Classroom activity for introducing students to iMovie on iPad

A couple months ago I wrote about a video creation challenge we used at the high school to help students learn to make videos on an iPad. Here's a similar assignment that we used with middle school students.

I always say students don't need much direction on how to use tech tools. They just need to know what's possible. I put that philosophy to the test with this assignment. I just listed some requirements for the video, but very few "how-to" directions.

I'm happy to say the activity worked very well! After the teacher assigned it, both of us received some videos shared to us in Google Drive*. Students had fun working through the activity and figuring out iMovie for iPad on their own.

Click here to get a copy of the assignment. It will make a copy in your Google Drive.

*I'd show their projects, but the videos were less than interesting! Step one was to learn how to make a video. The rest of the class was about making an interesting one.

Running a Game Design Virtual Club in Google Classroom

This week we started the virtual club
through Google Classroom!

I recently got the idea to run a virtual club at our middle school. I posted a survey on our website and let the students choose between three topics. Game design won out over a media production club and computer programming. We started the club this week.

Since most of my experience with game design has been with the non-digital variety, that has been our focus. The goal is to have them make a print-and-play game by the end of the school year.

I run the club through Google Classroom. In case anyone else would be interested in a similar venture, here is some of the content I have been sharing with the students.

I started out with my intro video below. As the it indicates, I think the first step in making games is to learn about as many games as possible. Normally we'd accomplish that by playing them together and discussing them.

Since we only meet online, I have been using videos from Tom Vasel's vast archive of game reviews to introduce them to new types of games. Tom does a great job of explaining the rules quickly and I very much appreciate that I can always trust his content to be appropriate for students.

Along with my video and Tom's reviews, I have posted some discussion questions in Classroom to get them thinking about what makes a good game. Soon I will get them started on generating ideas for their own games.

I also have contacted some game designer friends, all of whom have had more success than I have. I asked if they'd record a brief video answering questions that the students have. Some already got back with me, so I am excited to see how that works out. I know the students will appreciate their involvement.

Here's the intro video that I created. (As I mention in the video, it was early in the morning when I recorded it!) I'll also list the videos I posted to show the students new games.

Dice Tower Reviews from Tom Vasel that I have used so far:

• Worker placement games - Lords of Waterdeep
• Micro games - Love Letter
• Modern abstract strategy games - Yinsh
• Deck building games - Star Realms

Click here to see part 2 in the series. In that step I show students the importance of keeping a game design notebook.

Classroom Creativity Game - The Haiku Game

This post contains a link to the template you need to play this game, but you'll also want to see this post  which explains how to run these types of games with your class using Google Apps.

Many of my most popular posts on this blog are the creativity games and exercises I created and shared about four years ago. I am translating some of those into a Google Slides format, which I hope will allow more people to enjoy it.

When played as a classroom game, this game allows 3 - 5 creative students to compete to make the best haiku based on random words. The class participates by voting on their favorite. I've seen middle school and high school students have a lot of fun with these games.

I also will list a few suggestions at the end of this post about other ways to use the activity, possibly with less time or allowing more students to create the fun answers.

First, here's the flow of the game when used with the whole class.

1. Choose 3 to 5 students to be the contestants in the game. They should sit at the front of the room. They'll need either paper or a computer, depending on how you want them to share their riddle answers with you.
2. The teacher draws two random words.
3. The contestants get two minutes to write their best haiku that contains those two words. Each student shares his or her haiku with the teacher.
4. The teacher reads them and they are entered in the game slide so the students can see them.
5. The students in the class vote on the their favorite haiku (using a classroom response system or possibly Google Forms).
6. Points are awarded to the contestants based on the number of votes they received.
7. Steps 2 - 6 are repeated three or four times, then scores are totaled to determine a winner.

Here is the Google Slides presentation that you'll need to play this game or to do any of the activities listed below.

Click to have a copy of the Google Slides presentation added to your Google Drive. 

Video Overview

This 4 minute video shows how to play a similar game. It's about answering a riddle instead of making a haiku, but the way you carry it out in class is the same. (If you're interested, here's the post about that game.)

