Blog Archives
Badge: Explore How to Sites (revised)
“How to” sites are very popular on the Web. This badge will help you explore and find “how to” sites that you like to give you resources for your badge fun.
NOTE: The Adult Enrichment Project will utilize many of the “how to” sites to keep the cost of earning badges low (and hopefully always free).
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Steps
1. Go surfing on the Web.
Visit some or all of the sites listed at the end of this badge program.
2. Your favorites / bookmarks.
Create a special folder in your favorites / bookmarks to hold the “how to” sites you like for future reference. Feel free to make smaller folders within the main one to help break your areas from general sites to those specific to crafting, cooking, etc.
3. Your choices for “how to” information.
You’ll find podcasts, html pages, video sites, etc. in the sites as you visit them. Explore the sites and find out which ways you feel most comfortable using to learn.
4. Beyond your personal computer.
“How to” resources can be accessed through other means. From a local library’s network to your smart phone, explore other ways you can learn online.
5. What interests you?
Start a document, spreadsheet or database. Note what subjects interest you on the sites you bookmark. As new badges are released, it will help you in locating “where you saw that.”
6. Find more sites that support “how to.”
Try searching for “how to”, “free classes” or anything else you can think of to expand your list of sites. Make sure you make bookmarks / favorites of those sites that you feel will be helpful later.
7. Narrow your search.
Now that you have found general sites, try narrowing you search into fields that interest you. Add these notes to your list started in Step 5.
8. Share your sites.
With your research complete, share any sites you found. Add a comment about what’s on there and why you like it.
9. Keeping what you find.
Sometimes you’ll find something that you want to keep. Printing it all out is costly and storage of printed documents can quickly become overwhelming.
By keeping a digital library of those special articles, podcasts, etc. you can sort them and have them available when you’re putting together a meeting or event. Use Adobe Acrobat (full version) or a free PDF maker like doPDF and “print” your PDFs for reference.
10. Update your list.
Sites frequently change and the information you want may or may not remain. As you visit your “how to” sites, be sure to update your links and tracking document (Step 5).
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Sites to Explore
www.ehow.com
www.wannalearn.com
www.findtutorials.com
www.makeuseof.com
mashable.com
www.youtube.com
www.instructables.com
www.expertvillage.com
www.5min.com
www.wonderhowto.com
www.doityourself.com
www.wikihow.com
www.howstuffworks.com
www.makezine.com
lifehacker.com
howto.wired.com/wiki/Main_Page
about.com
www.creativity-portal.com
www.howtodothings.com
www.howcast.com
www.videojug.com
www.monkeysee.com
www.wonderhowto.com
h30187.www3.hp.com
www.sutree.com
sclipo.com
teachertube.com
oedb.org
www.free-ed.net/free-ed
www.gcflearnfree.org
www.worldwidelearn.com
www.learnfree.com
www.apple.com/education/itunes-u
www.learnoutloud.com
www.tricklife.com
www.viewdo.com
www.dadcando.com
www.scribd.com
www.smashingmagazine.com
Wanted: Your Materials
**Calling All Girl Scouts and Girl Scout Alumnae**
As I’m working to finish up adding the last of my own materials for Girl Scout Traditions, I’m asking for your help.
I want to add more council-specific and individual-specific flavor to our set of supplements. If you haven’t checked out the resources available so far, go to our Girl Scout Printable collection on Scribd.
http://www.scribd.com/collections/2837586/SUPP-AEP-Girl-Scouts-Printables
Look back over your own years interacting with Girl Scouts. Ask your girls about their own experiences as well. I don’t want current programming ideas. I want things that were done in the past to help add to our collective history.
Specific items I’m looking for include:
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Girl Scout Stories
I’d like to create a PDF file specific for each individual who contributes stories of their experiences. I created one for myself to give you an example, SUPP_GS_My Stories_larajla.pdf. Please include your name so the stories can be attributed to you.
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Council Owns
I have done nothing on these. While I have my girls’ favorites, I’d love to have requirements / experiences you’ve had with them with your girls. I’m especially interested in the ones based on the geography / location-specific ones in your council.
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My Council
Realignment was hard on everyone. I’d love to get information on defunct councils, powerful women who helped make their mark in your local councils and service units, etc.
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My Camp
Everyone has a camp they love. Stories of your own, history of the camp, ghost stories shared over the fire, humorous stories of items not packed for camp, anything that could be used to bring the memories of your camp to others. If I can collect enough about a specific camp, I’ll create a PDF for that camp. If not, I’ll work to create a collection of camp stories.
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Shared Information
The Web has offered a way for us to share information between councils that we didn’t have before. Previously, we’d share within our council or service unit . . . often mimeographed typewritten pages. I’d love copies of these materials as there are gems that can be shared from craft to programming ideas. These individual insights into the national program help build our history. You’ll see some that I’ve already done from Riverland Council in 1983 in our supplement set. Files start with “SUPP_1983_”.
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Okay, so for the hard part!
You can email any of these items to me at larajla__@__gmail.com (remove underscores). I can get to this email address anywhere, so it’s the easiest for me to work with.
You can type up the information and send it in an email. If you want to do an attachment, please save it as a TXT file, which is the most universal text file type.
