Educating art in classrooms- useful links

Art and crafts is an interesting subject to learn or teach as it is fun for teachers as well as students. I love to teach art or crafts to my nursery class kids, as they enjoy it and the whole class is full of noises with joy and enthusiasm. This post offers useful links which can help you learn more from other teachers or educators who are teaching art in classroom.

'Craig Roland' is an art educator, author, and edu tech consultant running the blog: "The art teacher's guide to the internet" offers ideas, tools, and resources for teaching art and design in a post-digital age. In simple words the blog provides the answer to this question, "How can we use the new tools and capabilities of the Web to enhance or transform art education practices in schools?" It also offers valuable online resources and tools that you can use in the classroom with your students.

Links to more relevant sites:

* 'Art is everywhere'

* Arts Learning Interactive*

* 'Art Education's Journal'

* 'Art Education using new technology in art classrooms'

* 'The Teaching Palette' is authored by art educators for art educators to provide a collaborative and resourceful forum where art specialists of all levels can explore professional topics that impact our subject area - from classroom management to tools and techniques to integrating music.

* 'The Fugleblog'

Create scrap blog and share with all

Scrap booking is a favorite hobby and digital scrap booking is an easier form of it. Digital scrap booking is also very time saving activity as you need to do it at your computer and need only few soft wares to help you create pretty and creative projects.

Now you can make your own scrap blog. How it is possible?

Yes it is possible and you can create your own blog, sharing it online with all.

'Scrap Blog' is the place where you don't need to do anything with your pictures as they provide all the tools or utilities to make your 'blog' attractive and awesome.

- The site provides step by step instruction which can help you learn to create your online scrap blog.
- 'Get Crafty' is another page which showcases designers, new features and crafty ideas for preserving your digital memories.

- Their 'blog' can be bookmarked for updated posts.

Find craft and hobby ideas at 'Hobbies and Crafts'

There are many blogs which are personally created just to share ideas for crafts or handcrafts. These blogs are a good source of taking tips or ideas to make wonderful projects for your home or simple things to give as a gift.

Hobbies and crafts offers ideas, tips to create crafts for your home. It also provides reviews of handcrafted and decorative objects.

There are many posts about decorative crafts and there are many tips which we can use to make projects for ourselves. But there is only one thing which blog reader would notice that there is no picture of the crafts. If pictures of those crafts were added then the blog posts would be more valuable and attractive to the blog audience.

'Travel Questions and Answers' - Get Tips and Ideas about travelling

Travelling is a kind of recreation which everybody needs to refresh the mind and soul. The first step towards travel planning is probably your budget and then the place to choose. Usually you get advice, tips or ideas about travel from friends, or people around you who have previous experience. We also search the net for information and it is the easiest way to get useful information about the places we plan to visit or travel. There are many sites which help you in this regard and "Travel Q&A" is one of those links.

Travel Questions and Answers is a blog from 'The New York Times' and answers your questions about 'travel'. You can submit your questions about where to go, and where to stay, get ideas for new trips, and share your tips with others.

There are many useful posts, where you can find the information you are probably looking for your next travel. Like in the post ' How to Make Phone Calls When Traveling in Europe', the guidance and links offered in the post are very practical and handy.

In another post 'Options for a Woman Traveling Alone' a women questions: "I want to take a trip by myself, but I have no idea where to go! I would like it to be outside the United States, relatively safe (I’m a 24-year-old female) and with enough to explore but with options for places to go and relax. I understand there are some risks in traveling alone, but it’s an experience I would like to have while still young"
The answer of this inquiry can satisfied many other women already having same situation or questions. Moreover there useful tips at comments section. 'New York Times' is a very popular and well read newspaper, their blogs get good number of readers. So the information you would get about 'travel' is fresh, valuable and reliable.

The New Look Of 'Hobbies and Hobbies"

Regular readers of this blog would note that since the start of this blog I am trying to update the theme and look of it. Now with the help of "Our Blog Templates" and I have made changes to the original 'columus' template. I love to learn and 'play' with my blogs as every time I make a change at my blogs, I feel the joy of satisfaction and creativity inside me.

I was not much interested in taking part in their Showcasing blogs at 'Our blog templates' CENTEST, until I downloaded a template and realized that the templates offered by this site are really creative, as you are free to modify the look of your blog.

The Changes I made to my blog:

- I picked header picture from other site, recommended by the "Our blog templates'.
- Changed the theme and colours at side bars and links.

Site provides full instruction based tutorial, so the bloggers who are not familiar with technical knowledge can easily update their blogs. And note that templates offered by the site are FREE of cost, and for the blogs using 'Blogger'. There are around 100 free templates, and to my knowledge upto now, nobody has offered so many quality and upgradable templates so far.

Develop a Hobby For Your Leisure Time

Hobbies are a good pastime, as you can utilize your leisure time by developing a hobby according to your interests. By learning about various hobbies, you can decide which hobby appeals you the most. Either you engage yourself in a hobby or not, it is still fun to read about the hobbies, how people involve themselves in variety of leisure activities, hobbies or interests.

Leisure and Hobbies is onother hobby blog, offering posts about different hobbies.
Topics discussed are:

Stamp Collecting
Coin Collecting
Pet Fish
Pet Birds
Fitness
Hiking
Camping
Guitars
Outdoors
Hammocks
Barbeque
Skydiving

As in Stamps Collecting section there are many posts relating to the topic like as: Stamp Collecting - A Beginner’s Glossary, Tools for the Collector, Storing Your Collection, Stamps as Investment etc.

