Instagram and Vine on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was not what I hoped it because I got sick with a severe cold, but it was still fun.

I love the holidays because of what they stand for- family. I hardly have time just to hang out and catch up, but here is how my Thanksgiving day turned out.

First, we hand breakfast at my in-laws, but forgot to take pictures of our time together. Just note I dropped my orange juice on the table and killed the party. OOPS!

Then, I went to my parent's house ... I couldn't breathe and continued coughing. I didn't want to show that gruesome event. It was horrible.

I had to come home to rest before going to my husband's family luncheon.

It took longer to recuperate and my husband and I were LATE!!!! We arrived and everyone was almost done eating. We hung back until it was time for dessert for them to serve ourselves lunch.


I was going to share a picture of my husband and I, but Instagram is not cooperating. It says content not found. If you want to see my Thanksgiving adventure follow me @ aleimarie.

However, after that I needed rest before Black Friday so we went home for an hour or two before going back to my husband mom's house.

When we did arrive his mother and her sisters were on their way to Wal-Mart already we were glad that did not go earlier because we went to Best Buy and Target with hardly no effort at all. She was still there when my husband, sister-in-law, and I were done with our shopping.

Here is Best Buy last night when we were there. And again,Instagram is not wanting to share the actual picture and the same message shows up. Follow me on Instagram to see the pictures. Although, when we got back to my in-law's house, the fun began.



It took me awhile to figure out how Vine worked and this was the end product. The reason why I liked this one video because it looks like a scary  movie.

My Thanksgiving was fun even if I was sick. My husband and our family made it one of the best.  I enjoyed the time with family that is now scarce because of our busy lives. But, it is moments like these that make it worthwhile.

Using such apps in the classroom is something that can help bring a class together and be able to create a family environment per period.

Instagram is app many students use to express their thoughts and opinions. Using this app can help students feel more comfortable expressing themselves more. This can help them get in deep discussions over the material being covered and practice their English and public speaking.

While Vine is able to show comprehension through what they are able to put together in six seconds. They need to know what they want to do before filming because it will more than on try to get what they want on film, perfect.

Hope your holidays were great and relaxing.

Information Curation

Ahh! Trying to find  away to keep up with the news and what is upcoming without reading an actual newspaper. The applications that help with this are: Scoop.it, Paper.li, and Prismatic. I know there might be more than those three applications that help users locate articles are particular topic  easily and no added hassle.

Scoop.it is a user friendly application that is easily accessible through other social sites like Twitter or Facebook. I used my Facebook account to use Scoop.it. This application has vibrant colors and uses its layout to draw the user's eyes to the information presented through their topic choice. I used Reading in Schools as my topic and Scoop.it found many articles that I liked. I added several to my page. I had no difficulties with the page because it was self explanatory and  stores the articles effortlessly.

 Here is what my Scoop.it page looks like so far.

Paper.li. How I dislike thee.

I logged in just like I did with Scoop.it, through my Facebook, but I didn't like how everything in the end looked. I went through the steps creating my page with my chosen sources and title easily, but it was when I got to see my page in its entirety.

Here is the final product of my page.

I choose well known newspapers that are  creditable sources like: The New York Times and CNN. I guess I had higher expectations with this site.  I wanted hard hitting articles that inspired me to better and want to be apart of something as soon as I got onto  my Staying Current page.  I guess, not.

This site is just like a logging system of articles from various sources with a lot of advertisement . Paper.li is an organized site, but everything is one the same page based on categories like Politics and Entertainment. To me, it's layout is crammed. It will take more time for me to get used to this site, but it is a site worth using.

As for Prismatic, it is not user friendly. I didn't know what I was doing. I logged it by creating profile, but once I got to page everything was thrown together only is only identified through a topic that is teal colored.  There is no organization other than that. They have interesting articles that will capture readers' eyes easily, but as a user I would like tabs and more organization. I would like it to have more of a personalized feature that what is has.

Here is how my page looks like.

Overall, I prefer Scoop.it because it is user friendly, organized, eye-catching, and  personable compared to the others. Just like me Scoop.it is just simple.

