Issue 7 • Date August 7, 2024

Crisp and Clear in Canva 🦋

The photo above was taken with a digital camera in 1998. The original photo was low resolution, making it blurry and pixelated.

The process of upscaling enhances a photo by increasing its resolution. Pixels are added to make the image more detailed. This is particularly handy when you want to enlarge an image without making it appear blurrier.

It’s easy to upscale an image in Canva. Click Apps in the side panel and search for “Image Upscaler.” Open the app, select an upscale amount of 2x, 3x, 4x, or 8x.

After clicking the Upscale image button, you’ll see a preview where you can compare the before and after version. Clicking Replace swaps out the original image for the enhanced version.

The outcomes can be hit or miss depending on the source material. Sometimes, I'm thrilled with the results; other times, I'm deeply let down.

Brand Beginnings 🐾

I selected Making Discoveries as the theme of my first classroom. I made a logo in PowerPoint and traced it onto a banner. The logo was the wallpaper for the computers in my classroom, and it was part of the header for my classroom newsletter.

Other years my classroom was known as Planet 5th.

When I went back to teach 5th grade in 2018, I knew I wanted the class to collaboratively develop their own name, logo, and slogan. I took the class through a process that ended up giving our class a unique identity while jumpstarting a strong sense of community.

First, classmates made slides about themselves. We got to see what everyone truly cared about.

It quickly became obvious that students in our class adored animals, enjoyed video games (especially Fortnite and Minecraft), and excelled at using technology. With this in mind, students chose brands to analyze. They noticed that some of the best logos are simple and immediately recognizable. They appreciated catchy slogans. They commented how brands made them feel.

We refined Madeline’s logo, placing it on a shield shape. That logo appeared all over our physical classroom and all over our Google classroom. I made stickers, decals, shirts, and 3D printed necklaces featuring the logo. I started each day by saying, “Good morning Pixel Paws!”

The class chose the slogan, “Big or small, be kind to all.” We defined our brand and strived to live up to it everyday.

Sure, I could have had the class theme determined before the first day of school. My class could have been named Vincent Vikings, Persistent Vincents, or Vincent Voices. However, taking the time to empower my students to brand themselves made for a meaningful experience. As one Pixel Paw expressed to me, “I feel like I am part of something.”

In 2019 I facilitated the branding of Mrs. Jordan Preston’s fifth grade. That class determined that kindness was their defining quality. They also wanted to incorporate the concept of growing. Not just growing academically, but growing also encompasses the hydroponics garden in their classroom. This class became known as the Kindness Growers.

In 2023 I once again helped Mrs. Preston’s class brand themselves. This class decided that they want to convey that they are a team, helping each other whenever they can. They became know as the Birds of a Feather because they “flock together.”

I used shapes and word art to make the final designs of the logos in Google Slides.

I’ve been developing graphic design skills for years. If you don’t have the skills or the time to make a pleasing logo, try Ideogram. It’s an AI image generator where you can create logos that include words.

Friendly Fonts 👋

Fonts come in all shapes and sizes. Characteristics like thickness, slant, width, roundness, and decoration contribute to a font’s personality. “Display” fonts are the ones with the biggest personalities. They are designed to to stand out, and are often bold, quirky, and artistic.

Titles, headings, and logos often use Display fonts because of their big personalities.

Google has hundreds of free display fonts. I combed through Google Fonts and listed some of the friendliest fonts below.

You can add these fonts inside Google Slides, Docs, Sheets, Sites, and Forms. You can also download from fonts.google.com and install them on your computer.

Fellowship through Forms ☑️

Google Forms helped me get a head start on getting to know my students. Some of the questions I asked included:

• How do you like to be greeted?

• How do you work best? (alone, in pairs, or in a group)

• What are your interests and hobbies?

• What is your favorite part of school?

• What is your least favorite part of school?

• What is one thing your teacher can do to make your experience at school better?

• What are you most proud of?

• What’s your favorite color?

• What’s your second favorite color?

• What’s your favorite animal?

• Is there anything else you want me to know about you?

Google Forms can send responses into Google Sheets, making it easy to see and analyze responses. Throughout the year, I occasionally went back to my Google Drive to review the responses.

The responses came in very handy at the end of the school year. As a parting gift, I ordered colorful pencil pouches and used my Cricut to cut iron-on vinyl. Each pouch had the Pixel Paws logo on one side and a student’s name (in a pixelated font) on the other side. I placed a personalized note for each student inside.

As I passed out the pouches, students mumbled to themselves what color they hoped they would get. Everyone received a pouch in their first or second favorite color.

I remember one astute student asking, “Mr. Vincent, how did you know everyone’s favorite colors?” She obviously didn’t remember filling in that form at the start of the school year, so I replied, “I spent 180 days with you, so of course I know your favorite colors!” 😉

Tune-In for Tech Tools 🧑‍💻

FETC is hosting a free Back to School Edtech Tools webinar. Register and then tune in Wednesday, August 14th at 4:00 PM Eastern Time.

Five educators “share the latest educational technology tools designed to enhance teaching and learning. These tools, updated with artificial intelligence, are revolutionizing classrooms by increasing teacher efficiency and boosting student engagement.”

Even if you cannot view the webinar live, I suggest registering so that you receive a link to watch the recording.

Start with Shapegrams 🏠

I began the fourth day of the 2018-2019 school year with the House Shapegram. A Shapegram is what I call a picture that students recreate using shapes in Google Slides.

I made one new Shapegram each week for the whole school year. The pictures became increasingly more complicated, and by the end of the school year, the Pixel Paws could use shapes to draw just about anything.

Yes, I did my lesson plans in Google Sheets. Each week was on a new sheet, and plans for the whole year are in a single document.

Shapegrams were such a huge success in my classroom, that I just had to offer them to other teachers. I now host 60+ full lessons and over 40+ quick challenges (called Zippers) on Shapegrams.com. That’s more than enough to offer students one or two a week!

Shapegrams work best in third grade and up. Lessons take about 50 minutes. Zippers take about 10 minutes.

You can make free copies of four lessons and 12 Zippers at shapegrams.com/free.

Access to all 100+ Shapegrams is only $35 per year.

I started Shapegrams.com exactly 5 years ago. How time flies! Building the library of lessons and challenges has been an incredible experience, and I've learned so much along the way. If you haven't tried Shapegrams yet, get a free one for your students and let me know how it goes!

Smiles from Iowa,

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