Getting ready for 2010

On this cold morning I am just sitting on the coach drinking a cup of coffee and watching it snow. I have been reflecting on what has happened in 2009 and planning the things that I know will be happening in 2010. I know when break is over that I will really have to moviate my students to finish their games and get ready for presentations. I will be starting new classes during the middle of January and I will also be a mentor for additional schools. My daughter is in the process of determining which school she wants to attend in the fall. Empty nest syndrone awaits but with technology they are at my fingertips. On the flip side of that so is "Mom can I have some money."

These are the things I know but there are many things that I do not know. How do I get ready for things that I don't even know are going to happen? The only thing that comes to mind is to keep learning and keep adapting. At times I wonder how much more this old brain of mine can handle but so far it keeps working. As long as it is working I can learn, adapt and handle what the future holds.

Globaloria helps in that process because I am always learning, adapting and facing the coding issues the students create. Many times my brain feels that it is working on overload but it hasn't quit yet. One of the reasons it hasn't failed is the support of Globaloria and the educators involved. When I listen and watch what educators across the state are doing I am inspired. Everyone of you forces me to keep going when my brain is fried. (Plus I was a basketball coach, there is a sense of competition in me. I want my students to win by producing some great work.) After reading the progress reports Globaloria doesn't always fit into some schools programs but I am sure they are also willing to change and adapt to meet the needs of those schools. Globaloria has already proven that in the last three years and the wiki has improved to meet the needs of the educators and students.

So as I prepare for this year of 2010 I am glad that Globaloria is part of the plan. I am honored to be a part of your group and more importantly I am honored to be a part of a group of outstanding West Virginia teachers who want to move our school systems into the future.

Now my coffee is cold and laundry awaits. It is time to start the work of 2010.

It is cold!

I don't know about anyone else but where I live it is COLD tonight. We went to dinner and it was around 20 degrees with a wind chill of way less then that. While at dinner I had a heart warming experience. A parent of a former student was there. I do not have this student this semester but he is a senior this year. The parent is stressing because her son is trying to decide where to go to college and it may not be in the state of West Virginia.

Our classes and student experiences have made it possible for students to think beyond local. More and mor students are now think globally. This student is considering a school in Pittsburgh and in New York. He is determine which schools have the best programs for what he would like to major. He doesn't feel that he has state lines or boundaries. He just has school choices in which some are closer than another.

The parent was having a hard time thinking that her son would go all the way to New York to go to school. In the age of technology New York is a text message, phone call, web page, or a flight away. I think almost all of those things are in my back yard.

In the end I suggested to the parent that she let her son decide. He is a gifted student who needs to go where is best suited for his skills. This student will be successful if in goes to any school in West Virginia or any where else.

This brought a moment as teachers we hear so little of but the parent said, "You are right!" Wow on a cold night that warmed by heart. I was right!

Just rambling

I love reading student blogs. They tend to be very honest and it is interesting to see their "side" of things. I have listed some links to a few that I found interesting while roaming through my mentoree schools.
Greenbrier East
Greenbrier East
West Liberty
West Liberty

In class today it was discussed that someone used something that they didn't create. They "borrowed" it. The teachers final opinion was that, "If you did not create it, you may NOT use it." Some students said that they traced items and made them their own. I told them that was fine.

There are free sites that provide graphics that can be used. However, creating graphics is a challenge that the students can solve if they work together. It is also important to remember using copyrighted material is illegal.

Happy Gaming

Nashville

I am at the ACTE National Convention at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville. Sitting on the balcony of the room we have, I am enjoying the sites and sounds. It is giving me time to reflect on the school year so far as I actually have a moment to sit down and prop up my feet.

There are many things I would like to do differently but I am pleased with my students progress. Even as I gain more experience with Globaloria/Flash/Wiki/Blogs new challenges arise. My class is participating in the civics track and creating games for the competition. This is a new challenge for me and my students.

Many teachers in the school system stay away from challenges. Globaloria teachers are not in that group. Challenges come frequently and provide unexpected learning experiences. There are some days when I feel like I don't teach and other days when I don't think I know what to teach.

