How to Spell “No One” and Other Fun Lessons from Drawings Of…
Lillie Marshall is an English teacher, writer, and artist whose work I’ve seen on social media for many years. So when she reached out to me last week to tell me about her new project called Drawings Of… I was more than happy to take a look at it. Drawings Of… is a website full of […]
An Encyclopedia of Comic Artists
Peanuts drawn by Charles Schulz, Calvin and Hobbes drawn by Bill Watterson, and The Family Circus drawn by Bil Keane were the comics that I was drawn to as a kid. By the time I became a high school teacher my students didn’t recognize any of those comics and I didn’t know the ones that they […]
Seven Ideas for Crafting Comics in History Classes
My first teaching position was as a mid-year replacement for a literature teacher who left to become the head of an ESL/ELL program in another school district. That teacher left behind a stack of comic book versions of Romeo and Juliet along with a note along the lines of “these might help with your reluctant […]
Free Writing Prompts Ebooks
Disclosure: Make Beliefs Comix is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Developing an idea for what to write about is often a hard first step for student writers. Fortunately, there are resources like the Make Beliefs Comix journaling ebooks filled with ideas for students to write about. Many of those ebooks are excellent for social emotional learning […]
How to Create Comics – A Four-Part MOMA Series
From telling personal stories to summarizing historical events to illustrating creating writing over the years I’ve shared a bunch of ideas for using comics in classrooms. And I’ve shared a bunch of tools for creating comics (resources linked at the bottom of this post). While I enjoy the process of creating comics, I am not […]
Family Fun With Make Beliefs Comix
Disclosure: Make Beliefs Comix is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Last month I outlined five ideas for using comics in your classroom. One of those ideas included having students tell stories from their lives outside of school. Continuing on that train of thought, Make Beliefs Comix has a new page of resources designed for families. […]
How to Quickly Create Comics With Make Beliefs Comix
Disclosure: Make Beliefs Comix is currently an advertiser on this site. Make Beliefs Comix is a good tool for creating comic strips for all kinds of purposes including teaching empathy, practicing writing in a new language, and telling fun stories. Last week I outlined those ideas and more in this blog post. The best thing […]
Five Ways to Use Comics in Your Classroom This Fall
Disclosure: Make Beliefs Comix is a new advertiser on this site. Creating comics is one of my favorite creativity exercises.When I was a kid I loved flipping through books of Peanuts comics. Unfortunately, I could never draw as well as Charles Schultz. Today, thanks to tools like Make Beliefs Comix, you don’t have to be […]
Five Ideas for Using Comics in Social Studies Lessons
Creating cartoons and comic strips can be a fun way for students to show their understanding of events and concepts. For the student who is intimidated (or bored) by the idea of writing yet another essay or making another PowerPoint presentation, creating a comic strip is a welcome change. Here are five ideas for using […]
Five Things To Make With Google Slides Besides Standard Presentations
Based on the initial view count, yesterday’s post about creating interactive diagrams in Google Slides seems to be fairly popular. That’s inspired me to put together a list of other ways to use Google Slides besides just making standard slideshow presentations. I’ve made videos about all of the following ideas and those videos are included […]
Ten Good Tools for Telling Stories With Pictures
This is an update to a blog post that I published six years ago on this topic. Some of the tools in the original post are either no longer available or have implemented a subscription-based business model. Composing a story from scratch comes naturally to some people. For the rest of us, it can be […]
My Most Popular Tutorial Videos in February
My YouTube channel now has more than 34,000 subscribers. According to the analytics that YouTube provides, more than half of all of the views of my videos happen through embeds on my blog. YouTube also provides analytics of what was watched the most over the last month. In case you’re curious, here’s a list of […]
Some of my Favorites – Canva Comics
This week is school vacation week here in Maine. I usually take this week off to go ice fishing on Moosehead Lake. Unfortunately, that’s not happening this year. Instead I’ll be “staycationing” and working on some projects around home. While on my staycation I’ll be sharing some of my personal favorite tools. Canva’s release of […]
Five Key Features of Making Comics in Canva
Last week Canva introduced new comic strip creation templates. There has long been tools for making comics in Canva, but now Canva is offering templates specifically for making comics. Canva’s comic gallery contains templates for making comics in a variety of layouts and formats. All of the templates can be customized to your heart’s content. […]
A Comics Activity as an Icebreaker
Disclosure: Pixton EDU is currently an advertiser on this blog. As the new school year begins you may find yourself looking for some new ways to conduct icebreaker activities. One thing you can try is having students create avatars for themselves then talk about their designs. Then after making those avatars you might have them […]
Updated – How to Create Virtual Class Pictures With Pixton EDU
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about using Pixton EDU to create a virtual class photograph for the end of the school year. When I originally set out to write that post, I had planned to include a video tutorial. The first video that I made wasn’t great so last week I recorded a […]
Create Virtual Class Pictures With Pixton EDU
