Five for Friday and Saturday Snapshots Rolled into One

FIRST UP... The sixth graders worked on their hands project. I love how they are turning out. I had hoped to have it all assembled by today, but alas... I ran out of time... sigh... the story of my life! It will all be completed in time for Meet the Teacher Night next Wednesday! IT WILL BE DONE!!!!!

NEXT... We worked on setting up our interactive Language Arts notebooks. I'm using them in all three of my Language Arts classes.

THIRD... We had our family/alumni opening school Mass and picnic earlier in the week. Get a load of the mug on this one, would ya? What kind of face is that? Yes, this is me. I generally lead the singing during our school worship services.

FOURTH... My poor cat has been lonely since I went back to school. Every time I try to do something on my computer she is right there, by my feet, yowling away, trying to convince me to go sit in my her chair so she can curl up in my lap.

FIFTH... It has been sooooooo hot lately! We have literally been melting at school. It's not so much the temperature that is unbearable; it is the dew point and humidity. It feels more tropical in NE Ohio than it does in Florida.  It is so hot that DaisyMae likes to stick her face in the a/c unit to cool off. What a crazy cat!

I'm looking forward to reading everyone's Five for Friday's and seeing all the great snapshots this week. I've not had much time to visit bloggyland since school started. I've missed everyone.

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Five for Friday and Snapshot Saturday

It's Friday, well at least when I started this it was!!!!! And it's time for.......

School started this week, and we've had two terrific days thus far! I know there will be many more to come because I've energized my teaching with great ideas from fellow bloggers, sellers, and teachers on Pinterest. That's what my five and snapshots are all about this week.

1. From Collaboration Cuties and Ideas by Jivey come Mentor Sentences. I used a technique similar to mentor sentences for years, but I liked the repeated, structured organization and built in assessment these fellow bloggers included. With just two lessons in I already see a deepening in thought by my students, especially with my eighth graders who were somewhat familiar with this process from having worked with me in fifth and sixth grade Language Arts. I can't wait to continue next week with Mentor Sentences.

2. From Sweet Rhyme, Pure Reason comes the reminder to utilize music and song within curriculum. Again, this idea is nothing new to me. Being a singer and musician I have always included music within all the content areas that I teach. However, fellow blogger Nick, took it a step further with his Tunes Tuesday by using current, popular lyrics to teach language skills. Here's what my eighth graders will be looking at next week as we work our way through Ann Rinaldi's The Coffin Quilt. The file below is a Word document in case anyone would like to edit it, leaving out the reference to this specific novel.

3.  Found on Pinterest but elaborated on by several bloggers this summer comes this idea...

My sixers started this project on the first day of school by utilizing a graphic organizer to help them focus their thoughts about who they are. On the second day we began our hands. Some finished, some have not; it is a work in progress, just like all of us. Here are a few snaps shot by one of my girlies who is an award winning photographer... she took third place at the STATE fair in her age division for 4H photography. Next week I'll share the completed hallway display.



4. From fellow TpT seller, Laura Randazzo, comes Grammar in Real Life.

LOVE this product and so do my eighth graders! Here's part of the product description:

Want to amuse your students AND impress your administrators? Use these real-world grammar mistakes as a rotating desktop background on the computer you use to project lesson materials or on any computer screen in your classroom that’s viewable to students. With a constant scroll of proofreading exercises to keep eyes and brains engaged, you can just “set it and forget it.” Each day, the computer will scroll through the images all on its own.

Again, this is not something new to me or my eighth graders. When this group was in fifth and sixth grade we would often find "mistakes" in ads or periodical articles to share in class. What Laura has provided is enough material for EVERY day of the year! We are using this activity as the class opener each morning.

5.  And finally it just is not Saturday Snapshots without Miss Daisy. My family was over for dinner this past Tuesday. Normally, Miss Daisy does not lower herself to grace us with her presence during family visits. However, I had been gone all day and she was missing me so she came downstairs to sit on my lap. She was purring away and enjoying herself while ignoring all else in the room... until she noticed my grand niece laying on the floor covered with MY her fuzzy blanket. That was all it took. After the evil glare at both my grand niece and me which lasted about a minute a piece, Miss Daisy was not seen again until my family went home. What a cat!

