Going Digital---A Magazine By Glossi

Nearly a year ago, Heather Moorefield, education librarian at Virginia Tech and current chair of the American Association of School Librarians Best Websites for Teaching & Learning, and Richard Byrne, educator, speaker, writer and blogger at Free Technology for Teachers, tweeted about an app in invitation-only beta.  I sent in a request and was granted access.  Today registration for Glossi is open.

I have been waiting for a project to present itself to me so I could try out Glossi.  Yesterday a member of my PLN asked for favorite Christmas read aloud books.  I now had an idea for designing a Glossi.

Glossi provides users with the means for creating digital magazines. To register you may use your Facebook account or supply a username, email address and password. Each time I am given this choice; I opt for the email sign-up rather than make my Facebook information readily available.  Glossi is for users over the age of 13.  If users are between the ages of 13 to 18, they ask for parental or guardian approval.

Before signing up or logging in, across the top of the home page, you can choose create a Glossi, add images, read about Glossi, its features, learn the basics, go to the blog for the latest news, access information released to the press and contact Glossi with a simple message.  There are links to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest as well as a box for searching in Glossi.  

When you have registered and logged in, the tool bar across the top will change slightly.  The featured, newest, and popular Glossies, which you can see on the home page, are now accessed by special tabs.  You can see Glossies by people you follow and view Glossies by one of twenty-one categories.  To begin click on one of two create Glossi buttons.

Your first screen allows you to add a title, create the title page, two other pages, add a page and the back of your magazine.  Along the top the smaller icons represent:

• add text box to page
• add image box to page
• add video box to page
• clone this page
• toggle page guides
• toggle two page view and 
• ask for help.

You can edit any item on your page by double clicking the box.

When working with text, there are 18 fonts from which to choose, the font size can be altered, the text can be bold, in italics or underlined, forty text colors are offered, a background color for your text is a choice as is a dark transparent background.  You can insert or delete a link and show or hide the tool bar.  Margin alignment, numbered lists, bulleted lists, increasing or decreasing indentations, adding a scroll bar, line height and letter spacing are additional options when working with text.  Make sure all default type is erased before you make selections from the tool bar.  Don't forget to double click to make changes.

For my title page I used an image of my own but you can add images via a website URL or by searching Google.  Glossi also contains stock images, backgrounds, effects & textures, frames & borders, numbers & symbols, photos and speech bubbles.  If you want text on an image, make sure you place the image on the page first.  Images can be moved around on the page and resized.

When you wish to add pages you have eighteen templates from which to choose or you can design your own.  Images, text, animations, PDF files, videos from YouTube, Instagram and Vimeo and audio from SoundCloud can be included in your magazine.  As you continue to add pages do save frequently.  When your pages are completed, click on the publish button in the upper right-hand corner.

At the next window you are asked to fill in a title if you have not done so already.  At this time you can add a brief description to your work and select a category.  You can also choose to make your Glossi unlisted. (A URL is provided on this page.)  You need to click the publish button again.

The next screen gives you your sharing choices.  You can share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ or Pinterest.  An HTML code is available.  My first Glossi, a magazine of some of my favorite Christmas read aloud titles is at the end of this post.

When you close the previous screen, this window shown below opens up.  Previous choices along with others are made available.  You can now get any links and flag items.  You can edit the Glossi, unpublish, view comments, see all your pages at a single glance, share and view it full screen.

If at any time you need extra help, click the tab on the right-hand side.  There is a template for you to fill in as shown here.  For me this is another plus to this application; the willingness to offer assistance above and beyond any tutorials.

When exploring an application new to me, two things are always of the utmost importance, ease of use and the finished results.  Glossi shines in both areas.  Manipulating the text, finding and adjusting images, previewing and switching the order of the pages could not have been easier.  I recommend placing Glossi in your virtual toolbox.

Click to view Christmas Read Aloud Titles on GLOSSI.COM

Know, Understand And Be Amazed

For the second time in the past five years, I've nearly been nose to nose with a white-tailed deer.  The first time Xena and I were walking through the woods of a nearby conservancy, climbing a hill.  As we came around a bend at the top, there stood a buck with a large set of antlers enjoying a meal of apples beneath a tree.   We all stood frozen for several heartbeats.

More recently as the final moments of daylight were leaving, I was hurrying to sweep the last autumn leaves off my deck.  A doe was walking into my back yard having left the safety of a nearby vacant lot.  We caught each other completely unaware.

These close encounters with the animal kingdom make us pause, wonder again at the space we share and marvel at the characteristics, the adaptability, of each specie.  It stands to reason, given all his previous books on specific aspects of animals, the newest title written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins, The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest---and Most Surprising---Animals on Earth (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children), would cover the depth and breadth of all creatures.  With every page turn, the word masterpiece will continue to enter your thoughts.

