5 Photo Story by Stacy

Hour Of Code - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


First, I have to say that I loved Missy's example with Storybird.  That was fabulous.  As I prepare this 5 photo story, I  am in the midst of Hour of Code: Day One.  On day one, I can't help but reflect back to last year's hour of code and how nervous I was about whether or not this would "take off" and be enjoyable for our school community.  One year later, that sentiment feels silly.  We had @femalepharoah coding this morning for #$@'s sake!  Students are into it, teachers are into it, and parents are into it.  So, I'd say #hourofcode has been a success for our school community.  This PD has inspired me to take creative chances and since hour of code was representative of taking a chance, I thought it all too fitting as my subject matter. 

5-photo story

Here is a copy of the instructions Rebecca sent out:

Due by January 5th

This assignment gives you the opportunity to share your personal point of view.

Please create a 5-photo story.
1. Choose any 5 images - either ones you have taken personally or any from a common-use licensed site (i.e. Flickr). If you use photos that someone else has taken, please be sure to give appropriate credit to the artist/photographer.
2. Put them in an order that invites the viewer to follow along.
3. You may wish to add words, sentences, or more with each photo to help us interpret your meaning behind the photos.
4. Post your 5-photo story to our blog.
Please use a program that will display the photos in order as we click through. (Some examples of software that do this are Google Presentation, Prezi, Keynote, Haiku Deck, and many more!)
Copy the link to your presentation into your blog post, or if you know how, please embed it.
5. Also, along with the post, please write about how your experience so far with our Creativity PDU influenced your 5-photo story.

Enjoy your storytelling!

This type of activity could also be a collaborative effort. Here is a series demonstrating how one person's story can lead to another in the same way our Folded Story operated.

Click through the first story by Kevin Hodgson:CLICK HERE
Then my follow-up:CLICK HERE

If you are feeling adventurous and would like to add the next chapter of the story, please do!

10 items=Tom the Turkey on a Leash

In the photo below are the 10 items I found in my bag. My initial reaction…"Say what!"

Once again my initial idea for construction was a house. I suppose creatively I find comfort in that structure. This idea, however did not pan out. After one or two more attempts at an object I could not identify I got the idea to create a peacock. The "Magic Spiral" and the protractor seemed to lend themselves to the concept. Here was my first try at a peacock. I will say that my first attempt was trying to keep all of the items whole. I found out very quickly that manipulation of items into specific shapes tends to work better.

I was not achieving the product that I wanted aesthetically, so I created the shapes and details that would be a more accurate representation. In the process I decided that a turkey was even better than a peacock. I could create bigger feathers, turn the "Magic Spiral" around and even create a GA tech t-shirt. My final project was what I call Tom the Turkey on a leash. Here he is…

Happy Thanksgiving!

Why so Blue?

When I began this assignment I imagined that I would be super successful and collect lots of data. This confidence came mainly from the fact that I consider myself someone that has an eye for detail.  As the day progressed I would find that despite my eye for detail my attention to the task at hand would experience some difficulties. The following is a list of what I noted for blue starting from leaving my home in the morning to leaving school and arriving home in the afternoon.

Blue Cars,
Blue Highway sign
blue flashing lights on the Marta track
Blue couches in the Media Center
Blue book covers
Blue sweatshirts and jackets
Blue Davis sticker on my car
Blue cars

As my day progressed and my tasks increased it became harder and harder to remember to even look for the color. I guess it falls in line with what we read and often talk about, and that is that the brain has to discriminate when operating in the world. Without that discrimination the human mind will be bombarded with so much stimuli it would be impossible to function. Despite my want and need to look for the color blue when a higher level item became a priority for my brain I simply forgot I was even looking for it. I enjoyed doing this assignment, but more than anything I loved evaluating the results. Despite being in contact with probably hundreds of blue items, the items listed above were the only ones that made it into my consciousness.

10 items in a bag

                         Hi, here is my creation step by step...


This is what I received!!

After walk twice to Missy's class and ask her several questions... I started

I hope you understand my story and enjoyed....

Items in the bag

I really struggled with this project. These were the items in the bag:

I made several false starts. And then I realized that the giraffe and Curious George were smiling. And then there was the big Smiley Face pendant. So I decided that smiley faces should be all around.

