MixBook

I chose to do my 3rd posting about MixBook! It is just the coolest website to create different things with your pictures! I myself chose to do a calendar because my mom had asked me to make her one anyway.  The website was really easy to use, you just sign up, and then you can choose from photobooks, cards, or calendars. Since I chose a calendar, I will walk you through the process.
First you choose a template. There are all kinds, I chose one that was very colorful and fun. Then you get started by uploading your pictures. You can do this a variety of ways, either from your computer, off of facebook or picasa or photobucket etc. It makes it very easy for you.  After uploading your pictures, it already has places for you to drag and drop your photos into the calendar page.  You can customize this or leave it the way they have it set up.  You can also add little "stickers" and words if you want! It is really a neat thing because you can have it simple if you just want it that way, or if you are a crafty person, you can add a ton of cool things to it and make it unique.  You can also add specific events to the days on the calendar before it's printed!

There were a ton of great features about this site, mostly the great editing tools, and how easy or complicated you can make it.  For people who are crafty, this can get fun and interesting (I spent about 2 hours making mine!) Or you can simply drag and drop and be done!

A few things I didnt like about this site were that you have to pay for these projects (obviously) but I really felt like the prices were reasonable, especially with all of the cool features it has.  One issue I did have, however was that every once in awhile it would freeze up.  This was more of an inconvenience than anything, as the program saves your work automatically, but it was a pain to close the program and reopen it.  I did also have a little trouble trying to upload my photos from facebook. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this program and am actually going to order the calendar that I made for my mom! I am still working to see if I can attach the calendar itself, but here is a preview of one of the pages! All-in-all, it seems to be a great way to get creative and share your creations with others!

Photoshow

Photoshow is a website that allows you to upload your photos and put them together to form a slideshow.  It can be useful because you can add captions and it is a nice way to present pictures, or you could even present facts and use it as a presentation.  I like that it was easy to personalize, and you could choose from a couple different fonts and themes.  I was a little sad that you couldnt customize it even more...but I suppose if you paid the upgrade fee, you could have more options.  If someone is just looking for an easy way to click through to set this up, this is the way to go!

Podcasting!

Welcome to my podcasting adventure!! And an adventure is what it has been! I have attached this podcast as a video, even though there is not actually a video it's just audio.  It's the only way I could make it be a part of my blog!

Podcasting is a pretty cool thing once you get used to the initial idea.  It's basically creating your own radio/lecture via a voice recording. There are other things you can add such as background music and things of that nature, however I did not add those to mine as I had a hard enough time trying to just get the voice recording onto my computer and uploaded to blogger! This can be a very useful tool for a classroom because you dont have to interact face to face with your students, you can talk to them without being in a classroom.  i have actually had an online class that used podcasts and it was very useful for the class!!

I had a hard time trying to figure out how to record my voice.  My laptop does not come with a microphone, and we do not have a microphone for our desktop computer either.  I ended up recording my voice on my smartphone, and sending that recording to my email.  From there, I saved the file, and opened it with the Audacity program.  Installing the audacity was pretty easy after following the youtube video. Audacity is a pretty cool program! I used it to edit my initial recording.  I cut out places where I had paused for a period of time, and even edited parts out completely! It was much more fun once I got the hang of it! It was pretty user-friendly once I was able to get my voice recording uploaded to my computer.  That was the most difficult part.  I think this would be very beneficial to professors who are wanting to teach their students something without actually being in the classroom (i.e. an online class, or it would have been great last week when classes were cancelled due to the ice storm!)

In order for this to not be difficult, I would just advise getting a microphone to hook up to your computer. If you had one, it would be much easier to record your voice, and edit it right there all at once!

Enjoy my podcast!!

http://megdaugh.podbean.com/mf/web/jsfq73/podcastforclass.mp3

Hygiene

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Hygiene

View more presentations from crayolabunnies.

A Little About Me!

Hello!
This is my first blog post, so I will introduce myself! Here goes...

I am Megan Daugherty, and I am 22 years young! I live on the Southside of Indy, and work as a preschool teacher teaching two year olds! I am engaged to be married in May of next year, and we are getting married on the beach in Destin, Florida! I cannot wait!

I grew up here in Indy, going to school at Southport until my sophomore year when I transferred to Center Grove.  I graduated in 2007 from CG.  I lived with my mom until she was transferred to Kansas city, Missouri (my sophomore year) and then I moved in with my dad until I graduated.  I have an awesome family! My mom remarried when I was 7 and I have a sister, Mara who is now 15! My dad also remarried when I was 4 and he and my step-mom have 2 kids, my sister Kelcey who is almost 18 and my brother Austin, who is almost 16! I am very close with my family! My mom now lives in Kansas City, and I have a stepsister, Ashley who is 23 and she has a BEAUTIFUL daughter, Sophia who is my only and MOST FAVORITE niece!!!

I met my fiance when I was a freshman in high school, and we dated (though not too seriously) throughout high school.  After I graduated, we moved in together, and are currently living on the southside of Indy in an apartment with our furbabies! We have 2 cats and a puppy! We have one male black cat, named Yoshi, and a female gray cat named Delilah! Our puppy, Khloe, is supposed to be a german shepherd-black lab mix, but shes 6 months old and only 35 lbs, and her coloring is brindle, which is not characteristic of either of those breeds! So we dont know what she is, but shes our baby and we love her just the same! We are getting married on May 20, 2012 on the beach in Destin, Florida and I cannot wait!

In my spare time I love to read (although I dont have much spare time!) and go camping in the summertime! I also like to scrapbook, my latest project being our engagement/wedding scrapbook!

I work full time as a preschool teacher at a private preschool on the southside.  I am the lead teacher in the two year old room, and I love my job! Two year olds are SUPER smart and can do so much more than most adults think! I love teaching them new things, and watching their little brains work! It's a wonderful feeling!

I am also a full time student at IUPUI and am going to school for Elementary Education.  I cannot wait to graduate so I can start my own little family!


Creating this blog was much easier than I had originally anticipated! I am really enjoying playing around with all of the cool features! I'm sure I will be uploading many pictures on here! I found it pretty easy to edit everything and personalize my blog! I especially had fun changing all of the fonts!

More to follow...!

Delilah and Yoshi!

Khloe when she was little...



Khloe now!