Thing 10

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender


I created the image above using the Poetry Blender feature on Image Chef. I also created the magazine cover below on the Big Huge Labs site. I can see how you could spend LOTS of time on these sites! Out of all the sites that were linked from the blog, I found that Big Huge Labs was the easiest for me to use. Some of the other sites were not as user-friendly. It took me numerous tries, for instance, to get the image from ImageChef to post here. I followed the directions for copying and pasting the html code numerous times, but I never could get it to work. I'm sure that there is something that I missed, but I don't know what it is. I finally just used the direct post option instead.




I probably won't have the need to use these sites often either professionally or personally, but it's great to know that these tools are available when I do need them. I would probably use them most when I needed to add something unique to a presentation or for humorous library signage. I don't know that I would use any of them with students, but I'm open to ideas! I'm sure the students would be highly motivated to create their own images, though, and I would love to try something like having them create their own magazine cover in honor of a famous person.




A site that I've been introduced to recently is Glogster, which allows the user to create posters combining images, video, and music. I am working on a Glog for my school library home page, which I hope to have completed by the beginning of school. Be kind...it's a work in progress!

Thing 6

WOW! Big Huge Labs is just that....so many interesting things that can be done with this site. I made a trading card of my almost-four year old to give out to her friends at her birthday party in a few weeks. I'm sure it will be a hit, at least with Nana and Grammy. :) I also made this jigsaw puzzle of an unhappy tourist on our trip to Alaska last summer. I could spend the rest of the summer playing on this site. I can imagine lots of uses for these applications, from mapping the location of famous landmarks in social studies to creating propaganda posters for language arts to making trading cards of famous people for Black History month, etc. What a great tool! I'm afraid that it will be blocked, though, like so many of the sites to which our district restricts access. I believe it was Alan November who said during his session at TLA this year something along the lines that we should also take away pencils and paper from the students because some of them might write inappropriate notes if we allow them to have those tools. Excellent point, in my opinion!