Also, if you have access to a newer photocopier, some give you the ability to create PDFs to email. You might want to check with your local office supply store to see if they can do this for you. If you choose to do this, make sure you send a copy back to yourself so you have the information for your own records.
Thank you!
P.S. Please forward this to anyone you feel might have information to share.
Supplements Being Added Now!
If you are interested in the Girl Scout supplements for our Girl Scout Traditions badge set, they are being uploaded to Scribd first. You must be logged into Scribd to download the PDFs. It is free, so have fun!
We have a special collection for all Girl Scout supplements, Girl Scout Printables. This will include all items previously released including Girl Scouts: Journeys and the Printables: Girl Scouts which will be uploaded after the traditions set.
If you are looking for the printable games that used to be with the Girl Scout Printables, you can find them at Game Printables. Additional items will be added to this as Printables: World Game and Printables: My Own Games will be added after I’m done with the Girl Scout items.
Have a great week!
Badge: Field Trips — Sharing My Community
For younger kids, field trips are normally limited to a day outing including driving time. As kids get older, field trips last longer including cross-state or even cross-country.
Each of us knows our own community. How often have you wanted to do a field trip, but are unaware of what’s outside your community? By sharing your unique community with others, you can provide experiences that visiting troops might miss.
Together, we can provide opportunities for discovery and exploration for our youth and ourselves. Instead of sharing our stories, we’re providing the opportunity for everyone to have the experiences to create their own.
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Steps
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Exploring my community
1. Sharing my community.
You can share your community by photos and information on events and organizations. Start a database, document or folder with information on the events that happen in your community so you can share this information. Include the following:
- Event name
- Dates
- Cost
- Hosting organization
- Location of organization
- Contact information for organization
- Frequency of event (yearly, anytime, etc.)
- Photos available?
- Links for more information
If you have additional ideas for your database such as age limitations, group size, etc. include those as well.
2. Free all the time.
Create a listing of free field trip opportunities in your area that may be arranged at any time. Make sure organizations that have offered free field trips in the past did not do it for a specific group or reason so that anyone may be offered the opportunity. Find out if these organizations are still operating. Share this list with your service unit, council or other groups that would find this information useful.
3. Special events.
Some field trip events are special events. These may happen at parks, orchestras, museums, clubs or businesses. Keep track of events that happen annually or on a regular basis. Share these as they are released.
4. Scheduled events.
Some events need to be scheduled to make sure they have the minimum number of participants. Find events that need to be scheduled and share those. Make sure you note any specific requirements, age limitations, etc.
5. Other events.
Find other events that do not fit into the above categories. Determine if they can or should be shared.
6. Photos.
Take photos of various sites in your community. Highlight those areas that are of interest to tourists and locals. Rename your files so you can quickly identify your community sites.
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Bird’s eye view
7. Determine the area.
You may choose to share your community with other group leaders or a larger group. Decide if your final plan is to cover your city, your county, your state or your council. Can you do this on your own or do you need to recruit help?
8. Sort.
You can sort your area by any of the information in Step 1. Decide if you’ll distribute your information electronically, with printed materials or another means.
9. Printable only.
If you choose to share this only with printable materials (handouts and emailed PDFs), create a template you can share with others so you can combine collected community events into a folder for reference. Determine a way you can notify others about your updates.
10. Private and online.
You may choose to set up an online resource about your community, making it private so only those you invite can join. Discuss this option with others who are sharing their communities.
11. Interactive site.
Create an interactive map of the area you’re covering. Make each area clickable so that it opens a page specifically about an event, city or other smaller area. Provide the information and photos you’ve collected in Steps 1-6. Include links for additional information.
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Beyond sharing
12. Badge programs, individual.
List any badge programs available through the events you list and where you can acquire them. For example, many museums offer badges to participants.
13. Badge programs, clusters.
Find or create badge programs for specific sets of activities or locations. Make groups of them so that the design matches, giving kids the opportunity to “collect them all.”
You might want to do all the camps in your council, the museums in your state, parks in your region, etc. Brainstorm ways to honor kids who acquire all pieces of these badge sets.
For example, Indiana State Parks has a pin program where you can earn a pin at each of the state parks. You have to participate in events, explore the park, etc. Earning all of the pins would be an interesting project for a troop or group.
14. Badge programs, group.
Ask your council to provide a badge program featuring the counties or service areas of your council. This can coincide with an interactive map site (see Step 11). A multi-part badge can highlight areas visited within their council, exploring what the others have to offer.
The supplement for this is listed below. It is a patch program from the Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana. It is no longer on their site, so I do not know if it can be earned. It is provided as a sample only of what you can do.
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Expand the experience
15. Create your own, local
Create your own community event. Offer it beyond your organization as a recruitment event or service project.
16. Create your own, wide
Create your own community event, offering it to anyone within your organization. In addition to your own event, provide information about other community offerings that are similar that your participants might be interested in.
17. Social media.
Social media allows you to explore communities and create communities. Find out what social media offers and how you can utilize it to share your community. This might be through photo sites like Flickr, sites like Facebook or even special sites set up by your organization.
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Supplements Available
05_CouncilQuilt_Patch.pdf (For reference only, available on Scribd and Google Documents.)
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