Tips and suggestions for other ways to use the activity

• Usually the students make funny poems, but you could require different criteria for the "best" poem.
• Have some things to show the rest of the class while the contestants write their poems. 
• It's easy to change some of the words that I have in the game, or you can just add a few. Pick things from your school, like your football team or the cafeteria. If you're feeling brave, put your name in the mix! This gives students a chance to practice being funny while still being respectful.
• Have the other students write their haiku too. After the vote, have some of them share what they wrote if they want.
• If you don't want to devote much class time to the game, just draw two words at the end of class and have all students make a haiku for homework. You can select your top 5 and have them vote on the best one as a warm-up in a later class.
• Be sure to read my post about creativity exercises that can be used before playing this game.

My Google Drive Quick Tips

Over the course of this school year I created a few "Quick Tips" about Google Drive and other tools for the teachers I work with. My goal was to highlight easy, useful features in under two minutes.

First, a couple general comments:

• Google updates the apps frequently, so even the more recent videos might show slightly outdated interfaces. The general processes are the same though.
• Some of these are very informal recordings done quickly for other purposes. I trust they'll still be of use as a quick lesson.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or send me an email. I'm always happy to help and I'll add to this list as more information is requested.

Navigating Google Drive

Organizing files in Google Drive

Uploading files of any type to Google Drive

How to share files in Google Drive using Link Sharing - It's better than typing everyone's email address in that box!

Inserting images in Google Docs

Adding hyperlinks to Google Docs, Slides and Drawings

Adding comments to a document - This includes tips on doing this without taking your hands off the keyboard. That's really helpful when grading several papers!

Team Building Video Challenge for High School

Here's a team building exercise I created for our high school video announcements team when we started the new semester. I loosely based it on a very fun, creative game we used to play, back before everyone carried around video cameras (and high power editing software) in their pockets.

The details of the challenge are described in the document at the link below. Basically students had to work in groups of three or four to create a fictitious news story. There were other criteria as well, including five random words that had to be included in some creative way.

They had only one class period to make the video, including learning how to use iMovie on an iPad. (By the way, my new approach to introducing tools like this is to simply give them the requirements. Once they know what the tools can do, they figure out how to work them on their own.)

You can get a copy of the challenge document in your Google Drive by clicking this link. Change it as necessary to meet your needs. If you share it, please include the link to my blog that's in the footer.

Here's the video that one group produced. On it's own, it's not terribly entertaining. I think they did an excellent job within the constraints of the challenge, though, and they included all the random words (clock, cup, reward, silence and courage). They went slightly over on the 30 second time limit, but I was very happy with their efforts.

(Note that I had already told them my top tips for video projects and they created one video previously using other tools.)

Using Technology to Amplify What's Working

This post is about a resource I created for for teacher professional development sessions about tech integration. It serves at least three purposes:

• It reinforces the idea that technology should be used for more than just saving time. 
• It introduces teachers to good research-based instructional strategies.
• It provides a common language and vision for effective use of technology.

It's based on the idea that technology amplifies. Like a lever can allow one person to lift more or a shovel can help one person dig more, technology in the classroom can increase the effectiveness of good instructional strategies.

A link to the document is below. As teachers work in pairs or a group of three to fill in the table, it requires them to go through this process:

• Identify and describe a few good instructional strategies - I have been providing these, but teahers could start by sharing some they use or possibly researching them on their own. I like to direct them to John Hattie's work and this page is a good starting point.
• Identify tech tools they have available that can amplify the practice - It helps to give an example here. I use lecture, since everyone is familiar with it, but it's not likely to be on the top of the list of effective practices. As an example of enhancing it with technology, we talk about how video can be used in powerful ways in flipped and blending learning models. It's important that specific tools are mentioned. For example, if the teachers use Chromebooks I'd suggest SnagIt as a great tool for recording the screen.
• Identify (and possibly describe) the ways the technology gives an advantage - This is the heart of the activity. I call these ways "AMPs", which stands for Achieve Maximum Potential. Some example AMPs from my list that we could mention for amplifying the lecture would be:
• Improves the access for learning - Students can watch it even if they're not in class.
•  Personalizes the learning experience for the needs of the learner - They can play parts again or skip ahead as necessary.

I included 10 AMPs in the document, each labeled with a letter to make it easier to complete the table. A description of each, including examples, is on the second page.

