It's all SUNSHINE and rainbows...

Recently I have taken on the task of the Sunshine Committee.

It's a little bit of a blur as to how it all started and ended with me, but I have to say I'm kind of excited!  I have a lot of support from teachers that have been part of the Sunshine Committee in the past.

With that being said...what's the point of this post in particular?

Yesterday, one of the teachers gave me a binder of stuff from the past years of Sunshine.  I barely know what to do with it.  Have things changed so much that a binder of papers overwhelms me?!

Apparently so.  

Granted I haven't done much, but everything I have done so far has been almost exclusively digital.
Let's run down the list.

Meeting Agendas: Google Doc
Cards (Get Well, Happy Birthday, etc): Word Swag app w/ Pixabay images
Ideas: Pinterest
Happy Hour Interest: Google Forms
Happy Hour Announcement: Word Swag app w/Pixabay images and email
"Binder" to keep everything: Google Drive

Granted, I'm not expanding to outside the digital box but so far what I have works...for me and my team.  I do have to keep in mind that not everyone at my school geeks out over tech like I do.  So of course I made flyers for the Happy Hour and I will print out agendas for meetings, etc.

But I feel more organized...and creative.

"Get Well" image that was made into a card for a teacher out for surgery

The image above was made with @wordswagapp (introduced to me by +Tony Vincent) and +Pixabay images that are found within the app. BONUS: Pixabay images are copyright free so they can be used without attribution.    

An Island of Images

Right?  My title gives you NO indication what my post will be about.  HA!  That's ok.  I'll explain it here and I'll also explain the title.

I'm going to talk about Pixabay.

Title first: In my head a bay = an island.  While geographically incorrect, it's the word association my brain uses to remember the website.  I can call it what I want.  :)  Pix = pics = an image.  Get it?!  Get it?! Huh?! Huh?!

The "a" is inconsequential.

This summer Tony Vincent came and talked to a group of teachers that I work with and one of his suggestions for finding images for presentations was Pixabay.

Why use that when Google images has all of the possible wondrous images that you could ever image?  Well....because of copyright laws.  That's why.

Pixabay images are from users who upload the images and you have free right to use them, change them, reprint them, etc. all without giving credit.  You are totally in the legal free and clear when using Pixabay.

Why does this matter?
It matters because back in the day when the only thing teachers and students did was create a power point and show it within their own classroom or school.  While that was still not legal, nobody really knew and it could easily be "swept under the rug" and ignored.  Now your audience, whether you are a teacher or a student, is on a much more global scale.  Folks are bound to notice if you are using their material illegally.  Or maybe they won't.  But do you really want to 1) risk it? 2) set that example for your students?

Nope.

Give Pixabay a chance.  They have some really amazing pictures.  You may even consider uploading some of your own and know that other educators out there are using them and sighing in relief because they are in the copyright free and clear.