How to Create an Online Game of Connect Four

Twice this weekend I had readers email me to ask about creating an online Connect Four game for students to play to review key vocabulary and concepts. There are a couple of tools that I recommend for creating that type of review activity. First, Flippity.net offers a virtual manipulatives template that will let students drag and drop to sort vocabulary words. The shortcoming of the template is that students don't get any kind of immediate feedback. The other tool I recommend is the Connect Fours template from ClassTools.net.

The Connect Fours template on ClassTools.net lets you create a Connect Four game that provides students with instant feedback. To create your own Connect Fours game head to the game page and select "create new game." On the next screen enter the terms that you want displayed on your game along with the title for the groupings of terms. Your game will be assigned its own URL that you can distribute however you see fit. Watch my video below to see how it works.

A Few Basic Settings to Know When Uploading to YouTube

This past semester I created and uploaded to YouTube more videos for students than I ever have before. Based on the number of questions that I answered on that topic, I know I'm not the only one. And depending on how school starts in the fall, there may be many more teachers tan ever before uploading their own lessons to YouTube for the first time.

If you are creating video lessons to upload to YouTube this summer or helping others do the same, here are few basic settings to keep in mind.

• You can make your videos unlisted and still share them in Google Classroom or any other learning management system that you choose to use. 
• You can and probably should disable comments on the video lessons that you upload. By doing this you avoid the hassle of dealing with YouTube spam comments. I post my videos in Google Classroom and let kids can ask questions there.
• Add a cover image to your video to let students know what the video is about. Doing that also avoids using the still frame that YouTube selects at random for your cover image. 

All of these settings are demonstrated in the following video. 

Create Virtual Class Pictures With Pixton EDU

Disclosure: Pixton EDU is currently an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com

As the school year winds down those of us who still have classes in June may be looking for some ways to replicate our typical end-of-year activities. One of those activities could be a class photograph. While you probably can't get your students together for a photograph, you can create a class picture in Pixton EDU.

Current Pixton EDU users probably know that each of the students in your classroom account can create his or her own avatar. Students can customize those avatars to look like themselves or any other way that they want to represent themselves. You can then arrange those avatars into a class picture.

To create a class picture in Pixton EDU you simply need to sign into your teacher account then pick the class for which you want to create a group picture. Once you've selected your class you can then choose "class photo" from the top menu. As soon as you do that a class picture that includes all of your students' avatars will be automatically generated for you. You can download the picture directly from your Pixton EDU account.

The other way to create a class picture in Pixton EDU is to go into your account and create a new comic. In your new comic you can add the avatars of yourself and your students to one comic frame in front of any of the backgrounds that you want to use. Once you have positioned all of the avatars you can save the comic and download your comic frame as an image.

Either of these methods can be used to create a nice virtual class picture featuring the avatars of all of your students. Consider saving the picture and using it in an end-of-year newsletter to parents and students.