Sometimes I try to imagine how many of us our out there, going through our files and digitizing everything. It’s a gargantuan task and I’m slowly learning how to make the process easier, faster and more foolproof. Lately I’ve updated a series of multiple choice assessments that are part of my The Girl Who Drank the Moon novel study, and I developed a few tricks to make the whole process smoother. Here’s how I’m digitizing my multiple choice quizzes for distance learning: Mise en Place First up, get everything ready. So pull up the quiz you want to digitize and create a new Google Form. Pull up the quiz. Then…
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Finding Clipart for Your TpT Store
If you’re a new TpT seller looking for advice in the Seller’s Forum, you’ll notice a recurring them: clipart. More specifically, you’ll hear people suggest that you invest in good clipart. I concur, with some reservations. When it comes to Teachers Pay Teachers, the bottom line is this: quality content sells…but only if it’s packaged well. Teachers can’t view your whole product before purchasing, so a good cover and preview suggests something about the quality of the content. Here are my three recommendations for finding clipart. One is free, one is paid, and one can be accessed through a free trial. This is not a sponsored post. Purchase a Clipart…
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How to Design Eye Catching Graphic Organizers Using Keynote
Creating your own graphic organizers gives you a lot of freedom. You can design organizers that fit your instructional goals, student needs, and context better than most ready-made graphic organizers. Of course, this takes time, and you may find that you’re not so good at the design-y element. Well, neither am I. Designing resources for TpT has forced me to improve in this respect. Here are three simple things I’ve learned about designing graphic organizers without spending too much time or money: When I began making graphic organizers I tried to dress them up with purchased borders. I felt the same way I did about font–cute font/border makes the page…
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A Non-Designers Guide to Creating a Simple Brand for Teachers Pay Teachers (Steps 1-3)
Branding isn’t just for hardcore TpT sellers, it’s for everyone. Here’s why simple brand can benefit you, even if you’re a novice TpT seller: With a brand, you’re never starting from scratch. When you create new resources you already have fonts, colors, and templates picked out. A brand makes your resources stand out. You want buyers to recognize your logo, colors and cover designs. A brand makes your store look cohesive. That being said, here are three posts to get you started: First, choose a color palette. Next, choose a font family. Finally, create a template for product covers. Voila! You’re a TpT pro.
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A Regular Person’s Guide to Creating a TpT “Brand,” Step 3: Create a Template for Product Covers
Now that you’ve chosen a color palette and a font family, you’re ready to create a template for product covers. Creating product covers has been challenging for me. I feel more confident creating resources than I do with the packaging (I’m not a designer!). I used to start from scratch each time I designed a cover. Now, I use a simple template for most of my covers. It looks something like this: This template gives me space for a title, a subtitle, and an image. The two text boxes prevent me from squishing as many words as possible onto the cover. Here’s how some of the finished products look: How…
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A Regular Person’s Guide to Creating a TpT “Brand,” Step 2: Choose a Font Family
To reiterate, this short series is for non-graphic designers who simply want to make their TpT products attractive, recognizable and cohesive. I’m using “branding” very loosely (and somewhat skeptically) here. So, step 1 was to choose a color palette. Step 2 is to choose a font family… About Font When I began creating products for TpT I was lost when it came to font. I mistakenly thought that a bunch of random fonts thrown together on the page would make products look more exciting. Instead, it just made them look busy. I’ve seen lots of people on TpT and Instagram who use cute (purchased and downloaded) fonts really well. These…
