Hey teacher friend! Creating your own classroom resources helps you take ownership over your curriculum while engaging your students. In other words, if you aren’t already creating teaching resources, what are you waiting for?
If you’re ready to dive into creating teacher resources for your classroom but need some help getting started? I got you! This blog post is jam-packed with how I create resources for my students, so grab a pencil and a notebook, and let’s do this!
Teaching resources come in many shapes and forms, including but not limited to:
Teachers are busy. We don’t have time to recreate the wheel every time we need a new resource and we need to be sure that not only is every assignment we give our students standards-aligned and engaging but it should also be organized and well-structured.
Before sitting down to start creating any digital or printable resource, you must know your standards. What standard are you starting with? Which learning goal will your resource cover? It’s imperative that you have a clear intention when creating resources. I suggest utilizing backward design, meaning start with the end in mind. What do students need to know, understand and do in order to be successful on the test at the end of the unit? Don’t confuse this with “teaching to the test.” I didn’t fully understand this concept when I first started teaching! I ref
used to look at the test before starting a unit because I thought I wasn’t supposed to! Whoops. Don’t do this.
Resources to use when creating resources:
In addition to not being aligned to my state standards, many resources were simply just not interesting to my students. Students should see themselves in the curriculum. Getting to know your students doesn’t have to be limited to just the first week of school.
There are a variety of ways to do this throughout the school year.
A single resource may either incorporate something that many students are interested in, like Snapchat, or it may incorporate something for one student…for example one year, I had a student who was obsessed with trains so I would include math problems that had to do with trains! He was instantly interested that day!
Now for the FUN part! How do we even start creating resources?
Microsoft PowerPoint is my go-to tool for the majority of my classroom resources but I do supplement with Google Slides. There are Pros and Cons to both!
Pros:
Cons:
Pros:
Cons:
Whatever you do, stay away from Microsoft Word!
So how do we make resources that are organized and pretty? Over the years, I’ve learned a bit about graphic design and how layout, composition, and color affect the user aka student.
To keep resources organized, I use tables, shapes, and text boxes.
To make pretty teacher resources, you need:
For ease, find 2-3 fonts that you LOVE! Avoid fonts that are difficult for your students to read. You’ve probably noticed that students complain when a cursive font is too fancy to read. You can find many free fonts in PowerPoint, TeachersPayTeachers, or Google Fonts.
For my printable resources, I generally want to conserve ink, so instead of adding color to the page, print on color paper like Astrobrights.
For digital resources, there is much more freedom, use colors that complement each other! A color wheel is a great tool to use when doing this.
Find or create developmentally appropriate clipart.
I usually use the Black and White versions of clipart for printable and color clipart for digital. The nice thing is that most clipart artists include both options with your purchase.
Have you ever been overwhelmed by a piece of paper? Maybe an overcomplicated infographic? Use backgrounds and borders sparingly and keep it simple! Don’t put an apple border around your entire page, that’s just distracting and tacky.
You need white space or you risk overwhelming your students.
White space doesn’t mean white, it just means space without text or images. Too much on a page can overwhelm students.
Save time and don’t start from scratch every time you create a teacher resource for your classroom. Use templates! A template is simply the “bones” of your resource, void of questions and answers. I like to include my preferred fonts and colors in my templates but that is optional!
If you’d like to start creating resources and need more help, click here to grab my free guide that’s bursting with tips to create resources in Microsoft PowerPoint.
Ready to learn more?
Welcome to my Blog!
I started The Sassy Math Teacher in 2020 to help teachers like you increase classroom engagement and teach with confidence!
I also love to share about my life as a teacher including my favorite outfits, home items, gadgets and trips!
