Are you tired of the same old look in Google Slides? The new slides has added a few themes, but it is still pretty limited. There are places to get better presentation templates like slidescarnival.com or Google Templates which is where I found this photo album template.
You also have another option and that is to create your own template. You can do this by creating a new template and then editing the Master Slide and the other slide layouts to create slide templates for your presentation. Process: After creating a new Google Slide Click on Help in the tool bar Click edit master This will open up a new window where you can select the layout of the Master slide which is the default layout for a new slide. You can also edit the layout of the other slides to create the look you are trying to achieve. In the example below I added images as background to create place holders for text and images so students wouldn't have to do as much work in creating a nice looking slide they would simply add images and copy and paste their text.
0 Comments
Google has updated its Google Sites and has finally released it to schools. Why is this such big news? Google Sites is so much easier to use and it looks like a professional site. Google has integrated the formatting and auto save features of Google Classroom and other Google Applications. The new sites reminds me a lot of Weebly which is what I use for creating this site. To add a new feature you simply click on the menu on the right and then you are able to drag it to position it exactly where you want. You can add content from Google Drive, and search for images using Google Search Engine. Google Sites has a multitude of uses. Teachers can use it as a place to house resources and examples of student work. Yes Google Classroom allows you to collect student work, but Google Sites would allow you to share examples of what is going on in your class with parents, and the world. Create student portfolios. Students can create an electronic portfolio of their learning journey. This could be organized by class, or by year so that it grows with them as they move from grade to grade. My last district included a graduation requirement for seniors to present their electronic portfolio. Provide opportunities for students to collaborate and create group sites. Students could create Public Service sites to draw attention to an issue they are researching and provide a platform for making a difference. The video below provides an overview of how to use the new Google Sites. To get to the new sites go to sites.google.com/new. Below is a short tutorial about creating a Student Portfolio. Here is a sample site I created to show what a portfolio site could look like. There are other features that I didn't get to explore yet or didn't include.
The other day I was having a conversation where we were voting on our favorite creation tools. I personally voted for WeVideo because of the diversity, but Jon Spike pointed out the power of Google Slides, especially for creating storybooks.
I decided to explore Slides for creating storybooks. I created the following example below based on the story The Three Little Pigs. I chose a copyright free story as my example and copy and pasted the story in a Google Doc. Instructions for creating
You can create your own Slides Template, or use the one I created here. You can create an example for students, or provide them with the template and guide them in adding the text and images. I also updated the template here.
You can modify the template to be 1 picture and 1 text box, or whatever works best for you. I added animation of the animals to create a more dynamic element to the experience. You can do this by clicking Insert Animation and making the images appear and disappear to simulate movement. Another extension would be having the students do a screen cast where they read their story to work on their reading fluency and give a voice to the story. My daughter is reading Win Dixie for Battle of the Books for school and she is reading in a southern accent as she tries to replicate some of the audio example of the story she heard. Think about the possibilities for students to create and showcase their talents, interests and personalities. Potential applications
Bilingual - I have been working with a bilingual class and thought it might be a great opportunity for students to create a story in their native language and then do the same story in English to work on building their language fluency in both languages. The idea came from working with the teacher where she had the students create a green screen weather event video project first in their native language and then in English.
In the example above I put the English version on the left and then used Google Translate in Google Docs to create a Spanish example. I spoke with one of our Spanish translators and found the translation isn't a really good one because Google does a word for word order translation and that doesn't fit with how it would be written in Spanish. World Languages - Students could write a story in English and then translate it into the language they are studying to demonstrate their understanding of the language and how to properly write in the alternative language.
English - Students can create a story that they could illustrate, or find images to help tell their story. The stories could be shared with younger students. Since the stories are digital it makes it much easier to create a shared folder that can contain a library of student examples.
Social Studies - Students could create historical fictions, or alternative historical timelines based on one event or one decision. What if stories. What would have changed in history if... this event had not taken place, or if a different choice was made?
Science - Students could create lab journals using slides where they chronicle the steps in the experiment or lab. Students could create a journal in biology of the exploration of animals or organisms where they take pictures and label them to create a visual presentation that they can share with classmates.
All about me - Students could create an all about me presentation using slides and the story template. You could put topics on each page that students would share a picture and write a caption that helps others get to know them better. |
AuthorBen Brazeau Archives
September 2018
Categories
All
Categories |