This video shows my 2nd grade daughter’s class celebrating Spanish music listening to Juan Luis Guerra (from the Dominican Republic) while donning sombreros and dancing the conga. A very memorable party… yes, that is Rachel leading the conga line!

The girls spent about ten minutes in the cockpit checking out the controls and asking questions of both female pilots and the female flight engineer.

Then they learned all about the mission and roles of the air crew in the AWACS, which serves as the “eyes and ears” of the US national command authority worldwide. I’ve wanted my girls to get a better understanding of what officers and NCOs in the US Air Force do and what careers they could potentially have in the military, and yesterday was absolutely the PERFECT opportunity to help them do that! MANY thanks to my friend and classmate Vern Conaway, who let us know about this opportunity.

Oklahoma City’s Fox 25 News interviewed Rachel and Sarah during their tour and featured some of their comments in a video news segment which aired on March 15th.

Rachel recorded a 2.5 minute narrated slideshow, “Inspired by Women in the US Air Force,” using the app SonicPics on my iPhone, sharing some additional thoughts and reflections about the impact of this experience on her.

Thinking and planning for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers starts early! Many thanks to all the officers, NCOs, and civilian employees at Tinker AFB who made these experiences possible!

Technorati Tags: military, stem, usaf, inspire, inspired, career, airforce

OVERVIEW from Planetary Collective on Vimeo.

If you didn’t see the video Rachel made over the weekend, check it out: “How to make an igloo in Club Penguin.”

Marie Curie changed the world through science. Marie and her husband discovered two new elements, polonium and radium. Marie and two other scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics. In 1910, she isolated radium in the form of a metal. Marie won a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry.

Some of her main struggles were that her husband was killed in an accident right after they won the prize. Marie’s main struggle was that people treated her differently because she was a woman.

Her accomplishments inspire me to work harder in science. She proves that women can be as good as men in science. One of my favorite quotes of hers is:

“You cannot hope to build a better world without improving and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think can be most useful.” -Marie Curie

Her research into radiation helped others discover the structure of the atom. Even though radiation is very dangerous, it helps save lives even today through X rays, cancer treatments, and creating electricity.

This is an interesting dive into the the virtual world my youngest daughter plays in every week.

Rachel, YOU could be recording a tour like this from space in 15 or 20 years!

(I’m posting this here so Rachel can watch the rest of this after school or another day, and you can too!)

Hat tip to Mike Gras who shared this video on Facebook last night.

In October 2005, my parents interviewed Fred about his life. This is the 78 minute audio interview they recorded with Fred.

[display_podcast]

I am going to share a 92 second edited excerpt of that interview in my TEDx talk on Friday, which I’ve shared to SoundCloud using the title, “Remembering the Early Days of Radio.”

Rest in peace, beloved Fred. My how you’d be amazed to see how your family members are communicating now around the world.

Her vocal instructor and coach, Jay Prock, wisely scheduled a short vocal audition prior to the musical performance of “The Wizard of Oz.” as a result they had a nice audience for the recital!

credits:
Wesley Fryer, iPhone4

An amazing morning of clouds and light witnessed from Sakura Ridge B&B.

Sent from my iPhone

         Do you have that person in your life that makes you smile? That one lucky guy is my dad. I love him so much. He helps me with my homework. He loves to sing with me, and loves to cook with me. I love him and couldn’t imagine my life without him.

My dad is a teacher. He is very good at math, English, especially writing. Whenever I’m struggling with anything I can always go to him. Math isn’t my brightest subject. Don’t get me wrong, I love it but sometimes I need help. My father of all trades is always there to help.

Dads are usually like their sons right? Well my dad and I are very similar. We both love to sing. My favorite part about long car trips, is plugging in the phone and singing along to songs. We both share a love of music. Our dream is to play the guitar by the fire while singing familiar songs.

Cooking is a loved thing in my family. Everyone loves to eat. You can’t have food without chefs. That’s where my dad comes in. He’s the breakfast king. Anything you want he can make it! One of my favorites is homemade doughnuts and foil dinners,(or hobo dinners.) These are some of our family’s favorites. The best part is preparing together and bonding as a family.

From cooking, to singing, to helping me with my homework, my favorite person is definitely my dad!

