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Social Networking
Throughout this course I did my best to contribute, I actively participated in class discussions when I was able, I commented on peoples blog posts, and I added information into the discord chat. I also also have added alot of my lesson plans or resources to my portfolio if anyone wants to use them feel free! Here’s a link!
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Thats a Wrap!
Well, I still hate wrapping presents, unfortunately that did not change over the course of the semester like I had hoped it would, BUT I did find a new appreciation for the art of wrapping gifts. It is REALLY hard to get gifts looking snatched, and it takes legit quality wrapping tools. I wrapped with what I had on hand because I am pooooorrrrr, but it did the trick.
When I first started this journey in week one, I had really never wrapped a present in any other way then the one I had posted a picture of, and I actively avoided wrapping gifts, HELLO gift bags!!! I also had extremely HIGH hopes with my goals for wrapping, because dang I did not even come close haha.
I had started with an easy looking wrap job in week 2 and I didn’t do to hot. I think if I tackled this now I would be way more confident in my abilities and crush it! I might try it later.
Week three was a fun one! I discovered a love for Canva during this week and have used it sooooo much since! It is so much fun and so easy to use. There are a couple tweeks in the system that I would change if I could but hey its great!
The next week I posted my first ever Youtube video!! I failed again on the gift wrapping front, but it was super neat learning how to upload a Youtube video.
After this week I felt pretty defeated when it came to wrapping presents so I had decided to tie some bows for weekly post and it was SOOO MUCH FUN! It actually sparked a little excitement in my soul and I have used the techniques a couple times now! I tried some more bows again the week after and was even more excited with my progress!! I really enjoyed making the flower bow and the triple bow, and sometimes make them just for fun on the couch haha.
The next week I would say is where I really started to feel successful at gift wrapping, I had wrapped a birthday present and it actually looked so good!! It wasn’t perfect but dang I was proud of that wrap job. I tried it again the next week, taking my time to make it perfect because it was for a very special person and I was extra proud of myself, I even made a beautiful bow to go on it!!
Last week I tried a new wrap style from this tiktok and I had found myself frustrated again with my lack of good wrapping skills. Though I decided to try it again today and did a little bit better! It helped that my new wrapping paper had grid lines!! Like talk about a game changer!
Over all I think I came pretty far with my wrapping skills, I used to wrap things so fast with out any care in the world and now I am trying to put some care and attention into it because I know it could make the gift extra special! I also enjoyed learning how to use different sites to find wrapping styles and bow making techniques as well as different ways of uploading and creating videos or media. This learning blog was a test of patience and resilience for me, and I think it was needed! I know I will continue on wrapping presents in different ways because I can access so many different techniques online.
Thanks for following my learning journey, I hope you had some good laughs and maybe tried some of the techniques!!
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Ah Yes! A Failure.
This week I decided to try a new wrapping style that I thought SHOULD be kind of easy, as it was just folding. I watched this tiktok and got out my supplies. It started off realitvely ok, and I measured out my paper, I wish the video made it more clear about how much excess one should have on either side because I think thats where I messed up. I could see here that I was going to have a problem down the line making the folds, and my paper was just not papering today.
I tried multiple times to fold it over and over, trying to get that tight line, I trimmed the paper to try and make it smaller, but instead of working out for me, the paper started to get weak and started ripping. I was extremely frustrated at this point because this wrapping style should be easy!!!! I watched the video over and over again, even toggled through it image by image trying to get the wrap perfect but alas it still looked like this.
Once I got the top half of the gift wrapped, I started to do the bottom and as I figured it was not going to work out. I ended up taking it all apart and trying again, but it still worked out the exact same way. I think if someone wants to be really fancy with wrapping paper they will have to invest in really fancy good quality paper that actually folds when you want it to fold. I could tell that my 5 year old COSTCO wrapping paper was at the end of its life here, but what can you do.
After trying and trying I decided in my brain, well its just Christmas present for my 8 year old, atleast he won’t care about the wrapping paper. It will be ripped off instantly without a care in the world haha. It made me feel a little better about my failure but I do know I am going to try this style again because it should be easy, I just apparently cannot get it right today.
I am not even going to put a bow on this one this time because it is such a huge disappointment to me, but here is the final product in all of its ugly glory haha.
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Canva Dream Lab
How could this tool be used to enhance teaching? Could it aid in personalized learning, automate administrative tasks, or provide new ways of engaging students?
How might this tool support different learning styles, assess student understanding, or encourage critical thinking and creativity?
What are some of the ethical or practical challenges of using this tool?When it comes to A.I. I will be the first to admit that I usually avoid it like the plague, even if it can be really helpful haha. I think A.I could have a role in the classroom for a lot of things, even if I haven’t ventured that far into the usage of it yet. If used appropriately A.I tools could be a great tool for students to use in the classroom as well as teachers, but on the other hand if used innapropriately I could see it becoming an issue. Students could use it too much and really not put effort into anything they do, and the same with teachers. It is important that we love what we are doing, and while I understand that sometimes it is too much to plan, I think that using A.I. for literally every unit or lesson should not be allowed.
