One For The IPad

It's DigiLit Sunday--digital ideas hosted by Margaret Simon on her blog Reflections On The Teche. Link up here.

         This is a quick post, sharing one app that I'm fond of. I know many of you have IPads, or you have them for students at school. This app, Drawing Desk, has been fun to use. It has a drawing and a doodle component. It is free, but you can pay a little more for a deluxe drawing pack. One can save the drawings, send to twitter or Facebook, or e-mail them and save them in IPhoto. Here's one drawing I did this morning, a shell from our recent vacation to Captiva Island. I don't know if you're trying to draw on the IPads, but it is a new kind of skill that I've been practicing. 

The downside to this is that you can't add text, except by writing. You would have to upload the photo to another app, like Skitch, to add text.  Here's an example:

The wonderful thing about Skitch is that you can access all the files from Evernote.

Art Digitally

Margaret Simon of Reflections on The Teche is offering this challenge today on Digilit Sunday: 

Challenge this week: Turn an image of nature into a work of art: #photoart

Visit her post to see her sharing and all the others who are linking up!


         My favorite is still Skitch, connected to Evernote, ease of use, can alter in multiple ways. Here's an old spring poem:

SOLC # 29/31 - Wires, Wires, Wires

   Time for the next to the next to the last SOLC, number 29 of 31 at the Two Writing Teachers blog, with Anna, Dana, Stacey, Tara, Betsy and Beth!  Still blogging With My Class at Linda & Jonathan's Class Blog even though we're now on spring break. Many students are still posting EVERY DAY!

Margaret Simon, of Reflections on the Teche hosts a meme--Digilit Sunday--about sharing technology. I am embarrassed that I don't share there more, seem to run out of time for it, although I love all the new tech apps and students are using them, too! Today I'm linking although I'm not so sure it's a help for anyone, but simply a query.

First Week Blogging-Diving In!

Digilit Sunday

           Link up with Margaret Simon at Reflections on The Teche to find others who're sharing what they're doing with technology, whether in the classroom, with students, or personally.

Yes, my students created their own blogs last week, on blogger. They're on their way! The expectation is a slice by Friday and a brief book review of the previous week's book by Wednesday.

The Best Thing: the writing! While I've emphasized that the slices really can/should be brief, the students have written about a myriad of topics, and done it well. Although some of the editing can be better, this is a start, and I'm taking notes of what needs attention in the coming weeks. 

One New Online Tool I'll Use

Margaret Simon, at Reflections On The Teche, gathers links from others who'd like to share a digital tool that can be useful, personally or in the classroom. Hope you'll find something you'll like in the links for this Digilit Sunday.

      This week, I'm sharing Canva, an easy-to-use graphic tool that can cost per image, but there are many free images and backgrounds too, and one can upload photos, etc. as well. Check it out. I will find it useful when creating my own images, collages, illustrations, etc. I can imagine students printing book reports, quick illustrations for posters, too. There is also a draw tool. It is super easy to use and provides a .png image or a link.  Here's are two simple ideas:

Poetry Apps for Exploring

Margaret Gibson at Reflections on The Teche invites others to share some of the technology they find that could be useful, in and out of the classroom. This Sunday, I'm sharing some IPad (or IPhone) apps that can be fun for poetry.

It's Digilit Sunday!

Poetry Creator - free, but extra $ for more dictionaries. Has a white board arrangement for placing words. Can share via Facebook, photos or can e-mail.  Fun for exploring.

Poet for IPad - Will keep and organize your poems, offers a rhyming and a synonym dictionary. Can share. 

RhymeNow Free - a rhyming dictionary easy to use.

If - my favorite app for finding wonderful poems, just for reading, but the presentation is wonderful.

Writing Prompts, by Writing.com -lots of ways to start a new idea, words & pictures! If you want to explore, this is a good one!

           I realize there are many others that might be favorites. Sometimes I'll start something on one of these, then move to a writing app with more room.

Collage Creations

Margaret Gibson at Reflections on The Teche invites others to share some of the technology they find that could be useful, in and out of the classroom. I haven't shared in a few weeks, but always like reading what others share so I can learn about new ways others are using technology.

It's Digilit Sunday!

            I love making picture collages, have one as my desktop picture, have created them as gifts, and use them on my blog. In May, here, I shared Kizoa, an app that includes movement and sound. It's great, too.  Yet, I'm always looking for something easy and free to create a different look. A more recent app that I've used is Fotor, also user friendly, and it has good options for the look of the collage. It is also a photo editor, and Fotor.com has been much fun to play with using different photo topics. Here are a few examples using some shadow pictures.

DigiLit Share - A Poem on ThingLink

             Margaret Simon, at Reflections on The Teche, hosts Digilit Sunday, a way to share anything about technology learning, for the classroom or personally.  I don't always share, but have enjoyed what others do, and thought I'd try a ThingLink for today. I realize there is much more that can be done with this app. Yet I also thought that ThingLink, text only this time, could be a great device for highlighting a poem. Here's one today. Read top to bottom, left to right.

Digilit-Collages

Margaret Simon has started a new meme titled Digilit Sunday. You can find it, and all who are linking up at Reflections On The Teche, Margaret's Blog. Thanks Margaret!

       If you read my posts at all, you know that I enjoy finding ways to do collages, especially when I'm sharing books. I like to share the book covers, too. I usually use Picasa, and have looked for other creative ways to make them. I want to share Kizoa today, an app that has quite a few ideas for creating, including adding music, different ways to make images stand out, ways to add text, etc. On this site one can also create slideshows and videos.  I can see that one could share a short piece of text, like a description, brief memoir, or poem with one image or more. Today I just grouped a few animal pictures, and added jungle sounds so you can see how it would work.

Don't forget to click on the speaker to start the sounds!

magical animals - Video Maker

New Photo Editing-Digilit Sunday

             Margaret Simon, of Reflections on The Teche, is trying to encourage people to link up for "Digilit Sunday" to share some things they're doing, or learning how to do, with technology. Thanks, Margaret! Myra Garces-Bacsal of Gathering Books suggested this new online photo editing tool in a comment. I've found it quite easy and fun to use. I've played with types of collages this time, but one can also create cards and use just one photo to edit, enhance with all kinds of different tools. Each time I did this, I discovered new ways to change the borders, new backgrounds, etc. Check out fotor.com for new kinds of creating!

Haiku Deck for Digilit Sunday

                Margaret Simon, of Reflections on The Teche, is trying to encourage people to link up for "Digilit Sunday" to share some things they're doing, or learning how to do, with technology. Thanks, Margaret!  And thanks to Kevin Hodgson for introducing me to my first Haiku Deck!

                Today, I'm sharing a poem I wrote during Laura Shovan's birthday month Pantone color poetry challenge. You can find out about it here. There are several who have shared poems using HaikuDeck, so I decided to try it out. I found it very easy, and while I could have used more pictures, I enjoyed the process. This poem was silly, and the color prompt was "silver bullet". You'll see the "why" of the poem when you read. 

credit, buffalo photo: buffalo pic - photo credit: lorenkerns via photopin cc

credit, prairie grass photo: photo credit: ecstaticist via photopin cc


Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app