Sunday, May 12, 2019

Fun with Graphics

There is not much I enjoy more on a chilly, overcast day than to cuddle up in my corner by the window with my graphic tablet. I can watch the Baltimore Orioles stick their bills down into blobs of grape jelly, sip nectar, and pick the pulp out of orange halves while I work.

As someone who loves to illustrate learning materials, I think two of the best purchases I ever made were: enrolment in Tony Vincent's online course, Classy Graphics, and my Wacom Intuos Draw graphic tablet, which came with the free version of ArtRage software. I ended up upgrading to the premium version, but only for one feature that most people will not need.

Tony taught me how to create things in Google Draw. I have forsaken word processing platforms and usually use Google Draw to make worksheets like this one.


I can also use it to make board games.


Tony also taught me how to build any icon or illustration I need just using the SHAPES feature of Google Draw. The car in the picture below consists of about nine different shapes. This is a great ability to have when you just cannot find that perfect royalty-free image to illustrate a concept.


Google Draw is also handy when I need props for role plays such as bank cards, the screens of the self-check machine at the library, and even an auto insurance card or speeding ticket.




But Google Draw has its limitations. For some jobs, I turn to the graphic tablet. For my mock Ontario driver's license, I first had to trace over a photo of a trillium. From that I made a tiny trillium watermark. Tony showed me how to replicate one very small image to create a background pattern on a page. Then I brought in my traced trillium and used the transparency tool to turn it into a big watermark. I enjoy all these fussy little steps!


The graphic tablet also comes in really handy for things like adding the face to this driver's license.  You CAN use Google Draw to make a face, but I find that for $99 CAD, the tablet was well worth it for all the fun I have with it. Oh, and Tony also taught me how to use a colour picker tool to find out the exact shade of green I had already chosen for the licence so I could repeat a shade of it behind the man's face.

Here is something I did entirely with the graphic tablet. I took a photo of my students sitting on chairs that we were using as an imaginary bus stop. In ArtRage I was able to trace the photo, colour it, then bring in a photo of a park bench, size it, and trace that so that it seemed to be under the men all along. 
If you've read this far, you deserve the reward. I've just uploaded the Andres' Speeding Ticket activity pack to my website under LITERACY - Emergency Services. It made sense to me to put it there instead of creating a section about the law for literacy learners. Stay tuned for more. I usually end up fixing a typo or two and adding a couple of puzzles when I use the pack in my own class.

How about you? Do you have the type of personality that is good for slow, methodical, fussy work like sewing? Or not so much?

17 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. You're very welcome, Anne-Marie. --KM

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  2. Those are great projects/ accomplishments and I envy you your patience. I don't have what it takes in either personality or talent to create such lovely materials. Even if I did, sadly my entire working life is being swallowed up by the demands of the I-can't-believe-it's-still-going-on horrible PBLA. At this time of year it's particularly awful. The mess that is student levels combined with continuous intake, student requests for tasks tasks and more tasks to fill the damned binders before term finishes even though they still don't know how to write a sentence or use a verb, plus the stress of teachers who almost across the board want to quit because of this, has sucked the joy out of our teaching lives. Spring is here. Summer is coming. This used to be a happy winding down time of year for both students and teachers. Not so anymore. PBLA links for resources keep sailing our way. Students' skills have deteriorated. Nobody knows what they're doing anymore except surviving until the end of term. What a pleasure it would be to spend time caring and enjoying the teaching process once again. I'm glad you have found a way to still enjoy work. I am miserable at my job because of PBLA and feel especially bad about being forced to do something that , with my many years of teaching experience, I know to be unmanageable, ridiculous and wrong for all involved except maybe the people who created it. Sorry to rain on the parade. All we do in our staffroom is complain too. How else can we deal with it all? Nobody will listen to us. No one in management wants to know about how bad it is. I have a headache.

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    1. Don't worry about my parade. I know that I'm in a unique position since only 6 of my 18 students have to "do" PBLA, and that is at the literacy level, which requires no detailed feedback on essay questions or anything of that sort from me. It also means I'm not ambushed every single day by the cajoling, whining, wheedling, stressed out CLB 3 students who are freaking out over that magic number four. What you are going through is the reason I don't dare try to change levels that I teach. It's also why another of my colleagues recently decided to get out. This is very sad. --KM

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    2. I agree with you 100% Anonymous 1:52 AM. I sat in my car, in the parking lot of the school, crying because of the stress my work has caused me. I took everything I had in me to get myself together, get out of my car and actually walk into the school and start my day. I used to love my job so much. It used to be rewarding and I felt that I was actually helping people, but those days are over now.

