ToonDoo... the MOST AMAZING site. EVER. Yes EVER.

Have you seen it???  Toondoo???  Talk about awesome.  In the great words of Phil Robertson, it makes me and my students "happy, happy, happy."  They have fun learning and I have a blast watching them depict what they learned in a cartoon form.  Not to mention it's the top 4 letter word that make teachers crane their necks when they hear it.  Yes it is....

FREE.

All you need is a user name and email address.  And you get to make fun cartoons like the one I made above.  And they have all SORTS of templates, pics, and emotion-cons.  And it's free.  And don't you hate it when your students start all their sentences with "and"?  But I am using it for voice purposes so I guess I will let myself slide.  Hmmmm I digress.....

So this fan-tab-u-lous site was brought to my attention as I was teaching command and market economies.  I know, I know.... You're like, "What?!?! Command and market economies??? That sounds so B-O-R-I-N-G.  How did you make that fun???"  Well, it wasn't my idea... but I wish it was.  

I have a subscription to TCI which is the leader in Interactive Notebooking-  they were one of the firsts to pioneer interactive notebooks, but now it's gone digital as well.  Anyways, its how I teach World Cultures, and part of my TEKS is to teach my 6th graders about command and market systems. If you want to check out my love-post for TCI just click this link.  So.... on my TCI lesson plan, there was a link to toondoo, and it suggested to do a compare and contrast cartoon using 2 panels.  I gave my students a rubric and 2 days in the computer lab.  However, before we went to the lab, we did a long demo in class together just playing on the site and making a mock cartoon. 

This was an example I did with my 3rd period class before we went to the computer lab.  We only did a command economy.

   That night about 30% of my students went home and made their own accounts and I made each of them a school account.  It was that wonderful 4 letter word... FREE.

So here are some of the results.... drum roll please.... I cant roll my r's so I can never do drum rolls... se la vi.... 

 Pretty cool huh?  I cant begin to tell you how much the kids taught me during this too.  Hope this helps you turn one of those concepts that can be so boring, into an engaging fun experience for you but more importantly your kids (ie.. students... but you know their your kids...)


Happy Teaching!