How to Make Faux Stained Glass Art!

Excuse the random pink text throughout. Couldn't seem to figure out how to change it.

Step One (1): Decide what you want your stained glass piece to be of. I googled a few ideas (flowers, horses and birds) and decided to do mine of horses.

Step Two (2): Gather your supplies.

You will need: -hot glue gun

-hot glue-acrylic paint (black and white are necessary)

-fine point permanent marker

-glass panel (I got mine out of a dollar tree picture frame)

-paint brushes (big and small)

-paper plate (or just somewhere you can mix paint)

optional:

-ruler 

-flat thumbtack  

-craft blade

Step Three (3): Draw your chosen design.

I traced my design after I drew it on

a white sheet of paper.

Step Four (4): Apply hot glue to your outline. (Don’t try to correct mistakes with your finger! It’s very hot!)

Try to keep your lines smooth, but not flat. 

In order to give it the appearance of

stained glass, the glue needs to be raised.

Step Five (5): Once dry remove hot glue “cob webs.”

Remove the webbing by rubbing your finger tips on the glass downward until they break. Don’t press them too hard or they will stick to the glass and cause smudges.

Step Six (6): Paint the pieces of your image.

Don’t worry about getting paint on the hot glue. You’ll cover it later.

I put a spot of white in my paint to give

my brush strokes a marbled appearance.

Step Seven (7): Paint the hot glue lines.

Keep a steady hand and cover the

areas painted with color.

Step Eight (8): Let dry and display!    

I put my artwork back in the frame to hang.

Looks great in my little gallery!

Pinterest Lesson Plan

Pinterest is a fabulous, and rather addicting, website that allows you to create boards you can pin ideas that are linked to pictures in an easy to use format.  This website can serve as a great tool for teachers.  We can share tips, tricks and lessons that we've created ourselves or found elsewhere.  This past week, that is exactly what I did. 

As a future Family Consumer Science teacher, I'm looking forward to teaching classes that will be relevant to everyone, no matter their background.  One of these classes is Housing and Interior Design.  I used pinterest to find lesson plans that I could use to compile a project that students could complete to reiterate what was taught in class.

Here is the Assignment Sheet and Rubric.  There are some things within the Assignment that I didn't plan for properly.  I found that out pretty quick when I did the project myself.

First, I cut out all the letters I needed for the title of my project using the die cut machine.

I printed out all of the pictures of the items I wanted in my room.

Pasting the letters onto the board.  Even with the letters as small as they could be, I could tell that they are going to be too large for my board.

I used the straight cutter to make cutting out my pictures a much faster process.

Paperwork attached to the board with brads. (I bent like seven of them in the process of getting them on.)

Made an envelope out of some scrap paper, and put my secondary items that will fill my room in it.

The poster board would have been a whole lot easier to use if I had used a larger one!

This little project taught me a lot about all the resources that are so easily accessed through Pinterest.  After I completed the assignment sheet and rubric, I thought the project would be pretty simple, but it posed more challenges than I would have thought possible.  I wasn't able to fit everything onto the board that I had originally specified on the assignment sheet and the board itself was difficult to work with because of the plastic coating on the face. All the problems I faced while doing the project would be valuable lessons for me as a teacher to learn.  It's important that, before we go assigning projects, teachers do them so that we can properly address and grade with these challenges in mind.

In order to make the assignment sheet, I researched lessons that I found on Pinterest and pinned them to a board that you can find here.

Cool Tools for the Classroom!

Utilizing technology is a great way to get students engaged in the classroom.  Online tools can make learning fun and enjoyable, while also giving students the skills they will need to be productive workers in the future. These are some really awesome tools that I think would be great for me to use someday in my classroom. You should check them out!

http://www.artisancam.org.uk/

Artisan Cam is an easy to navigate website that allows you to make a picture digital picture book.  It's super easy to use and is a lot of fun.  You can use it to make your very own children's book. I remember, when I took Child Development in high school, my teacher had us do a project where we wrote our own children's book. This would be a great tool to utilize for that kind of project!

 http://www.prezi.com/

Prezi is a wonderful way to present information that keeps watchers engaged from start to finish.  It's non-linear and integrates movement and pictures in a way that makes any presentation fun. You can embed videos and pictures within your presentations with ease.  Using this website would be a great way for students to present their ideas or research projects to the classroom. It has more tools to use than PowerPoint and is more fun, so it's guaranteed to keep everyone engaged!

 http://montage.cloudapp.net/

Montage is an image tool that allows you to make a collage of anything you want. You can integrate your montage with images and articles from any source! Montage also allows you to view and use montages published by others. This tool would be great to make a visual aid to present to students. It could also be used as a project assignment in which students combine images or videos with research.

 www.quibblo.com

Quibblo is a fun site where you can create your own quizzes and polls.  You can share them with friends, and take quizzes that your friends have created.  This would be a great site to use for students to create quizzes on the subjects they are learning about, and in turn they have to take the quizzes that are created by their classmates! Would be a great way to test their knowledge, while at the same time having a bit of fun.

 http://diffen.com/

Diffen is a tool that allows you to compare any two things. You can type in whatever you want and it will produce the differences between the two. This could range from the differences between countries, presidents, or even planets! This tool would be great for helping students get started on comparison and contrast essays. It could also be used for me to make a handout about the differences between two things that I covered in lecture.

 quizlet.com

Quizlet is a great, free tool students can use for studying.  You can create flashcards and quizzes according to subject area and share them with friends.  There are also great games you can play to make learning more fun.  I would use this site to make quizzes and flashcards for my students to utilize.  This way, they can use this tool to be more prepared for tests.

 https://docs.google.com/

Google Docs is a free site that students can use to create or upload files.  Once their files are uploaded, students can work collaboratively with anyone they give access to the files.  This makes it a great site for the teacher as well, because they can access their students work from any device. For students that can't afford writing software for their home computers, this is a great tool.  It's also wonderful for collaborative work, when students don't have the time to meet physically.

 pics.tech4learning.com

Pics4Learning is a safe, free image library for education. Teachers and students can use copy-right friendly photos and images for classrooms, projects, websites, videos, portfolios or any project in the educational setting. It's the largest educational image collection on the web and it's easy to search.  This site would be a great option to give students in order to ensure that they are maintaining Internet integrity.  It would also be a wonderful site for teacher's to utilize to make lectures more interesting.

 https://www.snagfilms.com/ 

SnagFilms is a resource tool that allows you to watch free documentaries. These documentaries include historical, political, and other educational videos. There are even educational videos from National Geographic. This tool could be used for me to find documentaries in a specific area of study. It could also be used as a take home assignment in which the student watches an assigned film and answers questions.

 http://cmap.ihmc.us/conceptmap.html

Cmap is a tool that can be used to construct and share concept maps. Once created, they can be saved and used in presentations as a great way to illustrate ideas.  They can also be created collaboratively. This tool would be of great use for the beginning stages of projects, large or small.  It could also be used to illustrate steps in a process.  I would use this tool to help illustrate new concepts to my students, and they could utilize it in their projects.

All of these tools present cool opportunities to enhance classroom learning and make sometimes monotonous processes more fun! Some of these tools I use on a regular basis, while others I've just been introduced to. I'm excited to apply them to the classroom!

Takes on Social Media

I remember not-so patiently waiting for the day my mom would allow me to make my own Facebook profile. When I first got a Facebook it was new and exciting. Now, it’s apart of my daily routine. I check it everyday, multiple times a day, to stay involved with my family, friends and news in my home town.  I often wonder though, if social media is having a negative effect on my life and well-being.  

One article I read cited social media as the key factor in the amount of stress people have in their lives. On social media platforms, users are keen to present themselves in the best light possible.  When we see nothing but the highlights of peoples lives, there is a pressure that forms. We can’t keep the positive and negative in our lives in perspective and it causes us to stress. The more we pay attention to our friends’ activities, tastes and possessions, the more stress we report in our lives.  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-dick/social-networks-and-stress_b_3534170.html?utm_hp_ref=social-networking

Despite the fact that viewing people’s lives out of context can prove to be a stresser on our lives, social media is also proven to reduce loneliness.  In this article, a team at the University of Arizona organized a study on how a person’s volume of Facebook use effects his or her perception of connection to friends, family and the rest of the world.  They found that people who use Facebook more often feel more closely connected to their real lives. You can watch the interview here of the the Professor who headed the experiment.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/30/facebook-loneliness_n_3839003.html?utm_hp_ref=social-networking

My First Profile Picture

February 2008

My Profile Picture Now

June 2014

In the long run, you can see that Facebook is just about like any other fun filled past-time.  It’s great and even good for you, but it’s good to keep the right mindset and take everything in moderation.

Welcome to My Blog!

Hello and welcome to my blog!  My name is Elizabeth Denney and I'm studying Family Consumer Science Education at Henderson State University.  This blog is intended to be an outlet for all things me!  This will encompass just about anything because it's in my nature to try and learn something new everyday.  I'm starting this blog as a way to share the things that interest me, and express my thoughts, opinions and desires as I travel through life.

I’m 19 years old and oldest of five children. I absolutely love being an older sister, so you can expect that I’ll be writing about my adventures with my siblings often.  I have a 15-year-old sister named Jazmine, twin five-year-old brother and sister named Micah and Bethany and a three-year-old sister named Emma.  

(left to right) Bethany, Jazmine, Me, Micah

Emma

Christmas 2013

I try and come home at least every other weekend to spend time with them and the rest of my family.  When I am home, I usually go horseback riding with my aunt Jennifer.  I’ve been riding since I was two and I love it.  Nothing relaxes me more or gets my adrenaline pumping quite like a good ride. (Sounds kind of oxymoronic, but trust me, it makes sense.)  

My aunt Jenn (15) and I (7) on her old

horse Pilgrim. We competed in barrel 

pick-up all the way to state.

View from the back of my horse, Dancer.

July 2014

My favorite ways to relax when I can’t reach a horse usually have to do with working with my hands.  I like to sew, paint, decorate and craft things in general.  I also like to read, but during the semester, reading for pleasure is almost impossible.  And, just like the average person, I like to spend quality time with my friends and binge watch Netflix on the rare occasion that I don’t have other things to do.

My time is mostly consumed by my studies.  I'm a full time student working to get a degree in education specializing in Family Consumer Science.  I chose education because I've found some of my greatest role models in the teachers I've had the honor of learning under.  I also have a great love for my subject which is another reason why I chose to teach.  Sharing the love I have for all that I'll teach and imparting it into students....the thought of it makes me excited for the future!

My average week consists of classes, church, friends and bible studies. Right now, I’m taking 17 hours worth of classes. My classes are Educational Technology, Clothing Construction, Chemistry, Meal Management, Oral Communications, FCS Seminar and labs for Meal MGMT and Chemistry. I go to church at Family Church when I’m home, and New Life when I’m in Arkadelphia. Right now, I’m participating in an awesome bible study at MBSF where we prepare and cook a new recipe and have a bible study while our food cooks. It’s a lot of fun.

There are plenty of things within this post that I’ll expound upon as my blog progresses, but this gives you a pretty good idea of what’s to come.  I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do!

Jazmine, Me, half of Bethany and Micah.

March 2014