My Culture Education

Recently I made a trip to New York and saw all the cultural activities available. Most of these things I have never experienced. Growing up poor in West Virginia did not allow for many cultural experiences such as plays, museums or library visits. As I was on this trip I thought of the differences of growing up in New York and Ellamore, WV where I grew up. The cultural things I did growing up was swimming in the river, playing softball in a field with friends, learning how to quilt, reading, reading and reading some more. I can garden and can vegetables. I can cross stitch. I can change a flat tire. I know how to cook deer meat.

Every place as their own set of culture. A few weeks ago I was in Wisconsin and their way of life is different than New York and West Virginia. So was Texas when I lived there.

Not everyone can live in New York or Chicago or Dallas or Ellamore. Not everyone can learn what I did growing up. But the one thing that we call need to learn is to read, read, and read some more. Reading is power and can give us all a shared culture. Have you read lately?

Teachers blogging

This morning I took several minutes to add myself as a follower to all of the educators' blogs in the Globaloria program. This was long overdue but I look forward to reading your thoughts about the program. That being said, it is important that you blog. Your thoughts and ideas are what help shape Globaloria. Your successes will be celebrated by us all and your frustrations may be overcome with advice you receive. So please continue to blog and share so that I have your imput.

Interns

One of the best things about my new job is working with the interns. I am so exciting about the work they have been doing. They are doing a host of different jobs and doing them well. In the photo is Carl Nelson who went to Cameron High School to help the Globaloria class there. Corey Leef and E.J. Bennett have also went to other classes to help. What a great experience for them and what a great experience for me to be involved with this aspect of Globaloria.

Settling In

As I switch roles in Globaloria I am learning as I am working. The past few weeks have had me working in an office with little contact, other than the phone and email, with others. That is a big difference from working with 10-25 students each block. It is a challenge to make this change. The challenge is I have no idea what I am doing. In many ways it is like being a beginning educator all over again. But like all the educators in this program I like challenges and I like seeing educators challenging their students. So challenge away and let me watch.

Getting Close

There is a date on the calendar and it is growing closer. It seems to be moving in a much quicker pace the closer it gets. Sweat is starting to develop on my brow and my hands are shaking as this date approaches. Sleeping becomes impossible and binge eating to relieve the stress is the norm. My eyes are popping out of my head from looking at the screen so long. Thank goodness August 10 is close at hand or I might not survive.

I hope that is not how everyone feels because I am looking forward to seeing what the teachers have created. Be ready to impress us!

July Academy 2010

Tomorrow starts the 3 day summer academy for Globaloria. I hope everyone comes ready to learn and have a little fun. It will be great to see everyone again and to meet new friends and fellow educators. This is a great program for West Virginia and it is excited to see it growing.

My second attempt

This is my second attempt and I am excited to learn this new skill.

Still Learning

Someone sent me a message and asked me to check out this site. It would be a really cool thing to do with students. I love technology.

Presentations

During the last few weeks, as much as I can put it in with my classes, I have been watching the presentations of my mentorees. More are yet to come. Boy am I impressed! There are some outstanding games, artwork, and blogs. I look forward to seeing the rest of the presentations!

Educator's Wiki

Today I used the Educator's Wiki and I didn't have to bother anyone to answer a question. I wanted to watch some of the presentations today on Elluminate but I totally forgot how to get there. I knew it was in one of the old newsletters so I went to the Educator's Wiki and went to the Newsletter Archive and found the issue I needed. I have now bookmarked it on Delicious so that I have it on any computer. Yeah for the Educator's Wiki!

Spring Fever

I am not feeling well. In fact I am having a hard time concentrating to teach, grade papers, clean my desk and a host of other things I need to do. I am sure I am coming down with Spring Fever. As I was leaving school today with my bag full of papers to grade I was positive I had caught the bug.

If I, as an adult, am feeling this way just think how our students are feeling. They have spring fever along with prom fever, graduation fever, college selection fever, find a job fever and a host of other fevers that I don't know the medical terms.

In light of this health problem we need to practice our best bedside manner. We need to remember to be firm but with a sense of understanding. We need to write prescriptions for lessons that can hold their attention and make them think.

I hope you and your students don't catch any of these fevers that are going around but if they do it will be OK. You are not alone. Working together we can develop a plan to cure these diseases.