Seeing Green

Green is my favorite color, or so I thought. But as Kermit the Frog sings, "It's not easy being green." I saw it EVERYWHERE. It was in the grass, the leaves (that haven't changed color yet), the cars on the road, the traffic lights, the area rug and chairs in the media center, the highlighter on my desk, my water cup, my hand sanitizer, the covers of the books, the recycling bin. I was surrounded by different shades of green everywhere I went all day. I thought about how "green" is a word for money in this country. But when I looked in my wallet, a dollar bill really wasn't  as vivid green as I remembered.

Ten Items

When I first open the bag with all the 10 items, I said :"OY VAY".
I didn't have any idea what to create, suddenly , I saw Ziploc bag that have a stone and a note saying -"the stone is from Israel", and I imedatly started to think about the sea and beach in Israel and I came out with the idea of making a fishing scene at one of the beaches in Israel.
I added more stones and I covered the white cup with blue tissue paper (to try make it more as a beach)
This is what I did-

Ten Items

I had an interesting bunch to work with so I decided to make a scene from a play.  I did not have this idea until I started tinkering with my items.  I added a few extra images to make the scene complete.  The scene depicts a farmer in front of his farmhouse, which sits under a starry night as the sun is going down, the moon is out, and a rocket blasts off into outerspace.  An old boat is docked in front of his property.  I think the scene represents the juxtaposition between modern inventions and the timelessness of nature.  Here is my work in progress:

Finished project: The Stage

The Back of the Stage (Prop Room)

“Items in a Bag”

The items I receive we're: pink straw, blue plastic spoon, tiny sticky notes, a book named :How I created my perfect prom date.And a poster of a Good VS Evil, bookmark, QR code. Stock paper.
From all the items I got I made an advertising for a bug scavenger hunt between two bugs: Og and Od. The hunt takes place in Levy's castle.
The players have to choose between a spoon or a straw to help them advance in the race.
Big eyes is the watcher and the judge of this hunt.

My Creativity Project

For my project I used the materials given to me to make a UGA football field. The field is made out of white paper. The players are represented by seashells. The score board is represented by the Sudoku board. The sponsors line the field and Pooh the Bear is the referee. The Bulldog is the mascot.

Purple...

The color that I picked was Purple-
I started to notice Purple:
Morning- my older daughter Tahel wear a purple necklace and my middle daughter Hodaya wear a purple bracelet.
Day- water bottle, pencil, note pad, markers and crayons, pencil sharpener, eareser, name tag,
Mrs. Richin shirt, i phone case, glasses case,solar flower, ring,classroom curtain, book cover, students binders, color box...
Afternoon- my neighbor jacket, her daughter hairband, mail flyer, stickers...
Evening- Roswell shopping center next to publix parking lot I saw Gorgeous Purple sport car,
I put it on my list for my 40th years birthday gift in the next few years...

Feeling Blue

I chose the color blue because it is my favorite color.  I find it soothing and striking all at once.  Here is where I noticed it:
media center tablecloths
Lisa's shirt
Sylvie Bella's eyes
Sylvie Bella's skirt
Media Center walls
App icons
Magazine covers
Jeff's car
Dr. Seuss pillows
American Flag
Israeli Flag
The infographic hanging over my computer
Twitter bird
Sphero Balls
Storage baskets
Sky
The group of neighborhood boys' shirts as they are playing in the yard
And, book covers:


I noticed that at the beginning of the day, I was hyperfocused on smaller objects and toward the end of the day, I was noticing more abstract objects, such as the sky.  Perhaps, due to exhaustion at the end of a long day:)

color

I notice the color in :

Towel

Eye shadow

Marker

Shirt

iPhone case 

Jogging outfits 

Nice women shirt

Flowers

Baby blanket 

Tattoo

Glass butterfly 

Young girl hear color 

what is my color?

The Color Pink

The color that I chose was pink.
When I woke up I brushed my teeth with my pink toothbrush. I ate cereal with strawberries in it which turned the milk pink. I went to my hair salon and on my way I saw pink horses outside of P.F. Chang's. At the hair salon there were many products with pink labels on them. On my way  home I drove past some pink flowers. Finely, as I came home I was greeted with pink roses in my front yard that had just been planted. That evening, my husband and I went shopping at the mall, where I saw many pink items for sale.
Looking for the color pink made me realize how easy it is to overlook the beauty of our everyday lives.  There is beauty all around us, we simply have to know where to look.

Evelyn 10 Q-tips

If we talk about collaboration, teamwork, or sharing, SALUD is a Spanish word that encompasses all of that, in my opinion. SALUD! we say when we celebrate something important, but we are also collaborating, working and sharing like a team, when someone lacks SALUD (health). Nice or bad moments are always better when we stay together!

Cleaning the filter...

