Final Project is Complete

 Hi ya'll! 

Okay, do you remember what I said about publishing my book on Smashwords? And publishing it on iBooks? Yeah, so it turns out, even if I do get approved, my own ebook that I wrote will not be available to me for see in the Canadian store!!! 

I think I am going to keep looking though and see if I can get it published. What happened to Kindle? Turns out, even if you do publish it for free, you still need to put in your bank information! 

Even though it's 2020, I'm still weary of giving out my bank information. 

So, in the mean time, I've uploaded my book to my Google Drive and I've included the PDF link in my 'Final Project' page. 

Go check it out! 

Not to toot my own horn but I think it turned out really good :) 

This is not the end of the 'Genius Hour' adventure though! I still have to do a few things here and there, but we're close to the end :) 

I'll update you soon though :) 

 Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾

Week 6 Update #1

 Hi ya'll! 

Boy, do I have an update for you guys! 

I'm so glad to report that I'm done my Genius Project!! 

The book is called "Max's Colours" and it's published on Smashwords if you want to go check it out

I'm also going to attach a copy of the ebook on my blog too! But I'm going to do that tomorrow, since I'm soooo tired! 

I've also published it in iBooks but I'm waiting for an email saying that my book has been approved, and so I decided to also upload it onto Smashwords. 

Today I did: 

- Begin and finish writing the story
- Created more illustrations
- Created a book cover (on an app called Canvas) 
- published it on iBooks and Smashwords 

I did so much today, I'm so proud of myself! 

My next steps will be to: 

- check email for publishing approval 
- link my ebook to my 'Final Product' page
- check out my other colleagues Genius Hour Project 
- Write a reflection about my progress 

I know, I know, this blog post is very, VERY dry. But, to be fair, I'm so tired. 

I'll update ya'll soon though :) 

 Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾

Main Character Drawing

 Hey ya'll! 

I'm sooooo excited to report that I FINALLY figured out the Sketchbook App AND I created the main character of my children's story!!! 

Look at him!! Isn't he adorable?? His name is Max. I know I said that my character was going to be named Isabella but this dog just looks like a Max, doesn't he? 

AND he only took me like about two hours to create! 

I'm super proud of myself! And I think I'm going to create some quick cartoon fireworks so my drawings aren't going to be so boring in my story. 

Anyways, that's all I wanted to update ya'll with :) I'm so proud of myself for learning how to maneuver this new app - and a digital drawing one for that matter! 

That is all. I'll post another post once I'm finished writing the whole story. I'll try and do that by the end of the weekend? But I'm no promises! 

The entire final product and publication isn't technically due until the 11th of October, but I'm so excited for this project, I might just get it all done this weekend. 

But who knows? I'm DROWNING in homework for school. 

Anyways, talk soon? 

 Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾

 

TED Talk

Hi ya'll! 

Super quick because it is almost 3am, but just to let you know that I uploaded my TED talk for the project! The TED talk is on the page "My TED talk". 

I'll update you all all the happens this week in relation to this project - I have to complete the entire book by Sunday. We'll see how that goes....

Okay, that's all for now!

Talk soon!

 Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾

Week 4: Check In

 Hiiii! 

Tired of my blog yet? No? Yes? I don't blame you if you are. There is a lot of information here! And I barely use any pictures, what's that about? 

I'll try and make my posts easier to read than I have in the past. 

This week I have no final product to showcase - I wish I did but I don't! I spent at least 4 hours trying to draw a digital picture for my book (all was very unsuccessful because the program kept CRASHING!). 

The main character of the book is named Isabella and I'm making her a dog. 

I also think I should draw little decorative pictures to make the book more interesting! 

I have two more weeks left to complete this project. Do you think I can make it? Thank you for having high hopes for me but I don't think I'm going to make it. But I'm going to try!

What have I learned this week? I learned that I'm not a good drawer and I CANNOT draw digital art for the life of me. 

And this may be an impossible task. BUT it's an experience and I think I'm just frustrated because I dedicated SO MUCH time and I got NO RESULTS.

That's not true, I somewhat learned how to navigate the program that I'm using. It's a free program that I downloaded called Sketchbook. 

What am I going to focus on next week? 

DRAWING THE DOG. (and little pictures) 

I see people draw digitally on social media, and I think "Wow, that's so easy, maybe I should do that".. 

Well, I was WRONG and it's HARD. Tasks really take 3x longer than you think they are, huh? 

I mean, the good news is that I'm learning about a BUNCH of programs and websites that I had no idea existed until now, so that's a plus. 

