My Fail-Proof System of Creating Resources From Start to Finish

Kirsten 0:00

Hey there listeners, I have a question for you is product creation feeling a little bit overwhelming for you. I definitely know the feeling you are not alone. Or maybe you might have systems that you currently are using that aren't quite up to shape and it's taking you much longer to upload finished resources. Well, if you're listening to this, you're in luck, because today I'm going to be sharing with you my own process of creating TPT resources. You can snag some ideas from this episode and making your own or use the whole process yourself. So let's go ahead and dive in.

You're listening to the creative teacher podcast, a show for busy teachers looking for ways to engage, inspire and make an impact inside and outside of the classrooms. I am Kiersten a full time classroom teacher and part time business owner who is all about simple and actionable tips, strategies and resources that result in wins, big or small to in each week, as I give you my best advice on classroom teaching, and starting and growing a teacher business. If you're looking for that extra spark of creativity, you've come to the right place. Let's dive in together.

All right, so we are going to go into my fail proof system of creating resources from start to finish. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you the steps right now. And then I'm gonna go into more detail as we go through the episode. So step one would be to have a plan. Step two is outline your resource. Step three, create the content. Step four, revise and edit your content. And step five, prepare to publish. So those are the five steps, you might already be using these steps. But I'm going to go into detail about how I work in each step.

All right, going back to step one, have a plan. Think about how often you want to create resources. And this will all depend on where you're at in your TPD journey. So if you're new, you might need to focus on product creation. But if you're more established, or you have a ton of resources, you might need to focus on product revision. You know, there's so many other factors because it could be that you're a full time teacher, and you may not have time to commit to a ton of product creation right now. But in general, if you are maybe not having a lot of products out there, focus most of your business on adding more products. Think about what's selling well, if you've been in your store for a while you should have some data about what has been selling in your store for a number of months, then you would use that data to drive instruction just like you would with the classroom. whatever data you have for assessments that your students take, use the data to drive instruction, if you see a certain standard or objective that's really low that a lot of students missed, of course, you're going to continue reteaching or working again with that standard. In the same way if you see a resource that's really doing good. You know, on the flip side, we're doing very well in your store. You want to continue on that path to targeting more resources, creating more resources that are similar to what does really well then if you see any that don't do very well. There's always a time to take a look at why it's not doing well and how you can fix that. Alright, next you're going to think about any standards or goals you have for your specific resource. What do you want students to accomplish isn't just gonna be a fun little Back to School activity or some type of really heavy curriculum that students can use throughout the year. Decide what goals you want and standards you want to use. You could use whatever your state's resources are. For me, I use Texas so I go off of the TEKS resources. But maybe if you're in another state, you could use common core and decide which Common Core standards you would like for this resource to hit. Another part of your plan is deciding if you want it to be solely printable, digital or both. If it's some type of classroom decoration, of course, it may just be printable. But if you have another resource that you want to create, maybe you could see what you can do to make it both digital and printable. Since students are online and virtual and could be going from face to face to virtual at any time, it's always good to have a mix of both in some way. For me, I think, definitely make sure it is printable, a really good quality printable resource, but also have an option for teachers to make it digital or making it applicable for easel if you are not able to make a whole digital resource at this time. So have a plan of what you want to do. Decide which products to create, use your data, decide what goals you have, or standards you want to hit and decide on if you want it to be a printable digital resource or maybe a combination.

The second step of my process is to outline your resource. Easy peasy, right? But when I say outline, I recommend using paper, getting out a good old piece of notebook paper, and outlining how you want your resource to be laid out. This is a great time to get messy. But as you're outlining your resource, decide what you want your students to do. And maybe do they are they going to be using graphic organizers? Are they going to be reading a story followed by some questions, draw out on paper physically what your resource is going to look like from the borders to maybe where the clipart is going to be. Of course, you don't have to be exactly detailed, but just kind of have some sketch of how it's all going to be laid out.