Click here to open a copy of the document in your Google Drive.

Student Samples from the Game Design Exploration

Back in December I created a game design exploration activity that could be adapted to fit the schedule and content of many classes. I posted four articles about it, starting with the introduction here.

Recently I worked with some middle school students who created games using the template I provide. Their topic was Wonder, by R. J. Palacio.

Due to time constraints, students were only able to complete the cards and play their own game. I also assigned two reflection activities that were adapted from the one in this post.

You can see their sample cards here:

• Group 1's cards
• Group 2's cards

Students definitely enjoyed the activity from start to finish. It was a welcome change of pace that they looked forward to each morning. I heard plenty of discussion about the book as they tried to think of titles for the cards. 

When they played their games, I asked them a few things about how the actions on the cards related to the theme of the story. They generally could explain it easily, but sometimes the action would be inconsistent with the story.

For example, when the chips represented Happiness in one game and sometimes players would receive this Happiness by actions that were not happy. We talked about this briefly. Sometimes the contradiction is unavoidable given the simple nature of the game. Reflecting on these themes of the story serves an important purpose even if the cards don't make complete sense at times.

A couple tips:

• Because the game was taking longer to play than I hoped, I put less chips in the center than what the rules called for. I also had students take four chips to start rather than just three. Students could also tweak the actions on the cards to make the game go faster.
• Rather than printing on card stock, I printed their cards on paper. I cut them out and inserted each in a card sleeve (available at any game store or here) along with an old playing card to keep it stiff. This is how many of us make early stage prototypes, so it's good for aspiring young designers to pick up this tip.

Make Growth Mindset Achievement Pages for Students Using Google Apps

Here's a quick way to help students develop a growth mindset as you recognize their progress. You can create achievement pages for each of them using Google Apps such as Drawings and Docs.

At the end of a semester or year, students will have a record of milestones they passed in their learning journey. You can personalize them as much as you want for your class and the students. Be sure to encourage a growth mindset by praising effort and the process of learning.

Here's the procedure:

First, make a blank achievement page as a Google document. Put the student's name at the top and any other information you want to include. I also suggest adding a table to the document to keep the achievements organized. Once you get the basic arrangement you like, you'll copy the document and change the name for each student in your class.

Next, search Pixabay to easily find quality public domain clip art of awards and trophies.

Copy and paste a few of those clip art images into a blank Google Drawing.

Add some Word Art, shapes or text boxes to decorate each award. Make them personal! Name them after your favorite phrases, teaching techniques or projects. Of course, encourage a growth mindset too. If you need ideas, here's a great list of resources from Vicki Davis' blog.

Ideally you'll make a few generic awards. You can also make custom awards this way at any time, even at the last minute for some achievements. The more personalized and relevant to the project at hand, the better.

When it's time to recognize a student's achievement, "snip" a copy of an award. You'll use different tools for this depending on the type of computer you're using. On a Windows computer, use the Snipping Tool. Here are keystrokes for a Chromebook or a Mac. Note that it is easiest to copy the image you capture rather than  just saving it to your computer.

Paste that snipped image into a table cell on student's achievement page. Add a note that is specific to what they earned the award. Include a date too.

After you add the first award, share it with the student. If they have Google Apps for Education accounts, this is easy. Just Share as you would any document, but be sure to make it View only. You don't want them to be able to edit these achievement pages. 

If the students don't have Google accounts, use link sharing and send the link to the student (possibly at a parent's email address) or using a link shortener like Goo.gl.

Add awards at anytime after you've shared it and students can see their updated achievement sheet at anytime. They can drag the URL to their bookmarks bar in Chrome, so it's always only a click away.

Using Google Tools for Classroom Creativity Games

A couple weeks ago I wrote about a creativity game template I made in Google Slides. (Read that post for details on how the games are played with a class.) Making the games in this flexible tool should allow a lot more teachers to take advantage of what they offer.

Now I'm going a step further and showing how to run the entire game with Google tools. These are the ones I'll be using:

• Google Slides for the game template
• Google Docs for the contestants to submit their responses to the teacher
• Google Forms for the class to vote on their best response
• Google Classroom for getting the Form out to the class when it's time to vote

I'll explain the process with two videos. The first shows how to prepare to play.

