Binder Cover Tutorial

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, then you've seen my binder covers for this fall. Making binder covers and other digital creations has become a passion of mine. While I'm not a Media Arts major, I have fun playing around with different fonts, clip art, and other such things. If you're interested in making some of these yourself but don't know where to begin, I'll share some of my tips! The screenshots I'm sharing are my property, using graphics and font I've found online from other sources.

To start, I never use Microsoft Word to design anything using pictures. I always use PowerPoint, due to the ease of movement on the program. You can easily rearrange graphics throughout the page, instead of having to reformat each time. 

Step 1: Open PowerPoint (I'm on a Mac, so my screen may look different than yours). 

Step 2: Reorient the page to portrait instead of the preset landscape orientation. On a Mac, you do this by going to the menus at the top of your screen, clicking on "file", then "page setup". This will bring you to the following pop up screen: 

Click on the picture of a vertical instead of horizontal slide, then click "ok". 

Step 3: Find the picture or border you want to use. I've done chalkboard backgrounds, a fun border and clipart found on Teachers Pay Teachers, or found a border I liked on Google. If you find it on Google, I just copy and paste to the slide and resize to fit the slide. If you download something, go to the menu at the top of the screen and click on "insert", "photo", and "picture from file". 

Step 4: Send photo to back. Doing this will bring the text boxes forward. I leave my text boxes in the preset title page position. To send the photo to back, click on the slide, making sure the photo is outlined, then click "format picture", "reorder", and "send to back". 

Step 5: Type in the title you want on your binder cover in the text box. I like to put the name of my class in the larger box and either a sub-heading or my name in the smaller box. I also make sure the font colors match. You can change the font to whatever you'd like, but I like to use fonts I've downloaded from Teachers Pay Teachers (Cara Carroll's fonts are great, and I've bought a licensed set for products I post on there). 

From here, you can print the covers and enjoy! Make sure you print one slide per page to make the cover! 

If you have any other questions, feel free to comment or email me!

Happy decorating!

-Sydney Liz 

Alaska Pt. 2

This is the second post of a recap of my Alaska trip! Finally!! Summer tends to get away from me, full of work, travels, and pool time. So, here we are! 

 The above photo is from Portage Glacier, in the Chugach National Forest, just south of Anchorage. This is where we spent two days with a grad student and faculty member from the University of Alaska Anchorage. While here, we learned how they look for bats and identify the different species, since bats are relatively new to Alaska. We also learned about how they look for and trap different aquatic species, looking for different organisms in the streams around here.

 On Monday afternoon, we also hiked to a glacier in the park, where we were able to walk on the permanent snow fields! If you come out here in August, you would still be on snow! It was definitely a cool experience.

 Wednesday, we had a unexpectedly free day, so we spent our morning hiking Flattop, the local favorite for an "easy" hike in Anchorage. As you can see from the above picture, you're pretty much on the top of a mountain overlooking the city and the bay beyond. The first part of the hike is relatively easy and much like a hike you would find around Pennsylvania. Then, we began the second half of the hike, heading up to the top. Here, it became more of a climb, heading up over large boulders and scrambling to the top. But I'm so glad I made it to the top! It was a huge accomplishment, one that I am extremely proud of. Now, going back down was a bit tricky, but here I am so I obviously made it down!

 Above is another photo of the top of the mountain. It truly is flat up there!

 Now, this photo above might just be my favorite of the whole trip. This is out the window of a four-seater plane piloted by a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Anchorage. He was gracious enough to take all of us up in groups, and I was the final group on Wednesday. This view of the sunset was amazing! Not to mention our pilot was one of the kindest, funniest men I think I've ever met. He loves to fly and got into it when he worked in aviation law, but his daughters and wife don't enjoy flying as much, so he loved the chance to take a bunch of excited college students up in the air.

 Here's his hanger. It looked like the ultimate man cave!

 On  Thursday, we headed north to the interior of Alaska and the weather started to heat up! We stopped in Palmer, where we square danced with a troup and I had the honor of singing some of the calls. Then, we visited a recycling facility. Being in Alaska makes recycling a little hard, since they have to send the recycled materials to the lower 48, so they want the highest bid!
Also during this time, we spent 2 days in Willow, the start of the Iditarod. We were there to help replant trees in the area after a devastating forest fire the year before. It was heartbreaking to hear these families stories of the fire, but I'm so grateful that we were able to help with the replanting process. We met so many wonderful people (and sled dogs!), so I'm so glad we were able to serve in this community.

 You can see Denali peaking out above the trees in the picture. It's a view as we were driving toward the park, but we were still about 200 miles away!

