In the Middle of It

     Taking this inservice was not my idea, but I did it at the suggestion of my English teacher/friend and I am glad that I did.  The projects have definitely taken me out of my comfort zone and exposed me to exercises that are so creative.  I kindof always thought of myself as a creative person, but not in the written word.  So I have learned a lot! And enjoyed myself in the process...thanks, Tori!

---

Five Card Story: In the Middle of It

a Five Card Flickr story created by Lesliebl

flickr photo by krutscjo

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by krutscjo

flickr photo by cogdogblog

flickr photo by bionicteaching
Getting the opportunity to be right in the middle of the action was exciting for me. I got up early that morning, ready for an exciting day. I had been looking forward to this once in a lifetime opportunity to attend this event for months. I was NOT disappointed, it was the ultimate gift that I had given myself. Unfortunately, some people didn't feel the same way. Protesters showed up and started making angry noises and gestures. The evidence was everywhere. While I was excited about being in the middle of it, I am more comfortable being an observer from the comfort of my own home. It makes me sad we can't get along and embrace other's differences. Let's get away...go see the kids.. Sometimes, I just need to experience the innocence and purity of my grand-children.

Later. 

Leslie

---

A Story in Six Words...Really??

     Becoming a grandmother has been a life changing event...in ways I never expected.  You think that having kids will definitely change your life, but my kids are grown and out of the house. They live 100+ miles away so you wouldn't think that having grandsons would really affect the day to day of my life.  But, wow...it has.  
     
     I think of them constantly.  I don't see them enough and I worry about the weirdest things.  Like how are they going to remember their visit to my house. Which part of the visit will make the biggest impact?  Will they always remember Lolli's cooking?  Probably not, because I am not that good a cook!  Will they remember riding in the golf cart up and down the road?  Probably...they are little boys.  So we ride the golf cart a LOT!  What else???

     I have such wonderful memories of my grandparents.  I was so lucky to have two full sets until my teenage years...they were very different, my grands.  One set was very traditional and one set was anything but!  What will my precious boys remember about me? 

     Anyway, topic 5 asked us to write a six word story.  Hmmm... Since my preoccupation and all my photos are of the boys, it was a natural progression that I came up with this one.  I included some pictures, well, because they are my favorite thing to take pictures of...naturally!  

So here is my six word story. 

Laughing...

 Playing...

Supper...

Bathing...

Sleeping...

 Blessed!

 These kids are my heart!
Later,
Leslie

Storytelling in the digital world

Storytelling in the Digital World

     I am a math teacher...I don't do a lot of storytelling. So this fourth topic was a bit foreign to me.  I started with just an idea and a short outline.  I looked over all the different tools that we had to choose from and decided to do a comic strip.  So I picked http://www.toondoo.com/ .
    

     I made my first "traitr" to fit into my story.  It took me a few minutes to figure out what tools did what.  But once I got familiar with the tools, it wasn't too bad.
I made my second "traitr" and decided at that moment that my story was too long and too complicated.  I shortened it..
     

     When I actually started laying out the story board, I felt more comfortable with the program and how to access things. I saved my work and then shared it to my own email address as I didn't know how to attach it.  When I went back to the URL, it wouldn't open.  I took an alternate route and printed it off a screen shot so that I knew I could share it with you.  I don't know if it's my computer or internet or what, but it just wanted to "process" and was taking forever.  

     I will attach the original URL (http://www.toondoo.com/privateView.toon?param=nh3aky%2BLf1jRNutmdkM9mZQPKXzfi%2FPvjAjE%2FvxkGHgHTm7Q4eul1Q%3D%3D) and maybe it will work better for you.   One thing I know for sure, I will never be a comic strip creator!  It was a fun project and I am glad that I can create a simple comic strip if I want to!

Here it is!

II 

Boys at the Beach

     Digital Storytelling Topic #3 asked us to make a gif.  I have actually done this one time in my life...several years ago.  I took a math tech class as a part of my masters program and I do remember that making a gif was one of the projects. I just don't remember how I did it! :) 
     
     I read several articles about making a gif and then attempted it, but as previous colleagues have already pointed out, my pictures were too large.  So I found a picture "resizer" online 
http://www.shrinkpictures.com
and resized them.  At that point, I was able to make the gif
http://makeagif.com.  

     I think this might be useful in my classroom to show examples of problems as they are worked out, especially if I am  blogging about a certain type of problem.  I could easily work separate steps and then take photos and put together a gif.  

     I used pictures of my two 2 year old grandsons at the beach this summer.  I decided this would work because I had four pictures in a series.  When I am taking pictures of the boys, always in motion, I typically take several pictures right in a row.  This worked perfect for this project.  Of course, they are my favorites to photograph anyway!

            Here is the product of my morning at the computer.  

Later!

Leslie

Reflections on Digital Storytelling (now that I know what that is!)

Several years ago, I spent one whole summer scanning family photo albums for my kids.  There were originally 8 photo albums that covered 31 years of my marriage,

 the birth of my kids,

 all the birthday parties

 and Christmas celebrations

 in between.  I had exhaustively covered soccer games,

 baseball tournaments and many, many golf tournaments (as well as you can actually photograph those).

 My boys shared several of these events over the years and there was no way to separate these kids lives!

     My thought was that I needed to scan all bajillion pictures and give each of them a copy.  That is what I did.  It was a much larger endeavor than I had anticipated but I was thrilled when it was done.

     When I stared this workshop on digital storytelling, I feel my work is not complete.  I think now I need to tell the story that goes along with those pictures.  There will certainly be a time when I am not around that they will be saying...now who was that lady? Or where was that taken?  Sounds like another summer's work!

     In the real world, I teach mathematics.  One of the reasons that I started this adventure is to see if there was someway to incorporate digital storytelling in my classroom.  So I searched digital storytelling in a math classroom.  I found several fun videos.  I think most of these were done as projects within a math class or a math tech class.  I had fun watching them and I have attached one here. Enjoy!

First Attempt

Welcome, ME, to the twenty first century.  I have never blogged but as a part of this online professional development, I am completely out of my comfort zone!  I hope to heck I am doing this correctly and that I will be able to find it again when necessary!