Teaching Globaloria

Q4 Progress Report and Reflection

2011-06-15T00:04:00.000-04:00

As an educator we constantly reflect on what our students learn. As I write this progress report, I have truly reflected on this past year. I have seen many of my students grow, but I also see student's who did not work to their potential. My goal as a Globaloria educator next year is to keep all of my students working to their potential. All of them are bright and creative individuals. There are times when some of my students lost interest in the course and had to be pushed along the way. All of us need to be picked up sometime throughout the year, but it seemed like there were a few who had to be constantly picked up. So I hope next year I do not run into this problem. I am very proud of the students I had this year.!

This year in Globaloria!

2011-06-13T12:45:00.000-04:00

This year brought new challenges as a returning educator. Sometimes educators take for granted that our students will do many things on their own. I thought I had my student's trained about uploading work to their wiki page, but I had to constantly remind them to display their work. Once again I had several students who excelled in many ways. Some of them came out of their shell and become more outgoing in the classroom, others continued to promptly post work and blogs to their page. All in all a good year with some great students. I am looking forward to next year, as I get a new group of students and my current students will move on to Mr. Addair.

Closing out the Year!

2011-06-05T18:28:00.000-04:00

Another year experience has made a tremendous difference in the comfort level for me as an educator in the Globaloria classroom. Our class was off to a slow start, but my students worked hard down the stretch. The students have continued to work on their wikis and blogs, and also made some adjustments to their games. They are still constantly updating and adding pictures, videos, and links. Some of the students have been working on home on their wikis and blogs, this year more of my students worked outside the classroom than the past. As an educator, I still struggle in getting my students excited about the blogging assignments in the curriculum. They do complete a blog, but it is a struggle to keep them working. All in all another successful year in my opinion. I am looking forward to seeing most of them again next year.

Final Presentation Reflection

2011-05-31T22:10:00.000-04:00

Everyone should be blogging today. Since we have finished our game presentation I thought we should reflect on our progress to this point. We also need to look at all of the feedback we received from the Globaloria team. Each individual needs to watch an 8th grade presentation and send them a positive comment on something about their presentation. Think about these questions when you are writing your blog today. What was the hardest part about your presentation? What was the best part of your presentation? What kind of feedback did you receive from the Globaloria team? What kind of changes will you make to your game? Is your game different in the end, from where you started? Remember to add multimedia to your blog. Sorry I don't have any, but I will add multimedia later today. I need an awesome blog from everyone today. Hope everyone has a great day!

2011-03-16T18:51:00.000-04:00

When talking to many students I have found one common comment from most, that math is not their favorite subject. Math is not easy and takes time for students to learn. So we have to find ways that make math more interesting. Students love to play games and dislike math, but they need math to become a productive citizen in today's society. So if we can use games to teach math maybe student motivation will rise. Here is a math website for you to check out. What kind of ideas can you use in your game? In your opinion, will games help math motivation? What was your favorite game you played and why? Did you learn math playing the game? Respond to the questions in your blog for this week. Have a wonderful day.

Only a couple of months to work!

2011-03-13T20:39:00.000-04:00

We are getting closer and closer to the end of our year in Globaloria. Our class is becoming more hectic each day. All of you guys are working really hard at getting your games together. While everyone is working hard on your game, all of you all are competing in a STEMS game contest. Everyone don't forget to check on the deadlines for the competition. I would like for everyone to blog about your experiences with flash, now that you have worked through more tutorials. Also what kinds of barriers do you see to getting your game finished? What are some special effects your game will have? What do you think will be the best part of your game? Good Luck and keep up the hard work, May is only a couple of months away.

Learn while you Play?

2011-03-06T23:09:00.000-05:00

Video games have become more and more popular in the last couple of years. We use the Wii to create exercise while playing. We are now going to try to create videos games for learning. We have all played games to try and help master an educational objective. We have all used studyisland to help use in Math and Language Arts. Now that we are creating games to help future students master learning objectives I am asking for your opinion on educational gaming. I know most students enjoy playing games while learning, but do you all feel the same?

