funny visual stories
Introduction
The Funny Visual Stories section of my website showcases the second project that I completed for my Digital Photography in Instruction course at the University of West Georgia. In this project, I created my own comic strip using the software application called Comic Life (Plasq, 2015). The comic strip I created is a seven day comic strip in which a couple of little kids learn a big lesson. In the Monday comic strip, two kids are playing together and eating a snack when one of the kids throws his snack trash on the ground. When this happens, the children suddenly see something coming towards them. It turns out that it is Professor Planet, who is going to teach the children how to take better care of their planet. In the Tuesday through Saturday comics, Professor Planet is teaching the children how litter and pollution damage our earth, how to clean up trash on the land and in water, how to recycle, and how to precycle. On the Sunday comic strip, Professor Planet is ready to say goodbye to the kids. He is ready to let them continue the work they learned on their own. When he leaves them on their own, they decide that the first thing they should do is start teaching their friends everything that they learned.
I really enjoyed using the Comic Life program to create this project (Plasq, 2015). It was a user-friendly program, and I thoroughly enjoyed using my kids and husband to help me create the images for this comic strip. This was a fun experience, and I hope you enjoy my comic!
My comic strip is divided into seven sections for the seven days of the week. To view each day's comic strip, hover over the words "Funny Visual Stories" in the main menu of this website. When you hover over these words, a new submenu will appear. Select each day's comic strip, starting with "Monday Comic Strip" and ending with "Sunday Comic Strip," to view the entire comic strip from beginning to end.
The Funny Visual Stories section of my website showcases the second project that I completed for my Digital Photography in Instruction course at the University of West Georgia. In this project, I created my own comic strip using the software application called Comic Life (Plasq, 2015). The comic strip I created is a seven day comic strip in which a couple of little kids learn a big lesson. In the Monday comic strip, two kids are playing together and eating a snack when one of the kids throws his snack trash on the ground. When this happens, the children suddenly see something coming towards them. It turns out that it is Professor Planet, who is going to teach the children how to take better care of their planet. In the Tuesday through Saturday comics, Professor Planet is teaching the children how litter and pollution damage our earth, how to clean up trash on the land and in water, how to recycle, and how to precycle. On the Sunday comic strip, Professor Planet is ready to say goodbye to the kids. He is ready to let them continue the work they learned on their own. When he leaves them on their own, they decide that the first thing they should do is start teaching their friends everything that they learned.
I really enjoyed using the Comic Life program to create this project (Plasq, 2015). It was a user-friendly program, and I thoroughly enjoyed using my kids and husband to help me create the images for this comic strip. This was a fun experience, and I hope you enjoy my comic!
My comic strip is divided into seven sections for the seven days of the week. To view each day's comic strip, hover over the words "Funny Visual Stories" in the main menu of this website. When you hover over these words, a new submenu will appear. Select each day's comic strip, starting with "Monday Comic Strip" and ending with "Sunday Comic Strip," to view the entire comic strip from beginning to end.
Reflection
Introduction
Project two was an all-new experience for me. Not only have I never spent significant time reading comics before, but I’ve also never made a comic strip before. Through this project, I was able to learn the importance of using comics in the classroom. In addition to this, I was able to learn how to use the application called “Comic Life” (Plasq, 2015). Completing the readings and creating my own comic strip ignited an interest in the comic world for me, and for that reason alone, I am grateful for this project.
Challenges
There were several challenges for me in creating this project. The first challenge was that I was not very familiar with comics in general, so it took me some time to get my idea for my own comic strip. Once I had the idea for my comic strip, the next challenge was taking all of the photos for it. I used my own family as my subjects for my photographs, so I had my characters, but my comic strip was shot in several locations, and moving around to each of those locations with my family brought its own challenges. Also, making sure that I got all of the right shots as well as took the correct number of shots for my storyboard brought challenges. Once I had all of my images, the most challenging part was working with the program, Comic Life (Plasq, 2015). I had never worked with this program before, so when I was taking my photographs, I didn’t think about the orientation (horizontal versus vertical) of my images. When I started using Comic Life, I realized that I should have planned this before I took my photos; I should have actually chosen the page layout of each page of the comic strip prior to taking the photos (Plasq, 2015). I ended up building my own page layouts, not using the Comic Life templates, and I was very happy with the final look of my comic strip (Plasq, 2015).
Lessons Learned
The biggest lesson I learned through this projects was that, when creating comics, always think about the final product and layout before beginning the photo-taking process. As mentioned previously, it was difficult to place the images on the final comic page because I had no plan in mind for the orientation of my images when I took the pictures. I had to size and shape the images to fit the comic strip, and I had to create my own layout rather than using the layouts provided as template in the program. This was definitely a lesson learned for me. I should have viewed the available layouts prior to beginning my photo shoot. Another lesson I learned was how applicable comics are to the classroom and today’s students. I learned how much can be done with comics in the classroom in many subjects. Most importantly, I learned that I genuinely enjoy creating comic strips.