 Once we made it to Denali, I was so excited. Truth be told, this was the part of the trip I was most looking forward to. We stayed in the most beautiful cabin there. If you're looking for somewhere near the park, the McKinley Cabins and the the Carlo home are wonderful! It was a great treat after sleeping in cramped quarters and on church floors on air mattresses. It felt like being pampered and was fantastic.
The photo above was in the park. We went on a short hike from the visitors center before our bus tour out into the park. If you are planning a trip to the park, the bus tours are definitely the way to see the park, especially if you only have one day as we did. We had the morning to explore the visitors center (With lots of information about Alaska and how the park came about, including why you see Doll Sheep on the park logo), then we went out as far as you can in the park, without the back country hiking permits. We saw so much wildlife! Since I was taking photos on my phone, I didn't get the best picture of the animals, but I have a few of the scenery. It's amazing how much the scenery changes as you go. It goes from pine forest, to more sparse trees, to tundra in a matter of miles. Truly amazing. And windy.

 The buses drive on very narrow, winding roads up the mountainside. It can be very scary at times, but it was a lot of fun!

 After driving back to Anchorage, we had one last day to relax and eat at Moose Tooth, a great Pizza restaurant in the city. I would recommend it to anyone who is visiting! Good food and a great local place.

Before heading to the airport, we had some time, so the pastor of First Presbyterian in Anchorage invited us to his house for s'mores, then took us out to a park by the bay, built on top of a landfill. If he had never told us, I wouldn't have even known. This picture perfectly sums up the trip. Breathtaking, beautiful, full of wonder and awe, and the sun never set.

I know I've missed things and details, but I just want to say thank you to everyone who made this trip possible, and to all those who went on this trip with me. I went in not really being that close to anyone, and came away with new friendships and memories that I won't forget for a lifetime. So thank you for giving me a wonderful, once in a lifetime experience. I hope these blog posts help us to look back and remember this time for years to come.

-Sydney Liz

Alaska Recap Part 1

So I know I said I would blog while I was in Alaska, however, life has a way of becoming very busy on trips such as the one I took, so there was no time. Combine that with a lack of widespread wifi and my attempting to blog via my iPad instead of a laptop and it just didn't work out as I had planned. With that being said, I'm going to recap the trip here, probably in a few parts. This first part will be about our first couple of days on the trip.

We landed in Anchorage around 1am Alaska Standard Time, which felt like 5 am to all of us. The four hour time difference was not a highlight of the trip. But after landing in Anchorage, we made our way back to First Presbyterian Church in Anchorage, which would serve as a home base of sorts for the trip. The pastor and people there were so gracious to us, putting us up, as well as helping to organize and plan the rest of our trip around the interior.

After getting a couple hours of sleep, we awoke to finally see what Anchorage was like. I walked out of the church, turned right and was greeted with a magnificent mountain view. These views would come to be standard for every day of the trip.

The grass you see stretched out in front in the above photo is Airstrip Park, where the airport once stood.

Once we woke up, found the shower, and explored for a while, we set off on a tour of the city. Stops included Earthquake Park, where you can see the ground rolling from the earthquake in 1959 as well as a view of Sleeping Lady, a mountain you can see from many vantage points in Anchorage.

This was also when we saw our first moose of the trip. I don't know exactly how many moose we saw, but it came to be like seeing deer around western Pennsylvania.

Day 2 came the learning part of our trip. We spent the morning at the University of Alaska Anchorage meeting a Aleut man (Aleut is the native Alaskan people who are from the Aleutian Islands). He discussed his peoples' views on what is happening in Alaska and the environment. We then spent the afternoon at Alaska Native Heritage Center where I held a baby Alaskan Husky!

Days 3-5 were spent in Seward, where we played tourist, going to Exit Glacier and on a cruise of the Kenai Fjords. It was amazing being able to hike up the the glacier and learn from a National Park Ranger about the different formations and why there are no trees or certain types of trees in the different areas. If you ever go to a National Park or Forest, I would definitely suggest doing something with a Park Ranger, since they are so knowledgable! Just make sure to make a reservation!

 On the cruise, we saw orca whales, a hump back, and many different types of birds as well as another glacier. One of the college faculty who went on the trip was an ornithologist (someone who studies birds), so it was a really neat thing to learn from her about the birds and be able to have an identity for them! While the cruise was long and rocky, it was definitely an awesome experience.

Once we were back in Anchorage, we spent time relaxing, going to church, visiting a local market on Sunday afternoon, then kayaking at a local park thanks to some of the church members who lent us the use of their kayaks and a canoe!