Site link: Leisure and Hobbies

Another hobby site :Not So Boring Life"

I am starting my review of this hobby blog mentioning a post "The 10 Scariest Hobbies on the Planet" and those hobbies are:

Sky Diving, Kayak Shark Fishing, Rattlesnake Roundup, Cave Diving, Glacier Surfing, Storm Chasing, Bull Fighting, Lion Hunting, MMA Fight, Noodling( fishing with your hands). There are pictures or Youtube links, which has made this post interesting.

"Not So Boring Life" is hobby site dedicated to helping you not become Jack or boring for that matter.

Few pages:

- Hobbies Guide page have only guide for 6 hobbies (hope that site would add more)

There are pages about popular hobbies, types of hobbies and list of hobbies. But these pages are yet to be updated, as there are only names and not the links to detailed pages.

You can find more posts at side bar under "catagory" heading.

At "arts" catagory there is a good post about "Intro to Drawing" with links and essential information to learn drawing. Hope to see more posts like it.

A craft blog from a hobbyist

I love to search for crafts blog because there are lot of ideas and tips which you can use to create crafts. Only browsing through crafts projects and ideas is really enjoyable for crafts lovers.


Ann Wood.com is a craft blog from a hobbyist "Ann Wood", who is from Brooklyn New York. This blog is really different from other blogs or siters, because everything which she made is exceptional and personal. And she is ready to sell some products also.

Blog was created and started around February, 2006 and it seems that she uploads all the craft objects on the site. So for crafters and craft lovers, only watching the models of the things she makes is fun, as each and every piece of craft is an art itself.

She says:
"I make things, paint, and draw for my life and livelihood.

Some of my favorite things ( in no particular order) are : ships and shipwrecks, paper mache, birds, books about exploration, dioramas, swamps, the out of doors in general, magazines, libraries, felt, flea markets, horses, dogs, cats, things that are victorian and things that are small."

She made paper mache products mostly and all the objects can be found the site (pictures) with description.

Few posts about the topics she prefers to make:
- 100 cardboard horses

- birds

- ships

"Your happy site" - A hobby blog helping you find hobbies

There are not many blogs or sites which are about hobbies. I would be reviewing the blogs/sites which are helpful in finding or suggesting hobbies/pastimes, offering tips, ideas or resources.

Your happy site is a blog helping you find hobby. Site is under construction, but may be in future we can get good content at the blog. Site is from a young college student, from Ohio, USA.

There are some good posts at the moment.
For example I liked the post with the title "Why you need a hobby?":

Why You Need a Hobby?

When someone decides they need a hobby it is usually for one reason: theyre bored. Being bored is, besides being extremely boring, often not all that healthy for you. While Im not a doctor, I do believe that having nothing to do in your free time can lead to lower energy levels, and often depression. Just think about it, or on second thought, dont think about it! If your mind is not entertained one way or another, your thoughts tend to wander aimlessly. For some reason, many reasons, people tend to let their minds wonder into a pessimistic, or apathetic attitude / state; causing depression, or at least making you feel down in the dumps. Who in their right mind wants to feel down in the dumps? Shoot, who wants to be bored for that matter? So, eventually, many people come to the realization that they need something to occupy their free time.

Hobbies do not only prevent people from entering that "down in the dumps" state of mind though, they actually help you get into a better one, too. If you have a hobby which you really enjoy, practicing that hobby will make you feel better about yourself both while practicing it, and afterward. Hobbies allow for people to achieve a form of fulfillment; a personal form of fulfillment. While doing well at your job, and helping people are common things that make people feel about themselves, they are a form of social fulfillment, not personal fulfillment. Its great if you do what you do well, and even better if you help people in some way. However, you must give yourself time to please yourself. Chances are, without doing some things to please yourself, instead of your boss, or other people, you will never be completely happy. In fact, if you please your boss, and you help people, you deserve time to yourself to do what you want to do.

Having a hobby can be extremely rewarding. So far Ive explained how having a hobby can prevent depression, low energy levels, and boredom. Ive also briefly described how a hobby can make you feel better about yourself mentally. Thats not all hobbies have to offer though.
Depending on the hobby you choose, you will not only feel healthier and better about yourself. You can also acquire new skills through hobbies. These skills can often be applied to social matters. So, lets say that youve learned to play guitar. Now youve gained a skill that will allow you to entertain people, and meet / make new friends who share interest in music. Entertaining people, and making new friends are two very nice things to do indeed.
What about animal rescue? Do you think learning how to care for wounded animals could help you to better understand how to care for another injured person given an emergency? Maybe, maybe not; its just an example. So you see, having a hobby can be very valuable and rewarding in many different ways.

To read more: Your happy site

* find a hobby links provides list of hobbies.

About this blog

Hobbies are not only a pass time, but people are sometimes so devoted to their hobbies or interests that their social or personal life is effected.
If you search the web for hobbies, you would find how people are fully engaged in their hobbies and sometimes these hobbies take turn to a full time career.
Some people have weird hobbies, which is interesting to read.
Some people have interesting hobbies which can give us an idea to think about that hobby.

"According to Pew Internet's telephone survey conducted in February-March 2007 found that fully 83% of online Americans say they have used the internet to seek information about their hobbies and 29% do so on a typical day. Looking for information about hobbies is among the most popular online activities, on par with shopping, surfing the web for fun, and getting news."

This blog is for hobbyist, to hobbyist and for hobbies.