Monday, July 30, 2012

Summer Camp

There are no cricket sounds, no mosquitos, no camp fire smell or marshmallow roasting.  This isn't  sleep away camp. It's  Apple's movie camp for kids at our local Apple store.

Benji leads the learning at Apple's Movie Magic camp for kids.
The camp is held in the store in the mall. Blessed air conditioning! Kids get Apple camp tee shirts and ear buds. They have two days to play with Garage Band and iMovie to make a movie. They gather around heavy blonde wood tables and stand in front of stations stocked with Mac Pros and iPad2s.

I love that the Apple store offers free workshops for kids (though I imagine it's a little like the free cookies at the grocery store: marketing to kids means brand loyalty for life, right? ). I can't wait to see what Collin creates.

As I stood watching the Apple camp counselors I couldn't help opening a Google document and taking notes, jotting my thinking.  I am always interested in seeing how kids learn and how others teach.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Pinterest for Writing


I love the look of Pinterest. Clean. Functional. It's user friendly. More so though, the boards once created are the full monty:  color, photographs, graphic art, illustrations. And such precise squared corners and white, white borders. I love the look.


I didn't spend much time exploring Pinterest last fall when I first created an account and I wish I'd dipped into the Pinterest pool sooner.  If I can access it from school (and I might be able to if access is truly changing to a tiered "by user log in" system), I want to use it to inspire my writers. 


There are so many ways we can think, talk and write about a photograph or a snapshot or a quote. So, I've spent a bit of summer serendipity skipping through images and inspiration online, then pinning it to an inspiration or blogging board.  They're not organized yet (by theme or school day), but I'm enjoying the gathering of ideas.