BeFunky In The Classroom With Ms. Teixeira
Gisele Teixeira came to the United States from Brazil to learn English over ten years ago. She initially had plans of becoming a graphic designer, but fate took over upon her return to Brazil. She found herself teaching at a small English as a Second Language school and it was love at first lesson plan. She comes from a long line of teachers, and her natural ability to educate surfaced. Nowadays, she teaches third graders at School of the Madeleine in Berkeley, California.
“I love to see how children grow and chance, I love the smiles on their faces when they are excited about learning something new, but most of all, I love teaching because it's an ever lasting exchange of knowledge. I am learning from my students every day as much as I am teaching them.”
Every class is different, every year unique, and every student special. Because she is so passionate about her students and her job as an educator, Teixeira has learned the art of never missing a moment. She documents each student’s work with a little help from the BeFunky Collage Maker.
“To me, a collage tells a story that is vibrant and lively, without being overwhelming. All of the collages I happily create with BeFunky are visual evidences of what happens in our classroom.”
The Collage Maker helps Ms. Teixeira tell the stories of her students through their work. Here are a few ways she does it:
In Newsletters To Parents
The students’ work is documented in photographs and displayed in collage form as a way to invite parents into their children’s lives at school. This way, parents can better understand what goes on in the learning environment.
“They say pictures are worth a thousand words. I think collages are worth a thousand ‘whoas’ (from the parents)!”
In The Classroom
Currently, Ms. Teixeira takes photographs of the fun activities that go on in her classroom. Then she uploads the photos into Collage Maker and uses the Text Editor to add a step-by-step lesson plan to the collages.
She recently created a lesson plan for students to photograph their best work and create collages themselves. Part of this lesson plan even includes students applying for a position (as a third-grader!) using their digital portfolio.
In Workshops
She is currently teaching other educators at School of the Madeleine to use the Collage Maker in their own classrooms. In her workshops, Ms. Teixeira shows teachers how easy it is to upload photos, edit them to perfection, and create collages using the ready-made templates.
“I was happy to see that the very next day the principal and a couple of teachers were already using it to create collages and share them on their twitter accounts. I'm hoping that more teachers join in so they can enjoy, like I do, the fun of sharing stories in such a fast and simple way.”
Ready to start storytelling in your own classroom with BeFunky's Collage Maker? Whether you're documenting class lessons as they happen or engaging your students in collage technology, check out the link below. We think you'll find that the lesson plans write themselves:
