Cartoons and Comics

 

Hey Readers! Welcome Back to my Blog. Do you love to laugh? Do you want to bring laughter to your classroom, library or even just add laughter to your life? Check this out! 

Fotojet: Organization! That is required to complete the comic collages within this platform. Unlike other websites, this one uses photographs to complete the comic, so you need to make sure you have an idea and pictures to support your idea. I had recently had an impromptu mini photo shoot with my baby, so I used those photos to create my comic. Fotojet offered many various layouts, which you could filter by the number of pictures you plan on using. Some of the layouts however required you to upgrade, so be sure to look for the crown in the corner. If you see a crown it is a paid version layout or option. Once I had my photos picked out, it was very easy to upload the photo into the correct frame. I had deleted some of the extras from the sample, and there was no way (that I found) to get them back later on. So, be careful what you delete. I did not find this platform as user friendly as others, but the overall result is more personal, which can make a larger impact than other comics. Be cautious there is no save feature in the free version. It is simply a download or an embed code available for “saving” purposes. However, despite the minor setbacks I experienced, I think this will be my go-to for making comics more personal to my school, the teachers, and the students.

MakeBeliefsComix: This website was easy to use once I played around. It was not the most user friendly, you could not rotate the images, how they came is how they came. You could move them, flip them horizontally, or make them larger or smaller, just not rotate in another direction to best suit your needs. This comic by far had the largest panel spread I have seen, allowing up to 18 panels in one comic! I wish there was a way to change the font to another style or even put parts of the text in Bold or italics, but I did not see a way. If you find one please let me know! This site also only allows you to save or email your comic, there is no share or online retrieval. This has its pros and cons, but since you do not log in to the website, what they offer works, you just have to save your comic and type in your name then update as you continue to create to keep saving for the moment. The site does however offer a variety of characters and backgrounds all for FREE! That is music to educator’s ears! As far as not having to sign up to create, this would be a great tool for students to use for a book report or presentation on a book. 

Pixton: I logged in using Google sign in, that made it very easy. The hardest part was deciding what my comic would be about. Choosing the character, words, expressions, etc. were done with ease. This may be a little advanced for my Kindergarten students but I think their teacher could use this to encourage a rule to be followed, teach a lesson, or provide a class reminder. If you designed the avatars to resembled the teacher and students, it would make it more fun! I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this was to use, my one con is that I did not find a way to add in fun “comic strip type graphics”. The options for saving, sharing, or I will be using this again!

Overall, I will gladly share with my teachers the thought of using comics to help teach a skill, model a rule, or serve simply as a reminder are all great ways to get students interested in reading as well as offering a variety of reading formats, all while adding a little humor to their daily life. I would show teachers all of these sites to help them create an interesting class dialogue or even to help students create their own comics to demonstrate knowledge of a lesson. I think both teachers and students could have fun using technology, being creative, and modeling their understanding of the material. I hope everyone has a chance to give comics a try. As a skeptic myself, I found this enjoyable and I may even make one to attach to my Christmas gifts this year, everyone loves a little personal touch!