Tool #1

I have used blogger and created an avatar before and so the 1st tool seemed like an easy start.  I am a big proponent of technology in the art classroom.  Art often gets skipped over in this area due to budget constraints, especially in other districts, but I feel that it is a necessary piece in the development of technologically savvy youth.  So much is visual these days, particularly when it comes to emerging careers.  In an elementary classroom blogs might be used as pert of the reflection process.  Any incentive to write is beneficial, and an online forum which can be shared with peers holds more interest than a standard paper or even a journal.  Creating the avatar identity to go along with the blog helps to personalize and give it greater importance.  In an art classroom the avatar itself requires an unique creative process even though it is limited to selection.  It is very similar to the personalized self portraits that every grade level creates in my classroom that I encourage to be more of a reflection of their insides than their outside physical appearance.  I would even go so far as to say that some avatar programs I have seen remind me of the self portraits of Frida Kahlo.