Happy Weekend,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Saturday Snapshots piZapped

I'm once again linking up with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera for her Saturday Snapshots linky.

I've had some more fun playing around with snapshots again this week. Last Saturday, I introduced Get Loupe. I decided to revisit the website and see what else I could learn. There are a lot of options and fun things that you can do to manipulate your photos at this site. Here's another collage from all the snapshots on my computer that I made of my favorite subject, Miss DaisyMae done with Get Loupe. LOVE the shape! Other shapes that you can choose to arrange your photos in are an airplane, an apple, a giraffe, a bunny, a bird, a car, and on and on! I played for well over an hour, changing the shape and just having fun! I discovered that you can all arrange your photo collage into a text shape. Click the "T" for text tool, type in a bit of text (limited number of characters), and click. Your collage will be in the shape of the characters.
AND here's yet another snapshot of my favorite subject, Miss DaisyMae. I had been trying to capture my wee one sticking her mug in the air stream from the a/c unit. She looks absolutely hysterical. However, she was not cooperating this evening. After about eight or nine attempts she gave me this look. You can actually read what she is thinking from her expression... she is not happy with  me!

Notice my nasty feet are in the shot. I love the expression on Daisy's face. It is quintessential DaisyMae. However, I do NOT like my feet sticking out on either side of her. I uploaded the original to piZap, an online photo editing tool that I actually found via the Google Chrome app store. I installed an extension into my Chrome browser and can go there with a simple click. There are some VERY fun special effects and options that you can do with this website. Among them, removing backgrounds from photos and exchanging them with artistically designed backgrounds.

I simply selected "Edit a photo" from the menu and followed a few onscreen prompts to "paint" Daisy's image. It was a bit tricky at first, and I did need to use the eraser quite a bit. Eventually I got the hang of "painting" and succeeded. After "painting" the original, Daisy was selected, the rest of the photograph removed, and framed with a new background. Again it's just a  matter of following a few onscreen prompts and making selections much as you would when working with a word processor or blog editor. Here's what my new photo looked like.

You can then continue manipulating your creation with all kinds of special effects. This is not Photoshop or some other professional editor that requires many steps. It really is just click and go. Here are just a few of the effects that I chose...

Papyrus effect

Simple black and white

With a frame

EMO

Before I left piZap I did explore one more area: Facebook Cover Photos. Again, another fun feature. Upload a photo, use one from Facebook, or stored online elsewhere, center it, manipulate it and VOILA! You've the perfect cover photo for your Facebook page. See my new cover photo...

I'll be going into my classroom this coming Thursday for the first time since June 7th. I'm hoping to spend Thursday and Friday setting up my classroom so next Saturday I should have snapshots of my classroom, all cuted up with polka dots and Monsters!

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Saturday Snapshot Collages, 200 Continues

I look forward to Saturdays because of Saturday Snapshots with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera.

I've never really considered myself much of a photographer, and I've never done much with a camera other than point and shoot. Oh, I play around with the settings now and then, changing up the type of shot that's produced. Sometimes I even turn off the flash or use night vision and when I edit photos I might crop or resize them. However, that's the extent of my "expertise."

I didn't even take any photos this week other than of my favorite subject, Miss DaisyMae. No Saturday Snapshots is complete without a picture of her.

I do enjoy taking photos, but I what I really like about snapshots is having fun adding speech bubbles to them or making slideshows/videos with them or even turning them into collages. I've found neat little pieces of freeware or web apps over the years that allow me to have a bit of fun. I've shared a few on Saturday Snapshots already: Phrase.It and Image Chef. This week I'm sharing a couple of images that I created to showcase a whole bunch of my snapshots. The first is of my favorite subject (see above), the second of my family, and the third of me.

