WHAT IS EASEL BY TPT AND HOW DOES IT HELP ME?
What is TPT anyway?
Before we jump into Easel by TPT, I’m going to quickly go over what Teachers Pay Teachers is just in case you are completely new to the platform.
TPT has totally changed the way we think about education and allowed educators to support other educators for their hard work. It allows teachers to make some extra money by developing lessons and teaching resources and selling them online to improve the teaching and learning process. You can sell curriculum and unit plans and other resource works for the students and get compensated for it.
But recently TPT had a big release to the site known as “Easel by TPT” and a lot of you must be wondering what is Easel by TPT, how to use it, and how it will impact your sales as sellers, and also, is it really as groundbreaking as we think it is? In this article, I’ll share everything you need to know about Easel by TPT. Let’s dive in!
What is Easel by TPT?
Easel by TPT is an intuitive suite of digital tools to digitize your lessons and make them more interactive and device-ready. Plainly put, it enables you to digitize pdfs, customize them by adding answer boxes, moveable shapes, instructions, and assign them to your students while never really leaving the Teachers Pay Teachers site.
Your students can type directly into the worksheet, show their work, and send it right back to you to evaluate. You can create custom interactive digital activities either by using your own PDF materials or adapting TPT resources.
How does it work?
1. Go on the Easel by TPT and discover the resources you’ll like to share, upload your own pdfs to get started, or create a new resource from the scratch.
2. Edit and customize resources by adding text boxes, spaces, moveable spaces, instructions, and much more.
3. Go to the preview section and to see how the resource will look to your students. To model a live lesson, use annotation tools in preview mode to convert your screen into a digital whiteboard.
4. Once your pdf assignment is ready to go, just click on assign and review and you’ll get two options there. You can click on the blue “Assign” button on the top right and either send the assignment through Google Classroom or send a direct link.
5. Your students will be able to open up the easel link on their device, complete the assignment and submit it back to you.
6. You’ll see the submission pop when a student makes a submission.
7. Review students’ responses and send feedback from Easel.
8. Easel by TPT also allows you to delete pages from any assignment you no longer need by simply selecting pages and clicking remove on the top right of the page. This feature will only remove the pages from a specific assignment instead of deleting them permanently.
Why Choose Easel by TPT?
Easel by TPT has made it super easy to take the resource that you already purchased on the website and instantly share it with your student via Google Classroom or a direct link (they must be PDFs). As a seller, TPT gives you an easy way to take all your PDF resources and quickly convert them into digital resources.
At the beginning of the shut downs, many sellers who only had printable products experienced a huge loss in sales when everything went virtual while those that had distance learning ready resources experienced huge success. In my own personal experience, I went from making $77 in July 2020 to $1200 just 4 months later in November and that was because all of my products in my store were digital resources. If you want to learn more about my income in my first 6 months on TPT, I'll post the link to that video at the end of the blog!
How to Use Easel by TPT as a Buyer?
Using Easel by TPT is super easy. If you are purchasing a resource and want to assign it to your students using Easel, the product must have been opted in by the seller. If you see an icon that says the product is an “Easel Activity” it means that the seller has made the PDF resource ready for you to send to your students. On making a purchase you can either use the file directly through Easel or download it on your device to share through other platforms.
If you want to use it through Easel, click “open in easel” and it will take you to the new Easel by TPT page which is like a staging area before your share the resource with your students. Make sure that sellers have added all the required features in the files (text boxes, shapes, etc) but if they didn’t you can still add the features yourself as the buyer/teacher.
How to Use Easel by TPT as Seller?
If you’re a Teachers Pay Teachers seller, I recommend adding your PDF resources to Easel because it will add more value in the eyes of the buyers. In order to get your products set up to be easily accessible you’ll need to opt-in.
Click on your account name and go to “My Easel Listings”. A new page will open and give you an option to opt-in. A pop will show saying it would take 24 to 48 hours to get your product ready. Once it’s done, you’ll see all your product listings and from there you can easily select which products or activities you want to make Easel accessible. Once your resource is digitized and ready to be sold, click on the publish on the top to make it available to the buyers as an easel activity.
By and large, Easel by TPT wants teachers to help each other succeed by sharing their work, insights, and inspiration. You can share, sell and buy original and professional education resources in numerous digital and downloadable formats. It seamlessly integrates with how you teach without juggling between too many tools. The system is logical, extremely easy to use and anyone from a first-year teacher to a 30-year-old veteran can upload their resources with ease. With Easel’s flexible tools you can design and improve your lessons just the way you want in one place!
