At the top of creativity!

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Hello again!

Because we have lots of opportunities for creating a businesslike atmosphere in our classes, I have an example that we can use in our class. This is a  web site and called storybird. With this site you can create your own stories and publish them also use in your classroom. We will learn more in detail about this useful site. 

First you can start with signing up. This is totally free. Even you haven’t signed up you can create a story but you cannot save it. But you can do something good like reading stories other users’ created before. Because our aim is to create a new one let us sign up. I create a student account. But as a teacher we can create a teacher account, after you create your account you can give your students a classroom code, their works will be appeared on your page and they can see each others' products. But you should pay for it. 

After signing up you can create a new story. As a story we have two options: long form and picture book. In the long form you add less picture, more text; in the other one, less text and more pictures. We have poetry section, in this section you choose a picture, then related words are listed you can combine them and create your work.

After choosing the picture you want
you can use the picture for your work.

First I create a picture book. Then I begin to create my story. After I choose the picture, put that picture in the page and write the rest whatever I want. I can add more pages, change their order or delete. When all the pages are done, the cover page should be designed.  As  I said before if you want to publish your story you can see the choice as 'public' but if you don’t, you can click on ' private.'

Here is the link for this work which is so simple example of a picture book.

For the long form, like the picture book, you chose the image you want and begin to write your story. You can add chapters and write as you want.

You can see from here the introduction of a longform story.

For the poem as I mentioned before, you choose a picture, then some words come automatically. You combine them and have fun.
You can see this poem example from here.

You can see your own products from ‘you-your staff’ section. If it is necessary you can change them an also rewrite them. You can share via e-mail and link. But if you want to download or print, you should pay for it. 

Okay we have learned how to use but what can be done for a learning activity? Let us create some activities.

First determine a topic:

• After school, Jessica and Tom want to do something.

Give some specific ideas about the story, tell students: 

• Write a plan for them
• Use 4 of these words in your story:
• Think, happy, sad, tough, enough, teacher, turn back, outside, wait, calm down.
• After you finish, send me via e- mail.

Another example:

Last week you lectured the simple past tense and you are certain they understand well. 

You can want them to write a memory which they felt so happy and determine borders like one page long etc. 

Maybe this is not a creative activity but activities like this develop students knowledge. You can adapt this kind of activities to lots of topics. 

For a creative one we can give a homework like:

Give a prompt:

• One day, sally was so sad. Her mother came to her and said: ‘what happened sally, why are you sad?’…..  (Continue this introduction and think a solution for Sally to be happy. )

You should give more specific guidelines for them because it is hard to write someting without knowing what is supposed to do. Be clear when you give any assignments.

With the help of storybird  they can:

• write their routines, wishes, 
• introduce a cartoon character 
• rewrite a story which is written by known authors,
• create their utopias so on an so forth...

As you see there are lots of activities can be created. You can say that 'I can give like these assignments without using this site and I can say that ‘write your stories on a paper or word document.’' Is it the same? I think it is not. In this site you see lots of images to create a new story also you can see your other stories and see differences before and now. This is so motivating. Also we can use for all age groups, according to their level different activities can be created.

What are the advantages?

• Students’ creativity is developed.
• Writing is fun.
• Writing and reading skills are improved.
• They can learn new vocabularies and idioms from others’ stories.
• Homework is more meaningful. 

As I always mention it is important to use creative tools in the classroom. Otherwise there is no difference between robots and us. If we conduct a lesson and go, this wouldn’t be fair. Enriching our techniques and classroom activities is beneficial for students and teachers. See you…

Both enjoyable and meaningful?

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Hello everyone!

It’s been a long time to share new tools. Today I am going to introduce you a useful tool. In the class we have presented this tool with my partner Neslihan Civelek. Let us learn about this more in detail.

This tool is a website Bitsrips. With the help of this site what we can do? This is the very logical question. This site helps you to create your own character and avatars also comics. Basically these three are used but you can see lots of comics which are made by other users you can also use them for your classroom activities even you have not an account. But if you want to create a new comic, character or avatar and save them, you should have an account. I will show how to create one but first I am going to explain step by step what can we do with screenshots and then I have lots of ideas what can we do with this site.

As you see, even if I did not sign up first 

I could see some comics which were made by other users.

You can see the sharing options at the bottom of the comic.

Let us begin with creating character. As you see, there are lots of options which are easy to understand. You should begin with selecting gender. Then you can move on and finish your character. As I said before you should sign up for being able to save your character. Your characters will be seen on your profile page.

At the top of the page you can see options such as; hair color or type, eyebrow style, eye type, color etc.

Here is the profile page.
You can see the options like 'my characters, strips, scenes, favorite friends'
You can find your friends via e-mail. and visit their pages.

For creating a new comic you begin with selecting your panel number then stage and characters as you want you can want whatever you want according to your topic. You can add text bubbles. There are lots of opportunities which are waiting for you. You can just pick one of them and enjoy.

After choosing the scene, you can add a character and change it's clothing

You can add text bubbles as you wish

Here is the example of a comic

You did all these things and what then? How can we integrate these into our teaching? What if they don’t work? First we cannot know what happens without any attempt to try. We should know how to. Let us think some activities.

Everyone knows remembering vocabulary, idioms, proverbs is difficult.  As a teacher you can create a comic which is included a vocabulary with the right scene and text bubble. Share on your blog or show them with the help of your projection or print it and give students, want them to use that vocabulary in a sentence. Then that vocabulary will be remembered because using visuals is really a good way to learn. 

After you save your comic you can see the option of 'print' you can easily use it.

The other options will be demonstrated after clicking on 'share' button

You can also want them to create a new comic after giving a topic. This will be fun for them because they use computers for this activity and create new things and easy to create. They will love it. I have some activity examples here:

• Introduce yourself

You can do this from the very beginning of your class for knowing them better. In this activity, students design their character and create a comic strip introducing themselves.

•  My summer holiday

Students practice their skills by showing what happened on the best day of their summer vacation.

• School rules 

Students choose one of your school rules and show their avatar demonstrating why the rule is important.

• Classroom rules

Students consider the rules of your classroom and create a comic explaining their thoughts on the 3 most important ones. 

You can also create an activity after creating a comic: ‘Writing a short story’ again you can share your comic on your blog or print as you wish. After giving a prompt and picture you have created, they can write the rest. This wouldn’t be dull like the other writing tasks. 

What are the advantages?

• Learning is fun.
• Some difficult vocabularies are easy to memorize.
• Creativity is developed.
• Reading and writing skills are developed.
• Preparation time is reduced.

What about disadvantages? I observe some disadvantages such as:

• Inappropriate comics.

I saw some inappropriate comics which have some inappropriate words or scene in the main page. This is not acceptable to use for young learners. We should be careful about that.

• Being not able to sign up with e-mail. 

There is a one option for signing up with facebook. But we see a log in choice as ‘log in with e-mail.’ This is a bit confusing. For example I have not a facebook account but my friend has,so I used this site with my friend.

 I want to share a video which involves comments about bitstrips for schools.

If you want to make you class more enjoyable, different from others then you should use this web site. Even you are not confident, you can start with the comics which are made before. As I said you cannot know what happens before you do. I am sure you will try. Thank you. See you!