Not Knowing

Last week by student Valerie was working on her FBLA game for competition and was asking me questions. We got online and was IMing Meredith. Valerie was taking about it wasn't just a Flash file but code that was outside the fla file. At the time I had no idea what she was talking about. Since then she has shown me what she did and how it works. Even though I have been a teacher of Globaloria for three years there are so many things that I don't know. What I do know if that this program is great for students and super great for students like Valerie who want to go into game design. She has taken it upon herself to learn more and do more and I am just giving her the opportunity. As I go on there will be more things that I don't know and I will continue to learn. Check out her game at Valerie's Game

Favorite time

This is my favorite time of year. The trees and flowers are starting to bloom and games are taking shape. It is a time when I mostly sit back and watch. I watch the trees and flowers bloom and I watch the my students put games together. I do almost no direct teaching but help coordinate tutorials and proofread. I am proud of what they have accomplished so far. StellarElkins DudesGame Design Team

Valerie

I just came back from the state FBLA competition in Charleston, WV. Valerie who is in Game Design II created a game for competition. I an really proud of her because she was the only one in the competition so she won first. Now I know that sounds weird but she had to score a certain level to qualify for nationals which she did. Because of Globaloria and the skills she has learned she was able to do this competition when no one else could. Also because of her skills she was able to score so she could attend nationals. Valerie wants to major in game design and this opportunity will look great in her portfolio.

Just an additional note Valerie borrowed my laptop from school so she could work on the game and came in during snow days to finish it. She did almost all of it on her own time. Great job Valerie. Check it out at
http://myglife.org/usa/wv/rtcwiki/index.php/Team:Exploding_Egg

Goals for Quarter 4

In Dionne's Quarter 3 report she listed 4 goals she would like to achieve this quarter. I am going to set 3 goals that I want to accomplish.

1. Improve my students' civic blog posts. I have been having my students do the post but not encouraging real thought into the process.

2. Help manage time. I would like to be able to work with my students to manage their time and production to get a good game sample completed.

3. Work on my own game. I started a game and I would like to get more of that game finished because as I work on it my Flash skills improve. This enables me to better help my students.

I have asked all my mentorees to set goals for this quarter. We have had snow days and holidays. Since it is progress report time now is a time to regroup and rethink where we are going and what we want to achieve. I encourage you to set goals for yourself also.

Getting excited

I can't help it but once students start the Drawing in Flash unit I get excited. That is where their work starts/begins to look like a game.
Elkins Dudes
is an example of a beginning. These two students have drawn their scenes and will draw more scenes. They will add navigation so that it is not just a flash of craziness. I can see and so can they the progress as their develop their game. Isn't is wonderful that at my age and years of teaching experience that I have things I still get excited about. How about you?

Hats Off To You

I have the privilege to be a mentor to several schools. This is a fun and rewarding experience for me as I check out wikis, blogs, games, etc of the different schools. Being a mentor has helped me be a better teacher.

I just wanted to take a few minutes/words to express how proud I am of Donna, Shelia, and Melinda. They are the instructors at three schools that just started Globaloria.
Braxton County High School
Oak Glen High School
Woodrow Wilson High School

Picture in your mind starting Globaloria then having a snow day, then a few two hour delays, some more snow days. It was stressful to me as an experienced Globaloria teacher so I cannot image what it was like being a "newbie".

Their progress is visible on each of their wikis and it amazes me what they have completed. My hat is off to you three and anyone else who just started for being calm during the storm.

We'll see

All the students that I have, have Internet so since we have snow days they have homework. They are to be drawing the scenes for the paper prototypes so that when we return to school we can record. They were to call each other if they were unsure what to draw or do. I am anxious to see if they do it. I have never done this as a homework assignment.

I also suggested if they were missing some assignments to downloaded the trail version of Flash and finish the assignments.

So we'll see.

My Dream Job

One of my former students just sent me an IM was we were talking. She just graduated from college in December and has went to work. It is not the job that she really would like to have but it is a start.

This got me to thinking. What is my dream job? I have had the opportunty to teach different age groups and subjects because I can teach learning disabilities, mental retardation, business and journalism. I have taught from K thru adults. I have been a trainer for teachers through the Center for Professional Development and a mentor teacher for Gobaloria. I have also done a variety of other jobs and volunteer work. It is strange but I have learned from all my experiences.

So now that I am all grown up and have taught for over 20 years in all types of settings with all types of students, what would be my dream job. I would like to be a leader. I would love to be a trainer for my county and state to improve teachers' use of technology. I would love to work collaborative with teachers in their classrooms to help make them feel comfortable using technology. I would love to continue to be a mentor teacher helping other teachers as they use technology in their classrooms.

