Web Album

I used Picasa Web album to complete this assignment. I found it to be a very quick and simple way to not only share photos online, but also to "back up" my photos from my PC. I have a hard drive backup, but I always like to know that my important pictures will not be lost in some freak accident that takes out both my computer and my backup drive! My web album has lots of various photos that are special to me. I hope you enjoy them!

PhotoShop Express

I love this program!! I have been trained with the PhotoShop CS2 version, but was never fortunate enough to afford to purchase the program... Teachers don't normally have $700 lying around to buy a photo editing program! Photoshop Express is a much, much more simplified version, but it still allows lots of creativity with photo editing. Here is my photo album showing some editing work on the photos of flowers that I have taken. So far I have been unable to successfully download the edited flower photos to my desktop... I will keep working to figure this out. But for the sake of completing the assignment, here is a photo of myself that I edited using photoshop express.

Online Graphics - Crappy Graphics

I created a Venn Diagram using the Crappy Graphs website. I took a classroom poll today during my Honors Art class to see which type(s) of art the students like the most and made a Venn Diagram to show the poll results. I thought it was a neat tool, and would be very helpful for some teachers. However, I don't really see much use for it in my classroom. Here is the link to my graph:

http://crappygraphs.com/user_graphs/?id=2763

Online Graphics (Kids Zone)

The graph creator on Kids Zone is an excellent way to quickly create an informational visual aid. I don't use graphs very much in my field of teaching, but if I ever needed to this is definitely where I would turn to.
The first part of this assignment was to quickly research and evaluate the NAEP mathmatics test results for 4th graders in WV and Nation wide. We were to compare the averages from the year 2000 through 2007. The results didn't really surprise me, although the one thing that I must say for WV is that in almost every instance our scores did increase... and they NEVER decreased... which I think is a small victory for us. At least we're making progress.
Here is the graph showing the data results:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_17cjpgvkd2&hl=en
The second graph that we needed to create was one about WV's number of students with IEP's versus other low income states. I viewed this information and determined the best way to create a graph showing this data was to show the percentage of each state, because WV has a much lower population that the other states, and the information related to the exact number of students appeared to be misleading. I again was not surprised by this information. It seems that we as educators are constantly jumping through hoops to meet the needs of MANY students with IEP's. I was, however, shocked to see just how large the percentage of students with IEP's was in comparison to other low income states.
Here is the graph showing the data results:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_19fn4gjwf9&hl=en
The sources used to gather the information needed to create these graphs are as follows:
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104652.html
The Kids Zone graph creator used is :
http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/classic/

Image Capture

The Windows Paint program is always fun to use. I guess I just never really thought about making a lesson out of it. I would love to do a self-portrait project with my students where they take a photo of themselves and use the paint program to "paint" their bodies and backgrounds around their heads. Here is my example:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_154gtdgjhb&hl=en
I had alot of fun making this self-portrait!
The specifics of my picture process are as follows: I took a jpeg photo of myself that was 640X 480 pixels and copied and pasted it into the paint program, then I cropped my head and copied and pasted in onto a new paint page. I then erased around my hair and any background in the photo, and began to create my body and background. I used the eyedropper tool to try to match my skin color in the photo to my hands (although they seem alittle dark!). If I had more time I could have improved the image... but it will do for now.
I definitely plan to use this as a mini project to teach self-portraiture, technology integration, symbolism, ect.... Great Idea!

Desktop Graphic

Because I am an Art Educator, using any type of graphic program is pretty much second nature. It is essential to my program that I know how to use different types of technology to assist my teaching. Art class without visual examples is like a canoe without paddles! When I begin new projects with my students I usually have digital example images to project for the project introduction. I create the digital images mostly by finding images online of the artist or style of art that we are studying and use them as the starting point of the project. This is an example of a painting created by Franz Marc during "the blue rider" period in art:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_3ds8dtjc3&hl=en

I also utilize pictures of student work as both examples and non-examples. Here are some examples of a students work in progress and then in it's finished state:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_7d8pxcqfr&hl=en

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_9hh5t2bgt&hl=en

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_115r9mg4dm&hl=en

While I usually save the examples that I have personally created to show "in person," sometimes I do include my personal examples in the digital introduction to the lesson. This is a picture of one of my watercolor paintings:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_13hj39kvcz&hl=en

I am also well versed in PhotoShop, and was specifically the CS2 edition. Unfortunately I do not have PhotoShop on my PC, and only 1 computer at my school has Photoshop... so finding a photoshop project that I have made that I can upload has proven difficult. I created our school-wide Positive Behavior rules poster using Photoshop, and the posters currently hang in every classroom in our school... If I can't find a way to get the project file, then I will simply include a photo of the poster that I created using PhotoShop. I hope that will work!

The pictures that I take with my camera create very large jpeg file sizes, so I utilize a program called IrfanView to resize the file to a more manageable size. I save the smaller file to 640X 480 pixels. I uploaded my examples for this assignment using Google Docs because I was unable to get FTP to work this evening... weird... it worked just fine yesterday... and Google Docs was fast and easy. To further make sure that I have met the requirements for this assignment, I will add that the file that I linked to in the FTP assignment is, in fact, a Word Art document, and is technically a graphic example.

Still Images - Dale's Cone of Experience

This assignment is one that really resonates well with me. I teach ART... therefore visual examples are my life. I love to see information further backing what I teach, and how I teach. I guess everyone likes to have their specific profession affirmed. I know that what I teach is important... I like that other people can see that too. Here are my answers to Dale's Cone of Experience questions: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_2cbp6fsfj

FTP

This is an amazing tool that more people would use if they knew about it! It took several attempts, and some help from Debbie (Thanks Again Debbie!) from our class, but I got it. It is so cool! I will definitely use FTP! That way if I have any extra time during my planning period (unlikely!) I can open up my homework at school and work on it! Here is my FTP document:
http://www2.fairmontstate.edu/users/cwhite2/ftp.doc

My Web Published Resume

This assignment was rather easy, given that my resume needed only a few changes to be up to date. I was concerned that I would not do everything required because the class website that gives each project specification would not allow me to have access to the "document" - aka... the assignment. Once Dr. Pierce directed me as to what exactly to do... it was sooo easy! The assignments always sound so complicated when I first read them, but each of them are definite confidence boosters because they are so suprisingly simple and they make me feel very "Tech Savvy." Here is the link to my resume:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfbq2wx3_0ckjphcdw&hl=en