Being a TCEA member means that you are never alone. If you have a question, a problem, a technical difficulty, need advice, need a shoulder to cry on, or just need to vent, 54,000 other dedicated educators are there to listen and help. That happens every day, especially in our online Community.
There was a great discussion and sharing of resources recently in the Community group Technology and Solutions. One member, Robyn Tompkins of Cypress Fairbanks ISD, was looking for a coloring activity for her math students to do in the week before the Thanksgiving holiday. She wanted them to have to solve a problem and, for each solution, the correct answer would tell them what color to use where in the picture. She was able to find lots of printed worksheets for her in-person students to do that would meet that need, but nothing for those students learning remotely. So she posted her question to the group. Read how our TCEA members came to her aid with the fun ideas below.
Ideas Start Flowing
Naomi Harm recommended she use a Google pixels sheet. She also found a YouTube video that showed how to create a paint-by-numbers Google Form and a blog post that explained how to do it. And finally, Naomi (who was on fire with ideas!) offered a paint-by-number pixel art resource.
South Texas ISD science teacher Efren Rodriguez offered this idea: “If you use Google Drive or Google Classroom, you could create a Google Drawings for students to fill out.” Then he created a quick video showing how to make that work.
More Pixel Art Thoughts Emerge
Those ideas sparked Robyn’s mind and she quickly came up with another solution. “I have my drawing as a vector file in Illustrator right now. I just found a video that talks about how to convert the vector image to Google Slides by way of Google Drawings. I’m hoping this will allow me to not have to redraw the image in Google Drawings.”
Librarian Brenda McElyea of Dallas ISD added more to the idea: “They can paint on it in Google Drawings if you upload it as a PDF. You can also do the same in Nearpod.”
Then Kelley Ramsey-Valdez, a librarian from Northwest ISD, joined in: “I turned the Pixel art into a coding activity last year and my kids loved it.” And then she shared a template for the activity from Alice Keeler.
Bringing It Home
Also wanting to share was Kimberly Wassmuth of Round Rock ISD. “i have made a couple of these and have included steps on how to make your own.” You can see her Mystery Picture in Google Sheets template here.
Andy Adams of ESC VII had two more resources to share. The first was a Virtual Sticktogether Stickerboard, which sells for $5, but that is refunded to you when you use the code provided. He then added, “Also, while it’s not in the “paint by number” category, Shapegrams has some great ideas for getting students to do the creating.” Shapegrams is just $35 for one year of access with two new shapegrams added each month to their already full library.
Finally, I had to throw my limited two cents’ worth in by recommending the free, online drawing program Pixelart. Pixelart is both a drawing platform and a social site which is safe for students older than 13 to use.
TCEA members are always willing to help out. And they do it quickly, too. Robyn had a variety of choices to solve her dilemma in less than 48 hours. Why aren’t you a TCEA member?