Blog Post #5 Tutorial

Comic Strips are an awesome way to tell a story and engage students. After playing around with Pixton last week, I decided to do my tutorial on Pixton. 

Step 1: Go to the website

Click the link above to go to the website's homepage. Then, click the "Sign Up" button at the top right corner.

Step 2: Sign up and create an account

Your next step will be to create an account as a student or teacher. ( I chose to make a teacher's account, but I should make both to see the students' facing aspect.)Once you make your account, you will end up on this page. Here, you have several options:

Create Tab

- Comic Maker

- Avatar Maker

- Classrooms

- Staff Photos

- Content Packs

Four other tabs are Resource, My Classroom, My Characters, and My Comics.

Step 3: Head to Comic Maker

You can create your own avatar if you want to add your own. It is very limited if you don’t become a paid member. The avatar can be added to your comic strip. Once you begin, you will have many different background options. You can also upload your own picture to add your background. 

Step 4: Create a Comic

Now that you're in the comic maker, begin to explore. There's so much you can do besides changing the background. You can add characters, objects, words, focus, facial expressions, and different actions for your characters. You can also add panels and make your comic as long as you want. 

Step 6: Save and Name your comic

Once you are done creating, you can click 'Done" in the top left corner. Then, you will be able to name your comic properly. 

Step 7: exporting your comic

Side note: You can access the interactive rubric to grade your comic in the space.

However, to export any comics, you must be a paid subscriber to print, share, and download comics. 

Blog Post #4 To do List

  Narrative Piece

• 

  Begin my narrative by quickly go over how I fell into the education

• 

  Explain my reasoning or the issue you want to solve in my school

• 

  Propose my solution

• 

  Explain how I will roll out my plan

• 

  Explain how I expect my plan to go

Blog Post #3 Final Project Idea

 My final project will address chronic absenteeism, school engagement, and school investment. In our school community, we sometimes refer to our students as falcons. For us, a falcon is our mascot, but it is also a student who is invested in their school community. It doesn't matter what kind of student you are, whether you are an A student or a student who struggles. Falcons are the students invested in making your school community safe and better. I aspire every student to be a Falcon. Engaging students and incentivizing schools with community events can help with investment and engagement. Students are more likely to attend school if investment and engagement are high. Last year, I came up with many events myself; some went well, and some flopped. Next year, I want to bring more student ideas to the table. I was thinking about creating a system where kids can put their ideas someplace to better understand what the students want to do.

Blog Post #2 Disney

 

Born in 1991, I grew up watching Disney movies. I remember having the VHS cassettes of Aladin, Pocahontas, The Little Mermaid, Lion King, and so much more. I grew to love All that is Disney and passed them down to my brothers. I vividly remember my youngest brother being born and me putting him in front of the TV to watch The LION King. I remember changing my Instagram handle to Kovu after the character in Lion King 2. 

Linda Christensen made some great points about how it most likely shaped my life and the children who watched it. But at my place in life, I’m unsure how much it matters or how much damage was done. I try to reflect on my life and identify with being a man. I personally adhere to some of the social norms that come with it. But I was also raised in a church and by religious parents. I also was raised in sports culture with some issues of its own. Also, just being born in America has its stuff that you can align to “secret education.” Vapes with flavors that attract young teens. I can’t tell you how many watermelon Ice or Very Berry berry vapes I’ve confiscated this year. 

I believe that as parents, we attempt to help children build that educational armor. But so much information is being slid through every day. If you aren't careful, you might miss it. Teaching students how to think critically is so important. When parents/guardians, teachers, and educators are no longer there to guide them, they can fall back on what they learned.  

As I watch some of the movies, I see how they’re problematic. But for some reason, I still find it difficult to attack them critically without feeling bad. Mulan needed to pretend to be a man to save her father because a woman's voice was mute in their society. After saving many soldiers, she was found to be a woman, and the punishment they wanted was death. Christensen explained why the little mermaid was problematic, not to mention the world's uproar when they cast a black woman as Ariel in the live-action movie.  

What I’m fighting is the nostalgia of what got me through childhood and facing the fact that maybe they weren’t so great, to begin with. 

Bog Post #1 "Digital Natives"

 While I don’t find Prensky's use of the term' digital natives' for children born in the digital era objectionable, I do appreciate Boyd's approach of protection and foresight. Boyd's perspective seems to anticipate potential disparities in digital growth and literacy. 

As a first-generation American, I can deeply relate to the concept of children born in the digital era simply being digital citizens. This parallels my own experience and that of my parents. I was born here in America, and despite Creole being my first language, English quickly became dominant due to my immersion in American culture. My parents, on the other hand, were born in Haiti and were more resistant to this cultural shift. They were born in a different culture and immersed in Haitian culture in their young adult lives until they moved to America. I found it hard-pressed not to see a common thread between this and Prenskys ideology on “digital natives and immigrants.” 

Prensky was merely drawing connections. I concur with Boyd's assertion that we should not assume that children born in the digital era are automatically proficient in it. However, this is not a unique phenomenon. In the past, American children were often employed in factories without any legal requirement for education. This has since changed, and now it is unthinkable for Americans to send their children to work in factories and miss school. Children born in different eras have different opportunities and perspectives. Boyd identifies the academic or digital literacy gap as a concern, but it is a different systemic issue that society must address. 

Now, although I stated that I don't find the term digital native offensive, I am more than open to hearing other perceptions if there is something I possibly missed. I truly would never want someone to feel offended, disrespected, or unheard.

Intro Post

 My name is Jai. I work in education, so  I have some time off. When I'm not in class, I like to stay active and use my body, playing sports, riding bikes, and watching some of my favorite shows. One of the leagues I like to play in is the Super Fun Activities club. I am a NY Giants fan so I'm really excited for the football season to start. This picture is the team getting ready for a game.