1. The Commons This Flickr  A small part of the Flickr photo website, this is a database containing collections from museums and libraries from around the world. NOTE: This will be blocked at school, but you can use at home and save images on a flashdrive to bring to school.

2. Public Domain Sherpa This is a website with links to other websites that have images that are in the “Public Domain” and are acceptable for student use. Also if you want to know more about copy rights, it does a good job of explaining the laws and concepts.

3. Morgue File  If you are a photographer, you might think about posting some of your own images to share. I have in the past and all these photos are from photographers willing to share their work copy-right free. NOTE: This one IS unblocked at school and is just as easy to use as google image search.

4. Pics4Learning These copyright-friendly images have been donated by teachers, students, and amateur photographers. NOTE: another great school approved and easy to use, kid-friendly site.

5. PD Photo Most of the thousands of images on this site are in public domain, but not all. NOTE: Before using any image, read the license under each picture.

6. Creative Commons and Wikimedia Commons  are search engines that turn up many types of links, for all kinds of media and information. Since both public domain and creative commons images can turn up in a search, be sure to check to see if the image requires attribution. NOTE: this Might be blocked at school, has more than just images, so might not be your best choice.

7. Photos8 This site offers thousands of images free to use for any purpose. The site author doesn’t require attribution but would love to see the creative outcomes.

8. Creativity 103 This source contains images and video ranging from abstract design to architecture. You are free to download and use any of the images as long as you credit the website.

9. Compflight and FlickrCC These two great tools can help you quickly find images licensed under Creative Commons on Flickr. Another Flickr option is the advanced search to find images to modify or build upon. If you don’t know how to use advanced search, here are some great directions.

10. Google Advanced Image Search This search engine is useful for helping you find specific images such as line drawing or photo content with “safe search” filtering. To find Creative Commons images, select the search terms usage rights “labeled for reuse” or “reuse with modification”.

These sites were shared on the Teaching Pallette blog.

ALSO I like CGtextures which has a lot of good background type images and is nicely organized. They have a few rules for using them, but mostly the type of art you will do in my classroom is acceptable use.

The excerpt below was taken from the National Art Education Association.

10 lessons the Arts Teach.

By Elliot Eisner

1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.
Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it
is judgment rather than rules that prevail.

2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution
and that questions can have more than one answer.

3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives.
One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.

4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving
purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity.
Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.

5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know.
The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

6. The arts teach students that small differences can have large effects.
The arts traffic in subtleties.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material.
All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said.
When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. The arts enable us to have experience we can have from no other source
and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young
what adults believe is important.
SOURCE: Eisner, E. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press

Animate a Word Project in “Pivot” Animation Project

Description: Based on the “Verb it’s what you do” commercials, create a pivot that has letters and/or a character acting out and spelling out an action of some kind. Be creative! Must have details AND a background. Save as a GIF and Upload to Windows Movie Maker to add music and credits.

To work on from home you will need to download the program from snapfiles. http://www.snapfiles.com/get/stickfigure.html

1.  Start by finding the program in T:\CGaub\Classes\Pivot Stickfigure Animator Make a short cut to your desktop for future use.
2. Then make and load a background before you add the stick figures. Make your own in PAINT and save as a BMP.
3. Add your characters (locate and add additional characters in T:\CGaub\Classes\Pivot Stickfigure Animator\stick figures or make your own) and adjust color and size if desired.
4. Once first frame is ready, click the “Next Frame” button and move each character a tiny bit and REPEAT until you have an animation you like.
5. SAVE often! To save your working file save as a PIV file in YOUR Computer Tech Folder in “My Documents”
6. Finally you must RESAVE it changing the format to GIF. Then import those images into Windows Movie Maker. See WMM instructions for additional details.
7. When done save with proper naming sequence ( example: y9t1p7pivot_sammy )
8. Turn in all three parts seperately for a grade
   • the background BMP
   • the pivot
   • the final WMV files with music and credits 
   •  Your pivot should be between 300 and 600 frames with SMOOTH action and letters spelling out your verb. Continue working until you have met these requirements. If your action is NOT smooth restart to make it better.
   • Your Background must be something you made specifically for this assignment and be relevant to the verb.
   • Your verb must be approved and appropriate.  Use a thesaurus to come up with more interesting complex verbs.
   • You must have sounds or music throughout the whole movie. They must be copyright free (use the soundpac) and fit with the timing of the actions. 

 Example ideas

• A guy climbing a tree, falling off a cliff, dancing or walking across the stage.
• Make a boat, a plane, a skateboard, or a car with the create character feature, and then use that to have your character travel across the scene.
• Make a stick dog and have him play fetch with a stick.
• Have a group of figures dance together.
• ABSOLUTELY no shooting, killing bombs, knives or weapons of any kind etc. keep it school appropriate!

Some links you can access at home for Pivot stuff

• A you tube vid that shows step-by-step how to make a skate kick flip
• A site to download other figures, cars, backgrounds etc
• A you tube basic tutorial on making backgrounds and objects for your pivot
• Let me know if you find some good ones that I should add.

Copyright Free Sound sites

an exercise in editing

http://www.teachertube.com/flvideo/3795.flv

An example of a student film project with a door that opens onto other localtions, created with editing. Another video idea from adobe

http://www.teachertube.com/flvideo/3797.flv