Office Suites Review and image editing review

I chose to check out Google documents. I hear people talk about it all the time and how great it is but I had not used it myself before.  One of my favorite features is that it is compatible with my phone and computer.  It is also compatible with a iPad but I don't have one of those.  I like the fact that I can work on a document at home, save on Google documents, then open it up at work the next day for more editing or adding too.

The first app that I tried out was pic monkey, it is a program to photo shop pictures.  I chose this app because I have a ton of wedding pictures that could use some touching up.  I found the app to be user friendly and easy to use.  The pictures that I played around with I think I improved them by just selecting a few options with clarity and auto adjust.  I would definitely recommend this app for anyone to use.

The next app that I reviewed was Lucid Chart for education. This app allows to make flow charts or brainstorming maps,or thinking maps. Then you can save and share your concept map with other students in a class. My favorite features are the built in shapes, arrows, and lines that make constructing map very easy and pleasant to look at.  I would recommend this app for students, teachers, and principals.  I t is easy for a student to use but gives professional quality maps that teachers and principals can use.

The image editing application that I chose to review was sumo paint. Wow! This is a huge improvement to the paint program I used to use from Microsoft.   There are many more options for paint brush shape and thickness along with features to blur the paint.  It felt like you are actually mixing paint while the older version I have used before would just cover up the original color with the new color this would combine the two colors. I would definitely recommend this application to my school as an alternative to Microsoft.  I think it actually works better and it is free.

my website

My classroom website is designed to share information with parents and students.  One of my pages has a list of school supplies and gives you access to recent health articles found through google.  My other page gives more information about the first day of school and what the students should expect. I did this to try to reduce anxiety about the first day of school.

https://sites.google.com/site/lorischmidt2012/

sample concept map about Cam Jansen book

The concept map I made is about a book I read with my students during the mystery unit. I made a concept map about the characters because I think it is difficult to keep the characters straight and a concept map is a great visual representation of the characters. I would have the students make the concept map after I read them the first chapter of the book. Then as we read more information about the characters we can add to the concept map. This could be used for plot, theme, sequence of the story and many more options. Another feature that I like was that color can be added to distinguish relationships. For example all the characteristics of Cam are in pink, therefore the map is easier to read and see the connections.

Screencast on signing up for an email account

I choose to make a screen cast on signing up for email. I choose this because it is a simple task to sign up for email and many of my students do not have email accounts. I thought this would be a helpful lesson because students often work on papers at school and have no flash drive to save their papers. I think email is a good solution to this problem. A student can work on a research paper in class, save their work then email to themselves. Then when the student goes home at night they can get in their email at home and retrieve the paper they worked on at school earlier in the day. They can add to the paper, then email back to themselves to work on it more at school the next day.

Lesson using google maps

Below I have posted an example of a map that I would like my students to create. The lesson is for each student to plan an educational trip to Chicago, Illinois. On the student created map I want them to locate a hotel in downtown Chicago for the class to stay in. Then I would like each student to decide on two of the many museums in Chicago they would like to visit and learn more about. The students need to make a route that would be followed to get from the hotel to the museums. Also the students need to locate one restaurant that the class can go to for dinner one night in Chicago. The students need to select an Icon that makes sense for the hotel, museums, and restaurants.

Then the students need to research the cost of the museums, restaurants, cabs, and hotels. The students need to have reasons why they selected the museums they did and what the class can learn from this field trip. Next the students need to write a letter to the school board explain how this trip is educational and what students can gain from this experience. Each student will present their map and ideas to the class, the class will then vote who had a better plan. Then present the map that was made along with the letter to the school board for approval.


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podcasts subscriptions that I like. The first one is about living healthy and other podcast is an English Teacher in Canada

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Map of Michigan

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