Recently I have serious thought about switching careers. However, when I see a student project on the wiki and realize that it is there because I am there. I am to the point in my life I am not sure what I want to do next but as long as I am teaching I want to be the teacher challenged.

Training

I am helping with a training session. Did some homework last night to review what I have to present. This has been good for me because reviewing reminds me how far I have come. It also reminds me that I have lots more to learn. I enjoy learning and seeing/hearing what other teachers are doing. Yeah me.

Fort Hood

The tradegy at Fort Hood has been in my thoughts today. We lived there for 2 years and my daughter and neice were born in the hospital at Fort Hood. I taught at the school on base for a year. I feel for those families and have them in my thoughts and prayers.

Still Learning From My Students

Photo Cube
One of my students created a web page and included this cube. We all thought it was cool and he told us how he created it. I love learning from my students.

Photo Cube

If you click on a side of the cube it will display that photo. Click again and it goes back to spinning. Simple things really make me happy.

Making changes

Ok tomorrow is 9 weeks tests for us and some major changes are taking place. My class is starting all over. The students convinced me that they did not want to include civics into their game. They want to make all new games and pick different teams and start all over. They convinced me that the earlier teams and assignments were practice but now could do a better job if they started again. Many of students need to become salesmen because they convinced me. We are going back to square one--new groups, game ideas, prototypes, etc. As strange as it may sound there is lots of excitement in the room. They are brainstorming new ideas. Now I just have to help them pull this off.

Getting to the heart of the matter

Next week are 9 weeks test and we have finished most of the lessons. Now starts the real work for both me and my students. I have to make sure that students are not wasting time. Sometimes they think they can waste a day here and there then end up not getting things completed. I also want my students to do a better job of posting each version of their game as they make changes. I want them to be able to document their progress. Writing it here makes it sound all so easy but I know that is not true.

The Civics Track

Ok I vote and I occasionally check out politic news but mostly if it is related to areas of interest to me such as education funding. So as we start this civic's track working on civic games I am more nervous then when I didn't know any coding.

I had no problem with that because it was set up for the student and teacher to be learning together. However, I should know civics and I know some basic information. My concern is that I don't know enough to proof student games for mistakes. Yes, I know I will learn but my head only holds so much. I just hope I can make room for everything I need to know.

Visitor

Monday while my class was working I had someone just walk in my classroom and ask if she could observe for a few minutes. It was Monica Beane, Assistant Director, Office of Instruction. She was on her way to Grant County and took a side tour to visit my classroom. If she has not been to your classroom--be prepared she hopes to visit all the Globaloria classrooms.

Now, I don't know about you but rarely does someone come from the state department to just "see". Generally they are looking for problems. It is a great feeling to having something positive happening in my classroom for her to see.

While Monica was here my students were Adding Navigation. She got to see them working together to figure out coding mistakes. Students were doing different activities but were actively engaged. Of course, they were using technology.

I hope when she left that her thoughts were, "Now that is a 21st century classroom."

Adding Navigation

My students have been doing adding navigation. Some took to it like fish in water while others felt like they were learning a foreign language. We had a three day weekend and so today many of them had to receive because they had forgotten some of the steps. What amazes me is that everyone is working. They want to have their work completed and it work correctly. They help each other and ask me tons of questions. Wow--they are learning.

Drawing in Flash

My class start Drawing in Flash. Yesterday I just lectured and showed them some basics of Flash by having them create a ball bouncing and then doing a shape tweening. They upload both to the wiki then started the Globaloria lesson.

As I look around the room I am totally amazed at what the are doing. They are drawing samples of what certain scenes of their games are going to look like. I told them they could scan in their paper protypes or free draw. All choose to free draw. They divided the different sheets/levels of the paper protype. Each team member was to draw their thoughts on their assigned level. There was tons of discuss about who was going to what, how, why, not enough color, no we should do this, does it need to have animation, how to I make a mirror image of what I just drew, and comments and questions continue. This is my kind of day. I am doing very little and the students are monitoring and working together and answering each others questions and showing each other how to do things and saying that is not exactly what we need. . . I HOPE this excitement continues.

