The Dark Artifices

Have you ever heard of Cassandra Clare? Well, if you haven't heard of Cassandra Clare then you should check out some of these amazing books that she has written. The Dark Artifices is just one of the series that is talented author had written, and she's also known for the Mortal Instrument Series where you may have heard the names, Clary Fray and Jace Herondale. If the names still don't ring a bell perhaps you may have seen the Freeform's TV series Shadowhunters which is based on the book series. Of course, the TV series may be substantially off according to the book series because lets face it most movie or TV adaptations don't always portray books all that well.

If you are interested in books that have adventure, supernatural, suspense, and teenage romance then this book series and author would be a great addition to anyone's reading. I've read all of Cassandra Clares books and this trilogy is by far one of my favorites. The Dark Artifices picks up right after The Mortal Instrument series which concludes the ending of the Dark War. Now the most important thing to know is that it follows a family, The Blackthorns and Emma Carstairs, who are Nephilim (humans with angel blood), who work together to solve a murder mystery that could have a deadly impact on the human and Nephilim world. Not only are they trying to solve these mysterious deaths but Julian ( head of the Blackthorn family) and Emma are fighting their love/attraction for one another, because according to the Clave (Nephilim ruling body) laws its forbidden for parabatai (warrior partners) to love one another. Not only is it forbidden to love your warrior partner in a romantic way, but a curse will fall upon both warriors and drive them crazy to the point of killing those that they love. 

Intense, right? This book series had me on the edge of my seat and brought me to tears many times during my reading, but it was worth the heartache I felt when it concluded. Cassandra Clare is a marvelous story teller who knows how to develop a character to make them relatable and enduring. Each character that was introduce in this serious made me either love or hate them depending on how the story went. If you were to read this serious I would first start with The Mortal Instrument series first just to get the foundation then the Dark Artifices. Personally, I read The Mortal Instrument Series first, the second series was The Infernal Devices trilogy, and lastly The Dark Artifices. Here's a website with the chronological order if your that type of reader-http://shadowhunters.com/tl/mobile/mobile.php   

Final Reflection

Lord Jesus, I'm glad this semester is about done. This semester was tough with Hurricane Harvey, the school year starting late, and then pushing this course back just to catch up with everything. I must admit this was a quick semester with little to no time to catch up with everything. I'm not a parent or married but I'm a 4th grade teacher with a high amount of low academic students this year. So, needless to say I've been stressed out by all this information and keeping up with my job too.

I will admit even though this course went by super quick I definitely saw a lot of interesting technological applications to use and practice on. I thoroughly enjoyed the comic making activities, creating a Animoto with a QR code attached to it, and the extra credit online communities too. I really want my students to practice and have experiences with Animoto, so my hope is for them to create a book trailer over their favorite book this six weeks. I feel that the students would greatly benefit in creating book trailers, book talks, and the comics would be a great way to illustrate the concept they learned this week. I liked how someone in our class or another section used book covers that had faces as their face for their flipagram. Students would enjoy that activity as well.

Even though, I had a pleasant time with some of the assignments I didn't enjoy the Infographic assignment very much. I guess I felt overwhelmed with template and all the information that I thought I needed to put onto my infographic. Oh well, you win some, you lose some lesson learned. 

This has truly been a whirlwind semester and I'm glad to have picked up some new tricks to use in the classroom. I may try a screencast-o-matic for a lesson or activity, but I haven't decided yet. Thanks again Dr. Gross for this unique semester. 

Online Book Communities

Goodreads was sort of easy to navigate and use when you're looking up books to add to your collection. The only bad thing I found was the user needs to make sure to save to the correct selected collection, because otherwise you'll be back tracking to correct your mistake. I like the overall user rating and I liked how I could add my own rate to the books too. It may be difficult at first but with practice I think students could create their own book collection.

LibraryThing was actually a lot easier  to use then Goodreads. I was able to find the books a lot quicker, rate the books, and the cool thing about this site is I had the author listed, the date of the publication, and more. I believe students would like browsing this site verses Goodreads. The only drawback again the adding to the "right" collection and its not completely appealing unlike Booklikes and Biblionasium. Just remember to select the correct collection otherwise you'll have to backtrack like I did in the GoodReads webpage.

I absolutely loved Booklikes. It took a while to add the books because you couldn't simply add on more books to the collection at once like Goodreads. I liked that I could set up my own shelves and have a background to add my books. The book covers are easy to see and display looks like a digital library shelf. You can add a description to your book shelf that you created and title the whole webpage collection. It gives you the amount of books within your collection as well. This is by far my favorite and I would like to think that my students would find it super easy to browse through and use.

Biblionasium was super cool to work with and I can really see myself optimizing this website in my class. What I liked most about this website was after selecting the book to my shelf I could also click on boxes to indicate that I liked the book, recommended it, make it required reading, and set in the classroom library. This website even gives a book summary for the books I selected and added to my library. I have a classroom wishlist that students can add their own suggested books.  Parents can connect to my website as well, and I can challenge my students with books too. I think with a little more time and practice I could totally have this site used in my classroom or library one day. I like the school community connection and showcases new books or have my favorites listed to see if students would like my choice.

