us apart from others.
Over 290,000 units (individual resources and bundles) are being used in classrooms and homes across the world to date and The Literacy Dive resources are currently being used in over 35 different countries (that I can account for) which blows my mind!
Our resources are easy to use, kid-friendly, and offer a unique approach to language skills and mastering literacy concepts. Whether grabbing a resource or two from Teachers Pay Teachers or joining The Daily Writing Disguise membership, our products are high-quality and priced fair and affordable.
The Literacy Dive Podcast is completely free to listen to with new episodes airing every Monday. I love connecting with teachers, homeschool educators, administrators, and parents so do not hesitate to reach out with questions or for assistance! Please share my business profile with anyone you feel could benefit from elementary literacy support!
We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
1. That I have ADHD-combined type. Many people see me as type A, super organized, and well-planned out. They don’t see behind-the-scenes: cluttered desktop, 105 browser tabs open on my computer and in my brain, working best overnight when the world is quiet, and that my best ideas come to me at the last minute, hence my procrastination.
- My favorite subject is math! I love solving word problems and equations (this math is much different than accounting and taxes lol). Everyone assumes my favorite subjects are English Language Arts and Reading because that is what I specialize in and I DO love it, but math has always been my favorite!
- Many of my followers or people who know me know that I have a love for lattes; however, many of them do not know that my dream job when all is said and done, is to be a coffee blogger and travel the world trying lattes and sharing all about it. I want to combine my two passions: traveling and trying all the local seasonal lattes! I do have coffee highlights on my Instagram where I photograph almost every latte, I drink but that is captured on a very low scale from what I want to do!
Contact Info:
- Website: theliteracydive.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theliteracydive/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLiteracyDive
- Other: https://theliteracydive.mykajabi.com/
Image Credits
Amalie Orrange and David Erickson Photography
