How to set up a teacher account...

Welcome to the world of comics! I'm thrilled that you've decided to use the medium to try and engage your students in such an interesting way. Creating comics to express ideas, concepts, or to demonstrate learning has been done effectively in a number of different classroom settings. I've seen it done in science, English, French, math, history, and more. The only limit is your imagination!

To help teachers get set up, this blog has a step-by-step tutorial on how to get set up. Below this post is a template you can use (you can even link directly to this website for classes if you wish) to introduce your students to the program as well as sample strips from around the internet.


TEACHER TUTORIAL:

First, let's get there
1. Go to http://www.bitstripsforschools.com/
2. Where it says ‘Ontario Teachers’ click on ‘Activate your account’
3. From here, select your school board and then the school itself
4. Input your school board email address and then click ‘submit’
5. Access your board email to find the next steps to activating your account

Second, let's work on classroom management

1. Go back to http://www.bitstripsforschools.com/ and log in using your email and password
2. You’ll see a series of empty bleachers and a green tab below that says ‘Add a New
Classroom’. Select this now
3. Fill in the appropriate fields now. If you wish to approve comics before anyone can see
them, choose ‘yes’ in the moderate comics box. When finished, click on ‘create classroom’
4. On the next screen, begin inputting the names of your students

Third, let's put ourselves into the comic world

1. Click on 'edit your avatar' on the left hand side
2. Follow the series of prompts to pick and adjust how you want your avatar to look
3. If you go to the 'advanced builder' option on the lower right, you can fine-tune your avatar
even more closely if you choose. Only do this if you feel confident using the program

Fourth, let's make a comic!
1. Once you've made your avatar, go to the main page. Under the avatar, it says 'activities to
complete'. Pick 'my life as a comic'.
2. Follow the directions of the assignment using yourself as a character in your comic! This is
a great introductory lesson that you can use with your classes.
3. When you're finished, you can log out or browse the hundreds of class activities available

Working with Bitstrips...

Comic writing is about mastering the art of brevity... in other words, saying a lot in a limited space. For example, think of the average comic strip found in a newspaper. There may only be between two and four panels for the artist to tell a story or get a joke across.

Take a look at these examples:

Penny Arcade

Far Side by Gary Larson

http://ncowie.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/bitstrip2.png

See how well these creators use their limited space? Think you can do better? Well, that's just what you're going to try to do next.


BITSTRIPS:
This is a website that allows you to create an avatar of yourself or just make short, silly web-based comics. This site gives you the ability to create characters, backgrounds, text boxes, and even determine the size/layout each of your comics will have.


First, let's get there.

1. Go to http://www.bitstripsforschools.com/login/
2. Under student login, it will ask for a class code. Put in the one given to you by your teacher.
3. Select your name from the drop-down list
4. Next, it will ask you to make a password. Pick one, but be sure to write it down so you can find it later


Second, let's put ourselves into the comic world

1. Click on 'edit your avatar' on the left hand side
2. Follow the series of prompts to pick and adjust how you want your avatar to look
3. If you go to the 'advanced builder' option on the lower right, you can fine-tune your avatar even more closely if you choose. Only do this if you feel confident using the program


Third, let's make a comic!

1. Once you've made your avatar, go to the main page. Under the avatar, it says 'activities to complete'. Pick 'my life as a comic'.
2. Follow the directions of the assignment using yourself as a character in your comic!
3. When you're finished, we'll take a look at your work as a class. Remember to be polite, respectful, and to avoid foul language.


Fourth, if you have time...

1. If you finish the first assignment, try the second one called 'fill in the blank'
2. This assignment just asks you to fill in the speech balloons. You decide what each character is saying, but you only have three panels to do it!




and then...



finally...


You wind up with your very own comic! Here's one featuring Mr. Wilkinson: