Teaching Creativity with Technology

I finally paid attention to those ads on the side of Facebook. You know, all those ones that are telling you to cartoon yourself? I actually found a site that is a little bit cooler than that even. BeFunky.com lets you creatively customize photos of yourself through colors and photo effects. Your options go way beyond cartoons. I'm going to have my students get a little creative online and have fun expressing themselves through this website.
To view a complete lesson plan on using BeFunky.com click here.
And here's my sample of how I used the website:

Poetry and Technology

This video is based on the storyboard previously posted. Some changes were made in the process but the core is still intact-- poetry is the point. To see it fully on the screen just click the link and don't watch it on my blog.

Teaching with Technology @ Yahoo! Video

Technology Video Storyboard

I have created an outline for a video that I am making right now. If you would like to view storyboard just click the link. The video itself should be published tonight.

Bravo Jesus Colon

Why, you ask, am I awake at this ungodly hour writing my second post of the day? In all reality, I really couldn't tell you. I only slept for four hours last night, but you know how sometimes your body's too tired to let you go to sleep? Tonight's one of those nights. But I was half-heartedly reading for class tomorrow and came across something called "Books That Never Get Returned." What a masterpiece. I couldn't help but share.


This excerpt is from Jesus Colon's A Puerto Rican in New York:
"There is nothing so difficult as returning a book. My wife's maxim is, 'A book loaned is a book lost.' I would not go as far as that. I would say though that if I could have been present when Francis Bacon wrote: 'Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed and some few to be chewed and digested,' I would have suggested that he add: 'and some books are to be read and returned.'
"On this question of returning books we have borrowed, we should not make any exceptions. It has happened to me. It happens to you. It happens to all of us--lenders and borrowers of books."

Oh God bless the man. If anyone is reading this, can I have my books back? And sister, I realize that there is a possibility I still have your copy of Enchantment. Worry not, I continue the search.

The real tragedy is that if I don't get my copies back, I lose my "marginalia" as Billy Collins puts it. But Billy's poetry has been loaned out along with Harry Potter's fourth year at Hogwarts. Holden Caulfield's teenage angst is nowhere to be found in my bedroom (which out of context makes me sound lucky I think), and also a beautiful story about a little girl that steals books during WWII is MIA. That one's called The Book Thief-- appropriate title, no? You little book thieves. Actually I'm pretty sure Scout, Jem, and Boo are in someone's hot little hands as well. Perhaps I need a better system. Or to stop loaning books to ex-boyfriends.

Unexpected But Better

So I've had this old, worn out iPod for about three and a half years now. Despite criticism from my friends, it was not actually made in 1992. They did not, in fact, make iPods in 1992, in case you're wondering. Honestly, it was free and it worked and I had no intention of letting go of that gem. Ok, sure it had its drawbacks. It only held two gigs, for instance. And it was not what you would call aesthetically pleasing, I suppose. And my headphones were coming apart and my connector cable thingy was cracked. But still, it worked! Why would I waste money when it worked well enough to serve it's actual purpose-- to play music?

But the powers that be decided it was time for me to let go about two weeks ago. I thought it would be a lot more painful to let it go but sometimes my emotions are even a surprise to me. As I was sitting in a certain restaurant (which I'll leave unnamed so as not to incriminate anyone) I was suddenly getting very wet. Yes, my waiter spilled water all over me. I really wasn't mad, things like that don't rile me up really. But it took me a few minutes to realize that my purse was also soaked. In fact it retained water tight like unto a dish. Sorry for the scriptural quotation. And what was safely stashed away in my purse? Oh that's right, iPod. But I really felt no sorrow, no remorse. She was gone and that was that. (I guess my iPod was a girl....)

But it's like all I had to do was let go of what I thought was so great so that something way better could be simply placed in my hand! Enter my new iPod nano! The restaurant bought me a brand new, 8 gig iPod-- yeah, the new ones with the video camera!Spill water on me anytime if that's what I get for it. Sometimes you have to let go of that old crappy iPod in order to receive something even awesomer (yeah I know that's not a word, I made it up).

One Reason I Love My Sister

My sister told me today that she doesn't think I'm ridiculous. The world is turned right side up again. I'm good. But this cartoon illustrates what my brother-in-law is probably thinking while we're talking.

Applying Internet Safety

So I discussed internet safety with a member of my family (they will remain nameless but I will say that they are in their late 20's and have two kids) and I asked them how they applied this to their children (both of whom are under five). He--whoops, I mean "they"--laughed at me. Just as I thought they would.

(Obviously this kid is internet safe.)

But when I asked them to please stop mocking me and explained that this was for an assignment they were very agreeable.
I started my research by checking out AdCouncil.org. They have an article on there about sex offenders and how to avoid them online, as well as who's being targeted. They talked about some Public Service Announcements that have been put up concerning this issue and I went back to YouTube to find another video. This one is called Think Before You Post.
It's probably wrong of me to say that I thought a little bit of this was funny. But I might as well just admit it now that I asked. But in all honesty it struck me more than the others that I looked up. I think it's simply applicable to anyone; to all ages.
So as I was talking to my family member, I asked what they do to protect their kids. They said that right now they don't even have the internet on the computer the kids use. It is only used for the educational games they have installed onto it. We then talked about what to do when the kids are older. The answers seemed obvious--don't give anyone your full name, don't meet up with anyone you met online, don't tell them how old you are. An interesting one I found in a video was to never use a screen name that tells your gender. But I think internet abstinence for their youngsters is key. I personally don't think it is necessary for kids to be chatting online with anyone they don't know and so I also think that would be a great way to avoid tricky situations.
We finished up the conversation talking about Elder Bednar's talk that I mentioned in my last post. I think the biggest safety issue for us (meaning my family and I) would be more closely related to spending too much time building up our cyber worlds instead of focusing on our family life. That isn't to say that that is actually a problem now, that would just be the more likely problem, I think.
They were very nice to me once I told them I was doing an assignment and we had a more serious talk when we brought the Gospel into it.