Happy Saturday, all! I’m totally celebrating the end of this week because not only was it our first full week of school in two weeks (thankful for snow/ice days!), but it was also my duty week! Yes, morning, lunch, and after school duty greeted me way too early Monday morning. I’m happy to say that, with the help of my daily Bible time, excessive amounts of coffee, at least one scoop of my pre-workout drink, and at least 2.5 miles on my treadmill a day, I did it! A few nights ago, as I was brainstorming review activities for my students, I dug around in a Facebook group I’m in, “Pixel Art Mysteries in Education,” thinking how in the world I could make activities like this relevant and meaningful for my high school Social Studies classroom. My initial thought was, “wow, this is cool!” but, I don’t really think it would work for my students. However, after playing around with the idea, tweaking my spreadsheet NUMEROUS times, and much trial and error, I figured it out! And my students loved it! Here’s what I did:

STEP 1: Create a Google Sheet
Don’t forget! Just type sheets.new in the browser bar for a brand new Google Sheet without going into your Drive!

STEP 2: Resize your cells
Honestly, this step probably took the longest in the process of creating this review for my students. When I select the cells to shrink, I start in Column D. Why? I like to have some space on the side of the Sheet for instructions and, of course, the questions and answers. Grab Column D – Column Z … you can easily create more if needed! To resize your cells, either grab the rows then right-click and select “resize” (and do the same thing with the columns), or resize one column, then copy/paste the column to make more (and then do the same thing with the rows). Either way works!

STEP 3: Merge question/answer cells
You’ll notice that when you resize the rows for your pixel art/message section, the cells where you’ll place the questions and answers are SUPER tiny. If you try to resize the cells, your entire row height will change. ANNOYING. To avoid this, simply merge cells to create a larger space for your questions and answers! Then, you’ll copy/paste the merged cells to create more question and answer spaces. *I also like to put borders around my questions and answers – not required, just my personal preference! To do this, simply select the merged cells and click the border column. Then, choose the option to border the entire cell, and choose the line thickness. Voila!*

STEP 4: Create questions and answers
Here’s where the review part of the activity comes into play! Enter questions and answers for any topic you’re teaching. Reviewing Constitutional Amendments? Enter the amendment description in the question box and the amendment number in the answer box, or vice versa! Reviewing WWI? Enter important events, details, or concepts in the question box and the answer (duh) in the answer box. Super simple!

STEP 5: Draw your secret message
I was talking with a few colleagues yesterday about this activity and they asked me how long it takes to create. I said honestly, creating the message takes the longest, because it can be quite tedious, depending on what you’re trying to share! The first activity I made was for a review for my American History students who were studying the progressive era. The secret message I wanted to share was a question/clue that my students would answer on a Question in Google Classroom. It was really challenging to create!

The second activity I made was much quicker because I knew what I was doing, but also because I created the message in one color. The choice of color is up to you!

NOTE: You can create a secret message or an image for your students to uncover. I chose the message option because I wanted to make sure the activity was relevant for my students. Sometimes, we get distracted by cool and shiny things but forget to think about how it’s helping our students. A picture would be super cool for my students to uncover, but high school juniors and seniors would get more out of a secret message, a clue, or A SHORTENED LINK TO A WEBSITE or Google Form, which is what we did 🙂

STEP 6: Conditional formatting!
If you’ve read Illuminate (thanks!) you know two things about me. First, spreadsheets have always terrified me – not sure why, maybe because it’s too numbery for me – and, that I LOVE conditional formatting! It makes me happy! I geeked out about how I use conditional formatting to create color-coded formative assessment results here. Check out the video below for a quick “how-to.”

STEP 7: Try it out!
Make sure that your formulas work!

STEP 8: Assign it to your students!
Create an assignment on Google Classroom and add your Sheet. Be sure to select “make a copy for each student” before you share it!

That’s it! My students (juniors and seniors) LOVED this activity! They asked for more – WHAAAT??!

How do you use pixel art in your classroom?

Happy Monday, all! And happy President’s Day to my American friends! I’m celebrating this fantastic Monday coming to you live from my recliner, in my favorite hoodie/leggings combo, snuggled up in a super soft blanket. Our forecast is predicting 8+ inches of snow today, and another 6(ish) inches of the fluffy white stuff Wednesday into Thursday! Ahhhhhh. Also, I ran my Monday 5k a bit later in the morning today, since I didn’t have to get up for work. This 5k was one of my fastest times (27:22) and was my 11th Monday 5k in a ROW! This is a huge accomplishment for me, as someone who has bad knees, was in an ankle boot this time last year because of crummy ankles, has asthma, and is prone to shin splints. Oh, and I’m a 35-year-old mother of two.  YAY! Before I turn in for my afternoon nap (yup, it’s happening!) I wanted to share a quick tip for creating and pinning images to Google Slides which is SUPER HELPFUL if you use Slides to create interactive notes/activities. It’s super easy!

 

STEP 1
Open a new Google Slides presentation – TIME-SAVING TIP  – just open a new tab and type slides.new into the search bar and, voila! A brand-spanking-new Google Slides presentation is ready to go!

STEP 2
Create your interactive assignment/notes/activity as you normally would for your students. Click on the GIF below for instructions!

STEP 3
Add a new slide to the presentation. I always choose a blank slide, but whatever floats your boat!

STEP 4
Add your newly created image as the background of your new slide!

STEP 5
Either add textboxes or tell your students to add them where they are needed. You can also add images to hyperlink, or take advantage of the space outside of the slide for additional instructions/activities.

That’s it! Easy peasy, right?

Creating images from the slides you’ve created and adding them as a background is SO MUCH easier for our students because they don’t have to worry about moving a textbox or image when they’re adding their work. Much less “CTRL Z” to undo the mess!

Have a fabulous week!

 

Happy HUMPDAY friends! I’m coming to you live from … my oldest daughter’s basketball practice! Yes, that’s right! I lead a super-glamorous life! 😜 It’s been a bit since my last post because life has been a tad on the hectic side! I know you understand! Next week, the online educational technology class that I teach for pre-service teachers starts, and the following week my specialist classes begin. I feel like I’m taking the last few deep breaths before the real nuttiness commences! I’m in the process of refreshing one of my favorite seminar presentations relating to Google Classroom and, in looking back through my notes, I realized one of my favorite features of Google Forms is often missed. What is it, you ask? Check your preferences!

 

That’s right! No, I’m not talking about your settings wheel, but preferences!

When you open your preferences, you’ll be able to establish a few settings or *ahem* preferences, that will “stick” to all of the forms that you create (in your Google Drive). One of these preferences is … AN ESTABLISHED POINT VALUE!

If you’ve taken advantage of the awesome quiz features in Google Forms, you’ve probably realized that you have to select the correct answer (duh) and enter a point value for each question. This can be a time-consuming process. However, if you select the “default quiz point value” option, you can enter the point value for each question on quizzes you make! Time saver!

Warning: setting the default point value will make EVERY QUESTION worth points! Even the name! So, you’ll have to go back and delete the point value for questions such as name, class period, attempt, etc. OR you can always deal with the “ummm, how’d I get my name wrong on this?!!” or my favorite, “sweet! I got three points for my name!”  🤦🏻‍♀️

I hope this tip is helpful and that you’re having a fabulous week!

Thanks for reading 🙂