Jigsaw Planet Online jigsaw puzzles are a fun way to provide clues in a variety of learning experiences, including breakout activities and scavenger hunts. I’ve even seen them used as part of an anticipatory set. Jigsaw Planet is perhaps the easiest way to make online jigsaw puzzles from any image. It’s free, and the puzzles… Read more
DeepArt.io is a fun, creative tool that transforms your photos into works of art in the style of famous paintings. Just upload your photo, choose your favorite style, and DeepArt’s algorithms will “paint” your masterpiece. Paint Your Photo in 3 Steps After uploading your photo, you have three options for choosing your style. You can… Read more
What if George Washington had an Instagram Account? What would we see in Harry Potter’s Instagram gallery? Now your students can answer these questions by creating Instagram profiles, posts, and galleries. Virtual Impersonation Creating social media posts and profiles for people (real/fictional), places, plants, and animals has proven to be an engaging and thought-provoking experience for… Read more
Bitmoji – Emoji Generator Brings Personalized Fun to the Classroom Teachers love using Bitmojis for everything from personalizing posters and drawing attention to key concepts, to providing student feedback. They’ve been increasingly popular for student work too. Emoji generators have been a great way to increase engagement while students demonstrate understanding in creative ways like… Read more
Free Presentation Templates Every teacher needs access to free presentation templates. They’re great for so much more than presentations; I use them for posters, social media graphics, quotes, and more. I recently asked a colleague in a meeting if she had sketched the icons in her presentation. She casually replied “No, it’s from Slides Carnival,”… Read more
Reading Should Be Enjoyable, Not a Chore Ask nearly any parent or student what they think of reading logs, and I’m certain you won’t hear words like “inspiring, motivating.” The Atlantic did a great job addressing this outdated and ineffective approach to building lifelong learners in “Can Reading Logs Ruin Reading for Kids?“. Engaging Alternatives… Read more
Enhance Learning Through Creative Engagement with Stop Motion Video Few approaches to digital storytelling have been as popular among students as stop motion video. Students can make a high-quality stop-motion animation, or stop-motion video with very simple tools, including Keynote, PowerPoint, Google Slides, iMovie, etc. The basic idea is to take a series of photos… Read more
Seven Great Google Slides Templates for Creativity and Critical Thinking Google Slides is too powerful to limit its use to boring presentations. Create engaging learning experiences while promoting critical thinking and creativity with these seven Google Slides templates you can use in virtually any classroom. The sharing settings for all of these templates are set… Read more
Digital Blackout Poetry – The Ultimate Guide Blackout Poetry Blackout poetry has become increasingly popular in classrooms everywhere. If you’re not familiar with blackout poetry (a.k.a. erasure poetry), it’s a form of poetry where students take an existing text and black-out, or somehow obscure, most of the text, intentionally leaving behind words to create their… Read more
How to Make a GIF in 3 Easy Steps GIFs Are Everywhere As succinctly stated in this Smithsonian article, “Thanks to the humble GIF, no emotions are too big or small to capture in animated image form.” Why just have your students copy other people’s GIFs when they can make their own in less than… Read more
