(Some) Resources from EDEL 496

Here is a list of resources that have been introduced in the class, and which I have (or am willing to try) sometime soon! 

1. Waterlogue and Snapseed

One evening, someone from EdTech came to our class with a class set of iPads. We were required to come with a set of pictures that answers: What does "home" mean to us? Being the always-prepared-person that I am, I had about 8-10 pictures answering this question. We were introduced to two photography iPad applications to explore. I didn't use the iPads provided because I just downloaded the two apps we were going to use that evening on my own. 

Waterlogue -- a watercolor application that unfortunately costs money. I think I paid either $4 or $5 for it, but totally worth it because the photographs are pretty great. Simply upload your picture and choose which features you want to enhance your picture. Check out some of my pictures using Waterlogue! 

Mo:Le Restaurant in Victoria, BC

Water Harbour in Victoria, BC

Snapseed -- luckily, this app is free (I suggest you download it when you can)! Snapseed adds pretty cool effects to your pictures and has options to provide borders too. Similar to Instagram (which most of my friends have), but I think it's a tiny bit better with the options. It takes a little getting used to when using Snapseed, but after a day, you'll be a pro at it. Just like me! Check out some of my pictures using Snapseed. 

Mo:Le Restaurant in Victoria, BC

Water Harbour in Victoria, BC

2 Papyrus eBook

So, after we incorporated pretty cool effects to our "home" pictures, our professor gathered all our pictures into an online eBook! I used the Papyrus eBook resource just like my professor did, which you can use for yourself if you click here! Just sign up for a free account and you're good to go. 

I was absolutely amazed by this that I used this outlet of representation when I used this for my integration of multimodal project. I made an eBook of my Victoria trip back in Fall Reading Week! 

3. Puppet Making 

Here is a picture of my puppet we created! We had half a class to make a puppet. You're probably thinking, what's the point, right? In class, we discussed how "powerful" exploration is. Give a kid a box of lego's and tell them to build anything, which they will. Exploration, at such an early age, is so important to facilitate! Building a puppet showed us adults how key exploring an object or experience it. 

4. Popplet and Powtoon 

Okay, so I absolutely no nothing about Popplet or Powtoon. We had several opportunities for class presentations, and some of my peers used these approaches for presentation purposes! I'm trying to experiment (aka get away from the typical powerpoint) when presenting information. Have you tried these resources? Watching them in class it seemed much more engaging and aesthetically pleasing. 

Recap: EDEL 496

A required class is taking an EDEL 4xx class, where I initially was going to take EDEL 411 or 412. Things happened last minute, classes got cancelled and shifted so I decided, why not 496?! Right from Beartracks, it's called Group Project: Integrating Language Arts & Art K-6. This was also my night class for the term, where I usually take a night class to make it easier on myself when finals arrive. Going into the first night, I was extremely nervous about this because I did not know what to expect at all. I found no professor ratings about it and none of my friends took it either. I was going in blind!

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Did I also mention that this class was a combined undergraduate and graduate class?! Yes, so it was a combined class called EDEL 496/595. Intimidating, right? 

As the class went on, Wednesday evenings became easier and easier for me. I was honestly overwhelmed with the graduate students, but being the "social butterfly" I am, I connected with most of them. There was full-time or part-time or retired teachers there, literacy consultants, teachers who taught abroad, etc. I mean, I was figuratively swimming in a pool with people with tremendous amount of knowledge and experience. Why should I be overwhelmed by this when I can use this to make meaningful connections? #useyourbrains 

The evaluation component is somewhat complicated to explain. To make it simple, there was an integration project using multimodal literacy, a major essay and participation marks. However, it branches out into further marks or points for assessment. I'd rather not talk about it, BECAUSE, in this class I want to highlight what I loved and learned and what I'll be walking away from it.

Sometimes, EDEL 496 didn't even feel like a class! I felt the evening, at times, was a PD session to learn and immerse ourselves into an art environment. We did self-portraits one evening, which was new for me as I'm not into art as much as some of my peers, but do check out the progress I made throughout the term! (And don't make fun of my eyes and hair haha!)

September 2015

December 2015

In another post, I'll brag about the amazing resources we used in the class. From my five classes this term, I was exposed to SO MANY outlets of representation that I cannot fit all my knowledge into this one post. EDEL 496 focused on integrating art and language arts, and because of that I want to share what I learned to you! A big thank you and shout out is needed to all my peers and my professor!

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