What are some educational games you played?
Do you remember anything you learned while playing a game?
Do you think games can create a learning atmosphere?

Game Presentations Preperation

2010-12-14T17:44:00.000-05:00

It is the middle of the year, so you know what that means, Game Demo presentations. Many of the teams are almost completely ready for presentations. Hopefully the rest will be ready by Thursday. Although we are in a run of four snow days in the past week and a half and that may set us back a little. I really enjoy game demo presentations for several reasons. The students realize that there are several other people monitoring their work, and that gives them more motivation. Also the Globaloria staff always offers great suggestions for all of the teams. The most important part, in my opinion, is that it always raises student engagement and excitement levels. I am hoping that all of my students will be in attendance for demos and will receive some great information about their games. I will post all of the game demos to viddler to allows all of my students to add them to their team page.

Adding Animation and Sound

2010-12-09T11:33:00.000-05:00

After a few struggles and a loss of excitement, adding animation and adding sound has helped regain students engagement. As stated earlier, many students became frustrated with flash programming. After the unit on adding animation, they now enjoy working with flash. To this point Adding Animation has been the most enjoyed unit the students have worked through. I had to force them to continue on with the course schedule. They all wanted to continue to make animations and show what they had done. Adding sound has also been a fun topic for the students. I am glad that these two units are placed where they are in the curriculum. Both years I have taught Globaloria, students became frustrated around the same time. I think we are back on the correct path and hopefully on our way to success.

This year in Globaloria

2010-12-03T08:41:00.000-05:00

Once again in the beginning of the year student excitement was at a high level. All of the students are working hard and seem to be enjoying the class. They update their blogs and wikis continuously, as this still seems to be their favorite part of the course. When we started working with flash, I saw many similarities from last years group. The start of flash usually brings a little frustration to the class and student attitude seems to be at its lowest. This only lasts for a small time. I feel that I have done a better job this year utilizing Globaloria helpdesk, which has decreased some of the frustration. I am confident that this years class will be just as successful as last years.

Creating Game Scenes

2010-11-01T10:48:00.000-04:00

Many of my students are working hard on creating their scenes in flash. They have really enjoyed drawing in flash and creating objects for their game. We are having a few technical difficulties when it comes to uploading projects to our page. Although there are a few teams that have their scenes posted to their team page.I did not have this many problems last year uploading to projects page. We are working through our struggles and making some progress. I have learned a few things from last year. I am making sure students are given plenty of time to finished topics. Last year I felt that they were rushed and needed more time on certain topics.

Math topics for 7th grade students

2010-09-30T21:17:00.000-04:00

The groups have been set and students have now chosen their math CSO that their game will be based on. Last year I made the mistake of letting my students choose any math topic they wanted, well we ended up with games that were for students in elementary school. My last year students worked really hard, and were very successful. I just wanted this years students to create games on their grade level. We walked through all of the seventh grade content standards and each group picked one for their game. We have games on topics such as graphing, taxes, tips, discounts, scientific notation, and integers. No more than two groups are working on the same topic. We have a wide variety of topics and I am really excited about of the game ideas. There are a lot of creative minds in Globaloria this year, so I have high expectations for them all!!!!

Globaloria progress in 2010

2010-09-30T20:53:00.000-04:00

A year experience has made a tremendous difference in the comfort level for me as an educator in the Globaloria classroom. Our class seems to be off to a great start. My students have edited their wiki and made them their own. Of course the girls love this part of the course. They are constantly updating and adding pictures, videos, and links. They love to change the colors of the font and background. Some of the students have been working on home on their wikis and blogs. The students have enjoyed creating their blog accounts on blogger. One thing that I have seen that has been consistent from last year is that the girls are the ones who are more interested in the beginning. I am looking forward to a great year!

Welcome Sandy River Globaloria Students!

2010-08-25T10:04:00.000-04:00

It is time to put away the beach clothes and stop pulling the "all nighters", summer break is over. This doesn't mean that the fun has to stop. The Globaloria Program prepares young people ages 12 and up to create educational games and interactive simulations, for their own personal and professional development, and for the social and economic benefit of their communities. We will all create educational math games on your grade level. In our new journey we will experience some fun times creating our wikis and blogs. Some of you will enjoy tinkering with the wiki more than others, but we all will get familiar with them. All of you will work collaboratively with a partner in your class, but also with many others around the state, as well as the Globaloria team in New York.