Will this dream job ever happen? I don't know but I do know that if it doesn't I am happy with what I have done which is prepare students to have a opportunity to get their dream job. After 20+ years that is alot of dream jobs! I hope you have a dream job!

Snow, snow go away!

I know it sounds crazy but I don't want to have too many more snow days! I am looking forward to spring. It is hard to keep my students focused as they come and go. Because it is a computer class that requires Flash so homework is impossible. I can't assignment blogging because not every kid has internet at home.

Now if every student had a lab top and that lab top had all of their text books for every class with the software I could give homework. That is my dream!

On Our Way

We are on our way! Yesterday and today my class is doing Choosing A Topic. I am going to have them add a special area that is just for civic brainstorming. I want them to think of as many different things as they can to do civic games and to add links to where they can get information to do that game.

Two Classes

Over the last few years I have come to realize that I agree to things without thinking them through. That happened to me recently. I agreed to teach two different classes at the same time. Business Computer Applications I and Game Design I and II. All total there are 18 students in the two classes. I have to say the class flys by because I am so busy doing so many things that I don't have time to think. So far so good and I am anxious to see what happens.

Because Globaloria tutorials are so good I am hoping that my students can stay on task while I am working with my other students. Wish me luck!

Starting again

Tomorrow is the first day of school all over again. With block scheduling we get two first days of school. Tomorrow is mine. It is still weird to me to do this. I love block scheduling but it is still strange to me to start all over in the middle of January. So as I begin again may I have knowledge, patience, and goodwill to be the best teacher I can be and allow my students to learn beyond their capabilities. Let it be a semester of achievements.

One class over

We have had exams the last two days so I will not be seeing most of my Game Design I students. They did a good job but I am disappointed. Not with them but with the weather. We lost 7 days because of the snow and that hurt them in finishing their games. I am such a competitor that my disappoint is that they could have used that time to improve their games for the competition. One or two groups may work on theirs some more but most will not because their other classes will require their attention. I am proud of what they did do and what they learned. I think my days of coaching are still lingering with me.

Motivation

I wish I had a magic wand. I could wave it to motivate students to do what I want. So that doesn't work so I need to do something else.

I asked David to have a conference call with two of my students to help motivate them to work harder and finish their project. It worked for a little while but didn't last.

Another thing I have thought about doing was having less motivated students to be partnered with more motivated students.

I need to give these students more time but that is hard where so many students need help. One thing I though of was to make their assignments shorter to achieve success.

I will be trying these things but if anyone comes across a magic wand please share it with me.

Response to Bill

"I resolve to think about what I've done well and figure out how I can perpetuate my successes in the Spring semester. I will not feel defeated about the struggles I've faced. I will take on old challenges with new perspectives. I will commit to helping my students, my school and my community leap into the digital age. Finally, I resolve never to forget why I became a teacher in the first place--to make change."

Bill says how I feel in much better language. For a number of years I have been working and making changes in the curriculum at my school and at the state level. I want to continue to make change. One change I would LOVE to see is to get teachers as excited about using technology as students are. Working with the teachers in this program and their growth has me knowing what the use of technology and training could do for all teachers.

So as I join Bill in making changes.

Playing

My GameI have cabin fever really bad today and didn't want to do any more house work or so I decided to work on my game. I had not had the time to work on it for months. With the help of one of my former students I added the drag and drop coding to get Randolph and its surround counties to work. This is a big success for me. I have learned to proofread different types of code as the students work but I rarely code myself. For some of you this is simple and boring but this is a great learning experience for me.

Snow Days

I know the kids are jumping for joy but the snow days are causing me some worry. Our semester will be ending and they may not be able to get their games completed. I checked in with David and we changed to date of the presentations but we have missed 4 days to snow. That is 6 hours of work time. I am doing special training on Saturday so, weather permitting, I am going to invite the students to come and work if they have a way. If any students are interested I may stay after school to give them time to work if we ever go back to school.

It would be nice if Globaloria could work out a deal with Adobe to have student versions of the software so they could work at home while they have the class. Not all of my students would but a few would. I would be interested to see which ones would actually do work at home. This would help for when we have snow days. Most, if not all, of my students have computers at home so this would help with this final craziness we always experience because of these crazy (wonderful) snow days.