My Whole World

I want to introduce all of my readers to my family.  This picture was taken on a special day...the day we became a family of 4.  Meet Jesse, Olivia (who turned 5 today) and Allison (who is now 1 1/2).

Photo modified using Tuxpi.com: Photo Editor. (2015).  Retrieved May 27, 2015, http://www.tuxpi.com/

Image Creation Tools

I have explored several of the image creating tools recommended in this week’s sandbox…here are some ideas and critiques that I had for using these specific tools in the classroom…

http://foldplay.com/foldplay.action

Fold Book seems like a great resource to use with students.  They can be responsible for taking pictures and adding text to make the book their own.  This could be used with many different grade levels…I brainstormed a few ideas:

K-1         Take a picture of shapes in the environment and label them on each page.

                Create or locate patterns, take a picture, and label.

                Take pictures of objects and label them using words.

1-2          Take pictures of everyday objects and write sentences to match using sight words.

                Tell a story about you to introduce yourself to your classmates through pictures.

3-5          Retell a familiar text. 

                Create your own story with real-life pictures for illustrations.

                  Retelling important facts learned from a field trip (especially since the upper    

                grades often go to DC, Jamestown, etc.

 

It is limitless what students could create to present data through their own stories!

 

http://blog.pic-collage.com/2015/04/22/new-app-introducing-pic-collage-for-kids/

Although I was unable to play with Pic Collage, I think this would be a great app to consider getting on the school I-Pads.  When I read the description, I immediately thought about the famous American units each grade level teaches.  I pictured a photo of Benjamin Franklin with images all around him of things that he helped to create…lightening rod, library, fire department, swim fins, bifocals, the grabber, a post office, etc. 

 

http://www.imagechef.com/

Image chef seems like a fun program to use.  I don’t know if I would give students free reign of website, however because there were some images that would be inappropriate for school—one of someone’s bottom, cleavage, and a man sagging his pants with underwear hanging out.

 

http://bighugelabs.com/

This website seems like a great resource to tuck away and use for future projects.  I can already think of a way to use it for a student writing project we are doing this week. Student are writing what they would do if they were a fish.  We discussed having them paint a picture of them as a fish, taking their picture, printing it, cutting out their face and gluing it as the fishes face.  It seems to me that I could use this website and a drawing program to create a similar project.  We all know that first graders LOVE playing with technology!

 

Once again, going back to famous Americans, I think it would be fun to create trading cards about the famous Americans each grade level learns about.  Students could work in groups to create these cards to present important facts to their classmates.

Citing of my image and a disclaimer

In searching for an image to use in this week's blog assignment, I came across a poster that I would love to use in my classroom.  I think it embodies what I strive for with my students.  The poster was taken from Foter.com (2015). In our classroom. Retrieved from: http://foter.com/photo/in-our-classroom-1/ CC BY-NC-ND.

As I am just learning the basics of citing and blogging...I am going to give the disclaimer that I AM JUST LEARNING THE BASICS OF CITING AND BLOGGING!!!  Therefore, please forgive any missteps and give feedback of anything that needs work.  I am happy to learn new things!

A classroom poster

venspired / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Clean and Simple

If you were to walk into my house today, well, 5 years ago (before children) you would notice that my husband and I do not own "clutter."  We do not collect knickknacks.  The only decorations we have are curtains and some personal pictures on the wall.  I wanted my blog design and font choice to reflect my personality and home design choice...clean and simple.

In the book Presentationzen Design, the font choice, Helvetica was described as "neutral, simple, contemporary" (Reynolds, 2014, p. 40).  It was also described as a font that allow words to "express themselves with a feeling of trustworthiness and reliability" (Reynolds, 2014, p.47).  That is what I want to accomplish through my blog this semester and beyond.


Font choice and design inspired by:
Reynolds, G. (2014).  Presentationzen design: a simple visual approach to presenting in today's world. United States of America: Pearson Education.

A Brief Introduction

My name is Amy Young.  I am currently a first grade teacher and have made the decision to go back to school in order to get my endorsement to become a school librarian.  After ten years in the classroom, I knew I wanted to do something different.  My love of teaching, my love of books and literacy, and my desire to learn more about technology influenced my decision to enter the librarian program at ODU.  In order to get to know me better, I have created a word cloud to introduce myself...

 

Word Cloud was generated by...
Wordle - Create. (2013). Retrieved May 22, 2015, from http://www.wordle.net/create