How To Use TpT Digital Activities For Device-Based and Distance Learning

It’s a hard fact: You and your fellow educators across the country are dealing with stress about how the upcoming school year is going to play out. Big questions loom. What will the school year look like? Will it be safe? What happens if distance learning continues? How will you teach effectively?

But there’s some good news. This summer, educators across the country are taking a long, hard look at the difficulties you all face in distance and blended learning environments. And you’re doing what teachers do best: coming up with imaginative, efficient solutions to create a better tomorrow for you and your students.

So are we. During the early closing of the 2019–20 school year, TpT saw a 250% increase in purchases of digital resources. We’ve responded by launching TpT Digital Activities, a new tool that allows for ease of use and flexibility in how your instruction is delivered. With the ability to convert your favorite educator-created printable resources into digital activities that students can complete on a device, you can adapt the TpT resources you love to meet your instructional needs.

What Are TpT Digital Activities?

A TpT Digital Activity is simple. Take a PDF and customize it digitally with additional instructions, answer boxes, and more. Then, assign it to students to complete online via Google Classroom. Resources that are enabled for TpT Digital Activities give you flexibility — since you can print them (if you’re still teaching in a physical classroom), or you can make them digital and send them to students to complete on a device (if you’re teaching them online). We know learning new technology can be overwhelming, so the best part of TpT Digital Activities is that it only takes about five minutes to learn and start using, regardless of your level of tech experience.

Give it a try. Over 550,000 of your favorite TpT resources are already enabled or prepared for you to use as a TpT Digital Activity. Here’s a simple guide to TpT Digital Activities, and how to get started in five simple steps.

How To Get Started with TpT Digital Activities:

Follow these five easy steps to get started.

1. Discover resources. Filter for “TpT Digital Activities and look for “TpT Digital Activity” on your favorite PDF resources. Once you’ve purchased, click “Open TpT Digital Activity” to begin using a TpT Digital Activity that the Teacher-Author has already prepared — or create your own!

2. Customize and create. Our TpT Digital Activities feature allows you to tailor each resource to your students’ needs. You can remove or reorder any pages as needed (an answer key, for instance) and use our annotation tools to add instructions, create fill-in-the-blank answer boxes, highlight words, and more.

3. Preview. To see how the resource will appear to your students, click the “Preview” tab. Take a look and try out the interactive elements, like any text answer boxes you added, to make sure they’re ready for your students.

4. Assign. Assign the resource to your students via Google Classroom by clicking “Assign,” then “Create Access Link,” then “Create New Code.” Finally, click the green Google Classroom button and enter the appropriate details. Your students will get a unique code that allows them to complete the activity and turn it back in to you for review — all online. NOTE: You’ll need Google Classroom in order to use this tool with students.

5. Assess. You can access student-submitted work on the “My Activities” page of the TpT Digital Activities tool. Click “Review,” then “Review Responses.” The text and pen tools allow you to return feedback, direction, or grading as needed.

Teach at Your Best, No Matter Where Learning Happens

It’s unclear where we’ll be in September. Whether you’re back in the classroom, splitting time between distance learning and in-person instruction, or teaching your students from home, with TpT Digital Activities, your resources can adapt with you so that learning doesn’t stop. Now, you can bring the expertise of the TpT community to your instruction, no matter what your back-to-school looks like. And together, you and educators everywhere will create our tomorrow.

Confidently navigate the 2020–21 school year with expert Teacher-Author and educator advice in TpT’s Back to School 2020 Guide: For Teachers Creating Tomorrow.