IEP: Creating an Artists Web Page

For my IEP project I chose to discover a way to post my artwork online. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time, yet never found the time to do it, until now. I began by photographing artwork that I have made in the recent past. I transported all work into the classroom as the set up was more accessible here. I then set up the area to take photos, set up the lighting, carefully arranged the lamps, placed the artwork onto a black velvet cloth, and set up the tripod for taking good, steady photographs. I got through all of my artwork and uploaded the images, then began editing them. Finally I uploaded some images onto flickr.com and realized that the images weren't the quality I would like them to be. 

Round two of taking images, I took several of the same image and played around with the lighting a lot more than I had done the first time. I'd say the trickiest part of this whole process was taking quality digital photos. The best luck I had was with more classroom lights on, and turning the neutral light off. The photos looked closer to their actual color with the warm spotlight on them than they did with the super fancy neutral art light. The second time around editing was much smoother than the first, as I had recently just edited all of the others. I did not want to alter the images with contrast or brightness, so I left that part alone. All that I really did was clip the images and then saved them. 

Uploading the images to flickr.com took a while as the connection was rather slow. I searched for other potential websites to post the images on, yet I was unable to find one that I really liked. Some were more directed toward design, some cheesy, and some just not that nice. I chose flickr.com because I like the range of skills on the page, it's free, and they have a decent layout for the photos. All in all, I'm rather pleased with the results and even more pleased that I underwent a project that I have long been wanting to do.  I plan to use the images that I photographed to further develop my art portfolio and motivate me to continue documenting artwork that I create, now that I know how accessible it is to me.

My images are located at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stacydee/

My IEP Lesson Plans are located at:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfs8st5b_12fz44X47n

Online Community

My professional online community is alaskateacher.org I chose to write about my involvement with this website as it has been an important tool in my quest for continuing my art teaching career in Alaska. I have posted my resume and cover letter on this website and in turn the website contacts me when there are open art teaching positions in Alaskan schools. It has proven to be extremely helpful in this time of job search in this fine state.

       Not only does the website contain a list of available art jobs but it contains a list of other teaching jobs open in case I would like to get certified in another subject and pursue a teaching career in history or even math. In addition to supplying a list of jobs that are available in the Alaska school districts, this website provides general information about Alaska,  links to Alaskan school districts, and information on getting certified in Alaska.

The website has contacted me with information on virtual job fairs and job chatting conferences. Any time I feel that I might not want to look for a job, I simply check my email, and there ATP is, reminding me that a job is right at my fingertips!

If by chance I do get a job in Alaska, the website contains incredibly helpful information regarding relocation, transportation in Alaska, shopping in Alaska, and what to bring. Since Alaska is such an incredibly diverse environment, it is very helpful to know that I can go to ATP and quickly find the information I am looking for regarding everything I ever needed to know about getting a job in Alaska.

Thank you ATP!

Important Websites and why?

http://www.naea-reston.org

This is my first website. It is the National Arts Education Association loaded with great resources including updates on art education, funding resources, art education resources including a link to many other resources on the web, lesson plans, and jobs in art education.

http://www.princetonal.com

This website is great for art lesson plans of all ages, I've used it a bunch this year!

http://www.artistsregister.com

I chose this website because it has an incredible list of resources of all contemporary art tools from supplies to events to schools. It also includes an artists page of whichever artists have registered on their website complete with their contact information and link to their website. It is a great tool for an artist.

Assistive Technology for Reading

I. Stacy Naden suga_bb@yahoo.com 03/22/2008

Assistive Technology for Reading Hasselbring and Bausch

II. Overview of Article

This article was about using more assistive technology in the regular classroom. A study was done at the University of Kentucky and found that most schools only utilized assistive technology on low-incidence special education students. In 2000, the Kentucky Dept. of Education decided to implement a program centered on assistive technology called text-reader software to help students with learning disabilities, specifically to help them with their reading and writing skills. The results were positive. The article then went on to discuss other assistive technology programs such as READ 180, READ, WRITE, & TYPE!, and Read Naturally. The goal of the article is to provide information to teachers as well as evidence supporting the use of assistive technology programs in the classroom.

