Important Info For Karen

Posted on February 28, 2020 by reislusarchuk

This week me and Ashlyn decided to have a conversation between a parent and the teacher regarding using social media in the classroom. The parent Karen is very unsure of using social media in the classroom since she doesn’t know to much about it and thinks it will take away from her child’s learning. The teacher sees Karen’s concerns and assures Karen of why they are using it and the benefits it may have within the classroom. We used a website called Fake text message to make this look like a real life conversation and something you could experience as a teacher. We all know that there is both pros and cons to using social media within the classroom, but if you are only using the media for the right reasons you could avoid having problems. It is very important to have internet safety talks with your students no matter what age they are. Technology is a part of life now and everyone including kids have access to it all the time. Even though in this situation the teacher is not allowing the students to have access to the social media account in the classroom, it is important for the students to know what and what not to do when they are using the sites on their own time. I found a great website that has all the tips and tricks to practicing safe online and social media safety!

Bon Appetit🥗🥓

Posted on February 28, 2020 by reislusarchuk

This week I decided to take on food photography. I really enjoyed taking photos of my food but I am incredibly sorry to anyone who gets hungry looking at these photos. I will link the recipes to all the meals I have made since they were all to die for!

This week I also decided I was going to edit the photos that I took. I used the basic editor on my iPhone which I found did the job well. I adjusted the brightness, highlights, and shadows so I was able to make the food stand out in the photos and be more vibrant. I also adjusted the contrast in the photos to adjust the tones that were available in the photos. I took multiple pictures of the food I made just so I could get the best angle. I swear my family thought I was crazy from how interested I was with the food I cooked lol. I kept my camera in the original AV mode which adjusts the lighting in the photos before taking the photo. I used my best friend google to find out which mode was the best for this type of photography. I followed along with COOKIE and Kate to find out some of the best tips to take food photography.

The first meal I made was a chicken bacon ranch chicken breast. I would have to say it was my favorite out of everything I have made. The chicken was so moist and had so much flavor. I added tomatoes on top after to just for some extra flavor. With the chicken, I roasted some asparagus in the oven. I drizzled olive oil over them with minced garlic and herb and garlic seasoning. I let them cook in the oven for 10 minutes then added cheese to be melted onto them. The cheese added so much flavor and made them taste incredible!! For dessert, I bought a chocolate caramel pecan cheesecake from the M&M meat shop. 10/10 would recommend for anyone that has a sweet tooth.

The next meal I made is for all the seafood and salad lovers out there. I made garlic shrimp with a mixed green salad and stuffed mushrooms.The shrimp were sauteed in butter and garlic spread seasoning. I allowed them to sit and simmer on the stove for a good 5-10 minutes so all the flavor could absorb into the shrimp. The green salad had a variety of romaine lettuce, kale, spinach and some red cabbage in it topped with creamy poppy seed dressing. The stuffed mushrooms I just created myself with whipping together cheddar cheese, celery, peppers, and onions. It will make your lips water it is so appetizing and filling!

Hope I didn’t make you to hungry with these photos! Thanks for following along with my photography journey, stay tuned for more photos 🙂

Let’s Examine The Skies🌥📷

Posted on February 19, 2020 by reislusarchuk

This week I had a difficult time deciding what I was going to photograph. I decided to take a look at Google and see what other options I had to choose from. Landscape and animal photography really caught my eye as I was going through the different types of photography.

I was determined to get photos of the great amounts of wildlife behind my acreage but those animals are scared of me for some reason(or I’m scared of them, not sure haha). So sad to say every time I tried getting close enough to get a photo of them they ran and the picture became nothing but a blur. I find Saskatchewan’s variety of wildlife beautiful. So instead of wildlife, I decided to take more photos of my dog (I am OBSESSED with him), and my boyfriend’s dog. Both of our animals are very energetic which makes it difficult to take a good picture of them sitting still. For these pictures, I kept my camera in portrait mode so it would focus on the dog’s faces. I will admit that more than a couple of treats were needed for them to cooperate.

One reason I love living in Sask is being able to see the gorgeous sunsets and sunrises. Sask is known for the sunsets and sunrises which is why it has gotten the name “land of the living skies”. I honestly can say I will never get sick of seeing the skies. I decided to take a drive around my acreage and see what type of landscape photos I was able to capture. My favorite pictures were the abandoned barn in the middle of a field and the railway car beside the abanded house. I felt that these photos had the most character to them. I found different websites on how to take great landscape photos. I also watched a video on youtube on how to properly put my camera into the right setting. I really enjoyed taking these pictures and there wasn’t much to learn besides putting the camera into landscape mode and keeping the flash off. Very straightforward for this type of photography.