Any who, I think that's all for this week. I'll include the pictures of my master pieces next week. I'm going to dedicate time next week to DRAW ISABELLA and little pictures. 

Talk soon? 

 Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾

Week 3: Check In

Hey ya'll! 

It's me again! Long time no chat, eh? How are you doing? Are you doing okay? Listen, with whatever you're going through right now, it's all going to work out in the end. 

Whenever I post a blog post, I feel like I'm back in 2012, lol ! 

Any who, I'm here to update ya'll on my progress of my 'Genuis Hour' project. In case you forgot, my project was to create a children's e-book! 

I spent over two hours brainstorming ideas for this book. And I'm still not 100000% sure that I'm finished brainstorming. I don't think I will ever be sure. But, I'll add stuff on the way when I think about it. 

One thing I've learned during this brainstorming process? I am not very creative. Maybe it's because I haven't read a book in a long time. When I tend to read more, it's much easier to think of ideas, plots, characters and so forth. 

And I've never thought of creating a children's story before so this is a new experience for me. And I do keep forgetting that the plot doesn't have to be some major plot. 

After brainstorming, I've decided to make my short story an.....

Interactive Colour Labelling Story! 

It's much more interesting than you think. My 'target audience' for this book is children ages 2 - 6 (as outlined in iBooks). And I've thought of a lot of benefits for children when reading this story with an adult figure. 

a) Children will be given an opportunity to practice labelling their colours 

b) Children will be given an opportunity to enhance their problem solving and critical learning skills (i.e. listen to information presented, process the information, connect to previous knowledge) 

c) Children are given an opportunity to practice their ability to predict and guesstimate given the information prior.

d) Children are given the opportunity to enhance their self-confidence. 

e) It's an interactive story that promotes engagement. 

Yes, I did spend two hours brainstorming the children's book, but I also spent the two hours writing a rough draft of the story. So now I have more of an idea of my book!!! 

Now, my next steps are to learn about a digital art platform where I can draw pictures. That's going to be my new focus for next week. I have the whole story in my head. I don't think I have to do a lot of drawing. Maybe I can also create the book cover next week.   

I think that's it for this week. I didn't learn a lot this week because I mainly focused on brainstorming and writing a rough draft of the story. Next week, I'm sure I'll learn how to maneuver a digital arts platform. 

Talk soon! 

 Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾

iMovie Trailer

 Hey all! 

I want to let you know that I posted my iMovie trailer for my Genius Hour Project! Make sure to check it out :) Or not, no pressure whatsoever. The trailer is on my 'iMovie Trailer' page on this blog. 

I wish I had more to talk about and update you on this project. But, the truth is, I haven't had any time to work on this project. 

I've been so busy lately, as I'm sure all teacher candidates are! 

But I'll post an update if I've learned anything new for this project. 

Talk soon :) 

Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾 

Next Steps....

 Hi all!

It's me again :) 

I promise this blog post is going to be shorter. I wanted to inform ya'll of my next steps....

Since researching publishing platforms was easier than I had planned, I'm going to jump straight to brainstorming my ideas. 

I've already have a few ideas popping around inside my brain but I"m very un-decisive. Who knows? Maybe I'll have two 'final projects' because I can't decide! 

To decide on: 

a) Rhyming or not

b) Teach a concept or no? 

c) Interactive (i.e. no 'third wall') or no?

d) Animal characters or no? 

I, of course, have to also decide on the story and plot itself too! Next week, I'll focus on brainstorming ideas for the story, and deciding on an idea. 

I think that's all for now. Thanks for reading! 

Talk soon :) 

Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾  

Beginning - Research

 Hey all!

I have an update on my project :) 

To begin with, I've decided to create a children's' book :) 

And I've also decided that the ebook will be free to download. If this experience is a positive and fun one, I might write and create more books! 

I've always wanted to be an author. When I was younger, I used to write pages and pages of stories on a Word document. My mom wanted to become an author too when she was younger! I think that's really cool. And my sisters' love to read and write too! I guess it's an inherit trait - did I spell that right or use the correct word? I hope so. 

Any who, I'm here to update ya'll on my progress so far. I've completed and uploaded a PowerPoint presentation titled 'My Genius Hour Project Proposal'. I uploaded it to the blog page titled 'My Genius Hour Project Proposal'. Make sure to check it out if you can! I've worked very hard on it and it's all pretty and such :) 

Now that that's out of the way, I've taken some time to research ebook publishing sites, digital art platforms and so forth. After a good hour of basic researching, I think I've decided to use the platform.......

iBook!