Well, that's the end of Week 1! The next week was spent with people from the University and Park Service, as well as our first Alaskan hike up Flattop Mountain in Anchorage. I'll do a post on that, as well as our time heading north into the interior of Alaska later in the week!

-Sydney Liz

I'm Off on an Adventure!

This is just a quick note to say that I'm off to Alaska today! Yes, there will be lots of daylight, yes I'll be trying moose stew, and yes, this is an adventure of a lifetime. But, I'm not going alone! I'm going with a group of 14 other students from my college and 2 advisors, our college chaplain and a biology professor.
With that, I've decided since I'm not good with keeping a travel journal (sorry Madam!) I would try travel blogging. The idea is that everyone back home can follow along on our journey. I'll be posting pictures, funny things that happen, and trying to chronicle this amazing adventure on this space so we'll have the memories forever, even when the details may be a little fuzzy.
So look out for my posts when we have wifi available and I'll try to keep you up to date on this adventure!

A Note About the Holidays...

As Thanksgiving approaches next week and Christmas comes quickly after, I just want to write a little note about this time of year. It is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the decorations, the cool weather, hopefully some snow, the music. Most of all, I love being together with family and friends. People forget to be thankful for what we have. To be thankful for health, friends, a roof over your head, an education, safety, or food in your belly. So many people don't have all of these things, but everyone has something to be thankful for. And it shouldn't be something material. As the Grinch famously said:

So, this wonderful time of year, let's remember that Christmas and the Holidays aren't all about things, but also about people, time, and love. 

Find something to be thankful for in the coming week! 

-Sydney Liz 

My First Conference

This past Friday, I got the chance to present at my first Early Childhood Education conference. It was held at a local college for area educators, and it was so. much. fun. It was wonderful to get to share what we've learned in college classes with other educators. Our topic was "iCommunicate with Parents" and we talked all about technology to use when communicating with parents, since PA is huge on parent-teacher communications. We went beyond the classroom newsletter with what we presented. The three apps that we talked about were Twitter,  Showbie, and Kid Reports. (By the way, this is in no way sponsored, I just wanted to share links in case you were interested!) These apps, along with good ol' Facebook are great for keeping in touch with parents.

Showbie:

Showbie is a platform you can use to create an online, paperless classroom. If you work in a classroom that doesn't use a school wide platform such as blackboard, this is a great (free) alternative!

Twitter:

Most people know how to use Twitter, but this is great to use with parents to send out reminders about field trips, important days in the classroom, or link to helpful websites you think parents would like.

Kid Reports:

Kid Reports is a program for mainly child care centers to use. This system will push out information about an individual child or all the children in a family to parents or other pertinent family members. This can give parents a detailed report of their child's days and fill in the blanks they forgot to ask about at pick up. Teachers can also upload pictures and videos of a child throughout the day. These go only to the parent or family member so there's no privacy issues.

Well, that's a quick overview of the presentation I was fortunate enough to be a part of on Friday. I can't thank my professor enough for the opportunity to present for other educators! If you have any questions about technology in the classroom, don't be afraid to ask! Also, these blogs are great for technology use in an effective and appropriate way in the classroom:

2 Techie Teachers
Mrs. Banister's Blog

Before I go, I want to share this picture of my presentation group!

My professor, the head teacher of my college's preschool lab, me, and a fellow student!

Stay warm!

-Sydney Liz

A Pampering Saturday

This Saturday, I spent the day being pampered and shopping with my mom. It was sooo nice to just sit back and relax for a while. I was able to get both a pedicure and manicure which was amazing. While I got my pedicure, I sat back and read the June issue of Vogue, which was a wonderful escape from my busy weeks.

I got the OPI Summer collection on both my toes and fingers. The toes are "Aloha" and the fingernails are "Do you take Lei away?". I love the pop of color on my toes, but I can't do the color on my nails. I think a neutral there is a much better way to go with my "look". 

After my mani/pedi, we headed over to Crocker Park, which is a really nice outdoor shopping area near Cleveland. We had lunch at Brio, a great Italian restaurant. I loved that there was outdoor seating that was under cover, just in case the skies decided to open up and rain. 

 My mom had chicken with Quinoa and roasted red peppers and feta. I tried a bite and it was wonderful!

I went with the soup and salad. I'm a fan of all things lobster so I had to try the lobster bisque and I also love a good Cesar Salad. Both did not disappoint. 

Some retail therapy was also in order. I had to hit up the Victoria's Secret semi-annual sale as well as Barnes and Noble to pick up a new magazine for some light reading by the pool on my Monday off (hopefully the persistent rain holds off for a day). 

I hope you've had a wonderful and relaxing weekend as well! 

-Sydney Liz