RSS in Education: Photography

As well as a Tech Integrator, I co-teach this semester. Along with Hannah Cone, my school's amazing HS 2D Art teacher, we teach a small Advanced Digital Photography course this semester. This class, is made up of Sophomores, Juniors & Seniors. Assignments are all completed on their Blogger pages, and are paperless. Our school administration requires that all classes have an activity or test that counts towards an exam. Not liking exams, I would rather give my students time to shine, and do something amazing.

I proposed to my co-teacher that we have our students take the blogging up a notch, and start following professional photographers' blogs for a project. The basic premise, for students to follow a thread in photography that interests, inspires, and pushes them to new learning. So, I am going to have them set up a RSS reader, Feedly, to follow a bunch of blogs that might interest them. Then I am going to ask that they make comments on posts, or attempt to contact the poster for additional information.

They will need to post a proposal for their research on their blog, to explain to the class what they are hoping to find more information about. They will also need to make a post to show their results! Here is the lesson plan so far:

Link to Google Doc above

And this is the list of blogs to follow, that I modified from a list I found here.

Link to Google Doc above

Spike Prime Printable Blocks

As I prepare for coaching Middle Schoolers here in Waupaca for FIRST Lego League, I am trying to teach kids to code the SPIKE Prime Lego robots. This has its challenges. Some kids take to coding well, and some need more visuals to guide them. Teams may also want to whiteboard out their coding concepts. I created this set of printable Word Blocks as a resource for printing, laminating, and maybe adding some magnets to the back. This allows me to put up code in a demonstration, or my teams to talk about how to achieve things after they have done some pseudo-coding of their projects. Having manipulative items are always nice for hands-on coding practice. Whiteboard Word blocks for Proportional Line follow. Here is my collection of laminated word blocks Below are the files I created for creating these blocks. Feel free to use, but maybe send me a note & follow on twitter. @artschultz13 Direct link to folder shown below.

My Mac won't load the Users & Groups preference pane: Fix

I had recently had a Mac on Lion unable to load the Users & Groups Preference Pane. Like this: My IT support had suggested reimaging the computer. Reinstalling the Operating System, reloading the applications, and transferring back the User information from Time Machine Backup. Well, after doing all of that, the problem reappeared immediately. I scoured through Apple Support Communities and found this fix. For some reason, some transparent users are showing up in your system. They need to be deleted. But since you cannot load Users & Groups... it becomes a problem. Here is the solution / procedure. Quit System Preferences. Launch Terminal. (Applications/Utilities/Terminal) Copy & Paste these commands. sudo dscl . delete /Users/Guest press enter Terminal may ask for your Administrator Password, enter that. sudo dscl . delete /Users/Guest1 press enter ...

Graphic Organizers and Canva

Getting students to keep on task, keeping organized is a hard part of teaching in a middle school. I coach a Robotics team, and I also work with teachers to try to build their capacity for technology skills. One way I try to help my kids is to teach teachers to create Graphic Organizers. Canva is a free tool that is great for creating all sorts of publications, videos, and even documents and websites. The tool is very flexible and allows you to upload graphics, or borrow from theirs. It has many great features for teachers, including classroom tools for creating alongside of your students. There are great tutorials for teachers, at: https://www.canva.com/designschool/tutorials/canva-for-teachers/ If you are not already using Canva, teachers can sign up for an upgrade through their verification process, and get it for free. Go to Canva.com/education Graphic Organizers Graphic organizers are a way to break down complicated problems into more manageable pieces. The often use colors ...

Art Teaching with a touch of Technology

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