Bitmoji – Infinitely Teaching

animated gif, Bitmoji, Google Keep, Stop Motion

Custom Animated Stickers + Google Keep

November 1, 2020 Mandi

I love Bitmojis! I know it’s not for everyone, but they just make me happy. They make students happy too! My students love when I put “stickers” on their digital work. They sometimes even give me stickers as suggestions when they submit a project. A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about creating custom feedback stickers and putting them in Google Keep for ease of use.

Today I’m going to update that post with animated gif stickers. I mean, the only thing that could be better than Bitmoji stickers is animated Bitmoji stickers!!!

Open a new Google Slides (or PowerPoint, or Keynote if you want an easy transparent background) and go to file – page setup, select custom and change the size to 8 x 8 inches.

If you are using PowerPoint or Keynote, change the background to Transparent.

Select the Bitmoji you want to use from the Chrome Extension and drag it to the Google Slide. Tutorial here

Animate your sticker slide by slide! Tutorial here

Here are a few ideas:

Add word by word and or a moving arrow

Add letter by letter

Moving Bitmoji

Sparkles!!!

Turn your sticker into an animated GIF

Google Slides – TallTweets.com is so easy to use (tutorial here). It allows you to simply load your presentation with out any additional steps.

If you REALLY want a transparent background, the easiest way is to use PowerPoint or Keynote. They both have export as GIF options (come on Google!!!)

Open keep.google.com. By placing your image in Google Keep, you can simply drag your sticker into any Google Slide or Doc you want to use them in.

Create a new note with image.

Select your sticker. I don’t title it because it will drag the title with it. You can create a label called stickers or feedback so you can sort if you would like.

Now open something to give feedback on. The image below is a Google Slide. On the RIGHT you will see 3 icons. The middle one is Google Keep.

It opens your Google Keep and you can see your stickers. Select the one you want and drag it over.

Resize.

Done!

I know you’re thinking, this is great for elementary but I teach middle or high school. Your secondary students will LOVE these. They are still just kids!

Enjoy!

Bitmoji, Distance Learning, Google Forms, Google Sheets, Relationships

Get to Know Your Students

August 3, 2020August 3, 2020 Mandi

Relationships are so very important. If you want to connect with your students, you need to know your students and they need to know you and each other. I try to build a climate and culture in my classroom of family. I want it to be a safe space to learn, fail, share, and grow. Students will never feel comfortable doing this if they don’t know each other.

Here are a few activities I’ve done to help us get to know one another and create that family climate.

Google Form Survey

This document does more than gather information. I play a game at the of class periods that run a little short. See, if my students get done early, they pack up and migrate toward the door. This is problematic because so many students clustered around the door causes issues (and our administration has made it an expectation to NOT line up at the door). I will open the spreadsheet from this form and play guess who. Now let’s use some common sense here! I do ask students some personal information like internet access and food allergies. DO NOT USE THIS INFORMATION for guess who. I know you won’t but I’m putting it out there JUST in case. Students love to play this game and they get to know each other a little as we go. It also keeps them in their seat and engaged until the bell rings. This Google Form idea came from Jennifer Gonzalez. I found it in this blog post with many other great ideas including ice breakers. The guess who game idea came from a retired administrator I had during my specialist classes.

Collaborative Slides

I have been using this slide activity for quite a few years now. I like it because we learn about each other the very first day but I can also teach students how to use Google Slides, a tool we use OFTEN in my class. I assign it through Google Classroom and every student has access to the SAME document. This means you need to make a copy for each class. I forgot once and had to make a copy of the completed activity and delete the slides the students had added. Not a complete disaster but wasted time. I post this activity at the TOP of Google Classroom so students can access it any time. I also make sure any new students who join us later in the year complete it (same with the Google Form).

A NEW Collaborative Slide

This is a NEW collaborative slide idea I saw on Twitter. Pamela Bradley (@4pambradley) shared on behalf of Lauren Vining. I LOVED IT, and not just because it had a Bitmoji (I give other options BTW). I wanted the lockers to be a little bigger and I wasn’t sure about the copyright of the locker image used so I made my own version in Google Slides. I plan to have the students use this activity just like I did the previous one. I will also get to introduce remove.bg and unscreen.com to remove the background from images and animated gifs. This way they can add a picture of themself if they want.

All of these activities (except or guess who, and maybe even that one via Meet or Zoom) could be used for virtual learning too.

Now, go build those relationships!

Bitmoji, Digital Escape Rooms, Uncategorized

Bitmoji Scene

May 14, 2020 Mandi

If you’ve been around me at all, you know my love for Bitmoji. There are many posts on my blog about using them in the classroom. One way I like to use my Bitmoji is creating the main image in a digital escape room. You can see an example of it here and here.

