Cartoons & Comics

Hi there!

When creating the comics and cartoons, I immediately remembered a training I recently had.  The presenter suggested we incorporate create ways for teaching curriculum. Cartoons and comics are the prefect outlet for students to express their creativity and understanding of a topic. I can implement comics to check for understanding.  I've created three cartoons that have content that most students have difficulty on.  

Pixton

http://Pixton.com/ic:vss2mr3i

The site was relatively easy to use, but on the free version you could only make two cartoon characters.  I liked that you could edit the size of the character and edit the facial expression.  Pixton cartoons were easy to save; in one click the site gave me options to share my cartoon.  I was having difficulty embedding the image. 

ToonDoo

By jmt047 | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

I felt ToonDoo was a bit more complicated to use.  There were too many choices in characters and backgrounds.  It took a while to navigate through the images. The site was user friendly but the save button wasn't clearly displayed. It took me a while to find the button. 

MakeBeliefComix!

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/?comix_id=12240655C1259103 

First of all, I felt the website was the easiest out of the three.  I liked that this site did not need a log in. The students could create a comic and email it to themselves.  I've noticed a lot of the time my students do not have email addresses.  I thought the images of the characters and backgrounds were a bit limiting. I feel students would like this site because it's so easy to create and save a comic. 

Online Book Communities

Hello, hello!

Online book communities are great sites that keep track of the books that you have read or to see what your friends have read.

Booklikes.com
The images show my blog shelf pages. Booklikes is a site that book lovers can make a page or blog to share their thoughts about books. I thought the pages was easy to maneuver. Also, finding and adding books to the shelf easy as well. I thought it was interesting that when you're adding a book, a button can connect you to the Amazon website.  Booklikes is neat because there are blogs people write about books that they have read and it is interesting to get another person's perspective on a book.  I felt the site offered more features than what I needed.

 LibraryThing.com
I felt LibraryThing's appearance was very basic. The color and font style was plain and boring.  To be honest, I did not like this website. I found the site to be difficult to search for books and to find reader comments.  One of the things that bothered me was the location of the search site bar. The link was on the upper right hand corner and not in the center. I did not like the 'Add books' tab. If you searched for a book and clicked on the title, it automatically added that book your shelf.

Shelfari.com
Shelfari is sponsored by Amazon.com and I feel that student would be comfortable using this site. I liked to format of the pages and how the tabs were set up.  It was easy to find books and read their summaries. For example, a student can search for a book, click on the cover, and read the summary with  a synopsis.
When I was creating my shelf, I found it time consuming to add books because it prompted you to comment on the book and add tags to it.  Overall, I liked the site because you can connect to what other people are saying out the books.

Goodreads.com

Goodreads reminds me of a social networking site because the home screen has updates your friends have posted.  The site is easy to use and searching for a book it easy as well.  When searching for books, I found adding them to shelves is in one click.  I liked that it recommends books based on my searches and shelves. It is just easy to use!   

Each online book community site is unique and can fit the needs of any teachers and students.  For me, I want a website that is easy to use, where I can add my books with a couple of clicks, and find new books to read.  Throughout this assignment, I was thinking about my students and how they want things right now.  With that in mind, I feel Goodreads.com is convenient when searching for books and familiar to my students. I actually have a Kindle and my Goodreaders account is synchronized, so it makes it easy to post my thoughts on books. 

Podcast

Hello. 

To be honest, I did not know what podcasts were until this assignment.  I had heard of them but never really bother to use them.  Podcasts are a series of audio recordings.  They are a great tool to use when discussing a topic or commenting on a current event.  Their uses in the classroom are copious. For example, students or teachers can create a podcast to explain a difficult topic or create verbal presentations. 

When creating my podcast, I thought of my homebound student.  He is missing both the lecture and lab sections of my class and podcasts are great way of me communicating that missing information.  So I decided to create a podcast in hopes to post to my classroom's weebly page. The podcast is a review on how to set up and solve a dihybrid cross problem.  

Podcast Link: https://soundcloud.com/jmt047/sets/dihybrid-crosses-review