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Cryptocurrency

NFT 2022

In February I hosted a Crypto Art Series webinar that discussed what NFT’s are. We had a great turn out, and there were still more people who couldn’t make it that wanted to learn more!

Since there is a lot of hype around the NFT scene, and a lot of people are still unsure what it’s all about I am going to share a few slides from our webinar.

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token.

Non Fungible

A dollar is FUNGIBLE. A piece of art is NOT.

NFT

They do not have to be solely digital, and can represent ownership of physical property as well, such as real estate.

SMART CONTRACTS

Smart contracts are a way to verify that the transaction has been completed as written.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

UTILITY

NFT

There are MANY utilities for NFT’s. Collecting artwork is just one of them.

Look out for the next blog that will discuss how NFT’s fit into the art world.

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Art Class Most Popular Video

VR Project

VR stands for Virtual Reality. If you follow me, you know that I was awarded Educator of The Year last year and received a $500 donation towards a project for my classroom.

VR in the Art Room

VR

We were able to purchase, and did receive two Oculus Quest 2 VR headsets before the end of last year! The students LOVED using them and we explored many ways to create art! Check out the video on my YouTube channel! Like and subscribe to stay up to date on the coolest things about Art and Life!

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NFT Art

Spirituality in Art Education

There is so much hype going on around the NFT art scene.

An artist that goes by BEEPLE sold one of his NFT art collections at Christies auction for $69 million, the first time ever a digital work of art was sold at Christies!

NFT Art by BEEPLE

Kings of Leon released their newest album as an NFT with special perks, generating over 2 million in sales.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will sell NFTs of digital artwork. “The Museum of Mahomes,” will launch March 17 on the digital art market MakersPlace.  Mahomes will donate part of the proceeds to his foundation called 15 and the Mahomies as well as the Boys & Girls Clubs in Missouri.

So what is NFT art?

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token… A unique digital file stored on a digital ledger called a blockchain. NFTs are not mutually interchangeable and thus are not fungible. An NFT is created by uploading a file, such as an artwork, to an NFT auction market.

Basically, it is a smart contract that is put together using bits of open source code, which anyone can find from platforms like GitHub, and used to secure that digital item. Then minted, or permanently published, into a token on a blockchain, like Ethereum.

Some sites you can use to mint an NFT are:

Any digital asset that the creator wants to make unique can become an NFT, like articles or event tickets.

Once the NFT is purchased, the owner has the digital rights to resell, distribute or license the digital asset as they please. The creator can program code for how it gets used, and write in any extra bonus’ for the purchaser. NFT creators also have the opportunity to earn royalties off of future reselling transactions.

Things to consider

So there are many uncharted territories when it comes to this digital crypto reality. There are many questions about the carbon foot print of minting an NFT, this is because cryptocurrencies and blockchain are run through an algorithm called Proof-of-Work (PoW). Things in the blockchain world are shifting and changing fast! Proof-of-Stake is happening soon.

Proof-of-Stake (PoS) concept states that a person can mine or validate block transactions according to how many coins he or she holds. This means that the more Bitcoin or altcoin owned by a miner, the more mining power he or she has.

This uses less energy, but it also allows those who hold THE MOST coins to have more power. This is less decentralized then PoW, however there are benefits that we must allow to out-weight the cons, because this is not going away. Blockchain technology is the new digital paradigm. Just like our current system was the new paradigm to the “founding fathers”.

So yeah NFT’s are like collecting digital baseball cards, and are selling for extremely high prices to people who have the crypto to buy them.

But artists can also use NFT’s to create rare one of a kind pieces for their patrons. For example, an image of an actual painting can be sold as an NFT, and with the token the purchaser receives the actual painting. Some artists are also adding bonus’ to the purchase, where you receive a video of the work being created! I really like how artists are adapting to this technology and making it work for them and their patrons!

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Share your Small Business Journey

As a small business owner, I have had to learn the in’s and out’s of this new digital age. From websites, advertising, SEO, and marketing… it has been a huge learning curve.

I am at a place now where I feel confident in my knowledge base around marketing and networking on the world wide web, and I want to share what I’ve learned with others.

Isn’t that what being in business for ourselves is all about, networking… sharing and growing together.