      Kelly, your blog is wonderful. Thank you for all of your excellent insight and for providing this space for us. I don't comment often, but I always read your blog.

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    3. Dear Crying in your Car,
      IRCC and the CLBB need to wake the f... up. As we speak one of my colleagues is in tears because of PBLA.

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    4. Three people off work here because of mental breakdown caused by PBLA workload and all administration does is post a video about self care. Get enough sleep, exercise, have a life outside of work. Ya right. IRCC and CLBB have ruined my life. YESM WAKE THE F..UP EVERYONE. Please contact your MP and MPP. Doug Ford wants to save money in Ontario??? He can start with the damned binders.

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    5. CCLB / CNCLC PBLA pbla@language.ca said to contact these two if you want to tell your story.

      Rana Ashkar

      rashkar@language.ca

      Kathy Hughes

      khughes@language.ca

      I was also assured that extreme workload is being created by the employers and is not expected by the funder. It was suggested that people contact their local MP and MPP and copy Rana and Kathy.

      Really. People need to start pushing back. PBLA is an abusive and ugly beast that employers are exploiting to harass employees. Really think long and hard about contacting your MP and MPP. If you won't, then when will the crying stop? There was a movie a long time ago titled "The Burning Bed". Maybe we need to strike and have "The Burning Binder" revolt.

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  3. Dear crying in your car. unreal. I feel so bad for you and have often felt the same. When are the powers that be going to realize what this has done to us? Teachers are on the verge of having breakdowns throughout the ESL community. I've heard so many similar stories. Please hang in. hugs for you.

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    Replies
    1. Please contact your MP and MPP.

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  4. but who is going to stop this train wreck? I personally cannot afford it but I would absolutely be willing to go on strike. 100% I would if I thought it would change things. My only other option is to quit a job I once loved.

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    Replies
    1. Please contact your MP and MPP.

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  5. Dear Burning Binder,

    Who do you think came up with and is absolutely requiring, NO EXCEPTIONS, the 8-10 artifacts for God’s sake? It’s the CCLB. And who has rolled this thing without providing ANY resources WHATSOEVER? You got it...it’s those in the CCLB IVY TOWER. Although it’s looking more like Faulty Towers al the time. Are you telling me I should go complain to the very people that have designed and implemented this disaster? The people who have thrown everything onto the backs of poorly paid largely female teachers? I get that you want simebody to listen. I feel that, too. But call me crazy, but I don’t think approaching the PBLA masterminds at the CCLB is going to work.

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    1. It's not that they dont get it.....its that they dont care. People are making a lot of money. Unfortunately, we dont know who or why, but it seems to me that we are paying the price for people who are profiting as political favors. Meanwhile, our programs are constantly being trimmed. They have set us up for failure by forcing this chaotic counterproductive program. We were told in a meeting this week that teachers were no longer going to have a paid day to do required paperwork at end of semester. When asked when we are to do our paperwork, coordinator was visibly embarrassed and uncomfortable, and said we are going to have to be creative. That, to me, means find ways to do it in class time or at home on our own time. Teachers also lost hours to avoid letting anyone go. This because two classes have been cut.Therefore, we are effectively getting a decrease in our income. Grounds for constructive dismissal.

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    2. I think many of us have been present for one of those awkward silences after we ask when we are supposed to get X accomplished if there is no paid time for it. Right in that moment is when we need to press the coordinator and read them sentences straight from the labour act or from our job descriptions. I suggest something like, "When you find out when and how we'll be paid for the time it takes to do that, then we will do it. Get back to us on that."

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  6. I agree and this is the problem. I think a lot of teachers are spunky with strong opinions. We're not generally a shy bunch. But this seems to have no solution. There seems to be nobody to talk to and somehow managers have jumped onto the runaway train (weird how the power structure works.. give someone an inch...) The whole thing is completely messed up. Nobody to tell nobody to listen money spent and wasted . It's like the monster is bigger than we all are. I like the idea of a strike. Nobody cares much about ESL though. We feel so powerless.

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  7. I wish I knew what it was going to take to effect change. In the meantime, I see teachers trying to survive by doing whatever they can. Assessing without teaching. Throwing things together as best they can. Not addressing the criteria. Taking shortcuts. It’s not good, but We have to keep our heads above water. The conditions that were set by the CCLB (not IRCC and not program managers—although some have made things worse instead of trying to protect their staff) lead to these results. They should be FIRED.

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Thank you for participating in this forum. Anonymous commenting is available, but is not intended to shield those taking pot shots at those of us challenging PBLA. If you are here to do that, please use your name.