Memes are a creative way of promoting literacy with visuals and text. You can create them digitally with Canva, Buncee, and Google Slides. Or you can go "old school" with pictures cut from magazines and writing.  There are many ways to do this:
* You provide the content, and your students find an image.
* Your students apply the content to your image.
* Your students choose the content and the image.
* Your students choose the content and create the image.
* Your students create the content and the image.
* You provide the content and a variety of images, and your students match them.

Create video memes with Flipgrid by adding text and images while recording.

Sites for Royalty-Free Images:
https://pixabay.com
https://morguefile.com
https://avopix.com
https://www.pexels.com
https://www.publicdomainarchive.com
https://unsplash.com
https://www.stockvault.com
https://nos.twnsnd.co
https://gratisography.com
https://picjumbo.com

*Please use your discretion when recommending sites to your students.

As a matter of fact, yes.  Yes, I'm going to wear that apron in the library and here's why...
1. Making is messy.
2. Here's to the end of calling myself from the library phone to find my cell phone.
3. Who needs to see the sauce spot on my shirt from my lunch?
4. A granola bar is just what a teacher needs to wolf down on between classes.
5. It's always handy to have a pen and post-it notes to jot more things down on the endless "To Do" list.
6. Librarians are always "cooking up" something, especially during book tastings.
7.  Pockets are perfect for holding change for kids who forgot their lunch money.
8. Students can scan the QR code on my apron to access their Flipgrid of book recommendations.
9. If students are already late to their next class, don't waste time by finding a hall pass.
10. Book fairs can be busy, and an apron can help you be organized.

I just love this photo of my co-author Stony Evans and his co-librarian during a book tasting.

Here's a cool hack:
Use Wakelet, Buncee, or Flipgrid create a digital cookbook. Then print the generated QR code on an apron. You will have access to a wonderful collection of recipes whenever you scan a QR code.  What a wonderful gift for a teacher if each child submitted a recipe from their culture.

​Turn the tables on the first day of school. Instead of discussing supplies and syllabi, build relationships. Ask your students to record Flipgrid videos about themselves, with their preferred names and pronunciations. Then YOU go home and study!

​Here's a video of one of my graduating 8th graders watching a video of himself when he first entered the middle school.

Sometimes a post pops up into your twitter feed that inspires you to create something.  This is what happened with Heather Lister posted about a website called the Breaking News Generator, and suggested to use it to create fake news posts.  I immediately thought about the "Two Truths and a Lie" game where participants have to determine which two statements are true and which statement is a lie.  It also reminded me of the books by Laurie Ann Thompson and Ammi-Joan Paquette, as well as my Amazing Makerspace True Books.

So I set out to create a Flipgrid topic using these "Breaking News" posts as the prompts.  Take a look at the finished product.

There are several ways to transform images into videos, but this is how I did it. Follow the steps to create your own.  
1. Decide on a topic to establish prior knowledge or to review content. Research the topic and write three statements that seem plausible, yet only two are actually true.
2. Use http://www.breakyourownnews.com to create three posts with appropriate headlines, tickers, and images.

3. Since Flipgrid only always video submissions in .MOV. .MP4, and .WEBM format you must create a video file.  First I take my image and use https://giphy.com to create a GIF.  I like doing this because I can add stickers, text, and drawings to my images.  This animation really gets students' attention. If you create a free account you, you will be able to save and access your GIF's online. 

Here is my finished GIF.

4. Now go to https://ezgif.com/gif-to-mp4 to convert your GIF's to MP4 files so that you can upload them to Flipgrid.

5. Create a grid called "Two Truths and a Lie," and then create separate topics for each activity.  Upload your videos to responses to the prompt.  You can either provide links to resources and databases, or require that your students locate their own as evidence.  Share the link to the topic that you would like your students to focus on.  After your students research the statements, they will determine which two of the three statements are true and which is a lie.  Then they will record their reply to your response giving their opinion with evidence and citing their sources.  Empower your students and encourage them to create their own "Two Truths and a Lie" Flipgrid activities.

BREAKING NEWS - FLIPGRID UPDATE
You'll be excited to learn that soon you can bypass the above hacks and just import your own images as stickers.  Check it out!

Put your teachers in the driver's seat.  Create a Breakout EDU (physical or digital), create Wakelet collections of apps, web tools, articles, or teaching strategies for them to discover.  When they document their learning with Flipgrid they can earn their next clue.  Try this at your next faculty meeting or conference day. Check out the "Epic Breakout EDU Appsmash Challenge" that Melissa Bazner and I created for ISTE 2019:
https://conference.iste.org/2019/program/search/detail_session.php?id=112201625

One day after school in my library as I was cleaning up and getting ready to leave, I discovered that the pen that had been left at the circulation counter for students to sign in with had been misplaced again.  Pens were a commodity since they had a habit of rolling off the counter, or being indefinitely "borrowed."  I remembered seeing pens with feathers attached to the top of them in my colleague's classroom to prevent pens from being misplaced.  I had the solution! I quickly ran to my computer and printed out a few copies of the QR code for our library book recommendations Flipgrid, laminated them, and attached them to the tops of some pens.  I didn't need to replace the pens until the ink ran out, and the QR code was a reminder to share their favorite books with one another.

And I snuck a few reminders into new books when I processed them too...

So excited to speak about QR codes at the Flipgrid booth in the ISTE 2019 Expo hall...

With the new Flipgrid AR (augmented reality) your videos will come alive!

Create a MixTape for each of your students, combining their responses from various topics during the school year.

MixTape CoPilots are coming!  This will make it even easier for teachers to create digital portfolios for their students.

Password protect those MixTapes so only friends and family can view them.

Create student ID badges.

Save time, and download multiple QR response codes at once.