Soap Box

I am on my soap box today and I am venting where ever I can. I submitted a proposal to a national organization to a presentation at a conference in Nashville and was excitied when I was selected. The session was titled "Do the Quicky Wiki" and was about how I just wikis in my classroom. I was going to show participates how to set up a wiki. I got an email yesterday confirming that I was coming and letting me know they were providing a projector, mic, stand but no internet. (Remember it is a national conference) Now I don't know how many training sessions who have been to but here lately I have been to tons. At each one I have been "preached" to about using 21st century skills in my classroom but at a national conference for teachers there is no internet. What is wrong with this picture?

In addition I had to pay to attend the conference but was offered the opportunity to pay for the internet service myself which runs $500-1250 depending on the banwidth. For me to do the presentation I would either I would pay the money or take screen shots of everything and put together into something like PowerPoint.

I kindly withdrew myself from presenting with encouragement from my principal and fellow teachers. I don't know who will read this but if you are in a position to offer teacher training do handson training or at least offer internet services so that 21st century skills can be demonostrated.

I have taught too many years and have went through too many programs where things are expected of teachers but "higher ups" don't practice what they preach. Two years ago I sat through a three day state conference that encouraged and explained why we should use 21st century skills. We were told to use cell phones and iPods but not one single example was given, nor did we touch a computer or have computer presentations. Wait, we did have presentations for three days--we watched PowerPoint presentations.

If someone has money to have a conference rent computers or tell participates to bring laptops. Ask teachers who use 21st century skills to present and show samples. Have as many teachers as possible touching, using, etc. different technology devices in an educational setting. We will use what we learn.

Ok I feel better. Thanks for listening. I am now stepping down from my soap box.

Creating teams

1. Go to your User page
2. Click on “My Social Profile”
3. The next to Teams click “Edit this”
4. Fill in the form under “Create Team”
5. Unselect “Join Team”, or else you will be a member of the team.

Above are the steps to have students create their teams. Many of you have already done this but some may not have. For some reason I missed how to do this and had to ask. This is different than last year and SO MUCH easier. I just wanted everyone to know in case they have the same brain freeze that I did and didn't know how to do it.

I helped one of my mentees

One of my menees sent me this message, "I can't get the bunny to go up and down, do I have to use a key frame or something before I write the code." I responded, "Make sure the code is in with the code above but above the last } If that doesn't work let me know." They responded, "Thanks it worked."

I share this because one I love when I actually know something that works. There is so much about Flash and other elements that I don't know that I feel good when I do know.

I also share this because it was a problem in my classroom and may be a problem for your students also and you will look really smart when you know the answer.

I also share this because I didn't know this until we did the bunny lesson this summer with Brian and I remember things as I was helping the students proof their code.

This morning was a morning when I thought I am not sure how much longer I want to work in the classroom but the simple words--Thanks it worked--did wonders. I can still make a difference--I hope!

Exciting

Today my students at RTC and Ingrida's students at SRMS started communicating on each others wikis. It was fun to hear them discussing what they should say and discussing each others partners. Ingrida and I were IM as some of the students were reading so it was fun to share. Ingrida said that her students were excited as they came to class and found out that they had friend requests from our school and they were asking her quesitons about responding and following their blogs, etc.

WOW students getting excited about school. Students discussing and caring about what they say. I love what technology allows us to do and I love that there are other teachers like me out there who want students to be exposed to this type of learning.

To let you know how we did this, Ingrida sent me the list of her students and their user names then I assigned a student from my class to them. My students were they to go to SRMS and find their partner on the User Gallery and leave a message on their Talk section. Since then Ingrida and I have decided that the Board under the Social Profile is a much better place to communicate. (Recommended by students who say they don't have to edit that way.) So we will be sharing in that area.

Ok Ok Ok I know simple things make me happy but this was an exciting opportunity to be part of.

Nobody does it better

Just got to see GEHS preform at the band competition in Elkins. Tell your kids they did a great job. All of us need to take the time to see what kids can do. Most high school students do a variety of activities. Ask around see what activities your students do and if no body does it better than them.

Advice

Looking through the different wikis I have some advice. Cheri at SHHS is using the Course News table to keep track of the lessons.

This is a great idea and the information is then available to help prepare your school's progress report. It is also a guide if a students is absent and needs makeup work. You can tell them to look on the wiki.

