A New Web Page!

For our last project in Instructional Technology, we were asked to create our own web page using Google Sites. This has been my favorite project thus far. Web page design is no longer rocket science with this program. In fact, Google Sites is very user friendly.
The only thing that is required to create your own web page with this program is a gmail account.

I am not finished yet, but so far here is my web site. I hand-painted all of the link symbols (ex: "home", "teacher bio", "welcome"....etc), scanned them, and linked them to their significant pages. See example below.


I am pretty excited about the results!

I hope to manage a web site similar to this one as soon as I start teaching. This could be a very helpful teaching tool. Not only would it help my students to stay informed and record some of their projects, but it will give some insight into my art classroom for the parents or guardians.

So here it is... (unfinished but getting close...)!

http://sites.google.com/site/luciegilot486/

Knoxvegas Cribs- The Premiere

Our last assignment was to create a photo story using IMovie. I decided to give my viewers a sneak peak into my apartment. I think you can find out so much about a person by their home. What do I eat? Am I messy? Who do I live with? Am I into decor? Is there art in my apt? Are there lots of books, is she a reader? Does she have a pet.... All these are answered in my short but fun movie story of "Knoxvegas Cribs".
This program was pretty fun to use, and I would love to be able to use this in my classroom. It would be a great tool for students to record their art work or to discover a way of sharing photos in a more creative way.

So here it is... dun dun dun.

Using Excel!

This week we learned how to make interactive spreadsheets (practice or quizzes) using the Excel worksheet program. This was a challenging task at first. After playing around with the program a bit, I feel it could be easy to get used to. It is great tool for any classroom including an art classroom.

Linked below is tutorial website on Excel spreadsheets for beginners.
Home & Learn Tutorial

I chose to make my spreadsheet on the design element of line with a focus on outline, contour lines, and hatching. My goal was for each student to practice in differentiating between these three types of lines and observe them within drawings. This is made for an elementary art class. After much trial, error, and success, I have finally finished my practice spreadsheet. Here is a screen shot of the spreadsheet.

Inspiration!

This week we have been learning how to work with programs like Inspiration. This diagramming software was very user friendly and is an important tool for creating diagrams, maps, and webs for students and teachers. It is typically used by students grade 6-12 and it allows them incorporate visual learning into their curriculum. I would highly recommend trying this software. Inspiration Software, Inc. does offer a free trial edition on their official website: http://www.inspiration.com/

I chose to do a web on famous Surrealist artists. The surrealist movement is one of my favorites, and I think one of the best ways of discovering an art movement is by discovering its representatives. The only thing I had trouble with was getting the footer (my textbook source) to show up on the GIF image of my web (pictured above). I had a good time discovering Inspiration, and I'm pretty sure I will be giving it another go in my future teaching career.

A Hunt for Shapes On Campus!

Here is the presentation for the scavenger hunt mentioned in the previous post.



Collection of photographs for scavenger hunt are organized in Hunt folder.

Scavenger Hunt and Google Presentations!

(Source of Image: WeHeartIt)

In class this Tuesday, Kyle, Alison, and I went on a scavenger hunt to discover shapes on campus. This would make a great project for many different classrooms including the art classroom. It would be a great way for students to practice using a digital camera, work together in teams, and take creative photos for their scavenger hunt. It also taught us to upload digital images, properly resize them and organize them. We learned how to use Google Docs Presentations in order to share our photos with the rest of our classmates during next Tuesday's class.
I thought the presentation program for Google was just as user friendly as Microsoft Powerpoint (not to mention very easy to share with group members and the teacher). I will most likely be using this project in my future art classroom.

Our hunt was based off of Shapes.
For example:

This clock became our Circle!

We had to find twelve different shapes on campus. I have to say, the hexagon was the most challenging.

Picasa!

Link to Picasa:
http://picasa.google.com

There are tons of photo sharing options out there when it comes to the internet. I have just opened my free picasa photo editing software account, and I love it!
Picasa is very user friendly. It is a great way to upload pictures to the web while having the option of sharing these photos with family and friends.