Posted by Amanda Kenuam on Fri, May 14, 2010
ToonDoo is an exciting, comic-creating tool and more from Jambav, a site dedicated to providing online games of educational value for kids of all abilities.
The site provides many creative and engaging tools for the classroom including a toondoo comic maker, a tratr avatar creator, a bookmark creator, the imaginer for photo editing, and a doodler for creating online art. Digital storytelling through the creation of comics is easy. Students simply drag, drop, or click to create comics that express their feelings, opinions, creativity, or learning.
The comics can be used by to apply their learning, to inspire creative writing, organize literary elements, analyze character traits, to build vocabulary, and much more. The possibilities are limitless. You can even challenge your students to get involved in a ToonDoo contest to stretch their creative side. Be sure to scroll through the galleries on the homepage to gather more ideas.
Teachers can also use these web 2.0 tools to create picture problems, to build engaging lessons on interactive whiteboards, to create flowcharts as a positive reinforcement tool. Teachers and students can even embed real life photos to make the comics more meaningful and relevant.
There is also a ToonDoo Spaces feature for a small cost (as low as ten cents per user per month) that allows you to create a comic-based social network for your classroom. Teachers can set up a private virtual ToonDoo space to publish, share and discuss comic strips with group memebers in a secure and private environment. Teachers can get alerts, filter content, and set restrictions.
Free Teacher Resources | Special Education by MangoMon
Posted by Denis Soukhanov on Mon, Apr 12, 2010
For special education students, learning how to appropriately socialize and show emotions may be incorporated into everyday classroom activities. These skills help students to assimilate into society, jobs, and build relationships with their peers. One creative way to teach these skills is through artistic activities. Many FREE websites are available for teachers to create open-ended online art projects that foster socialization and promote emotional development.
ArtPad
ArtPad is an online site where students can digitally paint online. Students use the different digital tools to change the colors, pen shape, text, paint bucket, size, and opacity to create their art. There is also an undo feature available, just in case. Each time they create a digital stroke, that information is recorded on the site. When the students finish, they can select the replay button to see the steps they took to complete their masterpiece. Their art can then be hung in the digital gallery or emailed to teachers, peers, or family members. Different lessons could include painting about how they feel, or painting appropriate emotions for different circumstances as determined by the teacher. Students could also work together alternating back and forth to build their painting. This would encourage sharing, cooperation, and group work. Many academic lessons could also be taught using this program like drawing and labeling the parts of a wave, drawing the phases of a butterfly, or illustrating a scene from a novel they are reading.
Doodle is Art
Doodle is Art is a website where young students (with adult supervision) can upload their drawings. Drawings are uploaded from all around the world. Students can create digital art or scan photographs of traditional artwork, upload it to the website, and then share their artwork with the world. This creates an authentic environment for students to share their artistic work. In my experiences when work is to be displayed for more than just the teacher and the student, the students tend to take more care and pride in their work, and in turn it makes learning more meaningful for the students.
Mr. PicassoHead
Mr. PicassoHead is an online site where students create their own Picasso drawing by selecting the different facial elements "Mr. Potato Head style." They first choose their face shape, then eyes, nose, lips, ears, eyebrows, hair, abstracts, and then they add their signature. As they add the different elements, the students are able to change the color, scale, order, and direction to create their own artistic view of Mr. PicassoHead. This would be a great activity for students to work together. They can learn sharing and compromising skills to create a work that they will both be proud of. Teachers could also use this site to teach students about emotions. They can direct the student to an emotion that they should artistically create with their Mr. PicassoHead. They can also learn about how colors relate to emotion.
Other Great Art Sites
The Art Zone
MOWA Kids
Crayola
Article by Laura Ketcham
Photo by Dylanroscover
Posted by Lauren Grossberg on Mon, Mar 22, 2010
Art is a great way for students to express their own creativity and ideas. For students with special needs, it provides them with a chance to do just that.
Hernando County ESE students in Brooksville, Fl collaborated with professional artists through a grant-funded program to create their very own artwork. The artists came to one of the three schools participating where they visited and taught students about art.
"Hand 'n Hand," is the name of the program, which was a collaborative effort between the Hernando County School District and VSA arts of Florida. The program is funded by a grant from the Community Foundation of Hernando County.
VSA advocates learning, enjoyment and participation in the arts for the disabled. By pairing students with artists, this enjoyment of the arts can be achieved.
The artists participating in this program find it challenging, yet rewarding once they have built that relationship with the students to create a masterpiece. Not only do the students get to build their artistic skills but they get to build their concentration skills, too. They get another opportunity to learn. This is important because children, especially those with special needs, all learn in different ways.
Many of the artists involved with the program want people can see that these kids are capable of doing the same activities that the other kids do. They get creative and use new and innovative art projects when working with the students.
The whole purpose of the program is to showcase the art of the special needs students. After the completion of the program the art is displayed for members of the community to see. Since the students love art, this is a great way for them to learn about it and feel rewarded for their hard work.
Photo By: Jose Kevo
Free Teacher Resources | Special Education by Learning Today