Value to My Own Practice
Since I’m not actually teaching at this time but am working as a technology specialist, I think that having the knowledge about using comics in the classroom can add value not only to my own practice, but also to the practice of other teachers. I think that it is my job to share this knowledge with teachers in my school. I would really like to work with the ESOL teachers in my school and encourage them to work with their students using comics. I think the students would love it, and I truly believe that the students would benefit from it. Spreading the word about the effectiveness of comics in the classroom as both a reading tool and a project-based learning opportunity could really help teachers to engage their students in a new and exciting way.
Conclusion
In closing, I would like to state that I am now a believer in using comics in the classroom. Due to my own lack of interest in comics, I had never considered the use of them in my own classroom. However, now that I have created my own comic strip and learned many ways that comics can be used in the classroom, I would definitely be using comics if I were still in the classroom. Since I’m not in the classroom, I’ll be encouraging other teachers to use comics in their classrooms. I’ll be educating them on ways to incorporate comics for students to read and create. I thoroughly enjoyed this project, and I’m grateful that it opened my eyes to the world of comics.
To download a copy of this reflection in Word, click the link below.
7466_steele_project 2 reflection.docx
Project two was an all-new experience for me. Not only have I never spent significant time reading comics before, but I’ve also never made a comic strip before. Through this project, I was able to learn the importance of using comics in the classroom. In addition to this, I was able to learn how to use the application called “Comic Life” (Plasq, 2015). Completing the readings and creating my own comic strip ignited an interest in the comic world for me, and for that reason alone, I am grateful for this project.
Challenges
There were several challenges for me in creating this project. The first challenge was that I was not very familiar with comics in general, so it took me some time to get my idea for my own comic strip. Once I had the idea for my comic strip, the next challenge was taking all of the photos for it. I used my own family as my subjects for my photographs, so I had my characters, but my comic strip was shot in several locations, and moving around to each of those locations with my family brought its own challenges. Also, making sure that I got all of the right shots as well as took the correct number of shots for my storyboard brought challenges. Once I had all of my images, the most challenging part was working with the program, Comic Life (Plasq, 2015). I had never worked with this program before, so when I was taking my photographs, I didn’t think about the orientation (horizontal versus vertical) of my images. When I started using Comic Life, I realized that I should have planned this before I took my photos; I should have actually chosen the page layout of each page of the comic strip prior to taking the photos (Plasq, 2015). I ended up building my own page layouts, not using the Comic Life templates, and I was very happy with the final look of my comic strip (Plasq, 2015).
Lessons Learned
The biggest lesson I learned through this projects was that, when creating comics, always think about the final product and layout before beginning the photo-taking process. As mentioned previously, it was difficult to place the images on the final comic page because I had no plan in mind for the orientation of my images when I took the pictures. I had to size and shape the images to fit the comic strip, and I had to create my own layout rather than using the layouts provided as template in the program. This was definitely a lesson learned for me. I should have viewed the available layouts prior to beginning my photo shoot. Another lesson I learned was how applicable comics are to the classroom and today’s students. I learned how much can be done with comics in the classroom in many subjects. Most importantly, I learned that I genuinely enjoy creating comic strips.
Value to My Own Practice
Since I’m not actually teaching at this time but am working as a technology specialist, I think that having the knowledge about using comics in the classroom can add value not only to my own practice, but also to the practice of other teachers. I think that it is my job to share this knowledge with teachers in my school. I would really like to work with the ESOL teachers in my school and encourage them to work with their students using comics. I think the students would love it, and I truly believe that the students would benefit from it. Spreading the word about the effectiveness of comics in the classroom as both a reading tool and a project-based learning opportunity could really help teachers to engage their students in a new and exciting way.
Conclusion
In closing, I would like to state that I am now a believer in using comics in the classroom. Due to my own lack of interest in comics, I had never considered the use of them in my own classroom. However, now that I have created my own comic strip and learned many ways that comics can be used in the classroom, I would definitely be using comics if I were still in the classroom. Since I’m not in the classroom, I’ll be encouraging other teachers to use comics in their classrooms. I’ll be educating them on ways to incorporate comics for students to read and create. I thoroughly enjoyed this project, and I’m grateful that it opened my eyes to the world of comics.
To download a copy of this reflection in Word, click the link below.
7466_steele_project 2 reflection.docx
References
Plasq. (2015). Comic Life (Version 3.5.4) [Application Software]. Retrieved from http://plasq.com/apps/comiclife/macwin/