Screencasts

Using screencasts to help individuals is not as easy as it looks, at least for me. I am a perfectionist and me being me, my screencasts took forever to get done. I got frustrated and grew tired of constantly restarting to get a better take. So, the following clips and information are the final products. EEK!

I started with Screen-O-Matic. It was easy to use because you registered and got your own account which saved your takes from previous times.  I had to do several takes to learn how to  show my viewers step-by-step instructions to do something effectively while talking.  That was proven difficult, but finally I got the hang of it. It was easy to use and straight forward. It is self-explanatory.

 This is my clip from Screen-O-Matic.




However, Screenr is proven difficult. You don't get to register and personalize it like you could with Screen-O-Matic. I couldn't retrieve my embedded link for the clip I did. All I could see was the preview of my link. I tried to login through Google to get the link I needed to post here.  However, it didn't work.  I tried to login using Hotmail. I find myself not trusting this site. I don't see myself using  this app passed this experience. I just don't like that it wants all of our information just to get the video published and still it  still fails to work properly.  It didn't want to publish my clip. So I had to go through creative measure to complete my assigned tasks. I hate sites like this. They are just plain DIFFICULT!!!!



Although, Explain A Website, was not as simple as Screen-O-Matic.  I didn't have to waste time trying to figure out how to use it though.  I like that it ran on a internet page without me having to do it.

But, I struggled with the play back because it did not capture everything I was showing and how to embed it to my blog.  So I couldn't display what I did. Epic Fail!!!

Overall, I prefer the Screen-O-Matic because it was the easiest to use. It didn't require to do nothing, but use the program after I registered.  While the other two, needed something.  Screenr was the most difficult app I had to deal with ever. Just trying to get login to publish my video was laborious. I had to figure it out. I was in front of my computer for hours trying to get it to work. As for the Explain a Website, I had to wait for it to export for me to get anything out of my kiddos. 

Playing with Words

Words. How English teachers love words. I became extremely giddy to complete task. I hope these sites that will create my word portraits are easy and navigable without to much hassle.

First up, Wordle.



I did like it,  but what I didn't like took OVER.

Like:
1. Created the cloud for me
2. Used my words from my statement

Dislikes:
1. I couldn't choose the words that were the focus
2. Had limited choices.
3. No power about what words make it on to the cluster
4. You couldn't move words around, but use the provided button under the cluster

On to the next, Tagxedo.

 

What I liked about Tagxedo? Well, it was better than Wordle because I was able to choose a shape and had better color palettes. An image can make a site a lot better than not having none, but clusters of words. Images are pleasing to the eye and you have to read " The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan to figure out why I chose this animal. The book is worth finding out!!!

Contiuning, Tangul.



This is my favorite because it had more options and more of creative input than the others. I, personally liked this because I was the one in charge on how I wanted my cloud to look. I chose the words that went in or out of the cloud. I choose the colors I wanted. I didn't have to settle of a particular color palette. I also had to register and sign in. My creation was  saved on my account. I didn't have to save it to my computer only. This is the ONE for me.

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Reading is my way to relax and October was the month were all of the books I was waiting for were released. The one book I finished this past weekend was "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan.

Here is my first Quipio.

Then, my second.

 I am just warming up. I didn't know that I had a lot to say about various things. Here are my examples from ReciteThis.

 

 

So, Quipio or Recite This.

I choose Quipio because it was easier for me to use because I have an account and I was able to transfer my quotes easier. My quotes were in my photos  area and ready to send.

While, Recite This was easier to use, but was limited on templates to use and I could only share my design in four different ways and Blogger wasn't an option. So I had to take a picture of my work and send it to myself to upload to my blog. Too many unnecessary steps. Simple the better.

Using these applicatons can allow students to freely express themselves thoughtfully without any added pressure. If a student read a book and choose one quote from that book that meant something to them and designed one of these images. We will know as teachers what the student thought of the book. It could even be used as prompts to get students writing. Getting students to use technology is not the problem, it is getting them to think for themselves that is. Using these application in class in more can help prompt them to do so. Students will be doing the work, not the teacher.