]]> http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2012/10/09/my-favorite-person-essay/feed/ 1 http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2012/09/30/reflections-on-the-steve-jobs-biography/ http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2012/09/30/reflections-on-the-steve-jobs-biography/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 00:29:15 +0000 Dad http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/?p=689 Welcome to another podcast on Learning Signs, recorded & published with Mobile Podcaster and WordPress. This is a 40 minute conversation between Wesley and Shelly Fryer discussing the Biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

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[powerpress]http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Hello-From-Colorado-Springs.m4a[/powerpress]

Rachel has expressed interest in doing more “Talking Science” podcasts, so we’ll likely do that in the weeks ahead. This past August in Montana, Lucy Gray told me about the Maker’s Faire she attended in San Francisco with her kids and how WONDERFUL it was to experience that DIY culture filled with science and engineering projects. I’d love to bring Rachel and my other kids to a Maker’s Faire at some point. A couple of years ago Nathan Parrow (who I interviewed for a podcast on electric car conversions) was working on bringing a Maker’s Faire to Oklahoma City, which would be hosted by our Oklahoma Science Museum. It would be GREAT to have a local Maker’s Faire. Nathan also told me he was part of a group that was putting together a space in Norman for DIY / STEM projects. I’m not sure what the status of that initiative is either, but I’d love an update if you have info or a related link to share.

Young people start forming their identities about who they are and what they want to do EARLY in life! We can’t underestimate the importance of providing kids with MULTIPLE opportunities to experience how fun, engaging, and challenging science, technology, engineering and math work can be. This can’t wait till middle school, high school or college!

Last night William Chamberlain saw my Tweet about Rachel’s AudioBoo and initiated a conversation with Krissy Venosdale about Space Camp for Rachel. I’m going to look into those options. About five years ago our son, Alexander, attended a week-long day camp at the Cosmosophere in Hutchinson, Kansas. I’m going to look into camp opportunities there as well as at the Houston Space Center, which we visited in July 2011. I am SO thrilled Rachel is excited about science and STEM, and want to do whatever I can as a parent to further nurture these interests… whether or not her Oklahoma City Public Schools‘ elementary school provides these kind of learning experiences “formally” or not. Hopefully we’ll be able to host some kind of “Scratch Camp” for parents and kids at her school later this fall or next spring.

I always like fall
best
you can eat juicy lobster
from Atlantic waters
and peppermint bark
and blueberries
and sea salt and vinegar chips
and lots of
seafood
and hot chocolate
and maple syrup
at the town square
and walk to
the bonfire
outside
at the christmas
village
and go to Starbucks with
Zoë Sprankle
and sip carefully
and laugh constantly
all the time
not just when you hear a joke

Sarah Fryer

I volunteerted tonight to be the “class historian / photographer.” I’m thinking we might buy an older iPod Touch at a local pawn shop which can take photos, and then set it up to both post photos to a class blog as well as use it for narrated art recordings like Rachel made tonight.

Technorati Tags: yellowstone, grand, prismatic, spring

Also see my post, “Boiling River: Best Kept Secret In Yellowstone National Park,” for another video and more photos.

Technorati Tags: mammoth, yellowstone, lunch

The number one reason I wanted to use my iPhone4 as my camera at Philmont, instead of a battery operated digital camera, was its ability to take HDR (high dynamic range) photos with the Pro HDR app which Dean Shareski told me about several years ago. I absolutely LOVE this app and the high quality images it enables me to capture. Especially in the mountains where landscapes have dark shadows as well as bright sunshine and clouds, the HDR app is priceless. Here are a few of my favorite HDR photos I captured on our trek.

Alexander by Cathedral Rock, on day 2 of our trek.

Looking down the mountain at surrounding clouds and storms, climbing Mount Phillips (11,700′ MSL) on day 4 of our trek.

Sunset at Fish Camp, which is where Waite Phillips (the Tulsa oil man who donated the 127,000 acres which comprises Philmont in 1938 and 1941) built his favorite backcountry cabin.

View from “the notch” overlooking Rayado Canyon, between Fish Camp and Abrehu.

Alexander on top of the Tooth of Time on day 11.

The other iPhoneography app I really like on my iPhone4 is Pano, which takes great panoramic images. It’s incidentally also available for Android and Windows 7 phones. Here are a few of my pano shots from Philmont this month.