Anyway, I decided to try the A.I generator on Canva Dream Lab because I love canva and figured if it this generator was as good as the rest of the site I would be estatic. WELL the results were interesting to say the least haha. First, because I am doing Eric Carle’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear with my kinders I decided to put that into the generator. The results were pretty much what I expected!
Next, I wanted to try and generate an ASL sign for the alphabet. WELL, it was a fail haha. Half the hands are making the exact same sign.
It gave me better results when I typed in random things, instead of trying to get a useful thing I could use in class. I put in cats, plants and letters. I was expecting letters like A-Z not letter, letters hahahah
Lastly, because of agribition I decided to search cowboy, farm, and sky. At first, I was like daaaaang this is a nice picture. THEN I realized he was backwards on the horse?!!! SOOOO weird hahahah.
After using this tool, I couldn’t see myself using it at all for generating stuff for use in my classroom or any admin stuff, it just isn’t as realiable as I thought it would be. I could see myself using it for a fun activity though within the class. Students trying to generate the coolest picture using certain keywords. It could be used in a art class, or even a creative writing class where students have to generate the characters for their stories.
Overall I think this tool could be a fun tool to use, but I don’t think the technology is quite there yet for what they are wanting it to be used for. Canva is an awesome site that can generate alot of stuff, but this dream lab is not quite it.
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Another Birthday Bash!
Surprisngly enough this present is not for one of the three birthday parties my kids attended on Sunday, never again omg. This birthday gift is for my little sister. She is technically my sister-in-law, but I have known her since she was 5, and she has always been like a little sister to me, I have the stress to prove it ha-ha. Anyway, this year she is graduating from university and has accepted a new paid internship with the university for next semester!!! If you know who this is please don’t tell her, because she hasn’t gotten the gift yet.
This week I wanted to redo the wrapping style I did last week, but I wanted to get it right this time. Last week, I cut the paper too short on the side and it made an ugly crease. This week I made sure to have enough, more then enough actually but that was OK because it is way easier to cut paper down then it is to add more. Once I had the paper lined up perfectly I taped it where I needed it just to make my life a little easier. You almost need 6 hands when it comes to some of these wrapping ideas. Pro-tip have pre cut tape on the table edge!!
Once I got to the folding of the paper I had to go back and watch the video again because I couldn’t get it just right from memory. Once I had it folded, I didn’t like how the square corner was sticking onto the front of the package so I had to adjust it a couple times to get it perfect. This unfortunatly left some creases in the paper, but what can ya do.
Once I got the pockets folded down nice I taped them down with my handy dandy table tape so I didn’t have to try and hold onto them. Make sure when you are taping them down you leave the creases at the end of the package loose as you need them to fold up. I folded up the sides and with the correct size paper, ooooo dang she look good!
Next, I wanted to add a little bow so I did the double bow from memory! I am pretty excited that the things I have learned are starting to implant themselves into my memory haha. I added the card into one of the card slots and boom! Fries are done.
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Increasing Our Digital Literacy
Technology is everywhere today, so much so that it affects even our young children. The key is to teach them from an early age how to be smart when it comes to the internet. I am currently working in a kindergarten classroom so teaching digital literacy is trickier. I know with my kids at home we try to stay off YouTube unless I am there to do the searching. They used to have access to it and the stuff they watched was so brutal. Thankfully, they never found anything creepy but hearing about some of the stuff people were finding on YouTube, and the annoying videos together, I took the access away from them. I laugh now because sometimes I can hear them quoting me, saying that YouTube rots their brains, or that they need a break, even if they don’t get that much access. I am not mad about it. I guess at this age, teaching digital literacy is about making choices whether they should or should not watch it/ access it, and realizing when they need a break.
If I were in older grades though, where we use the internet for more than just stories, it would be beneficial for us to use some of these resources. I think I would start off the class with something like this to introduce the concept of real fact vs fiction. After that I think I would use the NCTE FRAMEWORK to frame my lessons around.
Participate effectively and critically in a networked world;
Explore and engage critically, thoughtfully, and across a wide variety of inclusive texts and tools/modalities;
Consume, curate, and create actively across contexts;
Advocate for equitable access to and accessibility of texts, tools, and information;
Build and sustain intentional global and cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so as to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought;
Promote culturally sustaining communication and recognize the bias and privilege present in the interactions;
Examine the rights, responsibilities, and ethical implications of the use and creation of information;
Determine how and to what extent texts and tools amplify one’s own and others’ narratives as well as counter unproductive narratives;
Recognize and honor the multilingual literacy identities and culture experiences individuals bring to learning environments, and provide opportunities to promote, amplify, and encourage these differing variations of language (e.g., dialect, jargon, register).
These guidelines can easily be added into a lesson, as well as fit into the curriculum. I wonder if an INTERNET SMARTS class is something that should be in schools before one can even access the school computers. I mean yes, they have used it at home, but if we can successfully give them the tools to be successful on the internet we will be setting them up for their future as an internet user. The internet can offer so many wonderful things and has so many people that are experts. We would be silly to completely avoid the internet just because we are a little scared of fake news, or bad people. Following the guidelines from above and these strategies we can successfully teach students how to be smart on the internet and make decisions.
