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Spark Student Creativity And Build Critical Skills With Adobe Spark + Google Classroom

Adobe for Education provides Adobe Spark for FREE to build student creativity.
Spark Student Creativity And Build Critical Skills With Adobe Spark + Google Classroom

Long gone are the days of stale PowerPoint decks and on-paper assignments. Help students of all grade levels push their creative thinking and communication with Adobe Spark. 

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What is Spark and why should I use it in my classroom?

Adobe Spark is a free web-based resource that gives students a creative space to make interactive presentations (Spark Video),  easy-to-create webpages (Spark Page), and stunning visuals (Spark Post). And, it integrates seamlessly with Google Classroom and Google Drive to make it easy to embed Spark into your classroom workflow. Spark has hundreds of vetted, high-quality templates that educators can assign as a starting point for their students to adapt. Students can also create their own templates from scratch, strengthening their design skills in the process. Spark is an ideal resource to push students to synthesize and demonstrate their learning across subject areas and grade levels. With Spark, students can create compelling, unique visuals that demonstrate core instructional take-aways, such as: how cells communicate, how triangles are used in real-world architecture, and how historical reform movements achieved their intended results. Students can also demonstrate their creative communications skills through longer projects and lesson deliverables through Spark Page and Spark Video. Students in U.S. history can create a video articulating the importance of primary source images to understanding historical context. Students in high school science can create a webpage that explains the ideal gas law to a new audience (like their parents). Students can even choose from a variety of templates that can push them to advocate and educate others about issues they care about on social media, such as how to raise awareness about Juneteenth. There’s no limit to the creative potential Spark offers to students and your classroom! 

Spark and Google Classroom

You  are busy. Even the best tools won’t get touched if they’re not integrated into workflows. For all of you who use Google Classroom as your LMS, or just use Google Drive to share assignments and work with your students, Spark fits right into that workflow! 

Send file to Google Classroom Assignment:

Within a Spark “publish” option, students will find a Google Classroom icon. All they have to do is click it and submit to the assignment that you as the educator created in Google Classroom. No link sharing required! 

Send projects to Google Drive

There’s also an option to send their project directly to Google Drive within the “share” drop-down in Spark. When students send their project to Google Drive, a folder labeled “Adobe Spark” appears in their drive. They can easily share with their teacher or classmates for collaboration and feedback. Teachers can also use this option to quickly assign a template to students that they can then seamlessly adapt in Spark to make it their own. 

Where can I find more teaching resources to teach with Spark?

The Adobe Education Exchange has a wealth of instructional resources for all grade levels and subject areas. If you’re looking for ideas on how to leverage Spark for your classroom, or just need some fresh ideas for how to inject creativity into your core curriculum, EdEx is a great place to start! Simply filter under the resources tab for Spark and your grade-level and curricular area. 

So, how do I get access to Spark?

There’s a good chance you’re one of the millions of teachers whose district has already granted access to Spark. Simply visit https://spark.adobe.com/sp/# and choose the “login with school account” option to login with your school credentials and see if you have access to the premium edition of Spark. If you don’t, talk to your IT Admin about getting Spark activated for your district. 

Or, if you’re a teacher whose district uses Google Classroom and your district email has either .edu or k12.state.us in the domain name, go to this link to get access right away for you and your students!

Guest Blog Post by Tanya Avrith

Tanya Avrith is the co-author of “The Google Infused Classroom” and the newly released “Microsoft Infused Classroom”. She is a Google Certified Innovator, Apple Distinguished Educator, and Adobe Education Leader. As an advocate for student voice, Tanya believes in the power of storytelling in Education. She has seen stories help kids explore their creativity, construct their identities and connect with others first-hand – a principle that she has the privilege of spreading with the help of Adobe Education, as their Education Evangelistucation Evangalist at Adobe

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