Having breakfast on top of Mount Phillips on day 5.

On the porch of the staff cabin at Cimarroncito Camp on day 2.

Panorama (almost 360 degrees) on top of the Tooth of Time on day 11.

Since we were on the trail for 11 days and did not have ANY access to electricity, I needed a way to use solar power to charge my iPhone. (I could have opted for a battery charger, but I didn’t want to carry all the extra battery weight.) I purchased a $35 G24i Solar Innovations Power Curve Solar Charger at Academy Sports before our trip, and was pleased with the performance overall. It came with a USB female plug which I could directly use with my iPhone USB dock charging cable.

The Power Curve has a rechargeable battery built into it, so I would charge it during the day and then recharge my iPhone at night. I generally was able to get a 30% to 40% charge of my iPhone4 each night with a full solar battery charge. Near the end of the trip during the day I got down to less than 10% battery at some points, but I was able to boost the iPhone battery enough that I was able to take all the pictures I wanted. I did turn the brightness down to almost zero (probably about 15% of max brightness) for the entire trip, along with turning on airplane mode to conserve battery. According to the instructions, the solar charger needed 6 to 8 hours in direct sunlight to become fully charged. I found this was not possible when the charger was just hanging on the back of my backpack on the trail. I needed to set the charger in direct sunlight at camp for many hours each day, when possible, to obtain the maximum charge available.

I was able to make a couple calls at different points of our trip, mainly on top of mountains and high ridges where cell phone service was available. Since the Oklahoma City Thunder was in the NBA finals during our trek, it was ‘critical’ (in the minds of several of our boys) to get score updates. Overall, however, I was ‘unplugged’ from the grid for almost two weeks and really enjoyed it.

Since I had my iPhone, instead of keeping a written journal during our trek I decided to make an audio journal using the free app AudioBoo. (In addition to iOS, AudioBoo is also available for Android and Nokia phones.) I recorded a short audio journal entry each night before bed, and selected a photo from the day to accompany it. After getting back home to Oklahoma City, I uploaded all of those AudioBoo recordings to the web. This worked great and is an audio journal option I highly recommend to others taking trips you’d like to document.

I came very close before the trek to buying a Spot Connect satellite GPS device which would allow me to tweet from the backcountry with our updated GPS coordinates. Our Philmont ranger told us these are discouraged in the backcountry, because of the possibility of accidentally hitting the “panic / come rescue me” button and inadvertently calling in a rescue helicopter. It’s possible in the next couple years my son and I may go on another high adventure trek canoeing in the Minnesota / Canadian boundary waters. If so, I might again explore that option. As it turned out, it was great to be largely disconnected from technology and information during our trek, and the option to “tweet from the backcountry” might have been more of a distraction in our journey than it would have been worth.

If you ever have an opportunity to go on a backpacking trek to Philmont, I highly recommend that you go. I went on a trek with my scout troop from Manhattan, Kansas, (Troop 74) back in 1986, and was a Philmont “zoomie” ranger in the summers of 1990 and 1992. Philmont is a truly magical place and it casts a spell on you that will last a lifetime. It was a tremendous blessing to be able to share these experiences with my son this summer!

This trek was, by the way, the reason I was not able to attend ISTE 2012 this year. Next year I definitely hope to attend ISTE 2013 in San Antonio.

To learn more about my favorite iPhoneography apps, please see my iPhoneography workshop curriculum. An hour long videoconference I taught on iPhoneography in December 2011 is also available free on YouTube.

Technorati Tags: audioboo, iphone, scout, scouting, philmont, photography, solar, charger, backcountry

credits:
iPhoneography by Wesley Fryer

Cathedral Rock, Fish Camp & Rayado Canyon at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico

This evening Alexander answered a few of the questions using AudioBoo on an iPad. He actually asked to answer with just audio, since he didn’t need to show anything on his actual project in a video to answer the questions. Here are the student questions written by some of Mr. Buist’s students and Alexander’s recorded answers. There were many more questions shared by students, but these were the ones Alexander was able to answer tonight. Thanks Mr. Buist and students for your interest in Alexander’s project and his learning journey as a designer and engineer! I hope the information we share is helpful to you in your own engineering design projects.