Another thing to think about is if you're doing a digital resource, how will that digital version look. So considering if it's going to be on Google Slides are you going to have it in landscape mode, or you're going to have it in portrait mode, just like the printable version, decide how it will be all laid out before you even open up your laptop or computer. Step number three is to create the content. This can be done using PowerPoint or Keynote or Google Slides, I recommend whatever you do use that you create your printable version first, and then the digital version. Second, the printable version kind of is the hardest part, it won't be as hard with your outlines. Once you have that all laid out, it does help to have your printable version already done. And then you just kind of repurpose your content for your digital version if needed. So that's kind of what I would do is printable first and then I go into digital. Usually, I make sure that my printable version is black and white or printer friendly. And I do have some color in there too. But my digital version, I make full color. And I just repurpose by copying and pasting the content in the printable version and the digital version. As well as adding that color into it much more color than I would in my printable version. The main thing to think about is when you are actually going into PowerPoint or Keynote and Google Slides, you're not making up the content of what's actually in the resource that should already be done in step two. So everything you're going to say from the directions to the actual content or questions that needs to be done in your outline the content when you're creating the content, you're actually creating the resource. You are just taking what you already outlined, you might add on more detail, depending on how short or detailed your outline is. But for the most part, you have pretty much everything laid out for you on your paper that you're just transferring to your printable and digital version in your creation process. You're also adding your clipart and your fonts and your borders and your photos. That's the time that you would be doing it but it's less work for you because you've already outlined where your photos might be or where your clip art might be or what type of file Once you might be using and then another thing to have is a Terms of Use page, which is outlining how teachers can use this resource. Maybe it's just for one classroom use personal use, and cannot be duplicated or shared with other teachers, a thank you page would be added as well, just thanking them for downloading and purchasing the resource and other ways to connect maybe social media or through a blog or a Pinterest account, whatever you might have that you would link in there. You could also use that to add similar recommended resources and make it clickable as well.

Step number four, would be to revise and edit the content. After I've created my content, I usually kind of let it sit, I take a day or two off, and then I look back at the resource again to see if there are any errors to edit my content, if necessary misalignment that might be happening, but I kind of take the time to spruce it up and change around some things if needed. So it's always good to have a fresh set of eyes for this step. So do not do step three and four in the same day, try not to do that. You'd be surprised you know how many times I've seen mistakes while I'm editing or looking through it. Sometimes I even print my resource and go through there and kind of go through the resource as a student would. And I find mistakes there. So you never know what you might find through that revising and editing process. So do not skip it.

And then step number five would be to prepare to publish prepared to get your listing in order. We're not thinking about product covers yet, or thumbnails yet, we are just getting ready to publish the actual resource. So during this step, I make sure to save all my slides as PNG files. I save it in PowerPoint, I use PowerPoint to create my resources, but I go to File Export, and then I save as a PNG file, I always use PNG versus a JPG file just because PNG files are higher quality. Then during this step, if I do have a digital version that I've created, I would upload that digital version to Google Slides or seesaw or whatever digital platform I'm using. I make sure with Google Slides, I have a link and make a forced copy. Another thing to think about when you're preparing to publish is to make sure to flatten and secure your resource. You can easily do this by using flat pack by bare wood labs, I highly recommend it they have this for both Macs and PCs. And I'll try to make sure to link that in the comments. But bare wood Labs has a easy way to flatten and secure your resources with just a click. And it is such a time saver. But if you don't have flat pack, another way to flatten insecure would be through Adobe, there's a upgraded premium version. Or you can save everything as PNG files, create a new PowerPoint. And then from there, you would upload each page as a new slide. That's the longer version but it still works. I did that for a long time. So it's not something that I definitely discourage, you can definitely do that. But if you want to save time, I definitely recommend using flat pack, or even Adobe, the premium version, then if needed as I prepare to publish, if I have multiple files, maybe I have a separate file for the printable version and digital version, or the terms of use or any other graphics that I have added in that resource. I set it up as a zipped file. So I set up everything I need in the whole file altogether, and I zip it up together. Usually with my MacBook, I can just click on the different documents that are gonna go in the resource and compress it together in one folder. And that's just how I set it up as a zip file. So if you have a one PDF, then that's easy, but if you have multiple files, you want to make sure you add it all in a zip file. All right. So there's my process for you when I create this whole process that I have for you timewise really depends on the bulk of the resource. I have some resources where I can easily do it and five to six hours or three to four hours. Some I might have to do over a course of a week. Regardless of how long it takes me, I go through the same steps Have a plan, outline my resource, create the content, revise and edit and prepare to publish.

Alright, so here's my creative action tip for you. I want you to try some or all of this process with your next resource or any of the tips that I shared with you today. Start with one resource at the time. And then depending on your speed you can add on if you're going to do multiple resources using this creation process. Make sure that they are similar so you'll be able to not work as long. Well, that's the end of this episode. I hope you got some really great tips on the creation process and hopefully got some insight on how I use my creation process when I'm creating my own resources. I will see you guys next week.

Thanks for tuning in to the creative teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to today's episode, feel free to subscribe and leave a review. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I cannot wait for you to join me in the next episode for more tips and inspiration. Have an amazing day.