🗑 12 creative student challenges for December

🚀 Google AI + Security Skill Boost (AND Lunch!)

Google Workspace admins and users, this one’s for you.

Deck the Domains is a free, half-day virtual training packed with must-know updates on Workspace security and the fast-evolving world of AI. Choose the track that fits your role, learn from experts, and walk away with practical ways to strengthen your workflows and domain.

Oh—and lunch is on Trafera! Get a DoorDash gift card for attending.

💻 Virtual
🗓 Dec. 10
🕙 11 AM–2 PM CT
👤 Hosted by Trafera and Google for Education

📢 CONTEST 📢

Enter to win prizes by sharing Ditch Summit with others

You could win a pair of Apple Airpods OR copies of my books just by sharing Ditch Summit!

📥 HOW TO ENTER THE CONTEST:

1. Copy the text from this email script into an email message. (Feel free to add to it or adjust it as you wish!)

2. Add email addresses of 10 (or more) of your colleagues and friends that might be interested in signing up for the summit.

3. Include [email protected] in the To: or Cc: field. (Note: This is NOT the same email address you’re receiving this email from, so don’t just hit reply.)

4. Click SEND!

🎁 PRIZES: First prize: Apple Airpods // Second prize: A signed copy of each of my SIX books // Third prize: Choice of TWO of my books

✅ RULES: Send the email once (one entry per person); no multiple entries allowed. If the email isn’t sent to [email protected], your entry won’t be recorded. I’ll draw winners on Thursday, December 4 before sending that day’s email newsletter and notify them then.

💡 THE BIG IDEA 💡

🎨 12 creative student challenges for December

‘Tis the season for creativity!

The 12 Days of Creativity Challenge has 12 fun, unique activities to get your students creating — and thinking creatively — at the end of the semester.

Adobe for Education has you all set up! Each one comes with:

• a pre-made template your students can copy and use immediately

• a walkthrough tutorial video your students can watch

• clear, step-by-step text/image instructions for your students

(PS: Did you know you Adobe Express is free for education? You can get a free Adobe Express premium account as a teacher. And you can deploy it across your entire district — to your students — for free.)

12 creative challenges for your students

You can get started with any of these creative challenges right now! Just head to the 12 Days of Creativity Challenge site. Below are some of my favorites.

FYI: They’re intended for use on desktop (laptops, Chromebooks, etc.) and not mobile devices (like cell phones).

CHALLENGE #1: Design an ugly sweater. For lots of us, winter weather gives us the chance to wear our outlandish holiday sweaters! For mine, I had to include the iconic Ditch That Textbook trash can — and our signature gold color.

Students could incorporate a character in a book, a concept they’ve been studying … even a friend or a classmate or a teacher!

CHALLENGE #4: Transform yourself into a dancing elf. This is an activity where students can really see themselves! If you’re looking for a fun activity that students will want to share with others, they’ll have a blast turning themselves into elves — and then looking at each other’s creations!

CHALLENGE #9: Sugarcoat your favorite animal. Karly, the DTT blog/social media editor, created a colorful unicorn lollipop in this challenge! This creative advertising challenge asks students to create a visually striking ad for an imaginary tasty treat.

Students can use persuasive language in the advertising verbiage — and even incorporate vocabulary words into their design.

Remember: They’re intended for use on desktop (laptops, Chromebooks, etc.) and not mobile devices (like cell phones).

That’s just a taste of what you and your students can create! Here are the rest of the challenges …

• Design your very own stuffie — Challenge students to transform an everyday object into their own plush toy.

• Design a one-word wallpaper — This activity asks students to leverage AI to visualize one aspirational word for 2026.

• Animate a funky snack — Create a short, looping GIF of a dancing character paired with a favorite food, aiming for a cartoonish, playful, and meme-like result.

• Send a vintage postcard — Students will design a vintage-inspired postcard that represents their dream destination , focusing on a tactile, 1950's retro, and nostalgic design.

• Record a news story from future you — This task involves creating a "breaking-news style broadcast" about a future achievement of the student.

• Assemble a talking snowman — Students will build a winter scene, complete with a snowman, against a playful, collaged background.

• Construct a personalized snow globe — Students get to place themselves inside a magical, animated snow globe, focusing on a mixed-media, playful, and layered design.

• Personalize a time capsule — The activity prompts students to reflect on and capture their favorite things from the year (movie, song, book, etc.) in a polished, dynamic video.

• Curate an inspiration board — Create a 2026 inspiration board that acts as a visual roadmap for the year ahead.

Learn more about the challenges

We share all about the challenges in our new post — Spark creativity: The Adobe Express 12 Days of Creativity Challenge is back!

👋 How we can help

There are even more ways I can support you in the important work you do in education:

1. Read one of my six books about meaningful teaching with tech.

2. Take one of our online courses about practical and popular topics in education.

3. Bring me to your school, district or event to speak. I love working with educators!