And this second video shows how to run a round of the game with the class. 

Note: In case it wasn't clear from the video, the responses I copied from the three shared documents would be written by the contestants after they see the prompt for the round. They would each have their document open on a Chromebook or other device. When they're done, you copy and paste them into the slideshow so the class can see them for a vote.

Creativity Game with Google Slides - Why Did the Chicken...?

This post contains a link to the template you need to play this game, but you'll also want to see this one which explains how to run the game with your class.

Many of my most popular posts on this blog are the creativity games and exercises I created and shared about four years ago. I finally translated one of those into a Google Slides format, which I hope will allow more people to enjoy it.

When played as a classroom game, it allows 3 - 5 creative students to compete to make the best answers to random riddles. The class participates by voting on their favorite. I've seen middle school and high school students enjoy this game.

I also will list a few suggestions at the end of this post about other ways to use the activity, possibly with less time or allowing more students to create the fun answers.

First, here's the flow of the game when used with the whole class. 

1. Choose 3 to 5 students to be the contestants in the game. They should sit at the front of the room. They'll need either paper or a computer, depending on how you want them to share their riddle answers with you.
2. The teacher draws a random riddle as shown in the video below.
3. The contestants get two minutes to write their best answer to the riddle. Those answers and shared with the teacher.
4. The teacher reads the answers that were submitted and they are entered in the game slide.
5. The students in the class vote on the their favorite answer (using a classroom response system or possibly Google Forms).
6. Points are awarded to the contestants based on the number of votes they received.
7. Steps 2 - 6 are repeated three or four times, then scores are totaled to determine a winner.

Here is the Google Slides presentation that you'll need to play this game or to do any of the activities listed below.

Click to have a copy of the Google Slides presentation added to your Google Drive. 

Video Overview

This 4 minute video shows the basics of creating the random riddles and playing the game with a class.

Tips and suggestions for other ways to use the activity

• Have some things to show the class while the students write their random riddles. 
• It's easy to change some of the words that I have in the game, or you can just add a few. Pick things from your school, like your football team or the cafeteria. If you're feeling brave, put your name in the mix! This gives students a chance to practice being funny while still being respectful.
• Have the other students write riddle answers too. After the vote, have some of them share their answers if they want.
• If you don't want to devote much class time to the game, just generate a random riddle at the end of class and have all students answer it for homework. You can select your top 5 and have them vote on the best one as a warm-up in a later class.
• Be sure to read my post about creativity exercises that can be used before playing this game.

Game Design for Any Subject, Google Apps and More - Top Posts of 2015

2015 was an exciting year for helping teachers beyond my local district! In this post I will list some of the top tips, activities and resources from this blog over the past 12 months.

First, just a thought about my other blog. I love sharing resources and tips here at CG&T, but my heart has been in at my Teaching Like an Artist blog. I had a great year with some conferences, inspirational posts and even a book (digital and print). Be sure to check out my top posts there and consider following that work in 2016!

Now on to the great resources that got the most attention this year…
I ran a few PD sessions in the summer and these popular tips and tipsheets were a result:

• 4 Tipsheets for Navigating Google Classroom
• Updated and compiled resources for making comics using Google Slides
• Part of the above resources, but great to highlight on it's own - How to create comics using just the Google Slides app on your favorite mobile device

Here's an important post that introduces teachers to 10 simple, free tools for showing off any project (even non-tech projects) beyond the classroom. They range from simple to more involved.

I developed these two methods for making a narrated slideshow presentation using just a Chromebook.

• This simpler way uses Google Slides and SnagIt. (This hasn't yet been a "top post", but it is a great option that goes with this often requested presentation method.)
• This more involved method was my guest post on Free Tech for Teachers in June!

And these are my favorite quick tips from the year:

• How to record an audio "podcast" quickly and easily on a Chromebook using Twisted Wave
• Marking up images with a Chromebook and Google Drawings
• Two fast, simple tools for adding text to images

New Game Design Resources
Any teacher knows students today love games and many of them want to make games. I posted two popular series about creating games design this year. These are both non-digital game activities.

This first one is a “make a game in an hour” activity that I’ve done with designers. I started with a big picture look at what I and others have learned from making games.

