Students Discover Creativity with Paint Shop Pro
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Elementary school teacher Jennifer Bonamo helps children discover their creative side with help from Paint Shop Pro.
Bonamo would scan in her students' creative writing papers and teach them how to use Paint Shop Pro to decorate the words they had written.
"A couple of the kids said they didn't like to draw because they weren't very good at it," she said. "But then they used Picture Tubes™ to decorate their papers and they realized that they could be artistic without drawing. They love those Picture Tubes as much as anything. All the kids really enjoy that part. They like the painting features too, the flood fill and things like that."
Bonamo who has spent many years working as an Elementary Resource Technician, is going to head back to the classroom this fall as a 4th grade teacher.
"Now, I've got a captive audience," she said. "I'm really excited about it. We can really get into some photo editing this year. I them to get into creating art purely with the computer by using Paint Shop Pro's painting and drawing tools."
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“They love those Picture Tubes as much as anything” Jennifer Bonamo |
Bonamo has also spent a lot of time educating other teachers about the wonders of Paint Shop Pro. Since 1997, she's run a 6-hour workshop on Web Design at the Florida Educational Technology Conference where she spends half her time discussing Paint Shop Pro.
"The first thing I tell them is if they are going to do Web design they're going to need a good photo editor," she said. "And Paint Shop Pro is the best."
This year Bonamo plans on running 3-hour workshop that focuses solely on Paint Shop Pro along with her HTML workshop.
"It's so much fun teaching the adults," she said. "They are so fascinated by what they can do. They just love that they can undo any mistakes or results they don't like."
In the workshops, Bonamo spends a lot of time on the basics of photo editing – cropping, resizing, the proper file format to use, and more.
"A lot of them use the photos on their Web page," she said. "They're all so interested in it. They try to think of different ways they can bring photos into the classroom."
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“I use Paint Shop Pro everyday, it's the greatest. Kids love it, adults love it – it's the best software program out there” Jennifer Bonamo |
Many of the teachers Bonamo works with are amazed by how Paint Shop Pro saves photos they thought were a lost cause.
"They really get into adjusting the color," she said. "A lot of people think their photos are wasted or can't be used because the photo is too dark. They're always surprised by the results they get."
Bonamo isn't surprised though. She's been using Paint Shop Pro since version three.
Bonamo not only teaches the software, she also uses it quite extensively in her personal life.
"For my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, I designed a Web page for them," she said. "I gathered photos of from the time they started courting in high school, throughout their life. I fixed up the old photos and made a collage for the Web site. Then, I asked their friends and family to leave comments for them. It was a great gift. Everybody loved it!"
Paint Shop Pro also comes in handy for her side business which is designing and selling polymer clay beads on eBay.
"That One Step Photo Fix is a dream," she said. "I have to get the colors to match exactly and that helps so much."
"I use Paint Shop Pro everyday," she said. "It's the greatest. Kids love it, adults love it – it's the best software program out there."
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