It was so much fun for us to read the collaborative story and see the many different uses for the cotton swabs. That's exactly what's supposed to happen! We have two assignments for this next month. As always, don't hesitate to ask Missy or Rebecca if you have questions, and always feel free to comment on one another's posts.

Just as your air conditioner must have a clean filter for the air to circulate, you must learn to "clean" or remove the filters in your brain to see the details of what surrounds you. Once you see these details, you will begin to make more connections between them.

1) Choose a color. For an entire day, make note of every place you see that color. You will need to keep a method of recording this information with you the entire day. It might be an index card, a small notebook, your phone, or your iPad. The important thing about this exercise is to record EVERY instance you see the color. Size does not matter. Please don't try to write it all down later as you will not remember everything.

Please post a list of all the places you noticed this color. Then, comment on how this exercise changed for you from the beginning (morning) to the end (bedtime).

2) Please choose ten small items that you do NOT NEED BACK in a plastic bag with your name on it by Monday. Deliver your bag to either Rebecca or Missy. We'll tell you what happens next once we have the bags. Yes, you get to choose what to put in the bag. Nothing perishable, please.

Our Folded Story

Here is the compilation of the collaborative story. It is absolutely beautiful! Thank you all for adding your part. Enjoy!

The breeze was gentle as I swayed in the hammock. I closed my eyes
to escape, just for a moment, from the housework awaiting me.
Suddenly, the hammock shook violently; a hole opened up in the earth
nearby. Screaming like a banshee, I fell in, tumbling into nothingness for
what seemed an eternity! There I saw a very huge bright light that
covers all the cosmos and I start to imagine ......... What if I go into the
hole? I ventured in and found myself miraculously in the year...
2099. It was almost unrecognizable. I couldn't believe it. There was
no more... traffic. OMG! There were no more cars. There were no
more roads. I wondered how ... I would ever get back home. Would I
even see another human being? So much for being an optimist.

Right now all I could think about was the thought of never seeing my
family again. What was the last thing I had said to them? That they
are the most important part in my whole life and even when we are
far away from each other they are always in my heart and in my
thoughts and I love them to the moon and back... I thought the best
moments of my life were with them, but today, I don't know, I cannot
think, I cannot feel...I am so confused and have to make a decision.

"Have no fear, everything will be okay," she said to me. How can she
be so sure. I am feeling more emotions at one time than I ever knew
I could. They feel as though they may come out of every pore.
Perhaps twas the emotion that drew me back to my own time - the
tug of my children's heartstrings. I turned to go; my world spun as a
maelstrom and dropped me in the dirt...in my yard. "Mom?
Mommy?" And home I was.

Gila's 10 Q-tips

In life ,cooperation , balance and team work are essential . We are always part of a collective .

When we are strong we are strong together . When we are weak and fall we support and each other .

Lately, I've been thinking about how things are constructed. I'm working on a project outside of school that requires a lot of building -- something that does NOT come naturally to me. However, the more I do it, the more I understand how things can fit together to make a larger structure. I wanted to explore making a structure with the Q-tips and copious amount of glue. I had originally intended to create a frame that would corral the small scraps of paper that I keep on my desk to write down call numbers for students. However, I don't think the structure is rigid enough for that. Maybe next time I'll use Liquid Nails construction adhesive ...

Q-tips

As I started this assignment I became very excited as I thought I would create a tepee. I began to execute that idea and I quickly learned why I teach and do not have a career as an architect nor physicist. The q-tips were too light and as such could not stand, not even with a square or triangle base. I sat for a while and continued to play around an I found that I kept coming back to how I could use the q-tips in a lesson. Then I had my "aha moment" of using the q-tips as symbols or as tools for constructing an alphabet of some sort. Along with working at Davis I also teach at Hebrew school. I imagined how the whole Aleph-Bet could be created if you had enough. However, for this activity we only had the use of ten. Thus, I created what I believe is a very important symbol of the Jewish faith, the Magen David, and the Hebrew word for "Life". I noticed that in the directions there were no prohibitions put on altering the 10 q-tips. I decided to cut some of them so they could best represent the letter being depicted. Overall, this assignment reinforced for me that even with all the amazing technology we have at our disposal (I love technology, don't get me wrong.) sometimes the simplest materials lend themselves just as well to getting a point across.