III. Bulleted Reference Points

• Assistive Technology
• Text-Reader Software
• Kentucky Department of Education
• Read & Write Gold
• word prediction
• Reading Interventions
• READ 180
• Des Moines Independent Community School District
• Learning Disability
  

IV. Reflection and Significance to me

This article was certainly informative. Unfortunately, we don't do a whole lot of reading in the art classroom thus far. I would love to see an art classroom that functions around reading. I think this information is very helpful for a school district to have in order to better utilize their technological supports. I can see how assistive technology would help students in their learning providing individualized feedback and support where most students with learning disabilities just get shoveled around with the rest of them in the regular classroom. I can see how such programs would increase reading and comprehension skills which are crucial for students to advance at in order to successfully navigate today's educational system.

IEP Proposal

I am interested in creating a website for myself with my art work posted for viewing. I am planning on doing this with flicker.com. I am also interested in learning something about html so I may have a little better understanding of how to create my very own website. I would appreciate any feedback or advice you might have on the subject matter.

The Overdominance of Computers

I. Stacy Naden suga_bb@yahoo.com 02/25/2008

The Overdominance of Computers Lowell W. Monke

II. Overview of Article

This article was from a point of view that feels that technology is being used at such a young age that kids are becoming dependant upon it without learning other very important developmental steps such as morals, relationship skills, outdoor activities, the arts, time unstructured play, and conversations with adults. The author feels that technology is being placed in classrooms without any valuable skills being emphasized or learned by students. Computers are aiding in the students development and replacing the other very important things. The author doesn't think that computers are helping any longer, rather he thinks they are hindering education and should be utilized at a more developed stage in the education process such as high school, where the students can utilize computers as a trade and gain the necessary skills to use them. The overall point is that computers are debilitating rather than enabling when they aren't used as an aide in teaching other, more valuable human skills.

III. Bulleted Reference Points:

• Essentials in the early years
• Moral preparation
• Authentic experience
• Technology users work in the abstract
• Great power and poor preparation
• Are computers helping achievement?
• Machine dominated lives
• Computers in high school
• 67% of nursery school students used computers in 2003
• The cost of failing to compensate

IV. Reflection and significance to me

I find the author's point of view interesting. What I see in classrooms is not an over use of technology but rather, an under use of technology. I see a select group of students benefiting and focusing on the use of technology in their daily lives, yet this is an economic discrepancy. I think what the real problem is, is that there aren't good teacher to student ratios in the classroom to give them the adult interaction and conversations that they would truly benefit from. Perhaps, if the budget to increase technology in the schools were applied to increasing teachers in teh schools, then I can reason that eliminating technology at a young age would be wise.

I see the world depending on technology and functioning in the ways of technology. I don't see this as a problem derived in the schools, it's only mimicked by the schools for the purpose of participating in the economy. The quality of simple human interactions is minimized by cell phones, i pods, and general overpopulation. Human relationships are devalued and unnecessary when you can have friends on-line, play video games, or watch TV.

When kids learn to depend on technology at a young age, the outcome is similar to the essential school experiences as listed in Monke's article. The fault, as I see it, is not of integrating technology in the classroom at a young age. That may be a small fraction of an addition to the overarching problem of western society devaluing human relationships and replacing them with things that money can buy such as technology. This happens because it produces a very large profit for several people.

Creating the Rubric

Creating the rubric was easy after having done the project myself. I think if the assignment would have been to create a rubric before the project was assigned then it would be rather difficult to assess the elements of the digital story. I was able to reflect on aspects of creating the story that I had trouble with or that I would have done better on, and I selected those for the foundations of the grading rubric. I thought it would be important for students to develop a solid and thorough story map, seriously considering the content of their story. I also thought it was important for students to be creative and really strive to find unique elements to add to their story. I also thought it was important to assess the students use of technology. Did they use it to the best of their abilities? Did they try to learn new things? Did they utilize the transitions, auditory, and visual technical elements available in the movie making program? Finally I had the students assess themselves and their work: Did they do their best work, could they have done better?