I am so excited to get all of you started. I just can't wait to see all of the creativity that will be shown in the upcoming year. We will have many visitors from many places wanting to see your progress you have made throughout the year. One important component of this course is that I learn along with you, so you will have to help me along the way as well. I hope everyone will enjoy our class and learn so much more.

Greatest Beatle of All?

2010-07-08T00:09:00.000-04:00

This is a hard topic for me, as I am not a Beatles fan. Therefore I did not know a lot about each individual member, just there names. With ease I can narrow my choice down to two John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Both of these musicians/vocalist are very talented. McCartney and Lennon were two of the most popular artist in the entire world. After some researching I have come to the conclusion that Paul McCartney is the greatest Beatle. He was a man of many talents. He was very successful in many ways such as composer, musician, artist, activist, record producer, film producer, and businessman. McCartney was also a very talented he could play a variety of instruments. He had mastered playing bass, guitar, piano, keyboards, drums, ukulele, and mandolin. As I have stated he was a very talented and popular man. As all of the Beatles were awesome, my research has told me that Paul McCartney is the Greatest!

Down the home stretch!!!

2010-04-15T22:51:00.000-04:00

We are getting closer to the end of our year in Globaloria. Our class is becoming more hectic each day. All of you guys are working really hard at getting your games completed and ready for final presentations. While everyone is doing that, a couple of the teams are competing in a STEMS game contest. You guys make sure you keep up with your deadlines. I would like for everyone to blog about your experiences with flash, now that you have worked through more tutorials. Also what kinds of barriers do you see to getting your game finished? What are some special effects your game will have? What do you think will be the best part of your game? Good Luck and keep up the hard work, May is just around the corner.

Checking out other's games!!!

2010-03-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

Good morning gang, hope all is well. You all are doing a great job working on the tutorials and getting ready to create your game. Your blog assignment for today is to look at Eastern Greenbrier Middle's page and check out their game demos and projects page. Look at their game ideas and see what you think about them. Is there anything you can use? Any suggestions you could make to the team? What is your favorite part of the game? After looking at the other games, are there any changes you will make to your own game? You also have a task to send the team a comment about their game. Remember how hard you have worked so keep your comment positive. Enjoy the day, and make
sure your blog has multimedia and that you post it.

Game Presentations Review

2010-03-12T06:52:00.000-05:00

Good morning, I hope everyone had a great evening. I am taking the students to the social studies fair today, so I will not be in class today. Everyone should be blogging today. Since we have finished our mini game presentation I thought we should reflect on our progress up to this point. We also need to look at all of the feedback we received from the Globaloria team. Each individual needs to watch a 7th grade presentation and send thema a positive comment on something about their presentation. Think about these questions when you are writing your blog today. What was the hardest part about your presentation? What was the best part of your presentation? What kind of feedback did you receive from the Globaloria team? What kind of changes will you make to your game? Do you see your game as being different in the end that you see it now? Remember to add multimedia to your blog. Sorry I don't have any, but I will add multimedia later today. I need an awesome blog from everyone today. Hope everyone has a great day and a wonderful weekend!

Student Motivation

2010-01-16T01:09:00.000-05:00

When walking down the hall, I hear students being frustrated over going to certain classes. If they are not wanting to go in the beginning, then their motivation is already gone. When I started Globaloria, I thought the motivation would take care of itself. It did in the beginning and has fallen off some as the course becomes more challenging. I really think that when the course started out the boys were more motivated than the girls. I only because say this because the boys play more games than girls. As the girls start working through the course and building blogs and wikis their motivation starts to increase. I am now at the point where some motivation is gone. To regain some student motivation I plan on letting the students replay some of the games. I need help getting back to where we were in the beginning. As for the plans I hope just to continue learning with the students and being a facilitator to them.

Can Math be Fun and Games?