Q-Tip in Hebrew Class
when I read  assignment #2 I started to make Hebrew letters and words, I use those kind of activities a lot with my Mechina and Kindergarten classes, we use pipe cleaners, "wikki stix", playdo, Popsicle sticks etc... but until yesterday I didn't try the Q tips, and today I decided to add one more station in my class and have the students create something with 10 Q-tips , it was very fun and I saw a lots of great ideas for example- house, birthday clown, zigzag, kite, Hebrew names / letters, tower and many more, attached is a few fun examples-

Q-Tip Project

I thought of a creative way to teach my students about the Star of David. Each student was given ten Q-tips and used them to make the Israeli flag (magen david and stripes). Attached below is a picture of the flag that I made:

Q-Tip Cellphone Holder

I decided to take a practical approach and wanted to build something that I might actually want to use (and enjoy).  Therefore, I built a cellphone holder to rest on top of my desk at work.  I've had it in use all of 50 minutes now and it works like a champ.  Here's my phone resting on my new cellphone holder:

I was reminded of the marshmallow challenge, which probably inspired my creation.  I wanted to create something that was 3-D, as opposed to flat.  Using scotch tape, which holds Q-tips surprising well, I anchored the Q-tips to card stock and voila, I had a sturdy cellphone holder.  I could have gotten away with not using all ten but because the task required all ten, I chose to add extra reinforcement along the back and a cushion for the bottom of the cellphone to rest on.  The funny thing is that I will definitely keep and continue to use my cellphone holder.  It may not be the prettiest design but it works extremely well.  I'm very pleased with my creation.

Cotton swabs and storytelling...

If you have not yet contributed to our collaborative poem, please do.


Grow! For the sun caresses your sweet limbs and dew drops glisten atop your leaves.
Look! There are miracles all around you that you've never noticed before.
Prove! That you are willing to see the value in all that surrounds you.
Remain! Remain strong and move forward despite any obstacles.
Smell
Sound! it is beginning to sound like fun.
Taste
Turn
Stay! You make this world a better place.
Get
Appear
Feel! Because every day brings new experience into your live.

Hopefully you received Rebecca's email. Here is the link to the Folded Story: http://foldthatstory.com/
Click on Join Group, and then type in 971297

When you have a few minutes (stop laughing) this is a TED talk about a creative artist. How he uses materials is unbelievable. It is a little spark to get you thinking about the cotton swabs.

Poem is progressing beautifully!

I'm just reposting the collaborative poem as it stands now. Thank you, Rebecca for explaining how to add your voice! I am in awe of the twists and turns the meaning is taking, and hope you all are beginning to see how powerful collaboration can be, not only for a specific project, but as a spark for your own thinking.

Grow! For the sun caresses your sweet limbs and dew drops glisten atop your leaves.
Look! There are miracles all around you that you've never noticed before.
Prove! That you are willing to see the value in all that surrounds you.
Remain
Smell
Sound! it is beginning to sound like fun.
Taste
Turn
Stay! You make this world a better place.
Get
Appear
Feel


I also read with great interest the article Rebecca posted. You can bet we will be trying something similar in the months ahead. I think particularly about how open children are to imagination. The mother/artist drew realistic images that would make a picture book boring. The child's drawings immediately set my brain on a course of storytelling. What about you? Did any of you begin telling stories in your heads after seeing the images? Share them with us, if you did!

1 + 1 = infinite possibilities

I just wanted to post this article I read this morning that truly shows how lovely collaboration can be.
http://news.distractify.com/fun/illustrator-draws-faces-lets-4-year-old-draw-bodies-ends-up-with-adorably-weird-art/?v=1

Bad or badly?

I have been mulling this over in my head all evening. I am convinced I fell asleep from 3:50 - 4:20. Bottom line is that Rebecca was correct. Actually, both Rebeccas are correct.

I feel bad.
-Feel is being used as a linking verb, not an action verb. That makes "bad" a subject complement/the predicate adjective. Bad is describing "me," not the verb.

I feel badly.
-Badly is an adverb describing an action verb. This usage implies that I have done a poor job of feeling something (fur, for example).

What makes this situation so confusing is that there is a list of words that could be either action or linking. These are called resultative verbs. Verbs related to the five senses often function in this way. They are: grow, look, prove, remain, smell, sound, taste, turn, stay, get, appear, feel.

And there you have it. I do know my grammar, but clearly was in a brain fog.

Let's do something creative and fun with this. Here's that list again. Choose one of the words with which to begin a sentence as a command. As each of us adds a line, we will see the makings of a collaborative poem.


Grow! For the sun caresses your sweet limbs and dew drops glisten atop your leaves.
Look
Prove
Remain
Smell
Sound
Taste
Turn
Stay
Get
Appear
Feel