Post 440: Using Bitmoji to Encourage Writing

 Post 440: Using Bitmoji To Encourage Writing

Today, I just posted in my Canvas classroom, three Bitmoji cartoons to lighten the spirits of my students, and to encourage them to write using the Writing Process.

The Bitmoji are light-hearted and reinforce the core concepts of the class, while still entertaining the students.  This is exactly what I wrote to my students today:

Students,

There are three stages to the Writing Process: Pre-Writing where you let your creative juices flow to create your thesis; Writing the Rough Draft where you transform your creative outline into paragraph format and Rewriting the Rough draft where you correct for essay structure (Revision) and grammar mistakes (Proofreading.) Here are three cartoons I made to represent each stage of the Writing Process--(Stage 1--first cartoon),  Stage 2--2nd cartoon and Stage 3 (3rd cartoon) :)

Prof. H

When I posted this on Facebook, somebody on my Teachers Working With Tech loved it so much, she wanted me to make it shareable! I was so flattered!  I told her she could use her own Bitmoji and her students would love seeing their teacher in comic strip format encouraging them on to write!

The Pre-Writing Stage

  The Writing Stage   The Re-Writing Stage  

Post 439: Reopening schools is not complicated: Vaccinate teachers, staff and students, then reopen schools--It is simple!

Post 439: Reopening schools is not complicated: Vaccinate teachers, staff and students, then reopen schools--It is simple!--Thank goodness for Teacher Unions who look after the teachers!!

Conservatives want schools open right now even if teachers are not fully vaccinated. Conservative parents are concerned that their kids are falling behind in their studies with in person classes closed and they feel that online classes are not sufficient to keep their kids interested in school. Parents are more concerned about their kids falling behind than with keeping teachers and staff safe from COVID by having them all vaccinated before reopening schools safely.

Conservative parents cite that the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control have already said schools are safe to reopen as long as students wear mask and sit six feet apart for social distancing. Teacher unions stand firm and tell parents that they will not open schools until all teachers and staff are safely vaccinated. Thank goodness for the power of teacher unions because they are the only ones who care about teacher health and welfare.

Teachers are not just babysitters to whom wealthy conservative parents drop off their children for the day just so they can have time to go to fundraisers or get their hair or nails done!  Teachers are essential workers and like all essential workers, they need PPE, proper ventilation, social distancing and masks to stay safe.

After all, teachers are people too with elderly parents to tend to, children or grandchildren to take care of who would be exposed to COVID19 if teachers went back to school unvaccinated and bought COVID19 back to their families causing their elderly parents to die of COVID or having a delicate spouse die of COVID. Also, many teachers themselves have contracted COVID when schools reopened prematurely. The teacher unions are right, schools should not reopen until all teachers are vaccinated.

Reopenig schools is not complicated. Just wait until all teachers, staff and students are vaccinated, then it will be safe to open schools. Vaccinating everyone is the only sure way that you do not spread COVID19 to other people, and you do not get COVID19 yourself.

When I went to elementary school, all teachers, staff and students had to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, and other childhood diseases. If you did not show proof of your vaccinations, you could not go to school period. If you wanted to teach in a school or work as a teacher's aide, you also had to show proof of vaccination. Well, it should be the same with COVID19. We patiently wait until everyone is vaccinated, and then we go back to school. 

Many parents in favor of reopening schools point to research showing that remote learning has negatively impacted students academically, emotionally and physically. Some even say that keeping students at home has led to suicide since students have no outlet to be with peers. I say that if you can make children understand the need to keep teachers and staff safe, and get children to understand the seriousness of COVID19, then children will weather the storm better.

Children then need to be taught what they can do at home to have fun and to learn. Children need to be taught not to be so selfish as to think about their social life and education before the safety of others to keep everyone safe. Children need to learn to sacrifice their own interests to save others and then children will do just fine.

 Parents need to make children understand that COVID19 is a serious sickness and that going to school would only spread the sickness and that the only way to keep everyone safe is to stay home for awhile until everyone is vaccinated. Parents need to learn to care about teacher's and staff health as much as they care about their children's education, which means waiting until all teachers are vaccinated before opening school up again.  This is especially true in large school districts like LAUSD that do not have the space to social distance due to the large student population. Teachers need to be vaccinated before schools can safely reopen. Period.