2009-12-17T21:37:00.000-05:00

Hello Globaloria Gang, its Friday almost Christmas, but we have to continue working. Not long until you have a break. Now lets talk about or game topic math. Can Math be fun and games? If so, what makes it fun? What can math teachers do to make the subject more interesting for you? Your blog assignment for today is to answer the few questions above and to also research for some Math fun math sites. You can not include studyisland or coolmath. Search for new sites. Tell me why you think they are educational and why you think they may be fun. Don't forget to add your multimedia. Enjoying surfing the internet!!!

Math Games

2009-12-03T22:05:00.000-05:00

When talking to many students I have found one common comment from most, that math is not their favorite subject. Math is not easy and takes time for students to learn. So we have to find ways that make math more interesting. Students love to play games and dislike math, but they need math to become a productive citizen in todays society. So if we can use games to teach math maybe student motivation will rise. Here is a math website for you to out. What kind of ideas can you use in your game? In your opinion, will games help math motivation? What was your favorite game you played and why? Did you learn math playing the game? Respond to the questions in your blog for this week. Have a wonderful day.

Busy with PBL

2009-11-04T20:34:00.000-05:00

Well it has been a few days since my last blog, thanks to a problem-based learning project deadline. Wow what a lot of work that goes into putting one of those projects together. I knew it was time consuming, but never thought about all the time it took to create all of the documents that go with it. So it is complete with just a few minute details to add. So hopefully you will be able to visit the teach21 website and check it out. It is call the Mall of McDowell. Creating excitement about the need for a shopping mall in McDowell County. Getting the student's engaged is the most critical part of a teaching lesson. Hopefully someone will try to the PBL and tell me what they think. While this has been going on, I have not forgotten about my Globaloria students. They are still working hard and are currently working on the Drawing in Flash tutorial. I am trying to keep down the frustration with flash. As well all know flash can become difficult at times. So far, so good for all of my students. What I have accomplished for the first time is adding a video to viddler.com. So I am going to attach the first video I added.

Educational Gaming

2009-10-15T21:33:00.000-04:00

Video games have become more and more popular in the last couple of years. We use the Wii to create exercise while playing. We are now going to try to create videos games for learning. We have all played games to try and help master an educational objective. We have all used studyisland to help use in Math and Language Arts. Now that we are looking at creating games to help future students master objectives I am asking for your opinion on educational gaming. I know most students enjoy playing games while learning, but do you all feel the same?

What are some educational games you played?
Do you remember anything you learned playing a game?
Do you think games can create a learning atmosphere?

2009-10-12T18:46:00.001-04:00

Hello students, hope you guys have enjoyed your three day weekend. Tomorrow is back to work. We will start the unit on paper prototyping, you guys will start to look more at your game you will create. Hope everyone's team is working our great. We will be joined by Mrs. Barker's 7th graders for the next couple of days, she will be at a conference. Hope everyone is enjoying the class so far.

Math Blogs

2009-10-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

Hello Globaloria students, sorry I have missed you guys the last couple of days. I am really impressed with most of your blogs. Great job, very interesting, especially most of your videos. Well we all know that Friday is our blog day. So lets talk about our topic for this weeks blog. You need to go out and find any blogs about Math and add them to your blog roll. After adding them to your blog, write about why you added those blogs. I have added a couple of math blogs to my roll, you can go and check them out. Check out the optical illusion on the second blog. Also check out the video, see if you can find anything in the picture. Good Luck and I will see you Monday.

Flash in the class!

2009-09-25T12:57:00.000-04:00

I remember getting started with flash myself for the first time and it was a little difficult. Now we have just started our mini game project lesson. Wow it was really difficult getting my students started. They were excited to start, but realized really quick how much they need to pay attention. They are still excited, and now a lot more focused, as flash is not an easy program for anyone. They also upload files for the first time to the file gallery and posted them onto their projects page. I guess that is why I was getting a little frustrated at first, as we had a lot of new things for them to learn. We are working through and learning each and every day.