Questions from Jonah C:

Did you have fun doing this project, or did you just do this for a good grade? If you did have fun with this project, what were the most fun parts of the project that you had?

If you did not like this and just did this project for a grade, then what did you not like about the project? What kind of help did your dad give you, or did you just do the project by yourself?

Question from Braxton B:

One of the questions that I have about the second design is why even use the pulley when you still have to use your hand to help it along I hope you can answer my questions a thank you for listening.

Answers for Jonah C. & Braxton B.about Simple Machine Project

Question from Lejon D:

If you were to take away one thing from your design what would it be?

Answers for Lejon D. about Simple Machine Project

Questions (1 of 2) from Eric B:

Question 1: Did you think about recycling the water by making a tube back into the bottle or something like that?

Question 2: Where did the water go after it went through once?

Question 3: How long did it take to make your project?

Question 4: How much did it cost to make your project?

Question 5: Did you find this project particularly challenging?

Question 6: Have you faced a project like this before?

Question 7: What inspired the idea?

Question 8: Did you enjoy this project?

Answers 1 of 2 for Eric B. about Simple Machine Project

Questions (2 of 2) from Eric B:

Question 9: The first time you ran your water wheel it failed, why?

Question 10: Could you upgrade your machine in any way?

Question 11: Was your dad very beneficial do you work and the way your machine ran?

Question 12: Did the light turn on?

Question 13: Why do you think the pulley did not work?

Question 14: Was your dad excited when your project was a success?

Question 15: Did you dad embarrass you at the end of the video?

Question 16: Witch design did you think worked the best?

Answers (2 of 2) for Eric B. about Simple Machine Project

Question from Katie:

In your first design you had the water from the wheel turn on a light bulb. Why did you decide not to do that design?

Answers for Katie about Simple Machine Project

Question from Malaya G:

I want to know what grade you got on your project and did you have fun making it?

Answers for Malaya G. about Simple Machine Project

This weekend, my 8th grade son and I worked on a project for his science class he’s been planning for over a month. In March I asked him to record a short podcast we posted over on our family learning blog, “Draft Design for a Complex Machine to Generate Electricity from Water Power.” This was his initial design:

After actually building his planned design and working with different materials (largely scrap wood from our local Lowe’s hardware store and various bits of hardware pieced together with a drill and Gorilla Glue) we finally created a product which resembles this design, which he drew tonight.

Last night, he recorded a three minute video explaining his design and what we’d changed from the original plans.

Today, he actually tested the design and we recorded two videos I combined into one: A preliminary failure and a second successful test.

Overall science class this year for him has been (I think) largely a disappointment and a big frustration on several fronts. I won’t elaborate here in detail, but it’s been a case as a parent where I dearly wished there were more opportunities for both student and parental feedback to be integrated into the formal teacher evaluation process. Those frustrations aside, I want to observe that good things can come from projects and specifically engineering challenges which students are given. We spend far too LITTLE time in school and outside of class actually BUILDING THINGS we design and tweaking those models until “they work.” Alexander’s project isn’t likely to win any STEM awards and I’m not even sure what his grade on the project or in his class will be… but those things really don’t matter much. What matters is this science and engineering project gave him a chance to design and build something he imagined in his mind. It gave us a chance to work on building his design together. It was fun, and I think we both learned some new things as well as creating something we’re proud of and will remember for a long time.

He takes his project to school tomorrow to show his teacher and his class what he made and what he learned. “Success in learning,” however, has already been achieved and we don’t need a teacher’s grade or evaluation to know it. We DID, however, need a teacher to assign this project and thereby provide a catalyst for designing and building together. For that I am thankful both to his teacher and his wonderful school, Classen School of Advanced Studies in Oklahoma City Public Schools.

Long live science and engineering projects for students which require creativity, imagination, and really “making stuff!”

Technorati Tags: science, stem, project, engineering

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Sent from my iPad

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Sent from my iPad

I shared the “Sweeping Down the Plains” STEM project from K20-ALT with him this week for ideas and inspiration. See Video Part 2 on the project page, starting at the 4:46 point to see the design for an electrical generator/dynamo using a wind generator design. The Google Doc lesson plan includes the supplies used for their project. This extremely clever design uses a CD, neodymium magnets from AmazingMagnets.com, a wooden skewer like those used on a BBQ grill, a suction cup, and other inexpensive items. Hat tip to Adam Zodrow for sharing this amazing project with me a few weeks ago. See this post and podcast on Oklahoma EDUshare for more info about this project and K20-ALT.