 

Post 438: All Teachers Should Be Vaccinated Before Schools can Reopen

Post 438: All Teachers and Students Should Be Vaccinated Before Schools can Reopen

 

 

Photo by Robyn Beck/ NBC News

 

I stand firmly with the teacher's union that all teachers should be vaccinated fro COVID 19 before schools can safely reopen. Even if it takes a couple of years to vaccinate all teachers and school staff, then schools remain closed that long until all teachers are vaccinated.

I used to work for LAUSD, so I know first hand how schools try to squeeze many students in one room at a time, and how schools try to maximize space and time by having a year round schedule, so the school building is full of students and teachers all year round. At LAUSD, the student population is growing not shrinking.

At LA Unified School District, there are so many students that LAUSD runs on a year round schedule. You have students who rotate using the same school building so that several school years can use the same building in one calendar year. As a result, at LAUSD, school run all year round with teachers on a rotating schedule. Some teachers start their school year in September; some in February; and some in the spring and some in the summer.

Also, LAUSD has a growing population of students that are growing exponentially each year. The school district tries to squeeze 50 students in one closet classroom at a time. Class sizes range from 35 to 50 students 8 periods a day. They use small trailers outside the school to squeeze in even more teachers and students because of the large growing population.

Therefore, LAUSD classrooms have NO space for social distancing and no matter how many masks or disinfectants you spray, with students squeezed into a very badly ventilated 'closet' or 'trailer' classroom, everybody can easily get sick, the students, the teachers, the staff and their families.

The only way for a large school system like LAUSD to safely reopen is for all teachers on all 4 school year shifts and all staff on all 4 school year shifts to be vaccinated. This can take several years due to the large volume of teachers, staff and the small supply of vaccine shots. LAUSD is just too big and just has too many students to be safe to reopen. Not only do faculty and staff need to be vaccinated, but students need to be vaccinated too.

Smaller school districts with more money and a much smaller amount of students have the funds and the space to social distance and to buy new ventilation for all school buildings, so they may be able to reopen their elementary school, but LAUSD has too little space and too many students to social distance as they squeeze students and teachers in like sardines on year-round schedules, therefore, LAUSD cannot reopen until all staff, all faculty and all students are vaccinated.

In the meantime, during the time the school is closed, parents will just have to make do in order to ensure that the teachers and staff health is taken care of. It is too much to ask a teacher to risk her health for her job. She may have a fragile husband at home or elderly parents who could get sick and die from COVID caught from the kids so waiting several years for everyone to be vaccinated is a small price to pay to save lives. Vaccinating everyone is the only safe way to reopen schools.

To read more about this issue go to this article:

https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/reopening-schools-its-complicated-5368730/

Post 437: Using Bitmoji Classroom for Inspirational Sayings

 Post 437: Using Bitmoji Classroom for Inspiring Students

In my writing class, we are currently in the Revision stage of our Writing Process for writing Essay 1. In Week 2, we had the Pre-Writing Worksheet which illustrates the first step of the Writing Process, then in Week 4, students transformed their outlines into a Rough Draft, and now in Week 6, students are preparing their final drafts--Revision/Rewrite as the last step of the Writing Process. As students hunker down to revise their final drafts this week, I sent my students this inspirational Bitmoji classroom to remind students that staring at your paper all day makes you miss mistakes. It is important to take a break from your paper and go outside to clear the cobwebs from your mind.

The more you exercise and get out and take breaks between revising the paper, the more alert you will be to catch writing mistakes.  Here is the funny Bitmoji classroom I made for my students this week:

Post 436: Using my Bitmoji Classroom To Provide Resources

Post 436: Using My Bitmoji Classroom To Provide Resources

 

I have been looking at the Bitmoji Facebook groups, and I have seen that teachers are using their Bitmoji classroom as Resource Rooms for kids. In other words, they place the book covers in the classroom picture and when the kids click on the book cover, they are able to get access to the e-book link. 

 

I have been having a lot of fun making these Bitmoji classrooms. Other teachers have created libraries as large as 40 books and all I did was a measly three books on a shelf. The other teachers still said 'I did a great job' to encourage me to do more.

 

I think my students will get a kick out of the classroom, and it will brighten up their day with something whimsical to look at rather than a boring Canvas online classroom.

 

 

 

 

    

Post 435: Using Google Slides To Create Bitmoji Classrooms

 Post 435: Using Google Slides To Create Bitmoji Classrooms

I became intrigued with Bitmoji classrooms when I saw a few of them in my Teachers with Tech Facebook group. Kids love Bitmoji classrooms where elementary school teachers create cartoon classrooms for elementary school kids since many teachers have to teach online during the pandemic. Many schools are closed so the Bitmoji classrooms act as a kind of 'temporary' classroom for kids until in person teaching is possible again when schools reopen after everyone is vaccinated.