It can also be a guide for next year. If things work well try to keep the schedule or if they don't then looked at what took place and make changes.

My piece of advice for the day.

My Daughter

My daughter has an iPhone. (Yes, she has a wonderful mother who provides it.) With all the attention cell phones receive in school good and bad, I have a good story to tell. Her health occuptations class was doing internet research and didn't have enough computers for everyone. She told her teacher she would be happy to use her iPhone to do the same research. The teacher let her and another student then offered also. The teacher agreed and it allowed everyone to do the same activity at the same time.

We may not always want to allow cell phones to be used in our classrooms but like her teacher we need to remain open minded. If it is a planned activity or an imprompt situtation we must remember to use the free tools that are available to us and that they students use so freely and effectively. (PS--this same child yelled at her mother to turn her phone and type with both thumbs and stop peeking with one finger.)

Getting started

We have started. Some of the features are a little different and take a few minutes to figure out. The improvements are great. Students have been doing schedule changes so I gave gained and lost students. This is confusing but we are coping.

Learning From My Students

Ok I know that we do this--learn from our students--but it because very real for me last night. I ran into one of my former students who added me as a friend on Facebook. We were talking about where previous students were now at and what they were doing.

I did not start Facebook until this July and since then I have had several former students send me friend requests. They let me know what they are doing and where they are at. It is a joy to touch base with them again.

I know that this sounds crazy but seeing my student last night reminded me that I go with them once they leave my classroom. They remember how I teach them and how I treated them.

Another thing that I remembered as we were walking and talking was that I frequently ask questions of former students. One is a recruiter for a college and I ask him questions when present students are interested in attending. One former student has completed art work for me. Another student has been a mentor for some of my students.

So I am still learning from my students. Taking the knowledge that they have gained and hopefully adding it to my present classroom. I hope that as long as I am teaching that I continue to learn from my students both past and present.

Additional note--for the first time I have a deaf student and downloaded an ap on my iPhone to learn basic sign language. Before the semester is over I hope to be able to a least say a few basic things to him in sign language. The learning continues.

First Day

It is the first day of the 2009-10 school year. I am excited to get started but nervous. I am always nervous the first day--as bad as the kids. I have high expectations of what my students will be able to accomplish and I am looking forward to what they will develop. Expect great things of your students and great things will happen!

Juggling

As I sat in training today I learned so much from other teachers who use different aspects of the Globaloria program. I loved the things Bill and Jim are doing with their blogs. Ingrida's plan for the first week was great and will be very helpful to us as we start our new classes. The presentations let me see the different ways that teams can work together and complete a project.

Globaloria is a program in which you juggle different web tools. As we continue in this process it is amazing to watch all of us learn to juggle then increase the number and speed of the items we can juggle. We juggle our learning with the learning of the students and hope we don't drop everything else in the process.

Soon

School is going to be starting soon so my brain is starting the--what am I going to do this year. I am teaching a new class--Digital Imaging II. So many things to do to get ready. All my classes will use wikis so I need to set those up. We have new CSOs so I need to get copies of all of those and post to the wiki. I need to plan the projects that each course are going to complete and plan instruction accordingly. We are using a new grading software package and I missed the training so I need to learn how to use it. I ran out of time at the end of the year so I need to "clean" up the computers and remove the old files and install new software. We are upgrading to Adobe CS4--Yeah. Let me know what else you think I need to think about before school starts.

Learning

I am working for the WVCPD this week. It is interesting because I am working but learning at the same time. No matter what I still have tons to learn and being here causes me to do that. This week is Infusing Technology and I learned about ePals which I am going to use this school year. I am improving my Audicity, Photoshop and Premier skills. There are tons of other things that I am learning. I feel good. WVCPD and Globaloria are two organizations that are pushing for appropriate computer usage be included in classroom instruction. It is exciting for me to be part of it.

Applying What I Learn

At our last training Rachel had us look for blog sites to follow and add them to our own blog to make it easier to follow. Today when I looked at those blogs I discovered something that will be fun for my students and define. http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/2626 discusses the uses of Wordle. I had never heard of it but I think it is so cool. Check it out and see what you think. Does it have a place in your classroom?

