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.