Game Design in the Classroom - What I learned, what others learned, the "game jam" style activity and thoughts on developing and publishing

Later in the year I created this series, which one designer called a “baby step” into game design. All the resources are created in Google Docs for easy modification and sharing with students. It’s a flexible introduction to making games that integrates with many subjects. The flow of the project is...

• Learn the basic game
• Modify the game by adding a theme and possibly other rules
• Test the games
• Reflect on the process (This step is the key to tying it all together with your course content.)

Also new in 2015, I created this Game Design Page as a convenient place to find all my best classroom game design resources.

Game Design Exploration Part 4 - Reflection

This is the fourth part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

_________________

This final stage of the project can be the most important, as it requires students to reflect upon what they learned about the lesson topic for your course as well as game design. In it each student Students will complete the document at the link below. 

Do not give students the document until they worked through Parts 1 - 3 of the activity (each easily accessible at the links above). That means they should have created a game based on Roll-n-Flip, tested it and played at least one game created by another group before they try to answer the questions. 

If you modified the activity in Parts 1 - 3 of the project, you might have to change the questions in the document to fit what your students experienced.

Through reflection, students should gain deeper insights from the activity. Their responses also provide you with a look at what they've learned about the lesson topic. That can be used to guide followup instruction or class discussion.

The reflection questions in the document come in three parts:

• The activity itself
• The game design process
• The lesson topic and how they connected elements of it to their game theme

You can find the Game Design Exploration Reflection Sheet here.

Game Design Exploration - Part 3 - Testing the Games

This is the third part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

_________________

The importance of playtesting and revision - the iterative process in game design

This testing and revision stage of the game design process is essential. It can be fun and rewarding or sometimes very frustrating! It's often the heart of the creation process and it will probably take more time than all other parts combined.

Being so important, students need to see it. With limited class time, though, it is likely you will use it in this activity only provide some exposure to the concepts and a chance to have fun with the designs. Tell students it is important when making any type of game, but remind them to really test and improve their game they'd need to work on it a lot outside of class.

Keeping that in mind, tweak the following outline and resources to fit your needs.

Is everyone ready to proceed?

If a class is working through this design activity, at this point each group of students should have redesigned the simple Roll-n-Flip game. At the very least they should have done the following. (All of this is explained in the second post in this series.)

• Chosen a theme for their game based on the topic studied in class
• Created a title for their game
• Written a short introduction about the game
• Redesigned the 11 cards and changed them on the template found in Part 2 of this series

Optionally, the groups might have designed additional rules and components for their game.

Make the games.

When all the parts above are complete, groups should print and cut out any cards or components they need to play their games. It's best to print the cards on cardstock or at least the thickest paper possible.

Each group also needs at least one die. They need tokens for a pawn and chips too, but a template in Part 2 provided components they could cut from paper if those tokens were not available. 

If the groups added rules for additional cards or components, all of those pieces need to be printed and cut out or gathered as well.

Depending on how much time you want the class to devote to this playtesting experience, groups could make two or more copies of their game so multiple groups could play them at once.

Groups test their own games

Game designers often play their own games first, just to see if the creations even work at all. At this stage, each group should play their game at least once.

After playing, students should discuss these questions:

• Did the game work as we intended?
• Did we find anything (good or bad) that we didn't expect?
• How much do we think other groups will enjoy our game?
• What changes could we make to improve the game?

Depending on how much time you have for this design exploration, students could rework their cards. Simple changes might be handwritten right on the cards. Significant changes might require students to actually alter the cards in the original Google Drawings they made in Part 2 of this activity.Of course, that would require them to print and cut out more components.

If time doesn't allow a students to make all the changes they want to, remind them that they can improve the game as much as they want on their own.

Groups test a game designed by another group

For this part of the activity, each group will play at least one other group's game. Ideally this will be "blind playtesting", meaning the groups will play the games without additional assistance from the game designers.

The game components should already be created by now. Game introductions and possibly new rules need to be printed (or shared through Google Drive) so groups have everything they need to learn and play the games.

Along with these materials, give each group a copy of this Game Playtesting Sheet. It provides questions for before and after playing the game. 