Tinkering

I can say I tinker all the time. I teach a lot of different software programs in my class which include Adobe Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Elements, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, MovieMaker, iMovie, GarageBand. In addition I have my grades online, do online lesson plan software, all my classes are on a wiki, and I am blogging just to name a few of the things. I have to tinker all the time to figure out how to do certain things in certain programs. I just go in and start clicking options and try things. If it is not what I want I hit the undo button. I have learned alot of what I know but doing this. I hope I never stop tinkering because when I do I have stopped learning.

Relaxing

Work and no play makes for a very dull girl. I love to travel but one of my favorite places to go is Camp Losh. It is a cabin on the Buckhannon River in Upshur County, West Virginia and is so relaxing. The cabin was built in the 70s by Roger's dad, family and friends. Last summer Roger and his dad built a bunk house. It is a place for all the kids to sleep and store all of their junk. Some visits to the camp include 4 people but other visits with kids and friends include 20+ people.




I tend to get up earlier then everyone else so I take a book and a cup of coffee to the swing on the porch that faces the river. While reading I get to hear all the morning sounds and see many of the wild animals that come to visit. While we are there we sometimes take walks down many of the dirt roads near the camp. Other activities include swimming, volleyball, soccer, boating, fishing, sitting around the camp fire, 4-wheel riding, setting off fireworks and a host of other things that come along.

In the fall the leaves are so pretty there but it also a somewhat sad time. In late October or early November they winterize the camp so after that no one stays until spring.



In this fast pace world it is still nice to go to a place and relax, enjoy nature, visit family, and think or not think. I hope I can go there soon.

June Academy

The June Academy was an extremely beneficial stressful three days that has me excited to start a new game design class. I just wanted to blog and hope that everyone there will see this blog. It is very motivating for me to be in a room with a group of West Virginia teachers who care and are willing to give up your summer time to take training that is so intense. You are willing to learn new curriculum and go out on a limb to offer a new class that you think will benefit your students.

It makes me proud to watch everyone work and learn. It inspires me to be a better teacher because I want to keep up with everyone else and what they are doing. In fact I wish my own children could of had all of you as teachers because they would have learned so much.

I guess in this confused, tired mind of mine, what I am trying to say is THANK YOU. Thank you for caring. Thank you for being great teachers. Thank you for improving the educational system in West Virginia. Thank you for being fun to work with. Thank you for encouraging and inspiring me. Thank you to the Globaloria team who works us so hard but teaches us so much.

This Fall I will be a better teacher because of my involvement with all of you!! Thank you.

My Ah Ha Moment of Learning

Today's video of John Seely Brown gave me the word I was looking for to understand my "ah ha" moment of learning. It was the day that I learned to "tinker" on the computer. I LOVE tinkering on the computer whether I am creating something in Photoshop or communicating with a friend. In fact that LOVE of tinkering on my own enabled me to learn computer skills to teach more advanced classes--even write the content standards and create new classes for the state.

An even greater LOVE is for me to give the power of tinkering to my students. There are many reasons for me to LOVE what I do but words cannot always express their accomplishments. So on this blog are photos and links to work that were created by my students. My LOVING to tinker has put me in a position to give students the opportunity to master 21st Century Learning Skills and have fun while they are doing it.

RTC Student Public Service Announcements
RTC/SRMS Flash Video
Digital Imaging Student's Flash

As my students catch a totally awesome photo, get coding to work in Flash or publish a book I get to live my "ah ha" moment again and again. Isn't tinkering wonderful!

For Jeremy

Jeremy this is definitely not my best work but the picture of you was of such poor quality this was the best I could do. I hope you enjoy.

My Two Blogs

The two blogs that I found to get me started Adobe Education Leaders and Clif's Notes on Education and Technology. I use most of the Adobe Suite of Projects in my classroom so I think it is important to follow what other teachers are doing with the products. The other blog is Clif's Notes and it discusses technology used in the classroom.

I want to keep up with what is being used in other places and well as push myself so that my students have the most advanced skills possible. I do not want to settle with "this is good enough." I think for too many years West Virginia has had this repetition of "dumb hillbillies." I want to help change that image.