I'm pleased with the outcome of the rubric, I think it's a good rubric to use in an actual classroom setting where the students are expected to create a digital story. If I were teaching this I would outline clear outlines in the beginning of the project, teach editing tools in the classroom, and give the students more specific guidelines in creating their stories.

____________________________________________________________________

Digital Story Rubric


Evidence of Planning= 30 points

(15 points) Story Map is a thorough plan of the digital story
(15 points) Story line is engaging (it has meanining, climax, conflict, resolution, etc.)

Creativity= 30 points

Digital story contains unique elements:

(10 points) visual
(10 points) auditory
(10 points) content

Use of Technology= 30 points

Used the movie making program to the best of your abilities:
(6 points) read tutorials if there was an element that was unclear
(6 points) editing
(6 points) sound bytes
(6 points) smooth transitions
(6 points) story line flows with editing elements

Rate yourself: 1-10

How do you think you did?
Are you happy with the final results?
Would you have planned more if you had more time?
Would you change anything about your video?
Could you have used class time more wisely?

__________________________________________________________________

Total= ______/ 100

Digital Story

http://www.youtube.com/user/Techcl8

Created this video and had a pretty okay time doing it. I had an exceptionally fun time with the sound effects.

I'm not all that pleased with the footage, but it works...

It makes me laugh still and I've been listening to it for quite some time.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the project. I wish that I could have done more with the clips in the way of collage. I would have liked to paste a variety of images into the frames and had them floating. I wasn't able to figure out a way to do that with this program.

Story Planning

Line goes for a Walk



Beginning: Line (a pencil) decides to go out for a walk out in paper land. On his walk he goes to visit his girlfriend, Linetta (a pencil). They chat for a moment and together they decide to go to “Creativity Land” where they can frolic and have much fun with their day.


They stroll along…


Middle: Once at adventure land they discover a variety of amusements including the “Ruler Ride” the “Compass Spin”, the “Interactive Color Wheel” (where they put on paintbrush suits) and “Marker Land” (where they put on marker suits).


Conflict: While in marker land, the two lovers get lost in all of the marker chaos. Line confesses his undying love for Linetta and all that entails. They shout to each other yet still are unable to locate one another amid all of the chaos. Linetta preaches the only way they will find one another will be to change out of their marker suits.

Resolution: The two quickly change and are able to locate one another wearing their natural suits and reunite once again. They embrace lovingly.


End: Line and Linetta stroll happily out of “Creativity Land” on their journey home, vowing to never return to marker land and leaving behind a beautiful work of art consisting of lines, shapes, color mixing concepts, and marker doodles.
Line Goes for a Walk…

Narrative:

This story will come to life using actual art supplies. The objects will be moving by their “jackets” or human hands. I envision the filming to be slightly angled from a top sort of view. The two pencils will spend a good amount of time on the “Ruler Ride”, the “Compass Spin” and at the “Interactive Color Wheel.” This will consist of the bulk of the story, their adventures in “Creativity Land.”

The story is both a “what is” and “how to” regarding the elements of design. It is also a love story that reveals to us a life lesson: during times of confusion and chaos, we are able to connect with greater truths.

Ed Philosophy Details

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5EeN8jShzk

Here's the link to You Tube. The making of this short video was pretty fun. I had some trouble in the beginning and throughout as well. Every time I couldn't figure out how to do something I got a little frustrated. The tutorials weren't very helpful because I was using iMovie 2008, or something. The newest version is different from the version in the tutorial. The tutorials that were available in iMovie were geared more towards video editing, which is something I think we will be doing next semester which is pretty exciting. I think if the images (students) were actually moving then the video would have been more fun to make.

I'm quite pleased with the way it all turned out. The music really makes it all come together. I think I could have shortened the frame of a few images and made them at 2 seconds or less. I liked where the song ended up and that's why I kept it at the length that it is. I would have liked to do more transitioning with the images but I couldn't figure out how to do some of the more interesting stuff like in K. Oleska's video. I would have also liked to change where the song started and ended or clipped the song a little, but I also couldn't figure out how to do that. I think if I were working with Photoshop and some sort of music making program then I would have an easier time making it all come together better. I still wish that I knew how to utilize some of these programs more. Maybe I could take a class on video editing, music making, and Photoshop all in one!