I took quite a few pictures this week so I decided to use an app called slideshow on my phone. I had to import all the pictures from my camera to my phone so I could make a video with them. This app is free for the first seven days but after you have to pay $3.99/ per week. I decided to give it a try since it seemed to have some pretty cool features to it! Using the first media icon on the left I was able to upload all the photos I took and was able to rearrange them in any order I liked. They give you different options on what “mood” you want to put your pictures in which is just like changing the filter on the photos. I choose to not change the mood since the colors in my photos were very beautiful by themselves. This app also allows you to add in music by clicking the music note icon and also allows you to change how long the photos will be shown using the timer icon. I decided to set mine to 1.5 seconds so it didn’t seem like the video was dragging. I loved how this app gave a good variety of things to do when it came to making a slideshow. When you are completed you are able to share it to almost any social media site using the share icon on the right. This app is very easy and straight forward to use for beginners like me. I really enjoyed using this app for making a slideshow of my pictures and will definitely be using it for other projects in the future!

Check out my video I made with the SLIDESHOW app!

Get that timer ready ⏱

Posted on February 9, 2020 by reislusarchuk

This week I thought I would try to do something a little bit harder to accomplish. My mind was set on action shots for this week’s learning post. The trickiest part of these photos is having the perfect timing otherwise these pictures don’t turn out the way they were supposed to! I used my I Phone XR for these photos since it has a burst option. This mode allows me to take multiple photos all at once almost as if it was a live photo.

I had no idea where to even start when it came to action shots so I started my search on Pinterest (honestly my favorite place to find everything I need ). I found some awesome blogs to follow that clearly outlined what to do to take that perfect action shot! The one blog gave a step by step progress and even gave recommendations to which lens would work for this type of shot! I am so thankful for this girl’s blog because it allowed me to get some pretty cool shots.

My favorite photo to attempt was the boiling water and cold temperatures outside. I have seen this done a few times and it had me amazed. The water freezes into droplets right when it’s thrown in the air and calls for a really cool photo! It took a few attempts to get the perfect shot/angle but I think I nailed it. I was a bit cautious about having the water not freeze and drop back down on my sister. Thank goodness that didn’t happen because that would have been a nightmare!

The second action shot photo I decided to take was with glitter. It ended in a huge mess but turned out exactly how I wanted it to! I wish I would have got a picture of my dog after this project was over. Gosh was it funny!

I can say that I am really enjoying doing photography for my learning project. It has allowed me to test my creativity and explore new things that photography has to offer! If anyone has any other advice or ideas of what I could try, that would be appreciated! Thanks a bunch for following along in my journey 🙂

Thanks so much for following along!

Twitter Twitter Twitter

Posted on February 8, 2020 by reislusarchuk

Before taking this online class I can admit I was never on Twitter and it was something I disliked going on. I think the main reason was that I did not know how to properly use it! After getting some help on how to use Twitter I finally have got the feel of it and have started to enjoy it. I find it so convenient for many things, especially shaping my internet identity!

Twitter has become a lot more fascinating to me over these past few weeks. After joining edtc300 I have realized what a great tool twitter can be. After joining in on the Sask-Ed chat on Tweetdeck my mind was blown away. I had no idea that a chat with teachers from all over Canada was possible. It was such an unreal experience where I was able to hear from very knowledgeable people. I think these chats are amazing to be apart of because not only is it good to hear others’ opinions but I believe it will be a place where you could build a big community for teaching. In teaching having somewhere to go and people to contact when you need help with resources or anything in the teaching world is key. I have noticed that everyone teaches with different strategies and getting different perspectives on things can lead to us becoming stronger educators.

Twitter in the classroom I think could be considered a good thing if the parents in the classroom are willing to use it. I think with avoiding putting the names or faces it could be used as a reminder system letting the parents know what is happening in the classroom! One internship that I was in the teacher used it for main reminders and used seesaw to send the parents pictures of the students’ work! I feel getting the parents more engaged in their students work is a way to build a strong community and relationships with not only the students but parents as well. With the students knowing their parents or caregivers will be seeing their work I think will make them more motivated to do good and not slack off. I’m not saying it’s always going to work like that but it’s just my opinion!

I look forward to seeing or hearing from you on Twitter! Here is my Twitter to follow along with my posts:)

Not The Basic B&W

Posted on February 3, 2020 by reislusarchuk

This week I decided to focus on black and white photography. I don’t know why but there is something I just love about these types of photos. Even though there is no colour to the photo I feel that it puts a lot of character into the photo.

I have always been interested in trying to shoot some photos that have black and white backgrounds with only one object having colour. An example would be someone shooting a basketball and only have the basketball in the colour. It adds an extra touch to the photo but takes some extra time to figure out how to edit the colour in! I watched a video on YouTube how to properly do it and which app to use! I found that the app Photo Splash worked the best because I was able to adjust the size of the brush when I was editing the photos.

With the extra time that these photos took me to edit I am beyond proud of how they turned out. The more I use the editing apps the more I feel comfortable with using them for the photos I take! I felt it took some getting used to and it got frustrating trying not to edit anything else in colour ! The app is so touchy and was difficult when I was trying to edit colour into small objects! I for one have small hands and fingers and that still didn’t seem to help me ! Next time I do this I plan to buy a stylus pen to be more precise with the lines!

Not sure if people enjoy these types of photos as much as I do but I would love to hear your feedback on them! Anything else you would suggest trying?

