It's time to spruce up your family history project with the use of Google's Tour Builder. Tour Builder allows you to create interactive digital stories by bringing together Google Earth maps, photos, and videos. Discover the power of this tool by watching the brief introductory video and viewing the sample tour project below (the example is not family history related).

Imagine using Tour Builder to map out historical events or settings in historical fiction books.

Learn how to use Tour Builder in your classroom by watching the video below.

Below are two sets of directions to help you get started. There are step-by-step directions for you and a student handout for your students.

Task cards are a great way to support your students in adding meaningful work to their Seesaw journals. The below video is lengthy, but if you zoom forward to 15:00, you will discover how one teacher uses task cards during Daily Five.

Learn awesome ideas for task cards by exploring below.

Use Google Slides to create task cards. Learn how below!

If you think the only use for Google Slides is presentation creation, you're in for a treat. From virtual museums to interactive notebooks to stop motion videos, the possibilities are endless. Watch the video below to check out some examples in action.

Learn basic and advanced techniques with Google Slides here.
Learn how to hyperlink from one slide to the next here.
Learn how to make a stop motion video using Google Slides here.
Learn tips for creating templates here.
Learn even more here.

Get inspiration from the examples below or consider using one of the following templates with your students. First, share a template with your students. (Learn how to share a template on Google Drive here.) Then, have your students access the shared template by clicking Shared with me in Google Drive.

Templates to Tweak and Examples to Inspire:
Virtual Museum Template
Comic Example 1 and Comic Example 2 (Tip: Have your students download their finished projects as PDFs and print the final copies for publishing.)
Vocabulary Journal Template
Digital Interactive Notebook Template
Fractions Collaboration Template
Landforms - Collaborative Study Guide Example
Homonyms Collaborative Study Guide Example
Collaborative Storytelling Example (Learn how multiple students can work on the same file here.)
Snow Day - Stop Motion Example
Sorting Similes and Metaphors Example
Animal Classification Example
Word Study Sort Example
Brochure Template

​When I was a homeroom teacher, winter break marked the completion of many units and projects. Depending on where students were in the writing process, they would often publish their pieces before or after winter break. If your class is on the same page, the New Year will provide an opportunity to consider how your students will share their completed writing. In this post, I will present you with a variety of innovative ways for your students to publish and share their work with others, beginning with a few samples from my own students.

Below is an example of a student who wrote a biography and presented using a green screen to get in character.

Use foldables to create lapbooks. This works especially well with nonfiction. 

Feature student work with QR codes. In this example, the codes link to the students' finished research papers (linked online through a publishing site called Issuu) and 30 second video clips/commercials introducing their ancient Egypt topics. Scan the QR codes below or click here for a commercial and here for a writing piece.

Teach your students to be responsible digital citizens who are creators, not only consumres, of content. Create student blogs!

Now that I've shown you a few ways my students have published their writing, I will introduce you to samples from other teachers.

Use Stop Motion to animate and bring a story to life. Read Meghan Zigman's blog to learn how.

ChatterPix is a free app that makes a photo come to life with speech. Kids can draw, paint, or collage images. They can also find real photographs online.

Not all writing gets published; so by asking your students to publish their work, you will be presented with the opportunity to talk with your students about the differences between the writing we keep for ourselves and the writing we publish. By having your students share their writing with others, they will be held to a different standard of excellence, and they will rise to the occasion to publish their best work.

Still looking for ideas? Check out 5 more tips here.