My First SLANT Box Experience

Have you heard of SLANT boxes? They are a fantastic way for educators to network and support one another in our teaching journey! Hosted by Jameson at Lessons With Coffee, I found out about SLANT when I was doing some of my daily blog reading and saw that another user had just received their SLANT box. Since I LOVE to give gifts and I don't mind I love receiving them too, I decided to look in to it. I joined for the September exchange, hoping for the best, not entirely sure what to expect.

Once you send your information to Jameson, she matches you up and then sends you the name of your two matches, one who will be sending to you and one that you will be sending to. Our theme for the month was "Teacher Voice On", which meant we should send teacher-type of items that will help us to enjoy our new school year. I was super duper excited to "meet" my SLANT exchange buddies. 

My match who sent to me was the lovely Meredith from Teaching With a Twist. 

Meredith asked me lots of great questions to get to know me so I knew my SLANT box would be awesome before it ever arrived. 

I was SOOOO excited when I saw this waiting on my doorstep! 

Look at all of the goodies in here: stickers, M&M's, pumpkin candle, personalized to-do lists, post-it notes, fun colors of pens, and more! So many of my favorite teaching items! Meredith did an awesome job putting my SLANT box together! It was clear that she took the time to "get to know" me. My first received SLANT box = success! 

My SLANT partner who I sent to is the lovely Rachel from Third Grade Cupcakes. I won't lie, I was totally excited when I saw that her name was not only the same as mine, but spelled the same as well. There's this unspoken bond between Rachels that don't spell their name with an a anywhere near that e! 

As I learned about Rachel, a Massachusetts blogger (and you all know that I love MA), I realized that she and I had tons of common. Of course, this made it super easy to shop for her, other than the fact that everything I bought for her, I wanted for me too! Since she's a cupcake eater and maker, I wanted to play on that with her favorite colors. I'm lucky to know Sarah from The Monogramming Teacher, who makes adorable personalized items. She was able to design a vinyl cupcake with Rachel's name (Mrs. Mack) for a clear clipboard, keychain, and cup. They came out awesome! I put everything in Rachel's favorite colors of pink and blue. Again, it was a blast to put together! Here's the picture that Rachel posted when she received it! SHE LOVED IT! It made me feel so good that I did so well with my first SLANT gift exchange, especially because I was able to brighten Rachel's day! 

I will definitely do SLANT again when things calm down a bit here. In the meantime, we have secret pals at work so my need for gift-giving will still be fulfilled and one of my very best friends has a birthday coming up too so I'm still in a place of giving! 

I have to send a huge thank you to both Rachel and Meredith for making my first SLANT box experience a great one. If you've never done SLANT boxes, try it sometime. I can tell you that my experience was nothing but fantastic! A huge thank you to Jameson for setting up this wonderful exchange! Head over to her blog to learn more about The Slant Box!