Advice for New Teachers

We are in training for teaching game design through the program Globaloria. This program is important to my students and I would like to see more students involved in the program. Students are put in more "real life situations" then any other program I have been involved. Students have to work in groups, problem solve, do online learning, and much more.

My advice to new teachers to the program would be to take a deep breath and relax.You must let go and give the students control. Let the students teach and share and teach you. This is against everything we have ever been taught in education. The next thing I would encourage is to ASK! questions. There are so many help features to this program that will keep you from pulling your hair out. It is important to note--all of us-even those of us who have done the program. I know I will ask for help this year and this will be my third year. One way is to use the Help Desk

Getting Behind

I have been forgetting to blog--I check on other people's blogs but forget to do my own. I have two girls who are doing very well in game design this semester. They are working together and have made great progress. As we were talking they were in groups last semester that forced them to do most of the work and not as much got accomplished. This semester they worked together and have been able to get so much more done. I am trying to brainstorm ways to improve total group production. I know that was a factor in several groups. One way I know would be to have each student do a game but then they miss out on the teamwork. Another way was to have each student do a level and they were responsible for that level. Does anyone have additional suggestions?

5 students

This semester I have only 5 Game Design II students and they are in class while I am teaching another class. I am not as comfortable with this but it seems to be going ok. Two of the students are from last year so they had to go back and review some concepts which has been helpful to both them and me. Because they are in while I am teaching another class they get very little attention. This does not seem to be a problem because they just work and ask questions when I am not busy. It just feels like I am not giving them enough attention.

Pen Tool

I have two Game Design II students who have improved the quality of their work by using the pen tool to trace objects. Even doing simple assignments the students are taking the time to make them look nice. I am having them do some of the assignments over just for practice and that has worked well. Check them out!
Courtney's Work
Emily's Work

Blogging

I want to let all the instructors know how important I think blogging is. I have learned more from my students about how they learn and what I may need to reteach but reading their blogs. In fact I think it is so important that all my classes now do blog entries.

Lindsey and Justin are students in Business Computer Applications II and had to blog about harassment. Leah and Patrick are in Web Page Design and had to blog about their personal computer skills. Leah added the extra boy blog on her own--that was definitely not an assignment but look at what she thought and how much she wrote. The last two entries are from Digital Imaging and they had to answer certain questions they were given.

http://lindseylumx3.blogspot.com/
http://jsnyder-justin.blogspot.com/
http://www.leahxknicely.blogspot.com/
http://patricksthoughtsoncomputers.blogspot.com/
http://www.amylee18.blogspot.com/
http://idk-shasta.blogspot.com/

Sometimes I have the students to read and make comments on other students'blogs. I give the students a grade for blogging. Generally the requirement is that they answered the question(s).

I have found that the students are very honest and insightful. I have learned things about my students that I would not have known otherwise. Believe it or not they actually like doing it. They are writing and they actually like it.

If you are not blogging--I strongly encourage you to blog and have your students to blog. Let's see what you can learn.

Two Day Conference

I enjoyed the two day conference. It was fun seeing everyone again but I also learned several things. I have so little time to learn on my own so the coding sessions really helped me. I understand coding better and I am better prepared to share it with my students. I have installed the Globaloria tool bar on all the computers that I use. This program continues to improve and I am happy to be part of it.

Over

The semester started so well--however the weather made sure we did not have the ending I desired. My students missed so many days they were not able to finish their games. The presentations were scheduled twice and the weather cancelled both days. I am in Florida and someone back at school is recording the presentations of the students who could make it today. It is not the same as having a formal presentation but there is nothing else I can do at this point except be disappointed. All well it will make me plan different next school year.

In School

I can't believe it. We are actually in school today. We have had snow/flood days 4 of the last 6 days of school. If the weather report holds true we may have 1 or 2 more snow days this week. This has changed what I expect of my students at the end of this course. Given more time they could have completed their games but I don't think they are going to have the time now to do so. That is disappointing because they have worked so hard. However I am pleased with what they have and excited to see their presentations on Thursday.

Back to School

It is January 2 and we are back to school. This game design class has two weeks to get their games ready for presentation. Coding is still the major problem at this point so we are planning WebEx for next week to try to get through some of those problems.

I am proud of what the students have created and accomplished so far and I hope their final presentations reflect their true learning.