So Saturday came, and I realized there was no creamer in the house, to go with that coffee. And even though I was not crazy about getting out of my pjs, I knew my desire for coffee was greater than my desire to stay "undressed", as it were. So Boaz, my dog, and I headed out to the 7-11. This dog loves riding in the car and will not give up a chance to go anywhere, even the 7-11. We took a selfie in the car, which I later decided would be fun to "Blabberize".
I have used Blabberize in the classroom with a bald eagle (Patriotic symbols) project last year. The students made bald eagle paper bag puppets, which we photographed, and added their voices to tell a few facts about bald eagles. It was a huge hit!
I messed around with Audio Pal and thought it was very easy to use. It might come in handy when communicating with parents, teachers, or older students. I think the younger kids would prefer Blabberize or Voki.
I had been introduced to Voki during a staff dev session, but had never really tried it. Here's one problem I can see with using it with kids. There are too many choices. It took me 25 minutes to decide on my avatar and background. I can only imagine how long the kids would take!
http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11544195&height=267&width=200
Monday, June 15, 2015
Saturday, June 6, 2015
The Very Hungry Kids
This week's assignment, to create an infographic was challenging from the beginning. Butterflies might know all about them, but this caterpillar was lost in the weeds, at first. I had no idea where to even begin. Before I could start, I needed a topic. So while I was procrastinating, I checked my email. I had an email from www.nokidhungry.org and just like that, I had an idea. Hungry kids and the poor quality of school lunches are two things that get me going. There is no reason why kids are hungry in America. There is no good reason we are feeding our kids the crap that we pass off as a "nutritious" school lunch. I work in a school where most of the kids are eligible for free or reduced lunch/breakfast.
I used Canva to create my infographic. Some of the things I found challenging with canva.com were that I had a lot of trouble (spent a lot of time) resizing things. Everything from text boxes to images, to graphics. It just seemed very time consuming, which could be attributed to the fact that it was my first time using the program. Another challenge was that while I wanted to use their graphs, I could not figure out how to adjust them to the percentages that I needed to represent my data. I hope they have a way to do that, I just didn't figure it out. The HELP menu wasn't very HELPful when it came to that problem.
One thing that was super easy was dragging in my own photos from the web/my desktop. I would definitely explain that to kids, because the free graphics or pictures don't always match with what you want to show. Why pay even a dollar when there are tons of free photos to choose from on the web.
I used Canva to create my infographic. Some of the things I found challenging with canva.com were that I had a lot of trouble (spent a lot of time) resizing things. Everything from text boxes to images, to graphics. It just seemed very time consuming, which could be attributed to the fact that it was my first time using the program. Another challenge was that while I wanted to use their graphs, I could not figure out how to adjust them to the percentages that I needed to represent my data. I hope they have a way to do that, I just didn't figure it out. The HELP menu wasn't very HELPful when it came to that problem.
One thing that was super easy was dragging in my own photos from the web/my desktop. I would definitely explain that to kids, because the free graphics or pictures don't always match with what you want to show. Why pay even a dollar when there are tons of free photos to choose from on the web.
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Caterpillar in the Sandbox
I have had such fun playing with all of the websites in this week's module! I am already looking forward to next school year (did I just say that!?!).
In addition to using the ideas I shared in my previous blog post, I am really excited about using Picmonkey along with introducing graphic novels to my high readers. I got so excited watching one of the tutorials, that I called our school librarian to tell her all about it! She just won a grant to purchase tons of graphic novels for our school. I could totally see some of the older kids creating their own graphic novels using the Comic Heroes theme and their own photos. They could be the hero of their own book! That would be so awesome!
I really loved the Foldbooks on Foldplay's website. The kids could retell stories and make their own little foldable book. I could be used for fiction, especially my Fairy Tales unit. I could also see them writing their own little non-fiction books about pretty much anything we are doing in science or social studies. In math, they could start off with a story problem, and on each page do one step of the problem until the problem is solved at the end of the book.
In the past, I have had students draw WANTED posters for villainous characters in stories we have read. I was so excited to see Wanted Posters as one of the options on tuxpi.com. I know the kids would love to make these with information about the character and their favorite part is always the reward!
I am sure there will be many other great applications for things in the websites that were listed. I can't wait to do even more exploration!
In addition to using the ideas I shared in my previous blog post, I am really excited about using Picmonkey along with introducing graphic novels to my high readers. I got so excited watching one of the tutorials, that I called our school librarian to tell her all about it! She just won a grant to purchase tons of graphic novels for our school. I could totally see some of the older kids creating their own graphic novels using the Comic Heroes theme and their own photos. They could be the hero of their own book! That would be so awesome!