Additional considerations

• Give the groups time in class to read and discuss the Game Playtesting Sheets that test groups filled out for their game.
• Groups could test games from more than one group if possible.
• Students could take their games home and have other people play them to get more opinions.
• Have a class discussion (possibly virtually) at the end of this stage so you and the students can look for patterns on what worked best in the games.
• It would be ideal to get test groups from a class that did not go through the design process themselves. In other words, they would likely be unfamiliar even with Roll-n-Flip, so the whole experience would be new to them. This requires the designers to put a lot more work into their rules.

In the next post (and final stage of the activity) students will reflect on their game designs and the design process.

Classroom Game Design Exploration - Part 2

Recent Update:  There's now a link at the end of the post to some sample student games and tips I learned from playing with them.

This is the second part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

__________

Photo by Mark Strozler

Considering Theme in Game Design

For students to understand this part of the game design exploration, they need to think about the concept of theme. If working with an entire class, you could lead a discussion using these ideas here. Students could provide other examples from game they are familiar with. 

The basic game of Roll-n-Flip (which you should have played in part 1 of this series) has no theme. It's not about anything other than getting chips.

Many other very popular games do not have a theme. Think of Checkers or many card games like Bridge or Hearts. Players are just playing with the components within the game's rules, hoping to win. We sometimes call these abstract games.

Photo by Jon Ross

But in other games like Monopoly or Risk have a theme. It's like a story, in a way. More or less, players are pretending to be doing something other than playing with cards and plastic. The themes are selling property and fighting battles to take over the world. In games with strong themes, the card text and the artwork all serve to remind players of that theme.

It's also important to notice that the rules also should support the theme. The rules of Monopoly are not exactly like buying and selling property in real life, but there are obvious similarities. For example, when you put some new buildings on a property it increases in value. In Risk, a bigger army has a better chance of taking over a smaller army. We expect the rules to support the theme.

For this stage of the game design project, students will design the cards of Roll-n-Flip so it has a theme.

Examples of Themes for the Roll-n-Flip Game

I have already created two other games based on the Roll-n-Flip game. Those games have themes and they are: 

• The Game of Christmas Cheer
• All Around Mackinac Island

The themes of those games are apparent from their titles, their boxes and the text on all of the cards. As you might guess, the first one is about Christmas. The second is based on a popular tourist spot in my home state of Michigan.

To make sure players remember the theme on every roll of the die, we don't refer to the chips as "chips". In the Christmas game, they are called "cheer" and we call them "fun" in our Mackinac game. 

Likewise, the cards don't have generic names like the ones I used in Roll-n-Flip. Instead, the Christmas game has "Stressed Out" in place of the Mix-Up card. The graphic on that one shows a person who obviously is overwhelmed with the holidays.

In the Mackinac game, I made that card "Tourist Rush", since a busy day on the island can be a hectic experience.

Really good things also are found in the cards' names. One card is "The True Meaning of Christmas", for example, and it can bring in a lot of chips (cheer) for a player. And in my other game, the best card is Fudge. That's because everyone who visits Mackinac Island knows about the popular fudge shops.

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Adding a Theme to Roll-n-Flip

After discussing themes in games and looking at the examples above, it's time for students to add a theme to Roll-n-Flip. The theme will be based on the lesson topic they've studied in class. 

The special Game Design Planning Sheet linked below will guide them through the process. Here are some things to keep in mind before assigning the planning sheet:

• The students will choose a theme that's related to your topic. The lesson might be about a book they just read, like The Outsiders, or maybe it will be about a historical event like the U.S. Civil War. While they could use those entire topics as the theme, they also could choose a specific part of those topics. For example, they might focus on a climatic scene of the book or a particularly interesting battle of the war.
• The planning sheet will require them to name each card as something from their theme and to rename the chips. 
• The document has a link to the components for Roll-n-Flip in a Google Drawing. If students click it, they will get a copy of that Drawing. They can type their changes onto the cards and print a copy of the game.
• There are optional ideas listed on the second page of the planning sheet for a more advanced re-design of the Roll-n-Flip game. Use them as appropriate for the age of your students and the needs of this project.

Click here to access the Game Design Planning Sheet.

And click here to see my post that includes some samples from games the students made.

Simple Game for the Classroom and Explorations in Game Design

This is the first part of a series for a classroom game design project that can be used in many classes and subjects. The whole project is based on a very simple game I created. Students will modify that game so it's about the topic they are studying in class.

