B11

ADOBE WEBSITE:
On the adobe website I found an abundance of information and applications I could use as an educator. I think the importance of this website is to get teachers to get their students to be more technologically advanced, which is a good idea. There are many options and ideas you could come up with by using the information from this site. I think it would be really fun, but at the same time challenging for the student, to create a marine world digitally. There wouldn't be strict guidelines, I would just have students use the same background color (water color) so that at the end all of the students work could be combined into one huge marine world. This could be interesting for a variety of ages (I would say probably most successful in 3-4th grade-kids would keep interest better). By using photoshop, students can practice their technological computer skills and use their imagination to create something their own. I'm not really sure how well this would work in an age group from 6-8. I think the photoshop application would be way too complicated. But one idea would be to have students create their own images on paper, with any media the teacher wants, and then the teacher could take it a step further and try to create these images in photoshop and create a large marine environment to show the class. In a classroom where the kids are a little older and more computer skills advanced, this could be a fun way to work with photoshop. Another great way to create a lesson plan would be to use photoshop to develop different pattern sequences and have your classroom identify the patterns. Again, if your classroom is advanced enough to create their own patterns in photoshop this would be great. Students could create their own and have other students try to name the pattern.
http://www.adobe.com/education/instruction/adsc/

APPLE WEBSITE:
I know that this is working off of the idea from what we did with our self portrait, but I LOVED the idea of taking pictures of yourself in the classroom with iPhoto and creating a self portrait with an application. Everyone thought this was fun, it would be a blast for all ages. The iPhoto application has so many options that everyone would have a unique self portrait in the end. I think a fun idea would be to make a several week long photo journal (3 weeks). In 3 weeks, say the teacher gets through 4-5 lessons. Students could create a photo journal by taking a picture every day of how they feel that day and why. Are they enjoying the project? How is there facial expression letting you know? Do they hate the project? Are they in a bad mood that day? Students can use facial expressions in their photo journal and write a few sentences to pair with the photo for the day. At the end of the three weeks (or however long you decide to make it), the students will have created a photo book that contains pictures of themselves on every day, explanations about how they feel every day to go along with the picture they took, and pictures of the lesson (artwork) they are working on... all using iPhoto with a mac.
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/photos/

EUTOPIA WEBSITE:
I read a lot about social and emotional learning on this website and it was really interesting. I think it is so important for children to learn at a young age how to work together as a team, and learn with respect and appreciation of their classmates. By using social and emotional learning you can help a child so much. Children can be stressed, without even knowing exactly what stress is, and it is important for every child to feel safe, important, and comfortable in the classroom. By putting together group projects every month, children learn how to interact socially and respect each others opinions. By doing projects like quilts, or sectioned murals, this brings a classroom together. When each student is assigned a part to add to the whole, every individual has an important purpose. Without that student's input, the whole would not be a whole. It would be missing an important piece. For example, if you wanted to give every student in your class of 26 students a piece of fabric, you could assign everyone a letter of the alphabet. They would then have to choose an animal that started with that letter, and create their work on the piece of cloth. In the end, there would be an alphabet of animals. Without a letter/animal, the quilt would not be complete. This makes everyone feel important and individual. You could do things like this with the 50 states, countries, shapes, all sorts of things! Group projects help a lot, and I think social and emotional learning is crucial to emphasizing the importance of every individual in the class.
http://www.edutopia.org/social-emotional-learning-introduction