Take a Stand!

I actually didn’t mind reading the articles on Digital Activism. I was able to relate what I was reading to what my capstone class is about the whole time. I am currently taking Social Media and Democracy class as a capstone and I never thought that I would be able to relate that class to any other class, little did I know we would have a whole week dedicated to social media and activism! I think that social media is a great way to get active on a movement especially in today’s world where we have so much access to all kinds of social media platforms. Another thing why I think that social media is great is because living in such small towns it can sometimes be hard to get involved with a social movement, and social media allows people to get connected and involved throughout the nation.

While I was looking at the teen nominees I saw that almost all of them were using social media to help suicidal thoughts and help students in need. I chose to read more into the Buddy Project by Gaby Frost. What she basically did was get a twitter account and through her account she created this Buddy Project program that partnered up two people that were having suicidal thoughts or simply need someone to talk to. She also tweets, shares pictures and other motivational and inspirational things on her page. She now has a YouTube account as well and hopes that it will expand on to other social media platforms.

I think that if a person really sets their mind to it activisms can be very effective. In order to get there though a person should start off by taking baby steps and really follow their goals in order to make a change. I have never participated as an activist, I kind of just avoid all of that kind of stuff. I do however, like pages on Facebook or different images, but I don’t share anything or really contribute to making a change or starting a movement.

I think that as educators some issues we should consider is making sure that we emphasize the importance of social media and how it can be used in a positive manner. We want to make sure that we influence kids to use social media positively and for good causes and not to promote misbehavior and bully other kids on social media platforms. There are so many things that people can advocate through social media that can help towards a good cause. I found the module interesting because I could really relate to it and I also found the teen nominees interesting as well. I think they are a prime example of how to use social media in a positive way and encourage other children to do the same.

Getting Back on Track :)

These past few days I have been working on quite a bit of art projects that I could do with my kids for a fun Halloween on Friday. I have been timing myself and taking notes on most of my projects. I’ve been keeping track of how much I spend on each project to ensure that I get all the hours in for this class. It is also nice to keep track of it because it will hopefully one day give me an estimate of how long it would take me to do each project with my kids. Some projects take longer than others especially if I am painting I have to wait for the paint to dry before doing anything else. I also decided to make little notes on sticky notes and attaching them to each project, in hopes that it will help me in the future. Some of the notes I take include if I need to pre-trace pictures so all the kids have to do is cut out the picture. Or how much cotton balls I used, stuff like that, that would save me some time later on.

The first fun project was super easy it was just a cotton ball ghost. I traced out a ghost on white paper and just attached cotton balls all over and then glued on its face. This project took me 10 minutes to create and it was super easy and fun.

The next project was a pumpkin. For this one I painted a paper plate orange and waited it to dry. Once it was dry I painted on his face with black acrylic paint. I also attached a green pipe cleaner to the top of the plate.

Another fun project that I could use for upper elementary grades was two bats with an orange background. I really liked this one because I like to smear the paint and mix it in together to create like a sunset looking background. I think that this is a good example of how to show the kids what mixing colors properly can do. For this one I think I would draw out the bats and have them cut it out if they are younger and if the kids are older than just have them draw their own!

I also did a fun spider web. I had originally wanted to use crayon and water color to get the water color to make it a water color resist. (This is something I learned in art for elementary teachers). But I totally failed! I need to look up how to do it to get a refresher. It still turned out really cool though so I’m not ruling this project out I just expected it to go differently.

The last few art projects I did and thought I could probably include were emoji “costumes” for some of the staff members at Chadron Primary.  This year the staff members at the primary school decided to dress up as emoji’s so I cut out big yellow circles and drew in faces.

I get to teach one of these art projects to my first graders on Friday so I am pretty excited! I haven’t decided what I want them to do yet but I can’t wait, wish me luck! All of the projects together took me about two hours. 🙂