During this Covid-19 virtual learning time, I have seen many teachers take this idea and remake their classroom. What a fun way to give convey information to your students. The process to make a virtual classroom is the same as the one I use to make an escape room image.

There are video tutorials available. Here are links to a few that are good.

tutorial 1 tutorial 2

and this website has compiled many posted Bitmoji classroom images for inspiration.

I learn better with step by step instructions and not a video so I thought I would put together a quick tutorial for you.

Before we begin, I want to emphasize the importance to using images with appropriate rights. Do not use images from a normal Google search. You might get images that are not free to use. In Google Slides, or Drawing you can insert image and do a search. These images are free to use. You can also filter your images in a regular Google search.

labeled for reuse: you are able to use these photos in any way that you’d like whether they be for commercial purposes such as your own website, or noncommercial purposes such as a school project.

reuse with modifications means everything above and you can remove the background, change colors, etc.

noncommercial reuse: you are able to reuse the photo as long as you are doing so in a place that doesn’t represent a commercial entity

Noncommerical reuse should give you the most options but if you plan to crop or change colors, choose with modification

Ok, now that the “Rules” have been covered, let’s make a scene.

Open Drawing, Slides, or PowerPoint

For Digital Escape Rooms, I build mine in Google Drawing, but you can also make them in Google Slides or PowerPoint. Google Drawing and Google Slides have the ability to embed them in a website or anything that accepts an embed code. PowerPoint does too if you save it to One Drive. You want something cloud based to keep your links active if you are using it to share information. Google Slides and PowerPoint will embed as an iframe but Google Drawing does not, so make sure you know what type of embed code you need. If you are using Google Sites to house your escape room, Google Drawing is what you want to use.

Find a wall and floor

You can search for wall and floor and you will set options together. I will also just design my own sometimes. You can create a solid color flooring, for example gray for a concrete floor and create a pattern on the wall for wall paper. The first example below is a wall and floor created by me, including the baseboard. The second example is using separate wall and floor combinations found on the internet. For the one we make today I’m going to use a combo that I found online.

This link is a Wakelet of image resources. Sometimes a search just doesn’t get you what you want.

This was my search and the first few images that came up from insert – image in Google Drawing. I picked the second one and it wasn’t quite tall enough so I pasted in another and cropped out the floor. This is one of the reasons I like finding the wall and floor separate. You can make the wall and floor meet wherever you want.

Add classroom elements and your Bitmoji

Now the fun begins. Using the same search methods or websites, start adding in furniture. Make sure you set the search to transparent or type transparent after the image to try to get transparent backgrounds. You can also make your own (Tutorial). In the two image in step 2, I made the sofa, rug, lamp, and shadows in image 1 and the desk in image 2. I used the shape tools in Google Drawing (Slides) to create them. You don’t have to do this but it is an option if you can’t find what you need.

Using the Bitmoji extension for Google Chrome will make adding your Bitmoji easier, just drag it from the extension to your drawing. If you don’t use Chrome or don’t want the extension, you can always email from the app on your phone. Saving the image from the email will retain the transparent background.

If you want to add in photos of pets, your own furniture, or other personal objects (the yellow mug with pens below), you can use remove.bg to remove the background. This also works for clipart, just make sure it has modification rights.

Making a whiteboard is easy. Draw a white rectangle and then using the trapezoid tool, create a frame. I use a gradient for the color. You can see a metal frame and a wooden frame below. The rug below is just an oval shape.

Set Hotlinks

Once you have your image ready, you can set hotlinks on the image. If it is not a grouped imaged you can click the image and the link symbol and type in or paste the URL. If it is a grouped image, you need to put a transparent square or circle using the shape tool and link to that.

Use your image

If you are using your image for a digital escape room and you are putting it in Google Sites, just insert the drawing inside Sites.

If you are using Sway or a website, you need publish it (Slides or PowerPoint only) to the web (see Sway tutorial) and get the embed code.

You can also download the image as a .jpg or .png and use it as just an image. You will lose your hotlinks but it’s still super cute for newsletters and Google Classroom headers (set size to 1000 x 250 px before you begin)

Here is my completed image. The books on the shelf are are clickable links.

Wakelet of Resources Tutorial to Create Your Own Images

Bitmoji, Google Drawing

Create Custom Items in Google Drawing

May 14, 2020May 15, 2020 Mandi

Let me set the stage: You are creating a custom Bitmoji classroom scene (Tutorial here) or digital escape room scene and you find the PERFECT image, but SAD, it’s not free to use. What do you do? Well, you don’t illegally use it. PLEASE DON’T DO THAT! Instead, you make your own in Google Drawing.

