A Rainbow Blizzard
Take a look at this preschool winter bulletin board, currently on display in the hallway at my WonderTwinzees program! I couldn't have said it better myself. Enough already with the cold and wet and gray. Seriously enough is enough already! Yesterday's white out was well past one too many.
What a cute little rhyme to go with these 'open-ended/process' Art and color explorations on coffee filters. They really do brighten up the hallway.
If you live anywhere in the Mid-west or the great North, I suspect that you still have time to replicate this idea. What did the groundhog have to say? Or shall we consult the Farmer's Almanac?
What I know for sure is that this is the week where I transition back to sunny FL. I have the responsibility of giving the keynote this weekend for the state conference of faith-based preschools. Palm trees here I come! Cold and wet and gray be gone!
I saw this next bulletin board in FL, before I came north for this little juncture. I think very few folks scraping their cars and wearing mukluks give much thought to a bulletin board with palm trees for the winter season. Or maybe that's the major incentive to trudge along through mounting snow -- to think of palms and smile.
A newsworthy tidbit! Many who read here regularly know that I'm something of a Pinterest Princess. I continue to inch closer and closer to my first 100,000 P-followers! At this rate it looks like I could make it in the next ten days or so. Whoohooo. Please do your part and make certain that you're following me.
Well, this old dog is truly attempting to learn new tricks! I have been introduced to "Sulia" via the great, all-knowing + brilliant Zina the social media maven and author of "Lasso the Moon" fame. What?!?!?! You haven't heard of Sulia? The most succinct and insightful description that I've read was:
"What if Twitter and Pinterest got married. Sulia would be their baby."
Sulia is truly visual for those, like me that need a great image to intrigue and entice us -- so it does indeed have a similarity to Pinterest. The mini-articles that act as invitations to click through to the original source, do allow for interesting text and that follows in the shadows of Twitter. Sulia is something of an online 'magazine' with a variety of channels/subjects that you can choose to follow and surf.
My personal, REALLY big news is that I have been deemed an "EXPERT" at Sulia on the topic of Early Childhood, which falls under their Parenting category umbrella. I am actually to receive a stipend for my contributions there weekly. IMAGINE THAT! So I will be doing my best to find great blog articles to share. (Imagine if Pinterest was paying me a stipend to pin!)
Sulia is gaining traction all the time. Come explore and be one of their early adopters. Find folks to follow. Add to your resources. Help 'guide' the network into your own personal playground. Click here to find me on on Sulia and please, by all means follow me on as many of the 'channels' as you'd like.
I will admit that it took me a while to figure out how to follow folks. If you look at my screen shot above, you'll see that I put a great big heart around the middle column. THAT's where you start to follow me. You have to go category by category and hover over the little red square and click it for each topic that interests you. May I suggest: Early Childhood, Parenting and Education to begin?
Simultaneously I am also attempting to grasp the power of Google+ and navigate their waves more frequently. The whole 'hangout' function is just too cool for words and yes I've used that SEVERAL times already. I am enthralled with the hangout. I've watched several presentations live and others that have been transported to YouTube after-the-fact. AWESOME!
I am an infant all over again, but I can TOTALLY see why getting in on the Google+ train as soon as possible is CRITICAL for anyone that blogs or wants traffic to their site. Since I've started 'circling' people and +ing my blog articles and +ing the articles of others, I have seen my blog's page rank increase from a 3 to a 4. A VERY big deal to me. This rise in page rank means that my content is more likely to be delivered to others in their Google searches where I have applicable material. I am learning more and more about the power of the plus!
BTW: It is very important to 'verify' that you are the author of your blog, by listing it on your profile's page. Again. Connects the dots for all of those bots crawling your content!
It is the new 'communities' function at Google+ that also holds much fascination and will lead to greater traction, the more you interact and get engaged. I am one of the moderators for a new Google+ community called: +KINDERLAND. To participate you have to have your +profile ready and engaged. We already have 550+ participants in the community, discussing everything from reading programs to recess assignments.
Let's see if this works +Debbie Clement is where you look to find my world. By all means add me to your circle or circles -- as I'm pretty multi-disciplined, I realize.
-- Debbie --
![Fern Smith's Thursday's Tech Tips for Teachers](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtMJZv3pkCKLAbU04pzoxeFkWw6uBlStqNdpwLA7_scB6cOCsuNLmuIqXRg-mI6A40yfrRpu2r8jX7Y46u5QEqzgB6sPaEIeNmnKQFEN0hzhjkBipyS2lC6fXPAkgjYq_Ex5nYZ0iDmVc/s200/FernSmithsThursdaysTechTipsforTeachers260.jpg)
Thank you, thank you, thank you for linking up! I'm so excited about this new project of yours!
ReplyDelete~Fern