This year I plan to use Google Classroom to its fullest. We are starting the year 100% digitally to keep everyone safe and so I am working to ensure that my classroom is completely comprehensible, compelling, and caring* in person and online. 

I have developed a habit of scrolling through the teacher TikTok hashtags lately while playing games or what not. When I stumble upon something I like, I see if I can figure it out/duplicate it/access it. Today it was the Google Classroom Banner Gif. 

You can see the original TikTok linked in the Resources and Credits section^, but I must give thanks to @msgella for this amazing tutorial. 

steps

1. Open a google slides presentation. 
2. Click "add ons" and "get add ons".
3. Add the Creator's Studio Add on.
4. Click "File" and "Page Setup".
5. Set Custom pixels to 1000 X 250.
6. Build your Google Classroom.
7. If you haven't, build your bitmoji.
   
8.  Save the poses you want for your GIF banner. 
9. Put a different Bitmoji pose into each slide. I used 6 slides total.
10. Open the Creative Studio Add on.
11. Set the GIF settings for 1600 output width and .5 second interval. 
12. Hit GO
13. When it renders, a down arrow will appear next to GIF for you to download your banner!

* Credit to Rachel Ash for the three Cs.
^ msgella (2020). Can you tell I'm obsessed with Bitmoji? [TikTok].

If you haven't jumped onto the TikTok train, you might consider it. I know there are lots of reasons not to... but I want to look at a few reasons you might think about it. You don't have to create an account to browse, but you do if you want to save videos, share them, or create your own. Yes, TikTok does take data, along with Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. So... it is one of many... But... TikTok has become a place for me to get lots of new ideas that I don't get from the other areas of social media. Because they are short videos, teachers have been able to upload fast tutorials on how to create things and mainstream things so they are easier for digital learning (and classroom learning). There is also some wonderful not teacher creators who have shown me a lot. While I will be sharing what I've learned throughout my site, I thought I'd share some quick ideas here. To see some more in depth ideas, check out my digital classroom page. 

These are things I've been working on this week! 

1. Digital Meet the Teacher - I learned this (and got the template) from @heyashleyg ! See my work here. 
2. Digital Opinion Discussion - I learned this from @heyteachergidget and created my own version in Canva. You can see my work here. When using this I would place a question in the blackboard on the screen and they would agree or disagree. Clicking each button would take them to a padlet where they could voice their opinion and engage with each other. This would be a great way to connect students working at home and in the classroom. 
3. Creating your own icons - This is just a fun way to organise your desktop. @heyashleyg has a great tutorial on it!