If you are a small business owner, please take a few minutes to complete my short questionnaire! The information provided will help me with developing a project to assist new small business owners on their journey!

Let’s learn and grow together.

Share your journey!
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2019 – 2020 School year

Yesterday we found out that all Maryland schools will be closed for the remained of the 2019-2020 school year. We have been out since the end of the day on Friday March 13th.

Friday the 13th was the last day I saw my students before being quarantined.  Friday the 13th was the last “normal” school day of my career.  Things are so different , and will be from now on.

Virtual learning is the name of the game.  A few years ago, I had the idea things would be digital sooner or later… but never did I imagine it happening like this.

Today was my first day meeting with my students after learning we aren’t going back to school. The students will be receiving a pass/fail grade for 3rd and 4th marking period, as well as for their final grades for the year. As of right now, we do not know how we are going to assess them and decide who passes or fails. I couldn’t imagine any students failing in this crazy unsettling time. There are so many students who do not have the support they need to succeed during this crisis.I have so many questions, I can only imagine how my students are feeling inside. How will we go on? How will this affect us in the long run? What will happen in August and September? These questions run through my mind, without any sure answers in place.

Today we reflected on what we are grateful for, using this time to remember that even in the face of uncertainty… there is still always something we can find to be grateful for.

On a brighter note, this week is teacher appreciation week… some of my students sent me messages and really pulled at my heartstrings.

 

 

In all of this uncertainty, one thing that’s for sure… is how much I love and miss my students, my classroom, and our school community.  Absence does make the heart grow fonder. I truly hope I am able to see everyone again and show them how much they mean to me.

If I can give one piece of advice in this time, its to KEEP CREATING!

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Processing

Today went well…

I could tell students were really in shock and didn’t know what to do. They were quieter.

Today I spoke to them about what was happening, and shared where the online art resources were located for them to do over the next two weeks. These digital resource folders were uploaded to each class, and they are for practice only. If students want to use them over the 2 weeks they can, but they are not mandatory.

We discussed how things might be longer than 2 weeks, and we might have to go to online learning if that happens. They’re responses were, “That would not be good. I can’t focus at home. I won’t ever do any work! I need accountability. I’ll get distracted by Minecraft!” Its funny to me because when everything is normal they don’t want to be in school… but when presented with the opportunity to not being school, they realize they might not have the self control to keep learning up to their potential!

Well then shared with them again that the best thing for them to do right now is to take care of themselves mentally and physically. To take time to rest and breath, not allowing themselves to be overwhelmed with stress or fear.  Using art to help you express how you’re feeling and how your processing this new experience. I encouraged them to keep a journal about it all, and to spend some time creating art that represents this experience for them. 

Also I mentioned they should eat less processed sugar if they can help it, since it does not help their immune system. You should’ve heard how almost every class responded to my sugar comment! It was amazing how defensive they became. So many students said, “What?! Oh No! I dont think I could do that. I love sugar.”    If they only knew how much better they would feel if they had less sugar in their diet!

After school was over I realized I needed to take my plants home with me, because there would be no one there to water them for 2 weeks. So many things I had to consider and contemplate today. Even before going to the grocery store at 4pm.

When I parked at Shoprite, I knew what I was getting myself into.  There wasn’t too much missing when I arrived. The bananas were gone, and so was all the rubbing alcohol, peroxide, toilet paper, and bread. The rest of the store was pretty much stocked. It was so weird.

And then I went to stand in line… and I had to go pretty much halfway down the aisle to get to the end of the line. I waited in line for about 40 mins at least. Everyone was very friendly and polite. Helping each other find what they needed and waiting line while having small talk. It was nice to see people being kind.

Today went well, but was also very overwhelming.

The amount of information, what ifs and questions I had to process today put my mind on overload, and being around all of those people in the grocery store added a level of emotions that were tough to balance.

When I got home from the store all I wanted to do was sit by myself alone, and cry. Releasing all of that tension and energy back into a neutral space of love and balance.

Being alone to process what we experience and feel is a very important part of learning and growing… of knowing thy self.

The energy of this experience is quite new… so slow and steady is the only way to navigate.

Keep breathing, in and out.