A little about myself,  I teach online writing classes to adult students.You may think these classrooms are too infantile for adults, but I teach college students Freshman Composition, and believe it or not, the college students love these classroom motifs and the uplifting messages I write in the comment bubbles.

First, I got myself a Bitmoji by downloading the app from my Apple app store. Then, I placed my Bitmoji into fake classrooms made in Google Slides. I used a classroom template from another teacher, and placed my Bitmoji in it to teach the Five Paragraph Essay Structure.

 Not bad for my very first try. I learned how to remove the white background, so I was able to place my Bitmoji in colorful backgrounds besides white in these classrooms. I had fun finding pictures of books to put on the floor because in real life, I have books on the floor all over the place because I love to read one book part way, then start another book.

    

I also made an Art Studio room below. Don't I wish I had the money to have my own cabin in the woods and my art studio. In real life, I do watercolor painting, but in my apartment. The paintings on the wall are actual watercolor paintings I have done in real life.

 

 And I created a Music Room for myself. The abstract painting at the back of this Music Room picture is actually something I painted myself.  It was fun creating this room and pretending I have such a room in real life. Yes, I did play piano as a child, but no I do not own a piano as an adult so the last picture is fun fantasy. No, I never played the violin, but I figured it would look neat in my fantasy Piano Room.

 

 

I use these Bitmoji rooms to give students encouraging quotations for their writing, and to share rooms with my online students. In the Art Room, the pictures on the wall are actual paintings that I have done. In an unobstrusive way, I get to share my art with my students while encouraging them to write. I place these encouraging quotations in the announcements to brighten up the Canvas classroom.

When I create these rooms, I lose myself in the pleasure of finding furniture as if I were buying furniture for a real house. For me, it is the fantasy of having such luxurious rooms and being able to put whatever furniture I want whee money is no object. That is part of the fun of creating these classrooms, and it gives students a chance to relax by seeing me in different comical fantastic places.

I started with the mundane classroom and ended up in fantasy land with the Piano room.  I wish I did have an art studio but my art supplies are crammed in a closet in  a crowded one room apartment, and so is the easel. I also don't have a library room, but I do have a bookshelf full of books in real life. So, elements of reality filter into these creations.

My classroom is the most realistic because I do have an electronic classroom from which I teach Canvas with my students.  I created all of these rooms with Google Slides for free--that is the amazing thing about all of this.

It is hard to believe that I made these professional looking rooms with Google Slides. Yup, good ole free Google. Hard to believe right?  And free. I did not need to buy expensive professional graphic design software to create these classrooms. This is why Bitmoji classrooms are the rage among educators because it is fun and it is free.

To be continued--a Yoga Room, A gym Room  and an Office in the future that I will create in Google Slides. I am having way too much fun decorating my imaginary house in Google Slides!

Post 434: Still Playing with Jeopardy and Google Slides

 Jeopardy Game Version 2

The only difference between Version 1 and Version 2 is that I added topics to this version. Actually, I am having fun playing with Google Slides and this Jeopardy Template I received from 'Ditch That Textbook" website by Eric Curtis. I really appreciate the hard work Eric Curtis put into making this template and I appreciate it that he made his Jeopardy template available to all teachers! Thanks to Eric Curtis, hopefully, my students will have a fun time playing this game in 8 weeks when it will be Week 12 of my current writing class. Right now, we are in Week 4.  I look forward to playing this Jeopardy game on Zoom with my students. I will write a blog post of how it went in 8 weeks time :)  My next adventure with Google Slides is to figure out what Jamboard is!

Post 433: Using Google Slides To Produce a Jeopardy Game

 As I promised, I experimented with Google Slides and used a Jeopardy template created by Eric Curtis from the 'Ditch That Textbook' website. I copied the Jeopardy Template right into Google Slides, then I filled in the blank questions from the Jeopardy template with the grammar topics that we are studying in my English class. Here is the Link to my Jeopardy Grammar Game.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GA3okQo4JP89y97uUVew909gg3CeOevyTMG8B4kxUgo/edit?usp=sharing

It was fun to make. I am still trying to figure out how to present it to students. In Week 12, the last week of my Writing class, I will play this Jeopardy game with my students to review all the grammar and writing we learned these last 12 weeks, so that we end the class with a fun bang!