Disclosure: Pixton EDU is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com As the school year winds down those of us who still have classes in June may be looking for some ways to replicate our typical end-of-year activities. One of those activities could be a class photograph. While you probably can’t get your students together for a […]
Five Comic and Storyboard Activities With Pixton EDU
Disclosure: Pixton EDU is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Online comic creation tools like Pixton EDU make it possible for almost anyone to create great-looking comics and storyboards without having to be a master artist. Creating comics and storyboards with online tools like Pixton EDU is a good way for students to share creative ideas, […]
Five Elementary Lessons You Can Do With Pixton EDU
Disclosure: Pixton is currently an advertiser on this blog. For many years I’ve promoted the idea of using comics as a way to get students to develop fiction and nonfiction stories. In fact, I’ve hosted webinars in which I explained how I’ve used comics as the basis for getting students interested in telling history stories. […]
The History of Comic Art
The Library of Congress currently has an exhibit on display called Comic Art – 120 Years of Panels and Pages. The exhibit is both a physical exhibit and an online exhibit. Comic Art – 120 Years of Panels and Pages has five sections. Those sections are Early Years, Mid-Twentieth Century, Late Twentieth Century, Web Comics, […]
Truth or Lie Comics – A Lesson Plan
Pixton is a service that teachers and students can use to create comic strips by selecting customizable drawings and adding them into comic frames. This enables even those of us who don’t have any drawing skills to make comics that look great. Pixton provides an online classroom in which you can view all of your […]
A Great Guide to Capturing Oral Biographies
A few years ago I hosted a workshop on recording history with students (slides from that workshop can be seen here). The purpose of the workshop was to help teachers help their students record interviews with elders in their communities. The workshop was loosely based on a project that I did with my own students […]
Your Life in Comics – 100 Writing Prompts from Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix is a nice service on which students can create their own comics. But there is more to Make Beliefs Comix than just comic creation tools. Make Beliefs Comix offers free ebooks containing many writing prompts for students. Your Life in Comics is the latest ebook released by Make Beliefs Comix. The ebook […]
Headlines and Heroes – A New Resource from the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress offers many excellent online resources for teachers and students. Even just following the LOC’s Twitter account will provide you with fun history facts. In fact, it was through that Twitter account that I learned about a new Library of Congress blog called Headline and Heroes: Newspaper, Comics & More Fine Print. […]
300+ Printable Comic Templates
Make Beliefs Comix is a great multilingual comic strip creation service that I’ve featured many times in the past. One of the features of Make Beliefs Comix that I like is the collection of printable comic strip templates. These printable templates are in addition to the online Make Beliefs Comix creation tool. The templates are divided […]
New Scenes and Characters Added to Storyboard That
Storyboard That has been one of my favorite digital storytelling tools since I first tried it many years ago. Many readers of this blog have come to love it too. Three of the things that make Storyboard That popular are its ease of use, the free lesson plans, and a commitment to continuous development. That […]
Try the Redesigned Make Beliefs Comix
Make Beliefs Comix has long been one of my favorite tools for creating comics. In fact, I recently featured it in this post about using comics in social studies lessons. Over the weekend the founder of Make Beliefs Comix sent me a note about the redesign of his free comic creation tool. The new version […]
5 Ways to Use Comics in Social Studies Lessons
Creating cartoons and comic strips can be a fun way for students to show their understanding of events and concepts. For the student who is intimidated (or bored) by the idea of writing yet another essay or making another PowerPoint presentation, creating a comic strip is a welcome change. Here are five ideas for using […]
Storyboard – Create Cartoons from Your Videos
Storyboard is a new Android app produced by Google. The app will let you select a video that you have recorded on your phone and then have a cartoon storyboard of the video automatically created for you. I tried Storyboard yesterday and found it easy to use. That ease of use is partly due to […]
5 Ways to Use Comic Creation in Elementary School Classrooms
This is a guest post from Stephanie Krisulevicz. For the last few years I’ve been using cartoons in my classroom to assess my students knowledge. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Yeah, yeah, my principal would think I’ve lost my mind letting them play like that.” Don’t discredit the idea just yet! I’ve found that it’s quite […]
Solar System and Storyboards – Free Lesson Plans
Disclosure: Storyboard That is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com Storyboard That offers a robust platform on which students and teachers can create comics and storyboards. Even those who don’t fancy themselves as artists can make great comics by utilizing Storyboard That’s galleries of thousands of pre-made characters, scenes, and objects. In addition to offering a great […]
Digital Storytelling With Comics – Free Ebook
Disclosure: Storyboard That is a long-running advertiser on Free Technology for Teachers. A few years ago I put together a PDF of five projects that your students can complete with Storyboard That. The projects outlined include creative storytelling, retelling of history, using comics in videos, crafting book reviews with comics, and creating multimedia ebooks. While […]
Five Uses of Comics In Your Classroom
On Thursday afternoon I hosted a webinar about using comics in the classroom. The recording of the webinar is only available to those who registered, but the slides that I used can be seen as embedded below.