Here's the flow of the overall project. Each of these stages has its own post, which you can access by clicking the link.

• Learn and play Roll-n-Flip - Students need to learn to play the basic game of Roll-n-Flip first. It should take one class period or less to learn the game and to play it a couple times. 
• Redesign Roll-n-Flip - Next, students will modify the game by adding a theme (based on your lesson) and possibly other rules. This can take more or less than one class period, depending on how much you want them to develop their version of the game.
• Play and improve their game - In this step students test the game their group made and then at least one game created by another group. You could also give them time to improve their game based on feedback. This process can be a class period or more, depending how much you want to focus on game design.
• Reflection - For the last part of the activity, students will reflect on what they learned about your course content and about game design. This reflection "seals the deal" for the learning, making this possibly the most important of step of the project.

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How to Play Roll-n-Flip

This is a simple game of chance and pressing your luck. Played with these simple rules, it could entertain students in ages 8 - 12. Remember that the goal of the project is to entertain your students, but to redesign this game. Older students would play it so they can fully understand the basic game first. They'll see it can easily be modified to be more enjoyable by older players.

This video (just under three minutes) is probably the best way to see how the game works. 

After watching the video, read the full rules.

In order to play, you will need these components for each set (which works for 2 - 5 players):

• This Google Drawing contains the cards for the game. Ideally you'd print this on card stock, but paper will work if necessary. Cut those 11 cards out.
• 10 chips per player - These can be poker chips, bingo chips, plastic coins or any small tokens.
• 1 Six-sided die
• 1 Pawn - This can be any small piece as long as players won't confuse it with their chips.

If you can't find chips and a pawn, this Google Drawing has some squares you can cut out for these purposes. (Ignore the additional cards on that template for now.)

Coming soon: Tips for redesigning the game for use in many subjects

Simple Video Presentations with Google Slides and SnagIt

Update 12/2016: Since TechSmith stopped supporting SnagIt, I now use Screencatify to do the same thing. A more recent post about this is here.

One of my most popular posts has been this process of making a digital slideshow using Google Slides and WeVideo. It's my preferred method, since it works on any computer or Chromebook and it's a good introduction to video editing. The only downside is the tech can take more than its share of the time from the lesson.

Here's another method that can be done much more quickly. It is an informal recording, with no opportunity to edit. So what it saves it time, it may lack in polish. It's a great next step from traditional slideshow presentations, though.

First, this is an example I made to show what the finished product might look like. Notice that the recording will capture the act of starting and stopping the presentation.


And this next video is a tutorial of the process. It really just involves just three steps:

• Create the slideshow with Google Slides (or any other tool you prefer on a laptop or Chromebook).
• Practice what you'll say and when you'll advance each slide.
• Record it with the SnagIt Chrome extension.

I worked out this process with another teacher at my school about a year ago for math tutorials. Then last summer I found this great overview of the process from Jonathan Brubaker on the FreeTech4Teachers blog. See his guest post for other details and options. He also includes some good examples from students.

How to Create an Audio Recording on a Chromebook Using Twisted Wave

I created this short tutorial to show students how to record "podcasts" on a Chromebook. We used Twisted Wave to record, edit and save their audio skits as mp3 files. Twisted Wave can be installed on the Chromebooks as an app or the students can just go to TwistedWave.com.

If the students have Google Apps for Education accounts, it makes it very easy to sign in and save their files to Google Drive. From there it can be shared with others or turned in through Google Classroom.

I was very impressed with the ease of this process. Students who wrote and practiced their scripts ahead of time finished their short recordings in about 10 minutes. Those who remembered doing similar projects with Audacity in the past agreed this was much simpler. (Though Audacity is an excellent tool for multi-track projects.)

We did run into a few bumps using the process outlined below.

• It seemed to freeze more often if students opened the recorder in full screen. I suggest keeping it in a smaller window as shown in the tutorial.
• When the recorder did freeze, closing and reloading seemed to solve the problem. No one reported that their file was lost. It autosaves frequently.
• Sometimes it wouldn't properly load the window asking for permission to access the microphone on the Chromebook. This stumped me and some students at first, but eventually the recording window would show up with a small icon in the upper right. By clicking that, I was able to grant access and complete the activity.