Ed Philosophy

YouTube video

Tools for the Mind

I. Stacy Naden suga_bb@yahoo.com November 12, 2007
"Tools for the Mind" Mary Burns

II. Overview

This article was about teachers using and implementing technology into the clasroom, what sort of technology tools are commonly used, to what extent they are utilized, and potential ways to implement deeper understandings through using technology. The article states "schools have conflated technology use with instructional quality." Some of the most common uses of technology are power points, word processing, Internet, Publishing, Web editors, spreadsheets, databases, and emails. The author then states why these tools aren't being utilized and follows up with examples and ideas for utilizing technology in the classroom to promote higher level thinking.

III. Bulleted Reference Points

• online collaboration
• content- oriented simulations
• spreadsheets
• databases
• higher order thinking skills
• critical thinking
• thinking inductively
• thinking deductively
• geographic information systems

IV. Reflection & Significance to me

This article was interesting to read due to the simplicity of the argument. I can see how teachers are not utilizing technology to inspire critical thinking. However, I don't believe that the goal of many schools or teachers in general is to motivate students to critical thinking. Reflecting on the educational system that I grew up in, this goal was certainly not prevalent. I see a focus and a trend in some of the classes that I am currently enrolled in to focus on the outcome of the learning, through education. I don't really see a focus toward higher level thinking at the middle shcool level. Perhaps I am thinking about higher level thinking at a middle school level in too complex of terms. In my understanding, students are directed to take information, recite, remember, use, know, understand, and use in daily life in order to achieve higher level thinking. In which case, yes, sometimes this is achieved at the middle school level.

Watching the video...

Reflection:

The presentation of my power point needs to be prefaced with the fact that I had many technological complications upon recording myself presenting. I attempted to record myself with a friends' digital camera. This option proved to fail after three or four attempts at wishing the camera would record for longer than two minutes. As you can probably imagine, this amount of time was not sufficient to capture the full four and a half minute presentation. This effort failed and I was bound to return on a later date with more sufficient equipment to record myself with.

Efforts to record resumed on Friday afternoon after school let out, after substitute teaching. As one can probably imagine, Friday afternoon isn't the best time to get a whole lot of work done, considering the burnout factor. However, I was very determined to complete this complicated recording stuff and call it a day. I then attempted to record myself presenting with my very own digital camera. Initially I was hesitant because I didn't know how to record a video, then I quickly read the manual and realised that it sounded pretty simple. However, after presenting and recording and once again failing because I wasn't able to determine if my camera was recording the audio or not, I resolved to record myself with a UAS video camera. Attempt #4 proves faulty as the video camera was unfortunately checked out to me without a video tape.

Moving on, I decided to borrow a friends video camera. That same day, I picked up the borrowed video camera and returned to school. Friday after school at some hour after everyone else has gone home for the weekend, I hopelessly attempt to record myself again. It seems simple enough, press record and off you go! Well, not really quite so simple, as the fifth attempt provided the video camera with a still frame, apparently I pressed a button that I was unaware of and the camera recorded my voice without me. The sixth attempt didn't quite work because I somehow managed to erase the power point from the computer and it was only projecting on the projector. Ahh, so then the seventh attempt proved to be the one that actually worked. Yet, by this time I have had more than my share of fun with the whole ordeal.

