Mar 30

Trying to figure out edublog and wordwrapping around pictures.

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I’m playing around with this format as a template. I’m wondering if this will do word wrap. I’m not sure why the edublog features to align text don’t work for me.  shutterstock_6207058.jpgI read somewhere that it could be the theme template that I’m using. Whatever it is, it hasn’t worked, till maybe now. And the way that I got this to work was by copying in a newletter that I did on ConstantContact so the HTML code was in this box. I bought Wordpress for Dummies and I’m hoping that it helps. I just haven’t had time to read it yet. Blogging should be easier than it has been for me. If I didn’t want pictures, it would be easier. But I haven’t figured out how to make the font larger either.

I’m experimenting with cut and paste and by doing so got the font to be larger. I don’t know if it will be this size when I hit “publish”.

Well, I hit publish and then went back to edit because I forgot to identify the category, and all my color highlights are gone and the text is the same size. The process of the way this blog works is a huge mystery to me. If anyone has any resources that will help, I’d love to hear them.

I want to figure this out. Ok, so now why is this font so small? This is weird. I wonder if it will post this way. I also try to use that little picture symbol on the edit page to align the picture and it never works. Most of the time, it does nothing, or makes my picture move to the top of the blog (even if I told it to align left) and sometimes it makes my picture totally disappear! Go figure.

I also can’t figure out why my clock on the left keeps getting squished even though I unsquished it twice already.
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Mar 30

Good Ol’ Fashioned Flash Card Strategy & Resources

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I’m testing for my next level in Kung Fu in a couple months and one of the requirements is to memorize quite a bit of information from the Kung Fu Members Handbook. Memorization has never been easy for me. I think that’s why I have so many strategies in my seminars to help students memorize information. I’ve used the strategies myself with tremendous success and have found students surpass all expectations (their own and those of their teachers) when they use memorization strategies.

One of my favorite strategies is using good, old fashioned flash cards. I’ve almost always used standard flash cards for study and have handwritten the questions and answers using color, pictures, and mnemonics to help me or my students remember. This time, I wanted to try doing them on the computer and taking advantage of colored fonts, san serif -fonts, photos, etc. Then I could print them out and enhance them by hand if I wanted to. I believe that many times students don’t create flash cards to study from because they hate to write them out. So, this seems like a motivating avenue to explore.

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 The first step is finding out if there are any online resources for creating flash cards. I found some that I thought were not only heartening, they were helpful and effective. The first link I came across was written about a daughter who helped her mom remember words and people after a stroke. I had never considered that implementation of flash cards. So, consider how many ways we might use an age old technique like flash cards for study to help others.

Create Flash Cards in MSWord by Dian Chapman (for her mom): http://www.computorcompanion.com/LPMArticle.asp?ID=289. This site allows you to download a free MSWord Template for flashcards. This is what I was originally looking for on this quest. Sure I could have made one up myself, but how many times would I have to mess with the dimensions before I got it right? I figure, why reinvent the wheel. Someone else must have done it. Well, Dian did.

This next website has flashcards for ESL; however, the flash card instructions are generic and can be used for any subject. If you are looking for ESL flashcards you can make your own or pay for access to their ready made cards. http://www.eslkidstuff.com/flashcard_printing_instructions.htm

Flashcard Exchange dot com is the site that helped my daughter get through her advanced placement courses in high school. One wonderful benefit we discovered was that if you type in the title of a text book, you might find ready-made flash cards made by another teacher or student! This site has a feature that allows you to download flashcards onto a PDA! I might consider this option. Then I can study anytime anywhere discretely with my PDA phone! http://www.flashcardexchange.com/

And then there’s Quia, a site that allows you to create flash cards, games, activities, etc. www.quia.com

And finally, Microsoft’s website has templates for flashcards and designates exactly which Avery product fits the dimensions.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT102530781033.aspx

 Enjoy making flash cards and seeing your students increase their test prep success!

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