Product Title: Say the Time (PC-only computer program, see Mac alternative below)

Grade Levels: Kindergarten-12th grade

Product Review: I am an elementary art teacher, and I know that schedules are hard to keep. In my classroom, we have fifty-five minute classes, and when you take away clean up time, that doesn’t leave us with nearly enough time to get our work done. I also realized when I was helping students, that sometimes the time got away from me. So I  searched online for some kind of timer. What I found was Say the Time. It is an amazing program that can set reminders to go off every day.

I have set a reminder for when it is clean-up time for each class, and I have it repeat every week day. Whenever the bell rings, the students know it it time to clean up. This gets everyone going very quickly, and always on time! The program costs about $30.00, but that is a one time fee. There are no subscriptions or any other costs. Just recently, I have added another timer that tells students when they need to be in line and ready to walk out the door. Just today, I had a fourth grade class that was cleaned up and in line in less than one minute! It has worked wonders and given me back my class time. Another added bonus: You can set it to “Say the time” whenever you want it to (I have it set for every 15 minutes) which helps the younger students with elapsed time!

Please note:  Say the Time works on PC only.  If you are a Mac user, we found a similar product called “Timer 7.0” (click “download page” for free version)

Bucket Rating (5 out of 5 – Love! Need it! Gotta have it now!):

(5) Love it! Need it! Gotta have it now!

]]> http://theteachingpalette.com/2010/05/03/review-say-the-time/feed/ 2 http://theteachingpalette.com/2009/08/12/show-us-your-art-room/ http://theteachingpalette.com/2009/08/12/show-us-your-art-room/#comments Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:10:27 +0000 Hillary Andrlik + Theresa McGee http://theteachingpalette.com/?p=2100

It’s that time of the year again.  Over the next couple weeks, most of our readers will be preparing their art classrooms for the new school year.  Wouldn’t it be great to see the creative spaces of other art teachers around the country… or around the world for that matter?  Well this is your chance to share your art space… and see others.

By September 15, send a photo of your decked-out art classroom to info@theteachingpalette.com. We’ll compile all the art classroom photos into one showcase post.  Think HGTV for the art classroom.  We’ll also feature one or two lucky photos on our home page as the new “cover art” for The Teaching Palette.

Regardless of what level you teach, we want to see what you have done with the space you were given, even if it is on a cart or in the corner of a gym. In the end, we hope to receive enough photos to make a healthy online gallery so art teachers around the globe can be inspired for their own spaces.  Now go snap some photos!

I’m always looking for different images to help communicate the concepts I’m teaching. The images I saved were taking up a ton of space on my computer and really slowing it down. Plus it wasn’t very efficient for locating what I needed in the spur of the moment. Then I discovered the Vi.sualize.us website as a way to catalog and collect images. If you like Delicious, you will love Vi.sualize.us for bookmarking images you find on the web.

Vi.sualize.us is a free social bookmarking site that allows you to surf the web as normal, and bookmark any images you find along the way.  Images can be tagged so that you can search through your bookmarks to find what you want for your next art lesson. It’s very easy to use, just add a bookmark button on your browser or install a Firefox plugin and start surfing the web. When you see an inspiring image you want to remember just right click (control + click for mac users) or use the button in your browser.  There is even a free app called Cooliris for your iPhone or iPod Touch that will let you utilize your images on the go. The feature that really sets Vi.sualize.us apart from other image sites is the “Safe For Work” feature.  Just click the “Safe ON/Safe OFF” button in the top right-hand corner of your screen to filter out inappropriate images while you browse.

Below are some of the features Vi.sualize.us offers:

• Bookmark images you want to remember on the Internet
• Safe ON/Safe OFF filter for work environments
• Bulk edit
• Comment on images
• Add tags to pictures so you can easily search for them again
• Wordpress plugin to display your images on blog or website
• A watchlist to keep track of images posted by others you want to follow
• Can search with the “And”, “Or” and the negation (“!”) operators. For example, you could search for still life apples or oranges.

You can check out what The Teaching Palette is bookmarking by clicking on this link. We also want to see the amazing images you discover around the web. You can share images by emailing info@theteachingpalette.com with your Vi.sualize.us name or by adding it to the comments section below. Then we will add your name to our “watchlist”.

Below is a short video that shows what the Vi.sualize.us site looks like and how to tag and save an image. There’s no sound, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

(Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.)

Submitted by: Anni Lyzenga, middle and high school art teacher from Lakeland, Florida

Product Title: IKEA Dignit Curtain Wire and Clips

Grade Levels: 3rd grade and up

Categories: Teaching Resource, Art History/Aesthetics/Criticism

Product Review: The Ikea Dignitet curtain wire and clips are a great addition to the art room.  Used together, these can be used to quickly clip up artwork for student critiques, or as a more permanent exhibit of student work.  Be sure to have a wire cutter handy as well to cut off extra length of wire to fit your room.  Currently, I have three of these installed in my art room.  Be sure to chose a spot that is easy for all students to view and if stacking them, leave enough space to display large artwork or posters.

Bucket Rating (out of 5):

(5) Love it! Need it! Gotta have it now!

If you’re interested in being a Teaching Palette contributor and submitting a review, please click here to learn more.