I titled the video "The Outcome of Many Failures". The enthusiasm and quality of my presentation personality has no real value to me and I hope that I never feel quite that frustrated when attempting to teach an actual lesson. The video is viewable at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y4eBLDlewNY and the power point presentation has been appropriately formatted and is now viewable at: http://www.slideshare.net/suga_bb/plastic-bags. My weaknesses as a presenter are of course; my enthusiasm, my obvious frustration, my slightly monotone speaking voice, my incessant blinking, and my general angry appearance. I'm pretty embarrassed about my presentation as a whole and I really hope I never encounter such difficulties again. My strengths as a presenter include: I enunciate well and I can be heard, I don't seem to have too many annoying fidgeting habits (but those really only come out when I'm nervous). When I'm nervous I often fidget by moving my arms and hands around due to the abundance of moisture that accumulates on the palms of my hands. Overall, it's really difficult to watch myself. I assume I'll get more comfortable with it when I have more experience as a teacher.

I would modify the video by starting fresh with a new topic for a completely different project, say a project about my educational philosophy. I would like to be done with this project and not have to ever do this presentation again. I feel more confident about recording myself and I also feel slightly more tech savvy. I know my past difficulties and would do everything in my power to prevent these errors from ever happening again. I guess I would modify the video by deleting it from existence. Which I would like to do as soon as possible, although it really makes me laugh now. Perhaps it can make others laugh as well.

Power Point Presentation

The power point presentation was successfully uploaded to http://www.slideshare.net/suga_bb. The only problem with the upload is that some of the fonts that I used to create the power point presentation didn't upload to slideshare.net. I am very aware that this makes it a little difficult to view in the manner it was intended to be viewed. However, I spent a bit of time making sure that the font I selected was one that I really wanted. This font could be a potential problem when I open the power point from an older computer. I am aware of this and will be forced to change it at that point. I would like to keep the font as the original at this point for the video presentation portion of this assignment. The issue should be resolved in about a week or so.
The power point presentation is about the environmental impact of plastic bags versus the environmental impact of reusable bags. I did a simple study that compared the average number of bags given to you at the two local grocery stores when spending a certain amount of money. I compared the average number of bags with an average dollar amount of groceries since I usually buy similar items when I go to the grocery store, spend about the same amount of money, and receive about the same number of plastic bags. I used the average numbers to find out what the numbers would be over a span of time. I estimated the amount of money I spend on food each month and I got results that gave me an estimation of the number of plastic bags consumed over the course of one year to ten years. I also averaged the largest number of reusable bags needed each year and found that the reusable bag numbers were drastically lower than the amount of plastic bags.
This information is presented on one power point slide. The rest of the information on the slides is research that I found on the Internet. Some are news articles, others are environmental activist websites, others are websites containing information on where to find reusable bags on the Internet. I enjoyed searching for images and selecting the text layout. The power point presentation is pretty successful other than the fact that my chosen font didn't upload.

The Educator's Guide to the Read/ Write Web

I. Stacy Naden suga_bb@yahoo.com 10/04/07
The Educator's Guide to the Read/ Write Web Will Richardson

II. Overview of Article
This article is a brief introduction to the tools available on the read/write web. It gives some brief information about weblogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS, or Really Simple Syndication and how these things can be utilized in the classroom. Weblogs enable anyone to create their own personal or group website without needing to learn hypertext markup language. Students can use these blogs to communicate with other students, teachers, and sources of information all over the world. Some other classroom technology tools discussed were wiki, or wikipedia, an information source kept accurate by the users. Really Simple Syndication enables people to subscribe to various feeds of information. Data are continually streamlined and collected into a file with the help of aggregators. Another tool mentioned was pod casting which is creating and broadcasting content that may be listened to at one's leisure.

III. Bulleted Reference Points

• Weblogs
• Wikis
• (RSS) Really Simple Syndication
• Read/ Write Web
• Aggregator
• Professional mentors
• Information sharing
• world-wide classroom partnerships
• Student ownership of work

IV. Reflection and Significance to me

The article's utility to me as a teacher is mostly just good information to have. I recently learned that wikipedia was a resource created by users and regulated by users. I thought the information of wikipedia was more credible than that. Instead, it is kept credible by the users, in which case, it's credibility is in question in my opinion. I didn't know what pod casting was and I have yet to listen to a podcast. I'm still a little unclear on what they consist of. I understand blogging, but I am curious as to the degree of popularity with the kids. The RSS, or really simple syndication is a completely new concept for me, I have never heard of it and even after reading about it, I am still unclear on how it works and what it looks like. I understand that people subscribe to various feeds of information which are streamlined and collected into a file with the help of an aggregator which checks this information stream regularly to see if there's anything new for RSS subscribers to read. I think that it's a new way of collecting information, yet I wonder how much is filtered, and how much is relevant to the subscriber.

