Tag: design

Create Rainbow WordArt in Google Slides!

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I’ll admit it – I’ve jumped on the pastel rainbow bandwagon and there’s no turning back!!!! (Well maybe, when the next adorable trend turns my head… but for now… I’m all about those rainbows!) Rainbows have brought me joy since I was a kid in the 80s and I am more than happy that they are again surfacing as super cool (I was super cool back then, right?? – Don’t answer that.) I walked by 3rd grade teacher Barbara Pinto‘s classroom last week more than once and was intrigued not only by the rainbow title text, but also by her blended learning slide (but more on that another time).

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Daily Slide Deck: Keep your teaching organized and on track whether Remote or Face-to-Face

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This summer, our district is providing live remote instruction utilizing Zoom and Schoology for summer school. I’m not a part of summer school, but have been lurking on facebook and twitter to learn from those who are! I’ve been most interested in HOW teachers are sharing content – HOW they are keeping themselves and students on track – and WHAT has been most beneficial. The constant I’ve seen in social media posts, conversations, and examples shared with me has been having a Google Slide Deck for the teacher to teach from throughout the day that contains all links, videos, examples, reminders (to self and students) all in one place. This Slide Deck is NOT shared with students for them to click through, but for them to see on the screen as the teacher is talking and teaching (teacher shares their screen). This has been helpful because (obviously) everything is in one place, but also because it is visual for students to easily follow along with.

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Master the Slide Master

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Master the Slide Master

Have you ever used a slide template and wished you could move an object in the background over just a little? Or maybe you wished you could add your school logo, class name, or presentation information to every slide in the deck without having to actually go through and add it to EVERY SINGLE SLIDE individually? The answer is to MASTER the SLIDE MASTER!!! It is so easy you’ll wonder where this little tip has been all your life!

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Personalized Valentine’s Stickers

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Valentine Sticker (1)

I don’t know about you… but I keep seeing Valentine’s cards at the grocery store! It’s that time of year to start getting Valentines ready for your personal kids, students, and colleagues. This year, I wanted to do something different than the grocery store folded cards and candy. I decided to create a sticker that can be printed on Avery 2″ circle labels so that I can place the labels on ANYTHING to turn it into a Valentine.

Here’s what I came up with:

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The Spotlight Effect

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The Spotlight Effect.png

Have you ever been in the audience of a presentation that looked something like this?

The presenter tries desperately to make a point using the data, but often, the participants (whether adult or student learners) are so distracted by the sheer multitude of information on the screen that instead of helping to support their point, the chart or graph actually ends up taking focus away from the presenter’s main point. Continue reading →

Engage your Audience with Video

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video graphic

As educators, we’ve got important information that we want to convey to students, parents, staff, and often our community members. While verbally sharing our stories or writing them down for others to reference still have their place (ahem… like writing a blog, for example…), more and more, people prefer to receive their information by watching quick little videos.

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3 Apps to Visually Market Your School or Classroom

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3 Apps

Educators are hearing all the time how we need to market our schools and classrooms – telling our story – the great things happening in our classrooms – so that others don’t fill in the void with negative stories. So many educators have jumped on board with this idea of sharing our stories and pointing the spotlight to all the positive things happening in our schools, but how can we do that most effectively? What do the marketing experts say? They say we should be using visuals to SHOW our story as we tell it. Continue reading →

Fail Fast, Fail Forward

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Fail Fast, Fail Forward

A pottery teacher split her class into two halves. To the first half she said, “You will spend the semester studying pottery, planning, designing, and creating your perfect pot. At the end of the semester, there will be a competition to see whose pot is the best”.

To the students in the other half of the class she said, “You will spend your semester making lots of pots. Your grade will be based on the number of completed pots you finish. At the end of the semester, you’ll also have the opportunity to enter your best pot into a competition.” Continue reading →