In the introduction, Jenkins states:

When I was six years old, I was given a copy of Life magazine.  On the cover was a remarkable illustration of a bird and a tortoise.  ...
...This book brings together more than 300 of these animals---the exotic and the everyday---and describes some of the amazing things they can do.

A table of contents follows listing the eight categories found in this title: Animals, Family, Animal Senses, Predators, Defenses, Animal Extremes, The Story of Life and More Information.  Each section is further broken into finer points numbering between six and eleven concluding with Facts pages at the end of each.  Decades of research, unbelievable information, is found on each and every page.

In the first section we are given a five part, easy to understand, definition of an animal.  Species, their numbers, their importance in individual biomes, and their physical characteristics which place them in groups are discussed.  The proportion of insects with respect to other animals is mind-boggling.  Raise your hand if you knew there are 3,000 species of mosquito.

All manner of perpetuating a given animal are presented.  Some animals need a mate, others do not.  Attracting, fighting for and dancing with a mate are revealed.  While the comparing of egg sizes is interesting, the how and where of egg laying is fascinating and a little cringe worthy.  Birth, care of young and brothers and sisters will have readers glad of their own circumstances.  No wonder there are so many flies, it only takes one day for an egg to hatch.  It might be nice if they could trade places with elephants for awhile.

Seeing with eyes that can move in separate directions at the same time, hearing with ears on their feet, feeling vibrations in the water with tiny hairs on their skin, being able to taste with their entire body or sensing heat, electricity or the earth's magnetic field are some of the means of survival for animals.  Size and placement of their sensory organs are crucial and a direct reflection of their environment.  We can't see them with our eyes but the giant clam has more pinhole-size eyes covering its body than can be counted.

The cheetah may be the fastest sprinter on the planet but I'm glad the tiger beetle is not any larger.  Yikes!  Wily animals wait and leap, seek cover by camouflage or attract with a tricky bait to get their next meal.  Poison and specially designed body parts can be deadly for prey.  Yuck...storing food on your skin, shedding it and eating it, may be good for the crucifix toad but not for this person.

Flight, hide, mimic, poison, armor, body fluids, surprise, fight and teamwork provide defense in the face of an enemy.  Frogs that fly, a beetle pretending to be bird poo, a primate with toxic elbows, a gull chick with sticky vomit or a bird with a life-threatening kick are among many to be avoided.  Depending on an animal's placement on the food pyramid they may have many or no predators except for humans.

When the largest animals ever to have lived are compared to the size of a human, it makes you really stop to think...and wish you could see a blue whale just once in the wild.  The biggest then and now, comparing cat to cat, turtle to turtle, snake to snake, the actual size of some animals, the smallest, the loudest, the longest living, those residing in extreme climates and those most dangerous to humans are all described. You can't help but contemplate the danger to people of one of the smallest animals.

The chapter, The Story of Life, is a brief but informative look at the beginning following it to the present day.  A time line, the theory of evolution, survival of the fittest, mutation and physical characteristics are reviewed.  As hard as this concept is to fathom, Jenkins makes it clear.

Fourteen pages of animal thumbnail pictures are supplied with the page number of their appearance in the book, their size, habitat, diet and a single fact.  Pertinent words are defined in a glossary.  I am especially pleased with the inclusion of twelve pages Making Books. Steve Jenkins provides readers with his process.  The final pages are of a bibliography of sources and a page of those books Jenkins and others have previously made, parts of which are found in this title.


It's as if Steve Jenkins has taken his considerable years of work, read through each and every volume, poured over all his research and picked the best to share with his readers.  Each chapter opens with a conversational paragraph on the topic as does each subsequent portion.  The pictures selected to enhance a subject are explained in informative but not overwhelming detail.  There is not a single sentence that does not serve to engage readers.

Jenkins' torn-paper and cut-paper collage illustrations are incredible.  Texture and color so closely imitate real life readers will be enticed to look at them again and again.  The array of animal life on the matching jacket and cover is repeated in a small patterned gray on gray silhouette display on the opening and closing endpapers,

Like a naturalist's journal everywhere you look are animals of all shapes, sizes and habitats from Earth, each carefully labeled.  To accentuate his creations Jenkins makes liberal use of white space.  Each chapter beginning (starting with Family) prominently depicts the included sections in small circles at the top or bottom. The colorful, graphs and charts found throughout are a fact-finders delight.  Readers will be wowed by the two page spreads carefully placed in each section.