Two simple, free tools for adding text to pictures

I recently came across these two very simple tools that will add text to a picture in no time.

If you're on Facebook or Twitter, I'm sure you've seen how people put words (usually humorous ones) on pictures. The best ones are quickly shared with the masses. Many educators create these images (sometimes called "cards") to share great quotes or thoughts for professional development.

I used to call them "digital posters" and I put several of mine on this post on my blog. Tony Vincent calls them "infopics" and he has a lot to say on his blog about how you can use them in the classroom.

I usually to use Pixlr or Picmonkey to create these myself, but these other two sites will let you put a quote or phrase on a picture in minutes.

Because of this, both should be ideal for classroom projects where you don't want the tech taking the focus. They have banner ads displayed on both sites, but as I've used them to test the features I haven't seen anything inappropriate in the ads. Here are some pros, cons and examples.

PICFONT

The interface for PICFONT looks a little dated, but the pictures come out looking great. It provides several effects to choose from besides just adding text. That's great if you want to get into the details of design, but it also could make it more of a distraction in class. 

I couldn't figure out how to center the text without entering each line individually. It wasn't hard once I realized that, so I pass it along. Here's the sample graphic I created at the site:

AddText
Of these two, AddText is the most streamlined. There simply isn't much you can do with the free version other than choose or upload a picture, then type the text. This site has the opposite problem of PICFONT when it comes to arranging the text. The text automatically is centered, so you'll have to add multiple lines of text if you want to align it in any other arrangement.

There aren't many free fonts to choose from, but there are some decorative ones that look a lot better than PICFONT's options. This can be a great option for meme projects, since there are some pictures in the gallery and a font that are available just for that purpose.

The message to get a premium membership will pop up if students choose a font marked with a star. For about $20 a year you can get the premium features (which is actually a premium account at FlamingText.com). It's a fair price by the looks of the many font options, but for quick class projects the free fonts will serve you well.

Here's an example of what I quickly put together with AddText:

Thanksgiving Magnetic Poetry in Google Drawings

I created this Thanksgiving Magnetic Poetry* in Google Drawings for another teacher. If you click the link, it will ask you to make a copy in your Google Drive.

*If you get a message to request access when you click the link, it is because your Google account won't let you open it. It is shared properly and anyone can open it unless their administrator blocked outside sharing. 

I suggest editing it as you prefer, then assigning it in Google Classroom so all your students get their own copy.

The words are all images except for the five text boxes at the top. It might be cheating to type your own words in magnetic poetry, but teachers can delete those text boxes if they don't want students to use them. I would suggest students limit themselves to five of their own words at most.

You can remove any of the word images that you want too.

If you and your students enjoy this activity, please share a link in the comments of the poems you and they create!

It's inspired by this very popular, well done Halloween Magnetic Poetry activity from the Shake Up Learning blog.

If you like this simple activity, please consider purchasing one of my inexpensive tech activities on Teachers Pay Teachers. It helps me continue to make creative, educational resources.

• Comic Projects with Google Tools Bundle
• Animation and Interactive Stories Using Google Slides

If you like this post, you might also like:

• My Classroom Creativity Game - Make haikus or play other fun games as a class
• Comics with Google Apps - Resources for making comics from photos and more
• Use Google Slides and WeVideo to make narrated slideshows

Presenting at miGoogle and Michigan State

We will presenting The Way of the Google Drive: Thoughts and Tools to Inspire Change at two conferences the first week of November.

• miGoogle 2015 in Brighton, Michigan
• Michigan State University College of Education Technology Conference

It will be a fast paced combination of motivational thoughts and practical examples of how we've seen the ideas work.

To prepare, I've been posting articles here or on my other blog every day of October. Here are some popular ones from this week:

• The outline of our session
• Always Striving to Improve - My interview with Jake Gentry, who will be presenting with me at both conferences
• Lifelong learning, PBL and a passion for encouraging others - My interview with Clark Rodeffer, who will join us for miGoogle

Click here to see all posts from Teaching Like an Artist with the tag "The Way of the Google Drive".

And if I haven't promoted it enough yet, don't miss our EPIC session trailer!