#BringCreativity newsletter January 2021

Reflecting on your work is important any time of year -- and the beginning of the calendar year is a great time for students to reflect on their accomplishments. Elementary Technology Teacher Melissa Lesser shared on Twitter how students used Book Creator to capture 2020 reflections.

Tips for trying this out with students:

• First, ask students to brainstorm a list of reflections from the past year.
• Then, have students create a page for each of their reflections.
• Next, ask students to add images, icons and emojis to their page.
• Finally, provide time for students to share their reflections with classmates.

Fourth grade teacher Deidre Elliott shared on Twitter how students published their writing drafts with Book Creator. If you are asking students to write stories this year, they can transform their drafts into interactive books with Book Creator. This is a great option for any type of product your students are creating this year.

Tips for trying this out with students:

• First, have students complete their writing draft.
• Then, encourage students to think about the colors and images they would like to include.
• Next, provide time for students to transfer their draft to a page by typing or using voice-to-text.
• Finally, encourage students to add colors, emojis, and images that go along with their topic or theme.

Book Creator Ambassador Kristina Holzweiss shared great tips on Twitter last month about creating a table of contents within Book Creator. This is a great strategy for collaborative creations where you want to “tag” each student by adding their names to a table of contents. This way readers can jump around and see each other’s work.

Tips for trying this out with students:

• First, create a list of everything you’d like to add to your TOC.
• Then, link the text of each item to the correct page number.
• Next, try out each link to make sure they go to the right page.
• Finally, celebrate collaborative creations and give students a chance to explore.

The visual anthropology activity in this book is great for documenting change in your community. In addition to thinking forward to the future, you might ask students to interview community members to share ways their lives have changed over the years.

Find it here:  Book Creator in the High School Classroom

This month we're showcasing a collaborative book from the Philippines, created by high school students taught by Jo Lagat. Inspired by six-word stories, pupils wrote their own 200-word "flash fiction" stories, app-smashing their creations together into a published comic-style book in Book Creator.

Find it here: Flash Fiction, by G11 - Hezekiah, Makati Hope Christian School, Philippines.

Browse more student examples here.

Caroline Boudreau is 2nd-grade teacher and part of the class of 2020 Book Creator Ambassadors.

As a French-speaking Canadian, Caroline helps run the Book Creator en français Facebook group, and has already helped run multiple webinars on Book Creator, including this one in October. She also posts short tutorial videos on using Book Creator to her YouTube channel.

Just recently, Caroline helped bring her fellow Book Creator Ambassadors together by co-ordinating and publishing a book of new year messages from around the world. Check it out here.

We'd love for you to win a special Book Creator mug!

Share a lesson idea or activity for the new year using Book Creator. Use the hashtag #BookCreatorChallenge and make sure to tag us so we can follow along and celebrate your creations!

We'll choose one lucky winner at random. Good luck!

Congratulations to Jayson St. Croix from New York - our December winner!