Drawings – Page 2 – Jake Miller

Speech & Thought Bubbles in Google Drawings

On the Google Teacher Tribe podcast and on his site DitchThatTextbook.com, Matt Miller shared about his recommended use of thought bubbles (and speech bubbles) in Google Drawings. When I first heard it, I thought – “Whoa! What a simple, but powerful application of a technology tool.” Think about it: students being able to comprehend a story or historical event well enough to synthesize the information back into what they predict a character/person may have been thinking or saying? Not to mention, it’s quick and it’s much more engaging that writing it on a worksheet or in a Google Doc. Matt recommends this as a Bell Ringer activity, which I think is an awesome idea, but certainly not the only way it can be used. Teachers these days are incorporating kindergarten worksheets for kids to help them learn better.

This can also be done in Google Slides–it would be neat to have each kid have their own slide–and through the “Insert > Drawing” option on Google Docs. Just like with Google Docs, you can have students make copies of your drawing to add their own thought bubbles or you can use them as assignments in Google Classroom or other LMS’s.

Check it out in the Animated GIF below and then, after the GIF, is a published version of that Drawing, just to show how easy it is to post the completed project.

Continue reading Speech & Thought Bubbles in Google Drawings

Inserting Videos in Google Drawings

Most people wouldn’t see a need for videos in Google Drawings, but a teacher – especially one that uses HyperDocs – could probably think of thousands of reasons it’d be useful. That’s why I was excited when I heard Joli Boucher share about it during a recent episode of the Google Teacher Tribe podcast (You can hear it here as well, all cued up to her part). It’s a super slick, simple hack and when doing HyperDrawings it’s super useful too. I just had to capture this in a GIF . . . so, here it is:

Joli also shares about this in her post here and her video here. For proof that it works, here’s a link to the Drawing that I show in the GIF.

Emoji in Google Docs

They’re on your phone. They’re in a movie. They’re on clothes. They’re on social media. They’re probably tattooed on people. And yes . . . they’re in Google Docs.

Here’s how to enter Emoji (and other symbols) in Google Docs, Slides or Drawings. Once you click Insert > Special Characters you have 3 options:

Change the dropdown that initially says “Symbol” to say “Emoji” and navigate to the Emoji that you want.
Search by keyword.
Search by drawing the Emoji.

Tip: The emojis are text items, not pictures. That means that their size is dependent on your selected font size.

Force Make a Copy

Thou shalt make a copy. – Jake Miller

Ok, so, I never said that. Well, actually, I guess I just did. Anyhow, it’s a trick that’s known in most edtech circles, but it’s useful enough to make sure that everyone knows it:

Change the “/edit” or “/view” (or whatever) at the end of a Google Apps file’s URL to “/copy” and it will force the person clicking the link to make a copy of it (as if they had clicked File > Make a Copy).

Important: make sure the doc is shared, at least as “Can View,” prior to using this. You can’t copy a doc that you can’t view!

With the rise of Google Classroom and other LMS options, it’s not as useful as it used to be, but it has its use cases: sharing a resource on your website, posting forms for use in your school district, sharing optional activities for classes or clubs and much more. It works in Drawings, Sheets and Slides as well! Here’s how to do it:

Just in case, here are those steps:

Share the doc as “Anyone with the Link Can View.”
Copy the link to the doc.
Change the “/edit” or “/view” or “/edit?usp=sharing” to “/copy”

Diagram Labeling Activities in Google Drawings

Google Drawings is a great place for quick, simple, visual activities. Add shapes to a diagram, tell students to double-click in those shapes and – voila – they’re text boxes!

Tips:

before sending them out to your kiddos, click into those shapes and format the text size so it’ll fit in the boxes.
Once you’ve made one box the way you like it, use command+d (ctrl+d on non-Mac) to duplicate it.
If this isn’t being used in Google Classroom, make it anyone with the link can view, copy the link, change the “edit” to “copy” and send it out.