In conclusion, I would recommend Biblionasium and Booklikes to be used and optimize in the classroom, because they offer so much to students and they're very eye-appealing. If I had to chose only one choice then Biblionasium would be the final choice, and I simply like the idea of students and parents having that access to my book shelf. The classroom wish list may even get filled in with generous donations from parents or the school community. It gives me something to think about while I continue teaching and finishing up my degree. 

Podcast

Podomatic

Podomatic was my least favorite site to use to make a podcast. One thing about this site is that you would have to use your phone to record a voice memo, email yourself the voice memo, upload the mp 3 file, and download the file to share. Personally, this is too many steps to create a podcast and it wasn't user friendly. Students would become to frustrated with the process and decide to use something else.

AudioBoom

This site was the very simple to use on your phone and when you were ready to share your recording you would go to AudioBoom site to share your podcast. I liked using this site because it allowed me to use a QR code like I did on the Animoto.com site. Personally, the podcasts can be created and used with the QR code around the library to create a book trailer or highlight, so students could use their smart device to scan the code and listen to the podcast.

Soundcloud

SoundCloud was the next easiest site to create podcast. It was very user friendly and easily to upload and share your podcast. I could see students using this site and AudioBoom more than Podomactic due to the simplicity each webpage. Every student could have opportunities to create their own book trailer, class message, report, or just have fun with the process.

Student's will just need to be reminded that they need to use a smart phone or iPad to make their voice recordings, and then upload to the main webpage to create their podcast. Plus, they need to be aware of online safety before they create their podcast. 

Cartoons and Comic Strips

The ToonDoo application was super easy to work with and I've had prior experience working on this particular application. It was also easy to save the comic and keep in a file to save in case I want to use this comic strip. The only negative thing about this site is the lack of selection of characters, backgrounds, and props. Of course, the orientation to allow for movements and facial expression is tough to do unless the user goes through the selection of characters to find the right movements they need for the comic strip.

 The Pixton site was the easiest to operate due to the single step by step virtual instructions that made it simple to create a comic strip. I could save my comic strip without any issues which is great in case I need to edit it later. I liked the variety of backgrounds, characters, and props on this site versus any other site that I used. So, if anyone has to make a comic strip I would tell them to use this site over the others.

The MakeBeliefsComix website was an epic fail and not very easy to create a comic strip. I had to do figure out how to arrange characters and word clouds were a pain to work with too. This was my least favorite site that I had to use. So, I would advise against using this website because it's not user friendly, no instructions on how to use, and no saving capabilities.

These websites that I got to use gave me a new perspective on how to use the comic strip application in order to teach my students or have other teachers use it in their own classroom. We can easily use the comic strips to send out our message or give students the liberty of using it to display their own message over a learned concept. I find that these comic strip websites will allow any teacher to display their rules and expectations easily through a comic-like style.

Tellagami: Where the Red Fern Grows.

YouTube and QR Codes in the library

Choose two videos from each Channel. 1) Which is the most helpful for students. 2) Which is the video that the students would like the best?

These two YouTube channels I thought were great inspirations and humorous for the students to see. I like the Norman Public Library's celebration of Freedom to Read which shows off many of the teachers, staff, and students.
I believe students would get inspired by seeing others read their favorite books that inspired their love for reading. Not only did I like the Freedom to Read celebration, but I got a kick out of the Hunger Games remake of Overdue Games to convince students to keep up with their over due books or pay the fine.
I would like to think I would use the YouTube video like one of the schools did for showcasing overdue books, and how to show to use the search tools in the library. I would also do some major bragging for Literacy Day, Dr. Seuss Day, and any event at our school by putting together a compilation video throughout the year.

Billy has long dreamt of owning not one, but two, dogs. So when he’s finally able to save up enough money for two pups to call his own—Old Dan and Little Ann—he’s ecstatic. It doesn’t matter that times are tough; together they’ll roam the hills of the Ozarks.
   Soon Billy and his hounds become the finest hunting team in the valley. Stories of their great achievements spread throughout the region, and the combination of Old Dan’s brawn, Little Ann’s brains, and Billy’s sheer will seems unbeatable. But tragedy awaits these determined hunters—now friends—and Billy learns that hope can grow out of despair, and that the seeds of the future can come from the scars of the past.

Animoto creation.

The book trailer I made on Animoto was quite fun and interesting to use. Student could really benefit making their own book trailer or use it for something else. 

QR Code: Have a QR scanner that can be downloaded onto your phone and scan the code to view the video.

In my library I would like to use the QR code to issue a small synopsis of the new arrival books, popular author, or teacher's choices. I think students would enjoy seeing a mini video over the book or author, and perhaps seeing their teachers choice and why they liked the story.

Screencasts, Instagram, and Flipagram

Screencast-o-Matic


Instagram.com

Flipagram

All three programs are well worth a try and deserve to be practiced. I'm still need to work on my screencast-o-matic skills, but I can see how it's beneficial to use when presenting to class via computer. I believe my professors from Sam Houston State University have used this site to produced some of their lectures.
I'm not good with Instagram, but I can see how this web app can be used to brag about student achievements, school events, or classroom life. The examples of the blog lists and other sites showcase some great examples on how teachers and anyone can use this application.
Now I'm not a fan of Flipagram because I don't see the benefits other then creating a musical slideshow or video. I suppose it would be fun but it slightly complicated with little to no instruction. So, if I had to choose it would be Instagram because of its popularity, easy accessibility, and user-friendly.