I can't recommend highly enough The Animal Book: A Collection of the Fastest, Fiercest, Toughest, Cleverest, Shyest---and Most Surprising---Animals on Earth written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins.  This is one of those titles that can be enjoyed by the most avid naturalist or the casual observer; there is something within these pages for everyone.  I've been completely engrossed in the reading of it for more than two days.  I can imagine conversations around the dinner table or on trips with individuals randomly calling out information gleaned from this title.  This book is a treasure.

Please follow the link embedded in Steve Jenkins' name to access his official website.  Here is a recent interview with Steve Jenkins by Roger Sutton at The Horn Book. Enjoy the book trailer below.  Here are links to my other reviews of books illustrated or written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins, The Beetle Book, My First Day and Eat Like a Bear.

It's That Time Again....Take Me Back Tuesday! {A Linky}

I never realized how quickly Tuesday rolls around each week until I started this little linky. These weeks are seriously flying by, and before we know it, Christmas will be here. I love the holidays. Plain and simple! 

So, for this Take Me Back Tuesday, I am going to share a little graphing...holiday style! 

**********************************Originally Posted December 2012*********************************

Hey everyone! It is going to be super short tonight, but I just wanted to share my newest unit. So many of you have asked for another graphing unit similar to my It's Snowing Graphs, and just because I love you so much...I give you...Tis the Season for Graphing! You can check it out on TPT right now! I have also created a bundle with both units. So what are you waiting for??? it's time to get your graph on! 

Tis the Season for Graphing

This unit includes seven vocabulary posters and seven classroom graphing activities (two of which would be perfect to add to your holiday math centers) that will get your students in the holiday spirit. The five classroom graphing activities include writing paper to allow students to interpret their data through writing. Here is a look at what is included in the pack.

1. How do you eat a gingerbread man? A great connection to one of my favorite holiday stories! 

How do you eat a gingerbread man? For this grativity, I gave each student a gingerbread man and we all took one bite. Then, we recorded the results together on a tally chart. We have been working on number scales and bar graphs, so after the results were in, we graphed the results. The students decided the number scale {we counted by twos}.

To integrate a little writing in with this activity, the students used sequencing words {first, next, then, finally} to describe the way that they like to eat their gingerbread man. I don't have any pictures for this, but some of these writings were way too funny. This was a perfect topic for a little quick write.

2. Our Favorite Reindeer (Also included in my Run, Run Rudolph Unit): Your students will love this activity as they truly get to know all of Santa's famous reindeer. 

Our next graphing activity was not centered around gingerbread men, but the kids loved it just the same. I used the cutest little website to introduce my crew to those sleigh guiding reindeer {Click on the picture to check it out!} We all voted on our favorite reindeer and recorded our data on a tally chart. After the results were complete, we turned our data into a pictograph. While creating pictographs, we were really zoning in on the key. On our graph 1 reindeer = 2 votes. The students loved cutting the reindeer in half when we had to represent an odd number of votes.

3. How do you like Polar Express hot chocolate? Take an imaginary ride on the Polar Express and graph how your like hot chocolate best! 

4. What will Santa do now? (Literature Connection) During this graphing activity, the students will predict what Santa will do on his vacation time after the holidays. 

5. Our Favorite Holiday Song: Prior to this activity, the students will enjoy a little caroling in the classroom. Then, they will select their favorite holiday tune and graph the results. 

6. Decorate the Tree (Center Activity): The students will draw Christmas decorations out of a bag and graph the results. Then, they will design their very own tree. 

7. Will this Christmas be white? (Center Activity): The students will drop a double sided tree. They will graph their results to predict if we will have a white Christmas this year! 

It's Snowing Graphs: 

Includes:

~7 Vocabulary Posters

~6 Graphing Activities to practice pictographs, bar graphs, tally charts, and line plots.

Graphing Activities: 

-Favorite Winter Activities

-How do you like your hot chocolate? 

-Snowman Shake-up

-It's a Wild Snowman World

-A Button Nose?

-Snowman Punch or Hot Cocoa?

You can check these out by clicking the links below: 

Tis the Season for Graphing

It's Snowing Graphs

Winter Graphing Bundle {Both Units}


And here is a few pictures of the unit in action!

  

Graphing our favorite winter drink. My students agreed that snowman punch is where it’s at! We had a blast with these winter graphing activities!

P.S. If you bought this unit over at TPT and are planning on doing this little activity, I couldn’t find any eggnog. Shoot! {And yes…it was going to be alcohol free…naughty teachers!} Ha!  So…move on to plan B…milk and french vanilla snowman marshmallows. Worked like a charm! :)

Have a great week, y'all!

************************************************************************************************************

Don't forget, you can pick up both of these units ON SALE...AND...Today is the last day of the massive TPT sale, so take advantage of the 28% off and stock your computer with tons of teaching goodies!

Visit my shop {HERE}.