Easel: An Easy Step to Digitalizing Your TpT Store

Easel is a Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) platform that allows you to take a paper resource (PDF) and use it digitally. It is a great way to differentiate your instruction. Easel allows you to customize activities for specific students, small groups, or whole group. It is great for in-person, distance learning, or hybrid learning.

Creating An Easel Resource

The first step in using Easel is to sign up for Easel’s FREE basic membership. Simply click the “Easel by TpT” link located at the top right-hand corner of the TpT homepage. With a basic membership, you’ll have access to all of the tools. You will also be able to create, assign, and review student work online.

You can create an activity from a resource you’ve purchased on TpT or you can create one of your own. To use a TpT resource, you will need to go to the “My Purchases” page of your account, then click the “Open in Easel” button next to the resource. From there, you can add answer boxes, notes, movable shapes, images, and more.

Here are a few of my resources that I have already added answer boxes and instructions. I have done all of the work for you. You will just assign it to your students!

After you have created the Easel resource, you will want to preview it as a student. Click the “Preview” tab to make sure that your resource is ready for your students to use. Pro tip: Check the font size. You may want to adjust it when you see it in preview mode. The preview mode is also great to use in whole group instruction. Tip: Everything that you do in preview mode will not be saved.

Easel Assessments

Easel Assessments allow teachers to create and assign self-grading quizzes and track student performance. Creating an Easel assessment is very similar to Google Forms. To create an assessment type in a question and indicate what is the correct answer. You can also make it fun and interactive by including images. After students complete the assessment, they will see the percentage of the questions they got correct. Teachers will receive a report of what each student scored and the class overall data. 

Assigning The Easel Resource

You can assign your Easel resource by generating a unique URL and sharing it with your students. Go to the “Reports” tab. It will ask you if you want to share it on Google Classroom or if you want to generate a link. You can paste that URL into a learning management system (LMS). After your students complete the activity, they will turn it into you for review.

Review Your Student Responses

On the “My Activities” page, you can view which students have submitted responses. Click on the activity you want to review. You will then see how many students have turned in their work and how many students are in the progress of completing their assignment. You can also see if they have completed the assignment in Google Classroom if you chose that option.

Conclusion

Easel is a great digital option that you can use directly on the Teachers Pay Teachers website. You don’t have to go searching for resources and then upload them to another site. You can just use the resources that you have purchased on TpT or create one from scratch. With Easel, you can make multiple versions of activities from one resource to meet the needs of students. It is another great digital option for those teaching remotely or in the classroom.

If you want to learn more about Easel, take the TpT tour here… https://blog.teacherspayteachers.com/how-to-use-easel-by-tpt/