Technology Thursday- Meet Mrs. P!

Hello All! My name is Sara Prue of Mrs. P's Special Education Classroom! I want to welcome you to the Colorado Teacher Collaborative Blog: Resources with Altitude. 

I'll start by telling you a little bit about myself before I jump into the good stuff. =)

I moved to Colorado almost 5 years ago to the day, from Oregon. I visited in November 2009 to spend Thanksgiving with my family and I decided that first day, that I would be spending the rest of my days in Colorado. I mean, it was 75 at the end of November. It was also the week that I met my husband, but that was just a mild coincidence. 

I have been a special education teacher in a self-contained classroom for the past 8 years. My first three years were in a small town close to the Oregon coast (I think it rained the whole time I was there, too.). I taught grades 6-age 21 life skills and core content. Since coming to Colorado I have spent my time teaching students from grades K-8. I just finished a 3 year stint teaching grades 6-8 in a turnaround school in Northwest Denver. Since our middle school has closed due to low enrollment, I will be setting off on a new adventure as a 3-5 Multi-Intensive Special Education Teacher at a turnaround school in Northeast Denver in July.  

As I mentioned, I am married to my best friend, Ryan. We have been together since the day I moved to Colorado and married for almost a year. In November we are expecting our first baby, a boy named Liam. We have a what we like to call a small farm: two guinea pigs named Herb & Juanita (classroom pets....be expecting a blog post or two about these gems) and a dogchild named Ali. 

And now onto the good stuff. Every other Thursday, I will be bringing you handy technology tips that will assist you with creating products for TPT, making fancy things for your blog, and utilizing social media to gain followers and buyers. I have found the more technology is utilized in the classroom, the easier classroom management becomes. I'll also try to blog about life in my new classroom. =)

Today's handy tip is how to create a custom TPT Banner for your store. 

Many of you have had your blog designed professionally, and sometimes it includes a TPT banner. I like to switch mine up a bit to add some color with the seasons. 

I recently bought a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud at the Education pricing (Click here to get more information.). I must say...I'm never looking back and I haven't even had it for 24 hours! 

Okay. Open Photoshop and go to File>New Document.

ONce this is done, you'll get a pop up. Name your file whatever you like. Then where it says width make it 706. For the height make sure it says 90. To the right there is a drop down menu, make sure it says PIXELS.  Press ok.

Your document should look like this:

Zoom in as much as you desire. I like to make sure I can see the entire document but it's really up to you and how you like to work. 

The next step is to choose your background. If you have digital scrapbook paper (as I do) you can choose a file and just drag it onto the document. 

Once your picture has been dragged over, you will need to spread it the length of the document. 

You can add clipart the same way! I am a Melonheadz hoarder, if you haven't heard of her clipart...check it out! SHE'S AMAZING!!!

Once you have your clipart where you want it...click the check mark on the navigation bar. That is saying that you are sure you like where you put the picture. 

To add text, look for the T on the left hand column navigation bar. It will give you a cursor. Click the cursor on your document where you want text. Feel free to type what you want. Then you can change your font, color and size using the navigation bar on the top. All of the fonts on your computer will be available to you with a sample! Add as much text and clipart as you deem necessary.

If you realize you want to move stuff around afterwards. To the right are what is called the "layers'. These are the items you have on your document in the order that you placed them there. If you just go to the arrow, you will not be able to move your background or your clipart. Click on the layer you want to manipulate and use the arrow to move it or resize it. 

When you are finished, click File > Save As. Once you have done that, a pop-up will come up. 

YOu will want to name your banner. Then where is says "where" that is where on your computer you want to save it. To be safe, I usually save to my desktop then drag it to it's place afterwards, that way it's easier to access once I'm uploading it to TPT. 

Once you have clicked save another pop-up will come. I click okay. 

Now you're ready to upload to TPT! Go to your TPT dashboard. Scroll down until you see "Customize Your Store." Then click it. 

Click "Choose File" and upload your banner. You are able to link this to your TPT store or TPT website. 

Once you've hit save...go to your store and WAAAAH-LAAAAA! How cool and EASY was that?

Thanks for reading and I hope this was fun and helpful!!!