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Mission: Birthday Party
For once I had to wrap a present for a reason and not just for practice!! This helped me a lot knowing that it isn’t just a waste of paper in the fact that I cared a little bit more about the final presentation ha-ha. This project has been hard for me surprisingly, I thought I would be more successful than I have been.
Anyways, this week I had a mission, wrapping an actual birthday present!! I decided I would attempt this video because it looks really cool, and it is definitely something I would use in the future when it comes to gifts!! After getting the paper all measured up, lined up to the side, it was really a simple fold of the paper!
I noticed though after I had it nice and folded like this that I cut a little short on the bottom, because of course I would ha-ha. So I had to add a little extra piece in to fill in the gap! Honestly though besides the extra seam, the present looked pretty good!!!! I am pretty excited about it! I decided to try adding in one of the bows that I have been working on to add some flare to the gift. I decided to once again tackle the TRIPLE BOW.
This bow is actually simple when you can get it right, I started working on it and messed it up a couple of times, hand cramps and all. The issue I kept running into is forgetting to wrap the one side an extra loop to account for the hanging ribbon. If you didn’t do this you have uneven loops!
After going at it a couple times, I was actually successful!!!
While trying to decide how to add it to my present, I realized I wanted to cover up the seam that I had to make, and added a little bit of ribbon over lay to add to the final look. Then I took gorilla glue to attach my new triple bow onto the box! Inserted the card into one of the card slots and WOW!!!
Guys, I am so excited at how this turned out!!! I did it! (95 percent) Please enjoy the theme song that is always in my head, when I do in fact do something good! hahahaha
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Internet Vigilantism: To do or Not to do?
When thinking of internet vigilantism, I instantly think of “Don’t F**K with Cats” The Netflix series. In the series, an online serial killer is posting videos of himself committing crimes on youtube. The police were having no luck finding this killer at all. In one of the early videos he had posted a video of himself murdering kittens. Obviously no one liked that, hence the name. Internet sluethes, or vigeilanties decided to take it upon themselves to try and crack the case. In the end their information worked and the killer was brought to justice.
There is also the aspect of using the internet to hunt pedophiles. They are like internet vigilantes in a way. They draw the bad guys out of their houses and catch them in the act. It isn’t exactly internet shaming but having their faces now blasted on the tv, and internet as well as a criminal record counts for something! At least that’s my thought anyway.
As for keyboard Warriers though, I think that sometimes they go too far. Yes, some people are complete jerks and need to be called out for the crap they are doing online, but sometimes people are just having a lapse in judgement, or a bad day and they act out in public. Then those videos get posted online for everyone to shame. I mean yes, sometimes they do deserve some of it , but sometimes people go way too far. I don’t think people’s lives should become ruined just because they made a dumb choice. The thing about the internet and its sleuths is that its almost worldwide. In China it’s called renrou sousou, which translates as ‘human flesh search’. China has the world’s largest internet population – 250 million people. thats China alone.
Yes sometimes online vigilantism has benefits but there has been cases of misidentification such as “Five teenagers allegedly kicked a stray ‘village’ cat, injuring it so badly that it had to be put down. Netizens found the cat’s attackers and posted their information and identities online – but they got the wrong teenagers, and those accused were found to be innocent.” These misidentifications can ruin an innocent person’s life. So I guess all I can say is, if you are going to be an online vigilante just make sure you have all the correct information before you ruin someone’s life.
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Bow, but make it Red
This week I decided to try making some bows again, I wanted to retry the flower bow as I wasn’t 100 percent happy with-it last week! I also was daring and decided to try and recreate it from memory, because it isn’t that hard of a bow to do! I was mostly successful! Though I still have the issue of the ends being cut to far in, I hardly cut them on either side, but it still flares out in a way I do not like. It wouldn’t splay properly without these cuts, so I am curious how other creators avoid this, because it frays the fabric and makes me mad ha-ha.
Next, I tried a TRIPLE BOW! Oooo I was so excited to try this bow. Start the video at 1:23 if you want to try. The double loop bow from last week was so easy and fun I thought surely this would be just as easy! Well, it was not. Let me tell ya, I tried for two hours to get this bow made. My brain and my fingers were not on the same team. I was so frustrated, I got hand cramps, forgot how to tie a knot!? Like, no. I was not ok. I thought I had it figured out a couple of times, but I did not. Exhibit A below.
I had to leave this bow challenge for a little bit and take a break. I went to get my kids from school and then decided I’d give it another whirl. My head was like ok, we can do this! My hand protested though and it was definitely starting to cramp. I remembered how to tie, kind of haha, and BOOM! I was so excited that I finally figured it out!! Exhibit B below
Little did I know though, that I did not in fact, figure it out. I somehow, created one side with 4 loops and one side with 3 loops!? I guess I will call this a half win. I think I will try this again later, and maybe I’ll be 100 percent successful!
