Be an ant!

Hello everybody!

Today, I´d like to share with you a great tool to create comics for our students: Pixton. 

First of all, I am going to tell you about it. One more time the first thing you have to do is to create your own account. The next step is to select the layout you want to use. Here you can choose from different ones (comic strip, story board, graphic novel...). In my case, I have used the story board because I wanted to include a brief description about what is happening in the story. 

After selecting the layout and its size, you have to decide if you want to create a basic story or you want to do it with the advanced tool. I chose this last one in order to manipulate all the details of the story. 

Once you have provided the comic with a tittle, you can start! Although at first sight it seems to be difficult, in fact the panel is very easy. You will find different options: 

• Adding a character: if you click here, you will find different characters to choose from, not only people but also animals. You can modify its look, facial expression, movements, proportion and colours. Then this tool gives you the option of saving the character to be used in the comic. 
• Adding text: here you choose the kind of speech bubble you want to use (speaking, thinking, shouting...) and you add the text. 
• Adding a prop: in this option you will find different objects classified according to different topics. For example, as my story takes place in a school, I have used the school filter which has books, notebooks, pencils, laptops, boards...etc. 
• Adding background: here you choose the place in which your story takes place. There is a vast number of backgrounds that you can choose, from houses, the space, theatres, parks, landscapes...etc. 
• Adding image: finally, here you can select an image from your computer to use it as a background.

It is important to say that in all these options you will find a search bar in order to look specifically what you want, and it is really helpful. 

Now, What do I think about my experience with Pixton? Well, at first I have to say that for me it was a complete mess. I didn´t know how to use anything. Luckily, the first time you log in there is a very useful tutorial which helps you to see how things work, it helped me a lot. After a while using it, I was completely able to do it without any problems. So at the end, I really enjoyed. 

If I have to complain about something, I´d say that I think this tool is too difficult for young students. I mean, the website was totally safe for students and once you are inside you only are going to work with things inside Pixton, so students can use this web without any problem. In fact, when you create your account you have the possibility to say if you are a teacher or a student. I have used the teacher´s one, but I suppose that the students´ one will be more or less the same or even safer. 
However, there are a lot of features for young students. I will use this tool from third grade on because with the little ones of the school, in my opinion, it is going to be very difficult. They have to be old enough to know how a computer works in order to be able to create their own comic. But with students in the right age, it will be a perfect tool in order to encourage them to read and write their own stories. 

I think it is important to show the students other ways they can use to express themselves, their feelings and emotions, or some things that happen to them in their daily routine. That is the reason why the comic I have created is based in one of the main problems I, as a bilingual teacher, face most of the days: study habit. When talking with parents, some of them tell me how difficult is for the children to study science in English, to memorise all the vocabulary in another language and to understand the concepts. And I always say the same thing: It is difficult, but with a great study habit is not impossible. They have to be aware of the fact that when studying in another language, your effort has to be double, and you have to study every day little by little in order to achieve the final goal.  
Students usually study the day before the exam, and when you are learning in a bilingual system, this is not valid. Some of them become disappointed because of this failure. and we as teachers have to help them to understand how important is to study every day and how this feeling of disappointment can be got over. 

Here you have the story created by using Pixton, I hope you enjoy it. You can click here to see it in depth with the narration included. 


See you next time!