Tips For Teacherpreneurs: Equip Your Computer With Easy-To-Use Programs

This summer, I will be releasing all 20 Teacher Creator’s Toolbox videos here on the Core Inspiration blog. Teacher Creator’s Toolbox is a comprehensive guide to help you succeed as a seller in the TPT marketplace. When I emailed the Toolbox community to inform them I would be shutting down the site to focus my resources solely on Core Inspiration, I received several encouraging emails from users who inspired me to post the videos here. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Teacher Creator’s Toolbox, you can learn more about it here.

As a result of the decision to post all 20 videos this summer, you will notice an increase in the number of blog posts. For many Core Inspiration readers, this content will be irrelevant, for that I apologize. Posting the videos here on the blog is the most effective way for me to deliver the video content to other TPT sellers. My traditional monthly posts will be sprinkled in the sea of teacherpreneur-focused posts during June, July, and August.

My greatest hope is that this video series inspires you to join our TPT seller community if you haven’t already. There are so many creative minds in the teaching world and sharing your content with educators has an amazing impact on the lives of students. Enjoy your summer and (hopefully) these video tutorials.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS TUTORIAL

TOOL 1 TRANSCRIPT

In this tutorial, I’m going to share with you a few recommended programs that will help you design classroom resources that are professional, visually appealing and accessible to a wide audience.

The two programs I will be highlighting are easy to learn and fairly inexpensive when compared to other design programs. Know that it is entirely possible to create classroom resources with alternative programs, but not nearly as efficient or cost-effective.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a go-to software for many teacherpreneurs because it allows you to format worksheets, printables, presentations and other classroom resources using the Microsoft interface that you have likely used at work or at home.

Adding clip art, tables and text boxes in PowerPoint is much easier than using a word processing program like Microsoft Word, which limits you ability to move objects around freely.

Resources designed in PowerPoint also convert to a sleeker, more professional looking PDF document because you can easily fill the entire page without being limited by margins.

Microsoft offers PowerPoint to educators at a discounted price. To access their educator pricing, simply Google Microsoft Store for Education and click on the link

After filling out information about where your school is located, type PowerPoint into the search bar in the upper right corner of the site.

You can either purchase PowerPoint individually or as part of the Microsoft Office Home and Student bundle, which also includes Microsoft Word, OneNote and Excel.

Adobe Acrobat Pro

Adobe Acrobat Pro allows you to secure your resources and protect your intellectual property. It is not enough to simply add a Terms of Use Page and a Copyright stamp to your resources. You must take the extra step to password protect your materials in a secure PDF.

Many teacherpreneurs who neglect to do so because they are deterred by the price of Adobe Acrobat Pro have seen their resources picked apart and given away for free online.

You also run the risk of breaking the Terms of Use of graphic artists and font designers when you publish your resources as non-secure PDFs. It is easy for people to separate the layers of your documents and take the clip art and fonts for their own use.

Essentially, you are giving away your own work and any artist’s clip art for free when your PDFs are not secured. Adobe Acrobat Pro eliminates this problem.

Adobe also offers a discount to educators. To access their discounted pricing, simply Google Adobe Acrobat Pro for Education and click on the link

You may choose to start with a monthly subscription until you make enough profit to cover the cost of the program price.

Be sure to save a receipt for any program purchases you make so you can accurately categorize them during tax season.

Professional Tips

If you already have these programs downloaded on your school district provided computer, you must purchase your own liscence for your personal computer.

Your school-owned computer is designated for work use and cannot be used to design resources that you will profit from. You must also design all resources during your personal time outside of your contract hours.

That’s all I have to share about my recommended programs for Teacher Creators. You will see me using these programs throughout the other video tutorials. Once you have the programs you want on your home computer, come back for Preparation Tool 2, which will teach you how to get your computer organized to increase your productivity.