Here is an image I found that is clearly not free because it has a watermark. But I really like the way this desk is situated and I want one like it.

Open Drawing and Paste in Clipart

In a new Google Drawing file, paste in the not free to use clipart. Don’t worry, we will delete it later.

Use Shape Tools to Create Image

Delete, Shrink Canvas, Save

Now that your image is complete, delete the clipart.

Select all by using command (or control) A or click and drag your cursor from top left top bottom right. Move your image to the upper left corner.

Drag the handle in the bottom right corner and shrink your canvas to fit your image.

Now you can go to file and download as a .png to keep the background transparent or .jpg if you want the background to be white. If you plan to use this image in your custom scene then you want a transparent background.

Here are a few images I have drawn using Google Drawing. You can use the polyline tool or the curve tool, both under the line tool menu and make custom shapes.

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Have fun and please share if you create your own custom images.

Bitmoji

Bitmoji Refresh

September 2, 2019 Mandi

It’s been awhile since I posted about Bitmojis and a few things have changed since the last post. Below is an update on how to create and use Bitmojis in your classroom.

CREATE A BITMOJI

You used to be able to create a Bitmoji on your computer. You can’t do that anymore. You must create it on the Bitmoji app or through the Snapchat app. Look inside your app store for either or both apps. This is the fun part! You have three different options for Bitmoji: Bitstrips, Bitmoji classic, or Bitmoji Deluxe. My Bitmoji is the deluxe version.

If you use Snapchat, you will have additional options like using the Bitmoji keyboard (on iOS) and sending “friendmojis”. You can also use it in Snapchat which is pretty fun! **Hint** Remember your username and password for the next step.

INSTALL THE CHROME EXTENSION

Install the Chrome extension for Bitmoji. You will have to use the same login information from Bitmoji or Snapchat, whatever you used to set up your account. Once installed and signed in, you can click on the Bitmoji extension in the top right of the Chrome Browser. It will show the current outfit you have selected from the app. If you want an outfit change, you will have to change it in the app. **NOTE** This only works in the Chrome browser, just another reason to use chrome 🙂

USE BITMOJI FROM EXTENSION

This part is soooo cool. You can search the Bitmoji you want or search through the multiple tabs to find the perfect Bitmoji. Once selected, just drag it onto the Doc, Slide, Drawing, Sheet, Keep (OK, any Google App) or email. You can also drag it from Chrome to a Word Doc or PowerPoint. If you want to use it elsewhere, right click and download the image.

USE BITMOJIS

Now the REAL fun begins. What do you do with it? As a teacher, I put Bitmojis on EVERYTHING.

Build A Robot Project — I put it on instruction sheets for projects

Gold Star — Is use them for feedback on student assignments.

You can also create CUSTOM feedback and store them in Google Keep. Here is a blog post about that process.

Bitmoji Feedback — Custom Feedback created in Google Drawing

Google Classroom Header (16) — Custom Google Classroom Header

You can find the instructions for Custom Headers HERE.

You can also put Bitmojis in Google Drawing and create custom Bitmojis like the numbers in the post. You can make a school shirt, a group Bitmoji, or make one say something new. (Custom Bitmoji tutorial) My favorite is using them for Stop Motion Video. The tutorials are linked.

STUDENT BITMOJI USE

First, Bitmoji is a 13+ app, so it would only be available for high school students. Second, there are some questionable Bitmojis and many school block it. I am lucky enough that they will open it for me while my students are using it. I do have a discussion about appropriate use, much like I do with YouTube. Only use school appropriate Bitmojis or we won’t be able to use it anymore. I’ve been using them in my classroom for 4 years now and only had ONE questionable use, and the student used an alcoholic beverage Bitmoji. He changed it before it was published so no harm done.

Here is a workaround for schools blocking Bitmoji. Students can email Bitmojis to their school account directly from the Bitmoji app.

If you have littles, you can create a folder of Bitmojis for them to use. Create a folder for each kiddo with a Bitmoji that looks like them. Here is a crowd sourced folder of some generic ones. Here is a short podcast talking about creating Bitmojis for students.

Now, WHY do you want to go through the trouble? Because students can create some amazing projects with Bitmoji.

Booksnaps or Mathsnaps

Comic Books that you can read in iBooks or Kindle. Or other comic type projects.