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Coinbase Learning

I discovered recently that you can earn crypto while learning about crypto on Coinbase. I am learning how specific cryptocurrencies work — and I get a bit of each currency to try out for myself.

So I have been learning about Stellar Lumen and XLM.  Stellar is a platform that connects banks, payment systems, and people. Stellar unites the world’s financial infrastructure so money can flow quickly and cheaply between banks, businesses, and people. It has some amazing potential.

For people sending money to family members overseas, Stellar offers a cheaper, faster alternative to traditional money transfer services.

Banks, businesses, and people can use Stellar to turn traditional assets, like dollars and euros, into tokens. These tokens can then be transferred and exchanged with any other participant on the Stellar network.

As a Coinbase customer, you can learn how it all works and you’ll earn XLM.  XLM is the Stellar networks own cryptocurrency which facilitates low-cost, universal payments on Stellar.

Digital assets on Stellar are protected by a decentralized global network of computers running Stellar’s open source software. These computers cooperate to confirm legitimate transactions and prevent malicious ones.

Stellar is a cooperation token, that globalizes the marketplace. I can see many benefits from participating in learning and sharing how Stellar works and how it can be applied to businesses as well as personal financial transactions. If you own a small business, Stellar could be a new platform for your business to connect to the digital world.

Click here to get started! Once you have watched the five 1-2 minute videos, you can invite up to 4 friends to earn XLM too! They can be new or existing Coinbase users. You’ll earn $10 in XLM for each eligible friend who completes a lesson.

Happy Learning and Earning!

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Creating an Ether Wallet… step by step video

Ethereum plays a huge part in the current and upcoming digital world.

The vision is that ethereum would enable this same functionality to people anywhere around the world, enabling them to compete to offer services on top of this infrastructure.

Scrolling through a typical app store, for example, you’ll see a variety of colorful squares representing everything from banking to fitness to messaging apps. These apps rely on the company (or another third-party service) to store your credit card information, purchasing history and other personal data – somewhere, generally in servers controlled by third-parties.

Your choice of apps is of course also governed by third parties, as Apple and Google maintain and curate (or in some cases, censor) the specific apps you’re able to download.

 

The idea is that one entity will no longer have control over your notes and that no one could suddenly ban the app itself, temporarily taking all of your notebooks offline. Only the user can make changes, not any other entity.

–Coindesk

Ether can be used to underpin any sort of computer application you can imagine. The use cases for the ethereum network are only limited by the imaginations of application developers. For example, people are developing apps for energy distribution, digital advertising, and a digital marketplace for unused computing power.

The main selling point of decentralized applications, or dapps, on the ethereum network is that they can be run without a central authority facilitating the transactions.

Dapps, because they’re based on smart contracts, also allow for a relatively easy model of collective ownership and even governance using what are known as “tokens” or ICOs.

The key to the Ethereum blockchain is that communities can create ecosystems that support one another through collective ownership.  Entrepreneurs can create tokens to exchange their goods and services with one another through these ecosystems. This is real self sovereignty.

With that being said, creating an ether wallet is your first step.

I recently uploaded my first video on YouTube that walks you through creating an ether wallet, check it out below.

Migwetch <3

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Maryland Education Play Date

Recently I was able to attend an amazing full day workshop designed to allow teachers time to play with digital technology!  It was a time to  “PLAY” with tools and ideas that we’ve learned about but have not had time to explore!

I met other educators who have experience using tools/apps/programs in the classroom and gain knowledge from their experience! I also shared my knowledge about using the Seesaw web based app in my classroom!

I was also able to be apart of a group of teachers testing and collaborating OER websites for Maryland State Department of Education.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are high-quality, openly licensed, online educational materials that offer an extraordinary opportunity for people everywhere to share, use, and reuse knowledge.

 

It was truly a day of connecting and collaborating! I made a few new friends and networked with like minds. I totally look forward to the next play date!

 

PLAYDATE stands for People Learning and Asking Y: Digital Age Teacher Exploration. PLAYDATE originated from the idea that after attending conferences and having the good fortune to learn about “a myriad of new tools, websites, tricks and apps,” upon returning to school, educators had no time to experiment with them. Thus the idea of #PLAYDATE was born.
This Education Week article discusses the first PLAYDATE.