A Good Tool for Quickly Creating Comics
ToonyTool is a free website for quickly creating single frame comics. To get started with ToonyTool simply go to site and either upload a background picture or choose one of their background picture options. Then you can choose comic characters to appear in your comic. Once your characters are chosen, select speech bubbles and add some […]
Free Webinar – Comics In the Classroom
Having your students create comics can be great way to help them get to know each other and for you to get to know them. The process of creating a comic is an excellent way for students to practice developing plot lines. You can learn more about these ideas and others in my free webinar […]
Free Webinar – Storyboard That in Your Classroom
On April 4th Storyboard That is hosting two free webinars. Both webinars will cover what you need to know to create storyboards and have your students create storyboards in your classroom. Some of the many ways that you can use storyboards in your classroom include illustrating short stories, summarizing books, and illustrating procedures. Click here […]
Create Comic Strips in Google Slides
Yesterday I was asked for a recommendation for a completely free way for students to create comic strips online. Two options immediately came to mind. The first was Make Beliefs Comix. The second was to use Google Slides to create comic strips. In the following video I demonstrate how to create comic strips in Google […]
10 Ideas for Using Comics In Your Classroom – Best of 2016
As I usually do during this week, I’m taking some time off to relax, ski, and work on some long-term projects for the next year. This week I will be re-publishing the most popular posts of 2016. Over the last couple of months I’ve shared a handful of tools that students can use to create […]
Make Beliefs Comix Offers a Free Book of Bilingual Writing Prompts
Make Beliefs Comix is a free web and iOS app that offers a huge collection of comic templates for students. One of the features that you’ll find on the website is a set of editable ebooks for students to write in. One of the newer additions to the collection is a book titled A Book of […]
10 Ideas for Using Comics In Your Classroom
Over the last couple of months I’ve shared a handful of tools that students can use to create comics. I even conducted a webinar on the topic last month (the recording is available here). There is no shortage of tools for creating comics available to students. Regardless of which comic creation tool you choose to have […]
ToonyTool – Quickly Create Single Frame Comics
ToonyTool is a free website for quickly creating single frame comics. To get started with ToonyTool simply go to site and either upload a background picture or choose one of their background picture options. Then you can choose comic characters to appear in your comic. Once your characters are chosen, select speech bubbles and add […]
Four Social Studies Lessons You Can Update With Comics
Through the course of a school year I field a lot of questions that go something like this, “I need to use technology in my classroom, but I’m not sure where to start. Can you help me?” Integrating online tools into your classroom doesn’t have to mean throwing out everything you’ve done in the past. […]
4 Browser-based Tools for Creating Comic Strips
Lately, I’ve published quite a bit about Pixton and Storyboard That. Both of those services provide good platforms for creating comic strips. Those aren’t the only tools that you can use to create comic strips with your students. Here are some other browser-based tools that your students can use to create comic strips. Make Beliefs […]
How to Create Simple Comics on Pixton
On Monday I shared some thoughts about using Pixton to engage students in creative writing. Over the last couple of days some folks have asked me for a little more guidance on how to get started with Pixton. In the video embedded below I provide a demonstration of how to create a simple comic story […]
Telling Stories and Solving Problems With Storyboards
Last night I hosted a free webinar about using storyboards to tell stories, illustrate problems and solutions, and to summarize favorite books. The webinar was hosted by Storyboard That. The recording of the webinar is embedded below. Storyboard That also owns the popular Photos for Class and Quick Rubric websites. At the end of the […]
Pixton Offers a Great Way to Create Engaging Writing Lessons
For years I’ve advocated for using comics as a way to get students engaged in the writing process. To many students, creating a comic seems a lot less intimidating and a lot more fun than simply writing a story on a blank sheet of paper. One of my favorite ways to have students use comics […]
Campaign Comics Templates for Kids
Make Beliefs Comix offers comic strip templates and writing prompts in up to seven languages. The templates and prompts can be completed online or you can print them out to give to your students. Recently, Make Beliefs Comix added templates centered around the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. These new comic templates include prompts for writing […]
StoryTop Story Maker – Create Simple Image Based Stories
StoryTop is a good web-based tool for creating digital stories and comics. StoryTop features an easy-to-use drag and drop tool for creating your story. To use Story Top simply select your background, characters, and text bubbles from the menu and drag them into your story box. After selecting the basic story elements you can then add additional elements like plants, […]
3 Tools for Creating Comics on iPads
This morning I received an email from a reader who was looking for suggestions for tools that her students can use to create comics on their iPads. I recommended some paid and free apps to her. The free tools that I recommend are featured below. Make Beliefs Comix is a free multilingual comic strip creation […]
Comic Writing Prompts for Students
Many times over the years I’ve written blog posts in which I mention the value of using comics as an alternative to or introduction to a creative writing assignment. To some students creating a comic feels less daunting than sitting down with a blank piece of paper and being told to “write a short story.” […]