About us
About Joana
Hi, I’m Joana, the creator behind up2dateskills.
I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Teaching English and German from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, completed an Erasmus year at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and also attended an advanced German course for teachers at the Goethe-Institut in Schwäbisch Hall.
Planting the seed of up2dateskills
I started teaching in 2003, after finishing university, and from the beginning I often had to create my own materials from scratch. I began by working at home as a tutor and supporting teenagers in different subjects, which taught me how important it is to have clear, flexible, and easy-to-use resources.
In 2007, I started working in a classroom with adult learners. I continued working in education, but across different contexts, including adult teaching, vocational courses, and lifelong learning, with a strong focus on foreign languages, especially English, German, and Portuguese. Over the years, I have taught in traditional classrooms, online, in companies, and in private lessons, working with both individuals and groups.
Teachers Pay Teachers [1.0]
up2dateskills was born from that real teaching experience. What started as lesson preparation and handmade classroom materials gradually became a larger project focused on creating practical, engaging, and visually clear resources for teachers and learners. In 2018, I opened my first online store that you can still visit at up2dateskills.com/online-store and my first Teachers Pay Teachers store as well, and the project continued to grow alongside my teaching work.
YouTube
During the pandemic, up2dateskills also grew beyond the classroom and expanded to YouTube. In 2020, I started creating video lessons for my students while they were learning from home, often with very limited access to technology and, in some cases, only a mobile phone. At the same time, I created my very first tutorial for fellow teachers: a step-by-step video on how to create fillable PDF forms for free. I rerecorded it several times before publishing it because I wanted it to be clear, practical, and easy to follow.
What started as one channel with video lessons for my students and practical tutorials for teachers is now gradually being divided by topic and focus area. The goal is to give each area its own space, make the content easier to navigate, and support the continued growth of the project.
TPT [2.0]
In 2025, up2dateskills entered a new phase of growth. I divided my TPT resources into four separate stores to organize them more clearly by focus area: English resources, German resources, Portuguese resources, and a general store for materials that support all subjects, such as planner inserts, templates, and clipart. This change gave each area its own space and identity while allowing the project to continue supporting different teaching and learning contexts.
Today, up2dateskills’ stores include resources for different languages and educational contexts, from printable templates and vocabulary activities to games, writing paper, clipart, planner inserts, and other teaching tools. My goal is always the same: to create materials that are useful, clear, and easy to adapt in real classrooms and learning environments.
up2dateskills Press
At the end of 2025, I also launched up2dateskills Press to build momentum for 2026. This milestone was a natural next step for the project, creating more room for the publishing and creative side of up2dateskills, with the goal of developing books and other publications for teachers, learners, and lifelong learners. Printed books are sold through Amazon and eBooks are sold through my online stores.
My first book remains the best-selling title from up2dateskills Press.
Thank you ❤️
Thank you for visiting up2dateskills. I hope you find something here that makes teaching, learning, and creating a little easier and more inspiring.