The first two collages were created using Shape Collage, a small freeware program that you download to your computer (both Windows and Mac are available as well as iPhone and iPad). Additionally, there is a pro version that you can purchase that has loads of bells and whistles and tons of options. It takes but a minute to install Shape Collage and begin using it; no tutorial is necessary. It works like a typical word processing program, inserting pictures, selecting a few options (shape of collage, background color, borders of photos), then creating (in lieu of saving).

Much to my delight, when I went to Shape Collage this morning while writing this blog post, I discovered that the company has now added a web app. Called Get Loupe, it allows users to connect with social media accounts, accessing photos and publishing collages with the click of the mouse. With Get Loupe there are more shape options to choose from when creating your collage than with Shape Collage but it's just as easy to use. 

I've not been able to use Shape Collage with my students since it's a program that needs to be directly installed on a computer... that's a story for another time. However, now that I've found Get Loupe I can't wait to have my sixers (and eighth graders this year) make their own collages. I can think of so many possibilities for using this in class. How 'bout you?

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My easy, peasy 200 Followers Giveaway continues for a few more days. Hop on over to this blog post to enter.

Happy Weekend,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Saturday Snapshots, Image Chef, and Class Writing Journals

It's time for Saturday Snapshots with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera.

I didn't really do much snapping this past week, other than pics of what I've been making for my classroom... those snaps are for Monday Made It and will make their debut in a few days. Although I am sharing one near the bottom of this post. What I did do this week was sort through my albums on my hard drive and reminisce. I pulled out a few of my VERY favorite photos to share today.

First up is a snap of a ceiling hanging as you are standing below it, looking up through. I used to be the liturgist/music director at my parish. Working two jobs got to be too much so two years ago I became ONLY a teacher. While I worked for the church, part of my responsibility was to see that the church was decorated for the seasons. This hanging was part of the Easter celebration. The streamers are 25 feet long and are attached to a thin wrought iron circle that is suspended from the ceiling by means of a mechanical winch. It's really quite stunning!

This snap is of the roses that grow in the front of my house. This particular rose bush once was at my Grandpa's. When he died in 1972 my mom asked if she could move the bush to our house. All those years later it still blooms.

I snapped this shot a while back when the moon was supposed to be at its biggest and brightest. This was taken around midnight with just my flash turned off, no other special settings.

No Saturday Snapshots would be complete without a picture of Ms. DaisyMae. This one is the result of a conversation that I had with my sweet bloggy friend Serena (Nala's mom) over at Magic Mistakes and Mayhem. Serena and I chat about our furry children, comparing stories. Being from New Zealand, Serena uses native vocabulary in her speech. Last week she referred to my little girl as a "Stroppy Madam." I wasn't sure what it meant but I loved the sound of it so I googled it.... OMGoodness, it fit Ms. Daisy to a tee. Just ask my family. Serena, this one's for you...

BTW, the above photo was edited with an online editor called ImageChef. The website is user friendly, FREE, and allows you to add fun, quirky, and stunning effects to your photos. Just upload your own photo and use the handy menus to spice up your snapshot.

The last snap I'm sharing this week is of something I finally made... Class Journal Covers. I had read about them on Pinterest and other blogs for a few years and had just never gotten to them. This week I did. I've actually been working on loads of decorations (all with teal, aqua, purple, and green polka dots) for my classroom and just included these while I was at it. Here's one as a FREEBIE for you. Just click HERE or on the pic for your copy.

When I assembled the journals, I noticed that the spiral notebooks I had purchased for 11 cents each had ugly writing at the bottom of the cover. I used the journal covers I had made to cover the ugly writing. However, the cover's appearance was off balance, so... I added the label 5/6 at the top to indicate these journals were for my fifth and sixth graders (I also teach eighth grade and will have journals for them also). I really like how they turned out so I made them available in my TpT Store. If you like them as well, you can download the set HERE or by clicking on the photograph.