I really loved the Foldbooks on Foldplay's website. The kids could retell stories and make their own little foldable book. I could be used for fiction, especially my Fairy Tales unit. I could also see them writing their own little non-fiction books about pretty much anything we are doing in science or social studies. In math, they could start off with a story problem, and on each page do one step of the problem until the problem is solved at the end of the book.
In the past, I have had students draw WANTED posters for villainous characters in stories we have read. I was so excited to see Wanted Posters as one of the options on tuxpi.com. I know the kids would love to make these with information about the character and their favorite part is always the reward!
I am sure there will be many other great applications for things in the websites that were listed. I can't wait to do even more exploration!
Inching Along
...through the sandbox this week. Sending me to these sites to "play" is not really good for me. POOF! There goes 2 hours! (and yes, I am bookmarking them ALL so I can go back a play one day when I have even more time to waste!)
Here's one of my creations. I used Big Huge Labs to create a motivational poster of some flowers that my current school librarian (and friend) gave me when she found out that I had joined this cohort. They were so colorful and happy little daisies.
Here's one of my creations. I used Big Huge Labs to create a motivational poster of some flowers that my current school librarian (and friend) gave me when she found out that I had joined this cohort. They were so colorful and happy little daisies.
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| Freeman, D. (2015). Beauty [photo poster]. http://bighugelabs.com/. CC BY-NC |
Finding Larvae
After reading and watching Dr. Kimmel's video, I decided to find a picture of a caterpillar. Since I feel like I just wandered out of my egg (and have little to no idea what I am doing) and I woke up particularly hungry this morning...
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| Hectonichus (2009). Danaus plexippus Caterpillar [photo]. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nymphalidae_-_Danaus_plexippus_Caterpillar.JPG. CC SA |
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| Tael (2009). Une chenille noire [photo]. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caterpillar_black2.jpg. CC SA |
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Text and Fonts, who knew?
Hello, my name is Donna, and I am a "font-aholic". I love fonts. All kinds of fonts. The funkier, the better. On the Mac I had for school, I had downloaded over a hundred of fun and useful fonts. Last summer, our Macs were ripped away and we were handed new Dells. One of my least favorite things about the new Dell, is that we are not allowed to download any fonts. This was heartbreaking to me. My son bought me a new HP laptop for Christmas and I am back in the downloading business! I just can't use them for school, which is a bummer.
Until I read chapter 2, I had no idea that choosing type was such a "science". I usually just choose what I like. I take into consideration what I am trying to convey and who my audience will be, and possibly, how I am feeling at the time.
When creating this blog, prior to reading chapter 2, I chose the background theme because I liked it. It looks whimsical, and it's very seasonal - for the season of the year as well as this season of my life. I chose the complimentary colors of blues, greens, browns and whites because they are easily read in the context of the chosen theme. My type or font choices were purely personal. I tried different ones and stuck with the ones that I liked the most and thought looked the best. I chose Trebuchet for my text and posts. I like the roundness of the letters. I chose the more traditional Georgia for the date. I guess that was the most formal part of my blog at the time. My title is done with Coming Soon. I like the childlike whimsy of it and thought it looked appropriate with the dandelion on the banner.
I knew this class would be challenging for me, but I was pretty sure I would be okay with the chapter about fonts. After all, I am a "font-aholic". Who knew there was so much to know?
Until I read chapter 2, I had no idea that choosing type was such a "science". I usually just choose what I like. I take into consideration what I am trying to convey and who my audience will be, and possibly, how I am feeling at the time.
When creating this blog, prior to reading chapter 2, I chose the background theme because I liked it. It looks whimsical, and it's very seasonal - for the season of the year as well as this season of my life. I chose the complimentary colors of blues, greens, browns and whites because they are easily read in the context of the chosen theme. My type or font choices were purely personal. I tried different ones and stuck with the ones that I liked the most and thought looked the best. I chose Trebuchet for my text and posts. I like the roundness of the letters. I chose the more traditional Georgia for the date. I guess that was the most formal part of my blog at the time. My title is done with Coming Soon. I like the childlike whimsy of it and thought it looked appropriate with the dandelion on the banner.
I knew this class would be challenging for me, but I was pretty sure I would be okay with the chapter about fonts. After all, I am a "font-aholic". Who knew there was so much to know?
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
AnswerGarden: How do you feel when people are mean to you?...
AnswerGarden: How do you feel when people are mean to you?...: AnswerGarden: How do you feel when people are mean to you?...
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