Everything Technology

Posted on January 30, 2020 by reislusarchuk

The changed world has turned to everything electronic. As Katia said in class “we are fundamentally changing with technology”. In some ways, this could be good but in some ways, it can also be bad. I find it bad because everyone’s heads are on their phones and no one really knows what’s going on around them. They are so caught up with what’s happening on social media that they forget how to verbally interact with others around them. In other words, technology is a huge benefit for people to interact around the world. As Michael Wesch states in his video on youtube that “the web is linking people”. The web allows people from all over the world to connect with each other and for the most part share useful information/ things with one another. I agree that without technology life would be extremely difficult. The internet has become a very popular place for everyone and everything.

When looking at technology in the classroom, I believe you have to build that boundary for only using technology for educational purposes. There are multiple great resources that children can use to help them or allow them to learn in every subject area. I still believe it is important not to base your entire teachings around technology. In the Indigenous ways of learning, I believe it is important for the students to get away from technology and learn from hands-on and experiential learning too. For all the students that will be using technology and the internet, I feel it is so important to remind them of internet safety. Making them aware of all the crazy things that can happen instantly when posting or taking a picture they only want that “one” person to see.

Getting Connected With Feedly

Posted on January 27, 2020 by reislusarchuk

This week I got myself signed up for an account on Feedly! Feedly is a feed reader that gathers information from around the web and puts it into one convenient place. I personally have never heard of this website but for my needs and interests it has become very useful and handy! I love that there is such a great variety for everything you may need!

I have followed quite a few pages already that caught my interest. I was able to find some photography pages to help intrigue me with different ideas for my learning project. I was also able to find a bunch of great teaching resources! I always get excited when finding good resources because it gives me new ideas to try in the classroom with my students. I followed some news pages as well to keep me updated of any important things going on in our province and country.

One page that I have found very resourceful was The Curriculum Corner 123. I found this page while searching and scrolling through other educational pages. This page I found to be very resourceful for all teaching needs in the elementary years. It has everything from classroom games, activities to different teaching strategies. I believe this will come in handy once I am back in the classroom again and have new ideas and new ways to teach the students. Variety is always good and makes learning fun!

I believe there are so many benefits to this Feedly website! It also comes in an app which makes it more convenient to always have resourceful information right at your fingertips! The greatest benefit I found from Feedly is that you get to see all the information you want in one single place rather than having to visit each website , blog , etc. I plan on using this website/app a lot because I believe it will come in handy.

Let’s Take A Closer Look📸

Posted on January 26, 2020 by reislusarchuk

This week I decided to focus my learning on close up and focus shots. This is also known as macro photography! These shots are made for the photographer to get pictures up close to show precise detail.

I found it a bit easier to take close up shots with my phone using portrait mode.Portrait mode is on is on Apple 7 plus and newer phones. This option allows the camera to focus on just one object and blur out the background making the object extremely clear. I had to watch a video on YouTube on how to change my camera to be able to take clear close shots. I found this a bit confusing changing and fooling around with all the settings on my camera. One tip that I found to help a lot was making sure the flash was on and staying as sturdy as I could while taking the photo. Personally I found that my iPhone and camera are pretty equal to how clear they take pictures. What do you think?

I decided not to worry about editing these first set of photos because I wanted to show how much detail is shown in the original photos.

Here are some different shots I got from both my camera and iPhone! I can’t believe how much technology has changed over the years and how great the cameras on our phones have gotten. Pretty crazy I think ! Everything we need is right at our fingertips.

Cattail picture captured with my Canon Rebel XSI

Is there any other tips or advice you could give me for trying something else with macro photography ?

Picture This

Posted on January 21, 2020 by reislusarchuk

Photography has always been an interest to me but I never had the time to dig deeper into the learning of how to properly use a camera or the editing of the photos. I bought a canon rebel xsi over 3 years ago thinking that I would get into taking pictures but it never happened. I am thrilled to finally take it out of its box and put it to good use for this project.

Over the course of this learning project I hope to learn a lot more about what my camera and iphone xr are able to do with photography. I want to be able to explore the different settings on the camera and discover the difference of what it does for a photo.

Throughout this project I also hope to dig into some different photo editing apps on my phone for the photos I take with my camera and iPhone. I want to play around more with light exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, sharpness and definition. I will be posting the before and after of the photos to show how much a photo can change with a few small adjustments.

Different types of photographs I plan on exploring more are:

Portraits : Pictures of a person or groups of people

Nature – pictures of the outdoors and things in nature

Landscape – mode when taking photos of a scene not a single object

Food – taking attractive still life photos of food

Black and White- Photos that have no colour

Close up- Taking a photo close up really showing features of a person or thing

Panorama- wide angle view

Action shots- picture taken with a person or thing when in motion of doing something

I am very excited to start digging into my camera and photographs at another level with exploring new settings, techniques and angles. I look forward to learning new things because there is so much to learn in regards to the new technology and all of the new apps out there for photo editing.

Keep posted for new photographs and tweets about how my photography learning journey is going!

Miss Slusarchuk

EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE

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