I had so much fun making these journal covers that I created three more sets:

Chevron/Monster Class Writing Journals gr. 4

Chevron/Monster Class Writing Journals gr. 5

Chevron/Monster Class Writing Journals gr. 6

... and if anyone is interested in a particular style, color, theme, I'd be happy to make them for you.

Happy Snapping,

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

Saturday Snapshots with Phrase.It

I just love Saturday Snapshots with Miss Nelson's Got the Camera! It's fun to see the personal side of my sweet bloggy friends and meet new bloggers as well. This linky has also encouraged me to delve into photo editing just a bit. Last week Miss Nelson inspired me to learn about watermarks, and this week I stumbled upon an online speech bubble photo editor called Phrase.It. The possibilities for classroom use with this website are endless: writing captions, creating comics, etc. The best part is that it is free and requires no registration--- so easy-peasy! Just upload a photo, select a bubble style, drag it in place, type some text and VOILA! The two snapshots that I'm sharing today were created using Phrase.It.

This first snapshot is of my extremely temperamental, tabby Daisy Mae. I made it to post to my niece's FaceBook timeline as a teaser. For eleven years Daisy Mae LOVED my niece! Then three years ago, I took a week vacation and my niece had to come in daily to feed and care for Ms. Daisy. Since then... forget it. All I have to say is, "Becky's coming," and Daisy up and stomps up the stairs... no kidding. And when Becky comes to my house, Daisy growls at her then disappears.

The second snapshot is of moi! I made this one to post to my class website as a reminder to my sixers that they need to do their summer reading. Can you imagine their faces when they visit the site and get a load of this? LOL!!!!!!

Happy Snapping,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Saturday Snapshots

I'm once again linking up with Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera for her Saturday Snapshot linky.

Last week was the first week for this new linky which asks us to share favorite photographs. Miss Nelson, an avid photographer, offers tips and tricks that she has learned to help other budding photographers. This week she discusses watermarks on photographs, something I had never heard of until I read her blog post.

I immediately went in search of a tutorial to help me understand what a watermark was and how to create one. A watermark is basically a stamp of ownership for a photograph. It generally is a rather faint (transparent) image of a name or website stamped onto the photograph that makes it a bit difficult for someone to claim/use your photograph as their own. I think it's just cool looking as my photographs aren't worth claiming by anyone other than moi!

I did find NUMEROUS tutorials for making a watermark using various programs, including Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, and PhotoShop. I chose to work with PowerPoint as it allows for a lot of flexibility when saving images. I pinned the tutorial so I could easily find it and so that my followers could as well.



After following the directions in the tutorial, I was able to add a watermark to my photographs. You can see it on today's snapshots. I'm  posting a series of pictures that show views of my classroom. Everything is decorated in shades of turquoise and purple. There are stripes, polka dots, plaid, and even paisley prints... quite eclectic... or as my family says- eccentric. What they mean is CRAZY!

I like the initial watermark, but I think I'll keep playing with it.

The colors of the walls and flooring are dull and dark, so my colors liven it up a bit!

Behind these curtains are 100's of picture and trade books!

Love this one... duct tape on a beat-up old PA speaker. My kids think it's COOL!

And this final snapshot is the reason why I am so late in posting today. These are my high school friends and I (the tallest one). We were inseparable before we graduated 37 years ago, but we hadn't been together as a group for nearly 35 years until last night, a night that stretched until nearly two in the morning! I haven't giggled so much in years until last night. What fun we had catching up and reminiscing!!!!!

Thanks, Miss Nelson, for Saturday Snapshots, and for introducing me to watermarks. I had fun learning about them and creating my very first one! SWEET!

And thanks to all my sweet bloggy friends who have helped me reach 100 followers. I'm still working on organizing a sweet giveaway in celebration. Come read more about it!

And speaking of celebrations and giveaways, my sweet bloggy friend Christy is celebrating her 300 Follower milestone! Woot! Woot! Please visit Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road for more about her celebration and to give her a shout-out!

Happy Photographing,
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6