I’m thinking Alex’s greatest challenge will be building the water wheel, gears, and the dynamo. This is going to be a great opportunity for problem solving, engineering, design and tinkering!

Technorati Tags: science, stem, tinkering, design, dynamo, water, audioboo, comments4kids

This is a story that I just created on my iPad with Story Patch! I hope you enjoy it!

My Story (4).pdf Download this file

Sent from my iPad

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Sent from my iPad

I used six Anaheim green chilis in addition to 4 small (4 oz) cans of Hatch green chilis.

I roasted these in the oven using these instructions, basically turning them every 1.5 minutes under the oven broiler for a total of 10 minutes cooking time.

Then I covered them with saran wrap for 15 minutes and they were ready to peel.

I added about a tablespoon of oregano to my recipe, which wasn’t called for in “Karen’s” version. I also added some sliced and sautéed new potatoes, which Dan had encouraged me to use.

Now we’re off to church to see who wins and taste everyone’s creations! For more inspiration, check out the video I made last year at the Chili Cook Off! I may try to make another documentary this year.

Update: My chili was well received, but there was not NEARLY enough of it. No prizes this year. Next year if I make it again, I’ll double or triple the recipe.

Technorati Tags: chili, green, recipe

Alien alert!.pdf Download this file

This is a story Rachel created on my iPad with Story Patch! We hope you enjoy it!

He is Asian, yet he towers above everyone like a skyscraper in a farm town. You can pick him out from his stocky build, tan skin and cropped black, Asian hair. He also has his always present red jacket zipped up all the way so that you rarely see his shirt. It is ripped half way around the right sleeve and has not left his back since we started school even in the hot Oklahoma summer. His light-brown backpack that he’s had since elementary school looks even more beat up.

As he tosses it on the ground next to a desk, his last two colored pencils tumble out. He sits down heavily in the old wooden desk that does not have enough leg room and proceeds to lay his head down with his forearms covering his face still grasping the pink pencil that he had grabbed not a moment ago. He continues to sit like this for awhile until I walk in, only the second person to enter the classroom, and open the heavy door.

Immediately his head popped up, quick as a fly, and grabs a textbook on the desk next to him proceeding to open it to a random page and pretend like he had been reading it the whole entire time. I laugh and joke with him on how he thought I was the teacher while making my way back to him. In response to my joke he just flipped his hair to the side by looking to the side and uttered a very dramatic, “Well.” This was usually his way of responding to my jokes whenever he couldn’t come up with a response.

He has been getting better at putting up more of a fight ever since he joined me in our debate class. That’s another thing we share, love for arguing, and we love to practice whenever we’re together, even if I win most of the time. He’s also been getting better at chess since I started playing him even, when no one at school can repeatedly best me.

But, probably one of the best things I like about him is that he will never back down from a challenge and will never give up no matter what happens. Just recently he went up and challenged our best debater, a senior, to a match. He knew he didn’t have much of a chance but he still stood up there and did his best to prove himself, and he did an awesome job. From all of this I know, that Phu Tran is my best friend.

I found this video tonight as I was looking at data on an old hard drive. Unfortunately the new version of iMovie isn’t compatible with the older version I created this with. If I find a copy at some point I may encode this at a higher resolution. At least we have this version!

• 60 images
• 1 second per image (total of 60 seconds)
• The video tells a story

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Fryers in Oklahoma City!

Artist: Steven Curtis Chapman

Buy “Declaration Of Dependence” on: Android Market, AmazonMP3, iTunes

Technorati Tags: oklahoma, sprinkler, ice, okc, city, report, reporting

This was the drawing she made on Sunday when she took communion for the first time.

Rachel is taking away a lot of ideas from church each week and I think it’s great she’s sharing her perceptions through her art.

Technorati Tags: artwork, sharing, sunday, sermon, drawing

This was the recipe I used and modified slightly. We bought 4 pounds of prime rib at Whole Foods, which was 2 bone-in ribs/steaks. We were feeding 7 people. This worked out fine, but I would like to have an extra rib next time for the same number of people.