Here are more ideas from the interverse using Bitmojis in the classroom.

https://www.weareteachers.com/bitmoji-classroom/

https://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2018/09/back-to-school-with-bitmoji.html

https://mrswelchknows.blogspot.com/2017/12/tech-tip-thursday-bitmojis.html

Bitmoji, custom headers, Google Classroom, Google Drawing

Custom Google Classroom Headers

December 4, 2018 Mandi

I love to customize my Google Classroom banners. I mean, the ones provided by Google are super cute, but if you can add a Bitmoji then it’s better I say. I also sometimes include some icons for the content area. I create my own to avoid copyright issues, but noun project is another great resource to use.

Header example

Google Classroom Header.png

You will create these in Google Drawing. Google Drawing is located in your Drive under more Screen Shot 2018-12-04 at 9.55.37 PM or in your Google waffle.

Now we want to go to page set-up under file, select custom, change inches to pixels and create an 800 x 200 pixel canvas. 2018-12-04_21-58-27

Now the fun can begin. If you right click (or control click) on the canvas it will allow you to change the background of the canvas. I like to use the gradient feature so the middle is a little lighter.

2018-12-04_22-05-53

I’ve you know ANYTHING about me, you know I like to use the Bitmoji extension. You can learn about how to use the extension in this blog post. Now remember, you don’t want to put words in the middle of you banner because Google Classroom will put the class label in the middle. You also want to leave a little room on the outside edges so it fits your browser configuration.

2018-12-04_22-11-38

I added the words Happy Holidays too. Word Art is another fun tool to use if you want to play around with it.

2018-12-04_22-11-38-1

Now you are ready to download your creation. I like .png, but you can also use .jpg

2018-12-04_22-22-20

Now that you have your image in your downloads folder or whatever location you send your downloads. Now let’s put this into Google Classroom. Click on the upload photo link in the bottom right corner. Select or drag your image in. TAH DAH, you have a new custom header.

2018-12-04_22-28-47 You can see my previous custom header and the new holiday header I just created. Notice the color does get a little darker when you upload. You might also play around with the location of your images. I move mine more towards the top than centered so it looks centered once inside of Classroom.

Now, let’s take this a step further. How about you let students create custom headers and each week you display a new one? Evan Mosier is having one of his classes do this and he has shared a site will the headers created by his students. They are free for anyone to use.

If you make one of your own, let me know @MandiTolenEDU on Twitter. If you use a banner from one of Evan’s students, give them a shout-out on Twitter.

Bitmoji, Geometry, Google Slides, Stop Motion, Triangle Congruence

Stop Motion Videos

September 29, 2018 Mandi

Stop Motion videos in Google Slides is such an easy project for teachers and students. I first learned about Stop Motion from @ericcurts on his blog Control Alt Achieve. @jmattmiller also has some fun stop motion information on his blog too.

I created a super short little stop motion that I turned into an animated gif using Tall Tweets then embedded into a Google slide presentation, even cropping it because it acts as an image.

download (12)

Screen Shot 2018-09-29 at 9.03.02 PM.png

Stop motion videos are super easy to make in Google Slides. For the one above, I created background then I drug in my Bitmoji and placed it at the top.

Screen Shot 2018-09-29 at 9.04.15 PM

Next you duplicate the slide and using the arrow keys or sliding with your mouse, move your image a little bit.

Screen Shot 2018-09-29 at 9.16.20 PM.png Continue the process until you have moved your object to the end. This short little movie had 11 slides total.

Now the fun begins. Using the website Tall Tweets, load your Google Slide, this sometimes takes a bit depending on the size. Next, select the duration. Play with this a little until the movie looks like you want. You can check by clicking the create gif button. When you are happy with your movie, you can save it or tweet it.

Screen Shot 2018-09-29 at 9.08.47 PM

Below are some stop motion videos I created for a Triangle Congruence lesson. So yes, you can use stop motion for academic purposes too. Image how much fun it would be for students to create their own!

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If you make stop motion videos, please share and tag me on Twitter @TTmomTT. I would LOVE to see them!

#mathsnaps, Bitmoji, Desmos, Google Drawing, parabolas

Fly Swatters, Parabolas, & MathSnaps

February 18, 2018February 18, 2018 Mandi

Key features of parabolas are important to understand the why behind quadratic graphs. It seems intuitive, and it is provided an image, but often the situation is represented as a graph with only words to guide students. My students can graph them but seem to struggle with where things are on the graph. We approached quadratics much differently this year, using only Desmos and graphing calculators to graph. We started with an idea from a colleague at another high school in my district. She uses fly swatters on day one to review key features of a parabola. This is not in the context of a situation but a good place to start. Student LOVED this activity.

