Q4 Progress Report and Reflection

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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?

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!!!

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!!!

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

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

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?

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!!!