Add your own personal GIFs in your Google Classroom Header

If you would like to add GIFs to your Classroom Header it can be done. In the example I will be sharing I will be showing how to add your own personal images to the header. Tomorrow's post will show how to add a GIF from a Google search to your Google Classroom Header.

Bitmoji's, personal scaled down photos, and themes are fun to add to a classroom header; however, I thought it would be more fun to make the header a little more classroom specific. An example would be a picture of each child in your classroom.

In this example we will use the following:
  • Google Photos (to create the GIFs / animations)
  • Website - ezgif.com (changes the speed of the GIF / animations)
  • Google Drawings (access through Google Drive as well) - where we will change the dimensions and post GIFs
    •  FYI - I changed the dimensions of the Drawing to Google specs - (800x200 pixels)
  • Video recording site (in the examples I used Screencastify free and Camtasia ($).

You can also see the YouTube video (embedded below)


Embedded below is a 4 minute and 23 second YouTube tutorial I created showing how to use your GIFs and load them to Google Drawings and then load to Google Classroom.
** Please not that the images may not appear crystal clear **



You will also see the step-by-step directions for the whole process I used to create the classroom header with GIFs. 
  • Select the photos you would like to use and create your animation / GIF
  • Download the animation and upload it to EZgif.com to slow down the speed as Google Photos uses a fast animation
  • In Google Drawings - I created a template with a blue background. To access the template click here and select File & Make a copy to make this your own Drawing.elect Insert - Image to find and insert your GIF(s)
    • Resize if needed
    • Add additional GIFs (if needed)
  • Open a site such as Camtasia or Screencastify (extension) to record your screen
  • You will need to crop / trim to show the header
  • Export the file as an animated GIF file
  • Make sure if using Screencastify you make the dimensions a bit larger than the 800x200. This is so you can trim later in Google Classroom.
  • Open Google Classroom and select upload file and find your file
  • Make sure to trim the photo 
  • Just a reminder that your photos may not be crystal clear - but hey - it's a start!
Take care!
Brad

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