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.