If you’re looking for the image editing power of Photoshop or Illustrator without the hefty price tag you may want to consider trying the Aviary Suite.  It’s a free web 2.0 technology with a pro version available for $24.99 a year. Aviary is not only an image editing tool but it’s also a visual social network.

Users maintain a profile, contacts, favorites, access to chat boards, tutorials and more. Images created in the Aviary Suite can be shared with the community or kept private in a user account, and then saved in a variety of formats or downloaded to your computer.

Plus, users can import images from a URL, Aviary Library, Flickr, Picasa or Facebook directly into any of Aviary’s five programs – Phoenix, Falcon, Peacock, Toucan and Raven.

Phoenix does image editing and has tools like layers, masks, effects, undo history, and more. Peacock is what Aviary calls their “visual laboratory”. It features tools like generators, effects and controllers. Toucan is their color swatches and palettes. It features many of the usual color palette tools but what really was interesting to me was their color deficiency preview tool. It allows you to choose from a list of color vision deficiencies and see how someone who is color blind would distinguish your color palette. It would be a great way to teach students how other people see the world. Toucan is a simple tool, but in conjunction with the other programs in the Aviary Suite you can create some amazing images. Raven is their vector editor program and the first of its kind on the web.  It allows you not only to create complex vector art but to carefully scale and create logos, clip-art, large print ready graphics, and t-shirt and clothing designs.

The newest program is an image markup tool called Falcon. It allows you to capture images from your desktop or a web page and edit them in your browser. It is similar to Skitch or Jing but with additional capabilities since it can be used in conjunction with Aviary’s other programs. Just install Talon, a Firefox extension for Aviary, and you can quickly annotate, mark, crop and resize your captured images. Or you can transfer the images to any of the other Aviary programs for more in-depth editing. Falcon would be a great tool to have students critique an image of their own, a classmates or from a pool of stock photos.

If you teach a computer graphics program at a middle or high school and are looking for an exceptional resource or additional tools to extend beyond the classroom lab, Aviary might be a solution for your program.  Students don’t have to stop creating once they leave the lab since they can log on and design anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Below are two videos featuring Aviary’s Raven and Falcon programs.

(Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.)

(Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.)

Tool Name: TT-O2s by Elmo

Grade Level(s): All Ages

Category: Technology and Gadgets

Product Review: One of the most powerful pieces of equipment in my art room is the document camera. It has really changed how I present to the kids. Gone are the days of a class crowding around a large table so I can demonstrate a new technique. Now I never hear “I can’t see” and “He touched me!”  I simply paint, draw or model clay under the camera and the real-time video is projected onto a large screen. Students pick up the techniques faster and with more success.

The Elmo automatically self adjusts to the changing light conditions in the room. The arm can be re-positioned to project a still-life from a side view as well as a birds-eye view. Compared to other document cameras I’ve used, the Elmo picks up more colors in artwork such as the often hard-to-see yellows. The camera can project a standard piece of 12″ x 18″ drawing paper. No more trimming paper to fit an image. It connects to my computer so I can record images from a lesson to use at a later time. And there are many more technical features that I won’t list but you can check them out for yourself at the Elmo website.

Now every seat in my classroom is a great seat which helps maintain classroom management and focuses student attention. Needless to say I love this product! I’ve used three different brands of document camera and the TT-O2 is by far the best.

Bucket Rating (out of 5):

(5) Love it! Need it! Gotta have it now!

Click here to learn more about the bucket rating system or to submit your own review.

Grade Level(s): 3rd and up

Category: Art Production

Product Review: The Friendly Loom is a great way to teach social cooperation and artistic collaboration in the classroom. It’s also a fantastic extension activity for students that finish early. The loom is well constructed and can stand up to daily classroom use. It’s large but, can easily be tucked behind a cabinet, in a storage room or placed on a counter. I’ve had up to six students at one time weaving on it.

My colleague, Julie, had the brilliant idea of installing small metal hooks on either side of the frame so that students could braid fabric or yarn to use in a weaving. The extra hooks also allow two additional students to work with the loom. All of my students are excited about weaving on it. I love this product in my classroom!

Bucket Rating out of 5:

(5) Love it! Need it! Gotta have it now!

Click here to learn more about the bucket rating system or to submit your own review.

Show your students this great video before you start your next weaving project!

Trouble viewing this video? Try this link.

Tool Name:

Grade Level(s): 3rd and up

Category: Art Production

Product Review: I can finally allow younger children to use an exacto knive in my classroom. However, I would only recommend it for 3rd grade and up. I needed to train the students on how much pressure to add to achieve a good cut, but the investment in training was well worth the effort. Unlike other exacto knives, there is no way for the children to get cut – I can finally do some interesting paper cutting projects without the safety concerns. It would be good to have a few of these on hand for cutting out interior sections of paper or get a class set for whole-class art productions. The only drawback is that it is hard to get the blade lined up exactly where you want to begin to cut. When this happens, we just use a regular scissors to snip any areas left over the blade didn’t reach. The Ultimate Cutter comes with mini cutting mats – they aren’t great, but they work well for small areas.

Bucket Rating out of 5:

(3) Good. Worth a try.

Click here to learn more about the bucket rating system or to submit your own review.