Working on Progress Reports

2009-09-15T21:23:00.000-04:00

Time has really flown by, seems like yesterday I just started Globaloria Academy 1 and today I had to complete my first progress report. This is a really great way to see the progress of both myself and my students. I have reflected on where I started and where I am now. I have really made progress myself with some new technology tools like wikis and blogs. They are very interesting and creative ways to grab attention of students. It really is true that when they are aloud to take ownership and design things their way, they really enjoy it and don't mind working near as much. My students love to blog and add and make changes to their wiki pages. My most useful tool is the learning log. I love this learning log idea, I think that logs should be used in other classes as well. It allows teachers and students to follow their progress and keep a tracking recording of teaching/learning. It keeps teachers on their toes and makes sure you stay on task. I am really enjoying the class and also enjoy learning all of the other useful tools.

Globaloria Buzz!

2009-09-11T08:20:00.000-04:00

Here at Sandy River Middle Globaloria is really getting popular. Last year there was only one class of eighth graders who participated, and this year we have a group of seventh and eighth graders. So the word about this class is really getting out. We do not have a sixth grade section and that is where most of the questions and comments are coming from. They are excited and very interested in becoming a Globaloria student. When you mention students creating games then excitement always follows. I don't know how the responses are going at other schools, but here Globaloria is getting to be a big deal. I know that the game design is what captures attention, but my students are having a blast with blogs and wikis. I hope the motivation continues throughout the year.

Student motivation

2009-09-09T17:18:00.000-04:00

When teachers get excited something great must be happening with learning. Most of them had never heard of blogger, but now are all familiar with it. I was worried about trying to get my students to blog but they are actually excited about it. What a creative way to grab attention and get them involved. This may be one of the easiest parts of the globaloria program. When they got to start adding their gadgets that is when they really got hooked. They were constantly showing me what they had done with their page. I really enjoy teaching when students get excited about what they are doing. I think I have a class of shining stars!!!!

Getting started with my students!

2009-09-03T00:50:00.000-04:00

Sorry I am a few days late, but it has been busy! At our conferences in Charleston all of the returning educators told me that I would learn with and from the students. I have found this to be so true in just setting up our wikis and blogs. They have told me how to do things and helped me with colors they are really excited. This seems to be a very busy time just getting everyone set up with all of their accounts. We are making it at a pretty fair speed. We are all excited and I can't wait to see some of the ideas the kids come up with. I have some very talented and creative students. So I have very high expectations for all of you. Good Luck and Enjoy!!!!

Flash

2009-08-09T19:58:00.000-04:00

Finally I have a laptop with flash on it. The one that I had in June has a virus, and it will not do anything. With our second summer session coming in only a couple of days, I had to get programming on our game. This flash stuff is hard.......lol........This script is very very picky. I am working with the help of another teacher, so hopefully I will have part of our game ready for Tuesday morning.

Overnight Assignment 2

2009-06-26T01:59:00.000-04:00

A powerful learning experience........Well my powereful learning experience occured over a period of time. My 10th grade year in high school(Algebra 2 class), I had an awesome teacher. She would not let her students fail. She made sure that before she went on to another topic that everyone knew what she was teaching at the moment. It was not only her teaching that made her unique, she was so sincere in preparing her students for the real world. There were days when we would have discussions and not work.(Believe me when this happened it had to be worth listening too, as everyone knew that when you had Mrs. Brown you were going to work. It didn't matter if it was the 1st day of school, the last, or even Prom week. You were going to work regardless.) She looked at me one day and said that I would be successful in life, if I would continue to work hard. Well I know we here that alot, but coming from Mrs. Brown that comment really stuck with me. So as an educator, I try to encourage students as much as possible. I know from experience that students do remember being praised. I credit some of my success to her and the "talks" that took place in my Algebra 2 class.

Day 1 night assignment

2009-06-24T22:53:00.000-04:00

I have started a blog roll and currently found 2 blogs that I will follow. The first one is a gadget blog. Here all new gadgets are introduced and briefly described. I chose this one because I like to familiarize myself with the new tech gadgets and how they may help me in the classroom. I wanted to find a blog that discussed something about gaming. The second one is a blog discussing whether or not computer games are a waste of words or literary genre. Here there are two views given, one for and one against. Hope you enjoy!!!