Energy Conservation Project research plan

1. Are re-usable grocery bags better than plastic bags? What are the pros and cons?

2. I found some data using google including: www.reusablebags.com , www.sierraclub.org/bags/, and www.bettercontainers.com

Through reading some of the information on these web pages, I found that

• Reusing a bag meant for just one use has a big impact. A sturdy, reusable bag needs only be used 11 times to have a lower environmental impact than using 11 disposable plastic bags.
• In New York City alone, one less grocery bag per person per year would reduce waste by 109 tons and save $11,000 in disposal costs.
• Plastic bags carry 80% of the nation's groceries.

Although, plastic bags have a lower envirenmental impact than paper bags, they still produce a large amount of waste.

3. It will be necessary to collect more data on the subject. I will be searching for numbers and statistics and I will also be searching for a stance on continuuing the use of plastic bags.

4. My methodology will mainly be researching on the internet. I will possibly take a survey at the local grocery store and count the number of people using plastic bags and the number of people using re-usable grocery bags.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfs8st5b_0cm7gpk

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfs8st5b_0cm7gpk

Stacy Naden suga_bb@yahoo.com
Blatchley Middle School 09/25/07

Being an Anthropologist- Understanding Your School's Technology Culture

What I did for this assignment includes a variety of tasks. I started with the last four questions. I referred to Robert Holt for the answers. He then referred me to some other people who gave me some more answers. I questioned students, the librarian, and other folks. Then I put the assignment aside. More recently I scanned 6 pages from the student hand book. I reviewed other questions completed by fellow M.A.T.er's and realised I had a document that contained the student's technology competencies. I then scanned this document (5 pages) and also formatted all of the documents into JPEGS since I wasn't able to forward them to the rest of the group, the documents were too large. Finally, I reviewed the first set of questions and modified #1 to make sense for my classroom. Lastly, I posted the document in Google docs where I tried to open a new account but just realised today that the account is the same for the blogger. So, I changed my password, and recently realised that this is all connected.
In doing the assignment, I realised the school utilizes technology much more frequently than I would have thought. I have been listening to more of what the students are talking about while working on art projects and I hear things about downloading, just the other day I learned about on-line gaming and that it is an incredibly popular activity for many young kids. All in all, I've learned a lot about the school's technology procedures and capabilities. I've become more aware of tech talk and I think I have a greater understanding of what the kids get excited about and are interested. Cell phones might be the largest thing, but also video games, Internet games, and downloading music. I think many student's have experience with digital cameras and a select few are making videos, music, and art.

Listen to the Natives

Stacy Naden suga_bb@yahoo.com 09/18/07
Listen to the Natives Marc Prensky



This is a very opinionated article about updating our schools. The author thinks that all students have advanced and thrive in the digital era, I disagree. He states that schools need to key into the students' interest in technology, such as cell phones, blogging, instant messaging, and downloading. Rather than prevent the students from accessing these things in the classroom, we need to channel this technological energy and use technology as a learning tool.

• Collaborating with students electronically
• Programming (A key skill for 21st century literacy)
• Net Day (www.netday.org)
• Speak up day and student voice
• Flexible organization (making instruction more adaptive and more effective)
• Student Engagement (outside of school, electronically)
• Digital Tools (I pods, Camera phones, myspace)
• Learning partners (internet connection)

This article is significant to me in preparation to being an art teacher because there are many technology tools I could potentially utilize in an art classroom. For example, digital cameras, scanning, computer design, web page design, video imagery, photoshop, and others. I am even more inspired to develop and plan ways to connect students in the classroom. Although I found some of the language in the article to be very loaded with opinionated language, it was a good resource to be exposed to and was even a little interesting.

I finally figured out how to post a photo! ooof