With this platform, I'm able to publish ebooks for free or for a price. I looked at other platforms such as Kindle Direct Publishing, Create Space, Kobo and Ingram Spark. From my research, publishing my ebook on iBook is my best bet. Even though iBook is only accessible to individuals with Apple products, it's the second highest ebook retailer platform. In addition, it's quite a user-friendly platform and it seems so easy to publish a book. Plus, if you publish your ebook for a price, individuals receive 70% of the cost (i.e. iBook only takes 30%). 

I've also browsed the iBook Library in the Kids' section and there are not a lot of ebooks published which can be a good sign! I've also learned that it's easiest to use the 'Pages' platform when creating a story as it's easiest to publish through the Apple platform. I've never used 'Pages' before so that'll be an interesting to learn how to navigate! 

I've also found out that you can include audio files and the book can be interactive! I think that's so cool and has opened up an entire window of new possibilities. 

Long story short, I'm publishing my ebook through a platform called iBook. I'm using the app 'Pages' as the platform to write my story. And I've found a few digital art apps/websites to use. 

That's all for today :) Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I promise, this is the longest post that you'll read. I'll make more shorter updates. 

I think that's all for today! Talk soon :) 

Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾

Project Idea, Goals & Measuring Progress

 Hey all! 

This blog has been so much fun to create so far! 

I'm here to update ya'll on my project idea. I've been debating on this idea for a while (and I don't know the specifics) but my idea is to......

Create and Publish an E-Book!! 

Do I know what age group I want to aim for as my target audience? No. 

Do I know if I want the e-book to be free or not? No. 

I do know though, that if I'm going to charge money, it'll be like 3 dollars or something small. 

Do I know how I'm going to publish it or what platform to use? Not really. 

Am I going to be creating drawings for the book? I don't know. 

But what I do know is that I've always wanted to be an author when I was younger! And, regardless of the target audience age group, I'm going to fulfill that wish of mine. 

Who knows? Maybe I'll be successful enough and popular enough to encourage me to keep writing new books. I'm not saying that I'll be Kylie Jenner popular (haha!) but if I can receive a handful of downloads, that would be more than good enough for me.  

Who knows! Maybe I'll fail miserably :) But no one ever knows unless they try, right?  

Anyways, what are my goals for this project and how am I going to measure them? Simple. List my goals. Create a schedule. Stick to the schedule. 

* Goal #1 - Create and write a story. This include but is not limited to: rough drafts, edits, notes, etc. Researching the publication of an e-book would be a good idea too. 

* Goal #2 - Create and design pictures for story. This includes researching a free online platform for digital art. 

* Goal #3 - Write final draft of story and include pictures. 

* Goal #4: Publish the story. 

I'm going to create an 'Execution' schedule later so I stick to my word! This is my Genius Hour project and so I only have to dedicate about 30% of my attention during the week on writing and publishing this book. 

I think that's all for today! Talk soon :) 

Remember to always be nice to each other

Audrey Schatz  🐾

'Genius Hour' Definition

 Hi again! 

When I first began looking through my assignments/projects for this course of "Teaching Digital Learners in a Digital Age", I was confused as to what a Genius Blog was. And so, I'm assuming you're confused as well! 

A 'Genius Blog' was first created by Google in an attempt to motivate their staff's performance. A video I've attached below explains it very well. 

Still having trouble understanding what a 'Genius Hour' is? There are a ton of video explanations just on YouTube.

This is such a great way to empower students' and provide an opportunity for self-directed learning! In addition to providing students' with opportunities to practice self-directed learning, they are also practicing skills such as: problem-solving skills, time-management, independence, critical thinking, discovery and curiosity, language and literacy skills, and so much more! 

As part of my 'Genius Hour' assignment, I'm required to state my goals and a question I'm looking to answer. That'll be on my next post so stay tuned! 

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to read my post :) 

Talk soon!   

Remember to always be nice to each other 

Audrey Schatz  🐾

 

Hello & Welcome !

Hi all! 

Welcome to my 'Genius Hour' blog ! 

Throughout the next 6 weeks, I'm taking you viewers on a lovely adventure. It'll be filled with updates, videos, progress reports, reflections, etc. 

I'm going to attempt to create a very user -friendly and interactive blog ! Please bear with me, I haven't created a blog since Grade 10 (which was in 2014!). And so, this is going to be an adventure for us both. 

This blog was created in response to an assignment/project I had to create through my Bachelor of Education program at Brock University. The course is called "Teaching Digital Learners in a Digital Age". It's such an interesting 6 week course! It provides all sorts of resources to use for online learning. 

The 'Table of Contents' is located on the left-hand side of the blog. Underneath the 'About Me' section, there will be tabs for each step that is I'm required to complete for the project.