For the seasoning rub (which turned out amazing) I added some Montreal steak seasoning to the four ingredients included in the recipe: coarse sea salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and pepper. I didn’t baste the sides during cooking. For our 4 pound roast, I cooked it 15 min at 425 degrees and then 1 hour, 15 minutes at 325. The meat thermometer read 130 at the end of the cooking time. I covered it with foil and let it rest for 20 minutes after that. As I said it turned out amazing, but since we had several people who like more well done meat it would have been good to leave it in the oven just a touch longer.

I cut it with our electric knife which worked great. To keep the meat hotter before serving, however, next time I’ll try to have all other items ready for our plates before cutting the prime rib.

]]> http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/19/ksu-engineering-tour-reflections/feed/ 0 http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/11/background-of-the-lincoln-douglas-debates/ http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/11/background-of-the-lincoln-douglas-debates/#comments Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:48:47 +0000 Dad http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/?p=621 Alexander created this ten minute video for his seventh grade history day project: “Background of the Lincoln Douglas Debates.”

Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPad ]]> http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/04/how-the-grinch-stole-christmas/feed/ 0 http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/04/green-blob-mystery/ http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/04/green-blob-mystery/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 02:09:05 +0000 Dad http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/04/green-blob-mystery/ This is Sarah’s first animated movie with Puppet Pals.

Sent from my iPad ]]> http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/04/green-blob-mystery/feed/ 0 http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/04/santa-goes-to-washington-dc/ http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/12/04/santa-goes-to-washington-dc/#comments Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:16:19 +0000 Dad http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/?p=613 Rachel made this video, “Santa Goes to Washington DC,” using the Puppet Pals Director’s Pass app on an iPad.

Santa Goes to Washington DC from Wesley Fryer on Vimeo.

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

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Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Christmas In Camelot (4 pages)

Click the link above to view and participate in the VoiceThread. Making comments is really simple and you can delete and re-record as many times as you like.

If you are viewing this on iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch and you have the VoiceThread app installed, tap here to view this VoiceThread on your device.

afbc8edea53de835bec61ecc19766dea_4597

Sent from my iPad (embed code added in a laptop browser)

]]> http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/11/20/christmas-in-camelot-book-report/feed/ 1 http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/11/16/winter-2011-classen-sas-band-concert/ http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/11/16/winter-2011-classen-sas-band-concert/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 03:22:10 +0000 Dad http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/?p=606 Here are two videos I recorded tonight of the Intermediate/Advanced Band Concert of Classen SAS. A text message interrupted my recording so it split into two parts. Alexander wasn’t visible in any of the video until the end when they stood up. The students did great!

Part 1

Part 2

]]> http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/11/16/winter-2011-classen-sas-band-concert/feed/ 0 http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/11/16/prayer-of-confession/ http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/11/16/prayer-of-confession/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:32:38 +0000 Dad http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/11/16/prayer-of-confession/ Rachel was asked to write the prayer of confession for our church this Sunday. Her language here is very thoughtful and deliberate. Shelly helped her brainstorm sins she could pray about but she wrote the prayer. We are blessed by her pure heart and contrite spirit. God is using Rachel in powerful ways to point others toward Himself. Thank you, God, for Rachel.

Sent from my iPhone

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the Flickr set of the event.

We love this October tradition! We saved about $35 this year purchasing our Frontier City tickets in advance from our local AAA office in Edmond.

Technorati Tags: edmond, oklahoma, frontier, city, frightnight

After cooking all night on low, I will strain it in the morning and let it cool to room temperature. Then I’ll put it in the fridge so the fat will separate and I can skim it off. I think I’ll cook some noodles and use this chicken stock to make chicken noodle soup soon.

Thanks to Nana for sharing these directions on the phone! (I’m posting them here so I can refer to this again.)

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

Discussing Oak Ridge Glogster Project at Oklahoma City, OK by wfryer

For more background see my post, “Share “timed” comments on Audio Recordings with SoundCloud.”

