By far, the top question I’ve been asked this week is how to turn a PDF worksheet into an interactive assignment that can be posted to Google Classroom. I use Adobe InDesign to create most of my PDF handouts and, unfortunately, there’s no converting an Adobe file into a fully editable Google file. Apparently, those software companies don’t want to play nicely.
There are several workarounds, but most are cumbersome or require third-party apps that some school districts block. I’ve always suggested that folks turn the PDF into an JPG image, drop it onto a Google Slides page, and then draw text boxes on top of the image that kids could fill in on the screen.
Amy Almada, problem-solver and teacher tech goddess, just took this process next level by modeling the simple path and teaching us her special “background” trick.
Give her 10 minutes. She’ll change your life:
Good stuff, right?
Remember, you can share copyrighted material with your direct students only within a secure password-protected portal, like Google Classroom. It’s not cool or legal to post these materials in open access/unsecured Google Drives.
Teach on, everyone!
Special thanks to my teaching buddy Brian Larissa Thames Haynes who alerted me to Almada’s awesomeness this afternoon via Facebook. Appreciate it!