Drop caps how-to

id you see my pre-Mother's Day post on May 7th?  If not, scroll down to it.  Isn't the first letter fancy?  Hey, just like the "D" to the left is fancy in "Did?"

Aren't you wondering how I jazzed up my "D?"

Simply stuff, fabulous blog reader.  Just visit Daily Drop Cap, choose your letter and follow the instructions below each letter.  It does require copying and pasting HTML code, but its 2011, I am confident you can do that, yes?

This drop cap stuff is thoroughly entertaining to me. 

Grinning from ear-to-ear,

en


PS - Do you think I could use the drop cap letters to make more DIY artwork for my classroom?  Remember this post here?  My wheels are spinning.

Twitter Exit Ticket

Are you on Twitter?  Are your students' parents and families?  Did you answer yes?  Very techy.  No?  Are you living under a rock?

...OK, that was mean.  But, this is the 21st century.

According to Twitter's blog, 140 million tweets are sent a day which adds up to a billion tweets every eight days.  Yes, I just quoted a billion.  What's everyone talking about?  Life, love, the pursuit of happiness, favorite coffee drinks from Starbucks, what's on the dollar menu, how much snow dumped on Colorado's ski resorts, education, why Trader Joe's is so cool, Pink's new song...wait, did I just say "education?"

Rewind.  Yes, people are tweeting about education.  One of my favorite educational tweets is from Edutopia (George Lucas created this foundation, so you know it is cool).  You can visit (or follow) their tweet here.

Why not tweet in your classroom?  Oh, I know what you are going to say, you don't have enough computers, iTouches or smart phones.  No problem, I made you a tweet exit ticket.  See?  You can go old-school with this download and print it on paper. 

Voila, a paper tweet.  To get yourself a full page of these tweet-a-licious reflection tools, click on the image below.

...I'm kind of sassy today, aren't I?

Tweetles,
Jen

PS - In case you liked yesterday's post on cloud computing and Common Craft, you might also like this video made by Lee and Sachi explaining Twitter.  I am helpful and sassy, yes?

Valentine's Day: You deserve some love

Shhh...don't tell anyone, but I used to be anti-Valentine's Day.  However, with little O around and her love of all things holiday, I have slooooowly embraced this fictitious-Hallmarked-induced-I-don't-need-a-day-to-show-my-love-for-others holiday.  See, I'm taking baby steps.

As fellow educators, I think the more we can show our love and support for each other, the better.  I'm blushing.  I bought you a present.  I hope you like calendars.

Choice number one.....

Choice number two......

Which will you choose?  Click on your favorite, follow the easy directions and turn on your printer.  I would tell you they are free, but that would be tacky to give you a present and tell you the price.

Enjoy - you deserve it!

Happy fictitious-Hallmarked-induced-I-don't-need-a-day-to-show-my-love-for-others-Valentine's Day,

Jen





Paint swatch activities

I don't know about you, but I am haunted by things that are free. Two of my biggest haunts - FedEx envelopes and paint swatches.  Paint swatches, in particularly, are like sirens calling my name at Home Depot and Lowe's.  I can barely walk by the paint section without caressing a colored swatch and dreaming how (or why?) I need a swatch collection.  Must be genetic, little O loves them, too.

Thankfully, teaching gives me an excuse.  Free swatches + gorgeously inspiring colors + students = An activity.  Here's what I've come up with so far....

Pick a color.....

Convenient way to group students (Thank you, Linda, Nathan and Jordyn)....

Choose a swatch.....

Colorful way to debrief a lesson with exit tickets.....

Pick up some of the multi-color paint swatches.....handy for mini-KWLs.....

And mini-KWLS....

Mickey friends, I bet you have a way to put these to teaching and learning use.....

Fabulous blog reader (or follower), what clever ideas do you have for paint swatches?  Are there free items that haunt you?  As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Please use the comments section below (no password required, so comment away - Yippee!).

UPDATE:  Here's another idea how to use paint swatches.

Best,

Jen

Tech Tuesday Launch: Dafont is da bomb

NPR no longer has a monopoly on Tech Tuesday.  Upcycled Education is taking a stab. 

Say hello to.....

Did I tell you I love technology?  Yep, I do.  Actually, I love technology when it makes sense to incorporate technology in education (and in life).  I don't just love it to be in love.  I've got love with P and O.  I'll write about them another day.

Each Tuesday, Upcycled Education will highlight an interesting technology, web resource, gadget or program all related to technology.  Of course, since this is an education blog, everything I/we share will be related to teaching and learning.

Up first, a free web resource that is easy to use and naturally engaging.  Let me just say, Dafont is da bomb.  Who doesn't appreciate the "right" font?  Who doesn't naturally feel engaged when something has a WOW factor?  Who doesn't love something that appeals to visual learners?  According to Dunn and Dunn (Ken and Rita, if I could act so informally, though I did meet Rita Dunn once at a conference), most of the world's learners are visual.  Why not appeal to them, no?

Dafont does just that.  It is a free, font web resource full of hundreds of fonts for just the right occasion, presentation or lame worksheet.  Although, once you download and use their fonts, all lameness shall cease.  Basically it's simple.  You go to Dafont.  Browse through their hundreds of well-organized font categories.  Choose your favorite and click download.  All the fonts are free and if you are feeling generous, you can donate for your use (though, I have not ever done so....).  I found this YouTube video explaining how to download and extract the fonts incredibly useful.  I must admit, without the video I might have been a touch lost for a while.  The video, by the way, is just 1.5 minutes long (though, it appears to be three minutes long...wrong!).

Here are some of my favorite fonts....

SPECIAL NOTE:  Under the "dingbats" category is the "SEXY" font.  Oh my.  Do not click on the link in public!  Let's just say even our high school health education teachers will have a hard time using the fonts listed there.  Thus, Dafont should NOT be shared with our preK-12 audience.  Let's call this a "teacher" resource, shall we?

From my vast experience, I do not use special fonts for presentations, like PowerPoints, unless I know the font is available on the computer I am presenting on in the classroom.  If the font you are using for a presentation (or worksheet) is not available on the computer you are using, the font will default to a regular font like Ariel or Times New Roman (booo!).  To remedy this, either....

• Download the fonts at school and at home, so your favorite fonts are available in both locations/computers.
• Stay away from special fonts in your work when you are unsure if the font will default or not.
• For creating worksheets/handouts, I generally create the handout at home with my Dafonts and then PDF the document (vs. saving it only as a ".doc").  In the PDF form, your cool, wow fonts stay as is.

If you need help or have ideas to share, use the comments area below. 

Enjoy Dafonts!

Signing off for Tech Tuesday,
Jen