Thursday, July 3, 2014

Creating PDF Posters

When I found out I would be getting my own classroom this year I began picking a theme. I had a theme in my mind for a third grade classroom but it wouldn't work (at least not in my opinion) for the classroom I will be in. I finally decided on owls which was the theme I originally wanted before deciding to remain an assistant for a second year.

Of course after deciding on my theme my next step was to spend a few weeks on pinterest seeing what other people had created. I quickly had over 1,000 owl pins!!! Yes, I think i may have a slight pinterest problem. Last week I took to google image searches saving clip art and pictures that I thought I may use.

This week, I got to work. As I've said, I can start getting in my room next week and the more I have "ready" the better I will feel. I decided after all my internet searching that I wanted to create my own posters instead of paying for versions someone else had already made - I know, I know why reinvent the wheel. But why pay for something when I can make it myself. This way I can match the images I like and tweek any phrases that I may not have been completely satisfied with.

With all that being said, I'm not sure if I can share the poster's I've made...I used clipart and phrases from others that I've found online and I'd hate to infringe on anyone's property.

Have you ever made your one posters for your classroom? I used to use Microsoft Publisher for EVERYTHING I did, but when i bought my last lap top several years ago I opted not to pay for it. Publisher is still my program of choice when making things at school but now I use open office software at home.

I struggled with both of these programs because not many people have either. I would create flyers and send them out to a group only to receive 10 emails of frustrated people who couldn't open them. Then one day I discovered something that changed my life forever :) I'm probably the last person in the world to discover this so you are probably all thinking why is she taking the time to explain this to me, but did yall know you can save almost any file as a PDF, right from the program you are creating it in (word, publisher, openoffice, etc.) When you are ready to save your PDF click on the "File" button in the top left instead of clicking save look for an option that says PDF it may say export to PDF. Click this link and save away. Almost everyone has the option of opening PDF's and this also protects your work so others can't edit or change any of the details. Remember to also save the file (the normal way) in an editable format in case you need to edit it in the future.

So far I've created Can Do and Must Do, Recycling, Testing, Expectations and a few inspirational posters.

This afternoon I'll be getting "crafty" in a more hands on sense as my nieces and nephews and I sit down to paint some owls! They are so excited to help me decorate my classroom and I LOVE that they want to help. This is just step one, I'm sure at least a few of them will end up in my classroom helping me decorate. Since I'm not adding pictures of my PDFs, Here's a picture of two of my nieces helping me in my classroom last year :)

JoAnne

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