Cartoons and Comics

Fotojet

• Overall, Fotojet was fairly easy to use. I chose from the several free templates to start my comic strip. One thing I could not figure out is how to change my picture if I changed my mind. If I deleted the image it took away the box that was there. I did like the feature of adding backgrounds to your design to make your comic strip stand out. In order to save, you will have to upgrade your subscription, but you are able to download your designs for free. Fotojet is a great resource for just starting out and would be a great tool for students to use. 

Pixton

• I immediately notice the resources made available to the user and how the sections were laid out in play, plan, and feedback. The site was also very visually appealing to the eye.  For someone who was unsure how to start creating a comic strip, comic school came in handy. I did like the feature of creating your own avatar to incorporate into your comics. With Pixton, you are able to choose from several different scenes and not just plain backgrounds. Also, you are able to add actions to your characters as well as change the facial expressions to fit the character's words. The only downfall is that you have to upgrade in order to share or download your comic. I think it is great that you can add a rubric where students can rate their selves or their classmates. Pixton was very easy to use and student-friendly compared to others. 

Make Beliefs Comix

• I was not a big fan of Make Beliefs Comix due to not being able to resize the images or the speech bubbles and limited resources to choose from. The site itself seemed a little outdated compared to Pixton and Fotojet. I found it very hard to figure out how to create my comic and I think students would experience the same issues. It does give some ideas to pick from, but nowhere near the other two sites. There is not an easy way to search for specific pictures to add to your comic. There were not enough resources to pick from to help create a visually attractive comic strip. Being able to save and download your comic was fairly easy. It had several options to share to social media, download, or even email your comic to someone. 

Tellagami

• For some reason, I could not find the app in the apple app store. I did find a similar app that I tried. The app I used is called Plotagon. You are able to choose from free scenes and create your own characters. The app allowed you to add emotions to your characters and record your own voice or use one of the voices in the app. Also, you were able to position the characters in the scene. I did watch a YouTube video, "Let's create our first Plotagon video", to help with getting my characters to talk. Other than that, the app was user-friendly. 

Sharing Comics with Your Teachers-Colleagues
The following ideas could easily be shared with colleagues during weekly faculty meetings. The librarian could visit each grade level during their grade level planning time to share ideas and how they can incorporate comics into their everyday lessons and activities. The librarian can also invite classes to the library to demonstrate creating a comic with the class on a specific content area topic. 

• Comics are a great way to introduce one another at the beginning of the year. 
• Teaching new concepts
• Students can create comics using new vocabulary terms 
• Students could retell a story
• Create a book trailer to promote the book and grab the reader's attention