This is played relay style (picture was taken on pajama day for homecoming, hence the jammies) and students run up and smack the parabola on the key feature selected.

Fly Swatter Key Features

link to slidedeck

I also gave an exit ticket in Desmos activity builder to see where we still needed to remediate. I really liked this one because it was open-ended. They moved the parabola around to meet each requirement.

Screen Shot 2018-02-13 at 12.32.11 PM

I’ve included the link to the Desmos activity if you would like to use it as well.

Lastly, we worked with real situations. I gave them an Angry Birds picture and had them label, with their elbow partner, initial height, maximum height, time to max height, and time to the ground. It went pretty well and they got everything but initial height, which led to great discussions.

Our last activity was giving them a situation with an equation, they graphed it in Desmos and used their graph to make #mathsnaps. Bitmoji has updated so it wasn’t as easy to use since the beginning of the year (sad face). Students must now create an account on their app (iOS or Android) then link that to the Chrome extension. For students who didn’t have access to the app, I provided a link to clipart and emojis they could use. Here are a few of the math snaps I received this year.

This is without feedback so some of the information isn’t correct. We’ll be conferencing about it soon.

$Bitmoji math$

$_- Math Snap$

We learn from mistakes and some of mine will have some learning opportunities. YES!

Bitmoji, Google Drawing, Google Keep

Custom Bitmoji Feedback

October 23, 2017October 23, 2017 Mandi

I love Bitmojis. I love to show people how easy Bitmoji is to use in Google apps with the Bitmoji Chrome extension. I love to make these Bitmojis custom with your school logo or Google or Ditch That Textbook on the shirt. Here are a few I’ve created and use often.

Algebra 1 CHS Bitmoji (1)

The second one is my Algebra 1 team. We shared a Google Drawing and each dropped in our Bitmojis. We used this for back-to-school documents.

Bitmoji NTI

This one we made as a header for Google Classroom. This was our technology group that presented at our New Teacher Institute this year. We each had our school shirt on. LOVE IT!

Before I get sidetracked by all the fun things we can do with custom Bitmojis, this is really about creating custom FEEDBACK Bitmojis for your students.

Before you begin, you will need to download the Bitmoji Chrome Extension. If you haven’t created your Bitmoji, stop, do it now, RIGHT NOW! You are missing out on soooo much fun!

Bitmoji created? Ok, resume the blog post.

This first video is a short tutorial on how to create a custom Bitmoji in Google Drawing. This can be used in ANYTHING, not just Google Keep. I use these in Google Slides and on Twitter all the time.

This alone should make your day. But if you want the awesomeness to continue, place these images in Google Keep for quick feedback in Google Docs. The next video will show you how to do this.

Please share your custom Bitmojis with me on Twitter (@TTmomTT). Here’s a Twitter tip, download your custom Bitmoji as a .jpg so the background turns white. Most of the time you want a transparent background but Twitter will turn that transparent background black and make it more difficult to see.

Hope to see your custom Bitmoji around the Twittersphere.

#mathsnaps, Bitmoji, parabolas

Catapulter

March 1, 2017 Mandi

Dave Burgess always asks, “If kids didn’t have to come to your class would they?” I think some days the answer to my class is no. Teaching math is challenging so when I can plan a fun, engaging & standards-based activity it’s a win for all.

While researching for our parabola unit I stumbled upon the project posted by Julie Reulbach on her blog I Speak Math. If you don’t follow her on Twitter, you should! I adapted her activity a little to make it go along with Clash of Clans and carried the theme throughout the activity.

I shot the orange spikey stones (because if you say balls in front of freshmen…) at students as they walked in the door starting about a week out. They were pretty excited to get to shoot the catapults themselves. Many of them also play Clash of Clans or Clash Royale so they enjoyed that part too. The activity is frustrating for some of them who like to have their hand held through each step. We have them work together at tables and only intervene if the productive struggle is no longer productive.

I also added a #mathsnap to the activity to reinforce the different parts of the parabola. They LOVED making their Bitmoji’s. They haven’t turned the #mathsnaps in yet but I can’t wait to see them.

mathsnap-1

I have attached all of my documents for this project. Remember, this is modified from Julie’s project. You can get all of her originals here.

This is a printable bulls-eye. I feel like I can use the castle image in the middle since it’s a screen-shot I took from the game. If you feel this is questionable, then take the image off.

Desmos activity This is updated from Julie’s as well. I included the Clash of Clans images (possible copyright issues here – sorry) but it makes it more engaging for the students.

I also drop this document in Google Classroom so students can be self-directed when making the #mathsnap

Scoring Guide