Technorati Tags: audio, edtech, history, playingwithmedia, recording, social, soundcloud, technology, studies, english

ART HISTORY PAPER

The art of Lego building is not known or recognized by most people. Many people will say legos are just something I use to play with as a kid. In all actuality Lego building by adults and kids is fine tuned in the creativity side of things. Of course people building with Lego is only as recent as Lego itself which is fairly new. Lego building is something that requires a lot of skill and practice to do well and something many people have mastered.

Lego building in some ways is a lot like sculpting. When you sculpt something you are chipping or cutting parts away to reveal an object that the artist has in mind. Building in Lego is not as different as it seems. When building with Lego you start with one piece than add another on top of that. In many ways Lego building is a lot easier and you an create a lot more complicated and bigger art work than you can sculpting with clay or rock. There are different sizes, shapes, lengths, textures, detail, color, and the list just goes one and on with all the uses and ability of all the pieces that you have access to. There are also different types of creations you can make. You can build something in mini-scale just meaning in looks smaller or makes something huge into a more buildable scale. You can build in mini-figure scale which means you can use Legos version of a person and use them in your build. Another thing you can build in is just a larger scale which is too big for a mini figure to use. Then you can also had design creations that use different pieces in unusual ways to make designs or pictures.

There are many wonderful but right now I will only mention one. [sic] Katie WAlker is a AFOL – Adult Fan of Lego – and makes wonderfully detailed mosaics. Using small cheese slopes (little angled pieces) and tiles she is able to make intricate designs. This is really something amazing and incredible. You can find more of her work and examples by searching for eilonwy77 on Flickr.

Creating art is lots of fun and something I love to do. Even though they haven’t been around that long they are still great. Lots of very skilled AFOL’s are still creating amazing creations and art. So next time someone asks you what an awesome new art you can reply Lego building.

Technorati Tags: art, lego

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The Fire

There was a fire ban that year

But the carless campers left

Leaving smoldering remains behind

The fire that ate the forest

Wind whispered wordlessly in the trees

The fire was given new life

Like a new small heartbeat

The fire that ate the forest

The fire lit the dry grass

It was gathering in strength

Like a lion preparing to strike

The fire that ate the forest

The fire now reached the trees

 It was a wild beast let free

Grey smoke billowed up to the sky

The fire that ate the forest

Campers couldn’t escape the wild flames

Sirens soon sounded on dirt roads

People evacuated their homes

The fire that ate the forest

Old oaks fell to their knees

Trees were consumed by flames

The heat was a blacksmith’s forge

The fire that ate the forest

Rescue men were left helpless

The fire covered the forest

Everyone did not escape

The fire that ate the forest

The fire burned bright in the sky

Smoke blocked the stars at night

Flames seemed to laugh evilly

The fire that ate the forest

The fire burned on still

Feasting on what ever it touched

Held back only from a river

The fire that ate the forest

The fire slowly reseeded

Rescue workers were gaining ground

Blessed rain started to fall

The fire that ate the forest

The roars finally abated

Land was left scorched

Flames had licked every tree clean

The fire that ate the forest

New grass began to grow

Trees again grew tall

Animals began to return

The fire that gave life

Sent from my iPad ]]> http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/08/14/believe-and-obey/feed/ 0 http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/07/10/border-collie/ http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/07/10/border-collie/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:00:40 +0000 Dad http://learningsigns.speedofcreativity.org/2011/07/10/border-collie/ Rachel drew this using Kevin Honeycutt’s tutorial video on Art Snacks.

Sent from my iPhone

1. Chapters 1-2
2. Chapters 3-4
3. Chapters 5-6
4. Chapters 7-8
5. Chapters 9-10
6. Chapters 11-12
7. Chapter 13
8. Chapter 14
9. Chapter 15
10. Chapter 16
11. Chapter 17
12. Chapter 18
13. Chapter 19
14. Chapter 20
15. Chapter 21
16. Chapter 22
17. Chapters 23-24
18. Chapters 25-26
19. Chapter 27
20. Chapter 28
21. Chapter 29
22. Chapter 30
23. Chapter 31
24. Chapter 32
25. Chapter 33
26. Chapter 34

I created this list for my wife and daughter, who are driving from Lubbock, Texas, to Oklahoma City today and forgot to load up an iPhone or iPod with audiobooks or podcasts! This list is (hopefully) a little easier to link to from an iPhone, compared to the original webpage on LibrVox.

Cross-posted to Talking Science!