2009 has been a year of huge growth for SuperTeacherTools.com.  The site has really grown from the one classroom review game (Flash Jeopardy) that I put online to make it easier for me to access it in school.

Now the site has several different review games, a number of popular classroom management tools (seating chart maker, random name generator, and Group Maker to name a few), and some fun tools like the US population counter, world population counter, and Flash Hangman.  I have hundreds of teachers who are updating their students and parents using the easy platform on the sister site: ClassroomUpdate.com. And there is more to come!

Thanks to so many of my users sharing this site and following the updates on Twitter and Facebook, the site is getting over 60,000 visits per month!

Now the time has come to look at how to manage this growth.  We’ve had some growing pains due to the sheer number of people using the site.  Some games have been lost, some class lists have been saved over, and some other hiccups have happened here and there.  You’ve been incredibly helpful in pointing out bugs and making suggestions.  You’ve been incredibly patient as I try to help each of the dozens of help requests I get each day via email.  And I appreciate it.

Big Changes Ahead…

I am currently shopping for a faster, more efficient server for SuperTeacherTools to live in.  Several of the problems we faced in January and February were due to the site outgrowing the current hosting service.  That is a repairable issue and I will be making this change soon.  If it goes according to plan, you won’t even know it’s happened.  **Crossing my fingers.**

I will also be looking for ways to incorporate a search and/or game tagging system so we can classify the subject and grade levels that our games are appropriate for.  This will better allow users to find games created by others (not to mention their own lost games!).

I run SuperTeacherTools on my own in what I call my free time, for lack of a better phrase.  We welcomed our first little baby boy (see right) this past January, so there has been an ever so slight decrease in that surplus time.

I am very appreciative of the amount of feedback and support I’ve gotten from fans of the site.  Thanks for your patience, support, and kind words.  I’m thrilled that my creations are helping you to make magic in your classrooms, youth groups, and other places where interactive learning is the order of the day.  Keep up the good work!