Having a Lot of Fun with Gifs: Subtitled, Creating Engaging Google Slides

I enjoy lots of things about the online teaching environment. I love talking to my students, I love seeing their skills grow and watching as they make creative things I would never have even thought of. I like reading their papers (most of the time) and seeing what cool meanings they pull out of the movies in Film Studies.

But my hands-down favorite is making google slides. It’s like a collage, but my fingers don’t get sticky!

I have a lot of fun making my announcement and resource slides. When it comes time to make one, maybe on Thursday for the upcoming weekly announcement, or when I see a problem cropping up and want to give some extra instruction and resources, I get excited. I like to settle into my cushy desk chair with a cup of tea and some Nature Box Vanilla Bean Wafers (my actual kryptonite) and get to work.

(Note: The black widescreen bars are created by the embed tool here on edublogs, the actual dimensions of these slides are the backgrounds. This doesn’t happen in blackboard.)

I’ve had some questions in the past about how I build my announcements, and I’m going to break it down.

First of all, an Ode to Google Slides:

I like to use google slides for a few different reasons: they are always editable, unlike a static image file, meaning that I can go into slides and change something with deleting and re-uploading files in blackboard; they can host links, like the resubmission policy one above; you can embed videos and other content right into them easily; and they’re super customizable.

I know the allure of programs like Canva and Piktochart: I love, love, love that they include galleries of graphics that match. I love that so much! If I want to use an arrow in one part of a graphic and an envelope in another, I won’t end up with one cartoony orange thing and one stark black one, which is a problem that I will spend a full hour on google images trying to find a solution to. I just can’t abide it.

When I do use Canva, though, I still pop it into a google slide and embed that in blackboard. That way, when I notice a dumb typo or mistake, I don’t have to delete and re-upload on BB. I just swap out the file in Slides.

And now, since I have another packet of Vanilla Bean Wafers, a comprehensive how to Google Slide on building the slide, finding and implementing transparent gifs, and some fun resources! (So meta.)

Open in Slides/Add to Drive

I recommend full screen!

3 thoughts on “Having a Lot of Fun with Gifs: Subtitled, Creating Engaging Google Slides”

  1. Lauren, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and for creating such a helpful resource for creating Google Slides . As the Visual Arts teacher at my Primary School (K-3), I will be using Google Classroom to provide instruction for my students. This was an amazing find. Thank you again for your help!

  2. What an awesome resource! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I will be using this new-to-me vertical format in google slides and fun with interactive pages in my art classroom. Thank you for the excellent tutorial and sharing your resources.

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