Playing to Learn

I learned that I have lots to learn.  I know I want my game to be fun but I also want to make sure that you learning while you play.  I think the educational value is very important but I still want it to be fun.  It may be hard to make it balance but I would like to try.

Course Overview

I am excited to learn a new type of coding.  I know some basic HTML codes from web page classes but only basics.  Can't wait to get started.

Create Your Blog

My name is Denise and I am a teacher at Randolph Technical Center.  I have worked with Globaloria the last 9 years which is amazing!  This have given me an opportunity to watch the program grow and change.  I hope to continue to watch it grow and change in our county.

My First Post

I want to learn how to make animations and take great photos.

Training in Austin

Today has been the first day of training in Austin and the teachers have been great!  They are fast learners and have been reasonably calm about the connection issues.  I just like hearing and seeing teachers try new things in their classroom that will benefit students.  Globaloria is a program that sometimes takes teachers out of their comfort zone but is great for kids.

Play to Learn

Reflect on what you learned by playing these games. What kind of ideas did you get for your own game?  I enjoyed playing the games but realized playing Kitty Math that I need to brush up on some of my math skills.  I want a list of items that disappear as you find them, scoring, and decoy items. 

Course Overview

What are you most excited to work on during this course? I am excited to learn ActionScript 3.0.  It is important for me as a teacher to continue to learn and improve my skills.  I hope that it won't be a lot different then AS 2.0.  I would really like to build a game that would impress my students.

Join the Community

• How did the two games handle the issue of homelessness?  Larry seems more realistic and approaches the issue with more sensitivity.
• Do you think one was better than the other? I think Larry is better because it is hands on game play instead of click an answer.
• What would you do to improve either game? Hobo needs to be more hands on and less insulting.  Larry needs a button back to main menu on each game level.
• What kind of a game would you make about this issue? I would like to do research on the percentage of people who get out of homelessness once they enter then do a game that you can only win that percentage of times.

Hello World

I haven't blogged for a long time and since I am an educator maybe I should think about posting more.  It doesn't seem like there are enough hours in a day to get everything done.  My students have been blogging and I enjoy reading their posts.  I learn so much from reading their posts.

EQ 1

EQ 1--What do you need to do to start a business? Try to list and explain at least 5 things that you would need to consider.  This is the first Essential Question for the semester for my Digital Imaging students.  I look forward to seeing how they answer.  I love teaching this class an hope the changes made by doing Enhanced Curriculum make the class better!

Essential Question #1

I am looking forward to reviewing my Photoshop skills as I prepare lessons for digital imaging.  My class will be making bookmarks, faces, logos, and a host of other activities.  This class will also use Illustrator, Flash, iMovie and Acrobat Pro.

It is that time of year again!  Yes the beginning of school is upon us and we need to get ready.  My class lists were in my mailbox this week and I have full classes which I am excited about.  I am also excited about this coming year because I have been to some trainings, learned new things and want to do some new projects with my students.

If teachers are really that upset about going back to school then it is time to get a new job or retire.  Students will only be excited about learning in our classes if we are excited about it.  (Not every kid I know)  Kids are smart enough to know when we really care about what we are teaching and when we don't.

Am I a perfect teacher and can I reach every kid.  NO!  But I am excited to start a new year and try new things.

Summer training 2013

Summer training 2013 has begun!  I like doing training because as I do training I learn and I like learning.  When you are preparing and going through lessons before the students you learn.  What are you learning this summer?

I am a terrible teacher!

Recently I was reminded of what a terrible teacher I am.  I don't know all the answers.  I forget to come help them.  I ask someone else to help them.  I am not as smart as they are.  I want them to follow a set of rules for the benefit of an entire group.  If they are in a bad mood or it is their birthday, I still want them to do their assignments. 

I am guilty of all of those things above.  I am not perfect and I forget things and I don't know all the answers. 

What I am good at is giving students an opportunity to be exposed to different classes that they would not have otherwise.  If I had not been willing to write the contend standards and develop the courses we would not have digital imaging, web page and game design at our school.  Also I helped write grants to have an Apple lab to give the students experiences with a different computer system.

I am old, and with these courses are way too may programs, for me to be able to know all the answers.  I am giving the students opportunities for me to teach them some basic skills in each then how far they go is up to how hard they work and want to learn.

Unlike other teachers whose curriculum rarely changes, mine changes daily.  Between equipment and software I am constantly trying to keep up with just the basics and do my lesson plans and grade papers and develop projects.  Wait!  I want to add that I do have a life outside of school.

So I am guilty as accused.  I am a terrible teacher!

Mobile Curriculum

In as much detail as possible explain what you have learned using the Mobile Curriculum.  What was the best thing about it?  What was difficult or confusing?  What would you change?

This semester the students at Randolph Technical have been using Unity curriculum as a test site.  Please give me your feedback as to what is good, what is not good, what needs to be added, what needs to be improved.  Be as detailed as possible.

Learning

I am learning Unity!  At first I was so intimidated and thought I cannot do this.  Now I feel more comfortable and all because I am brave enough to ask my students for help.  I am the teacher and I am leading the class but I still don't know everything and never will when it comes to all the computer programs I teach.  Frequently I ask students to help me or show me how they did a particular skill.  Members of my game design class recently downloaded Blender to use with Unity so I guess I will be learning some basics of yet another program.

There are times that I get so tired of the constant learning but most of the time--I love it!  I wish more teachers had that attitude.  There are teachers who do not want to teach new classes because they don't want to learn or do anything new.  How sad and boring!

Setting Goals

Setting goals!  I set goals for my students and I am much better at setting them for students and getting them to work toward those goals then I am setting and achieving them for myself.  One goal I set for myself for Quarter 2 is to blog more (at least once a week).  I am starting today and going to try to reflect the progress of my class and my experiences.

Being back in the classroom has been great but not perfect.  Working with different personalities brings about issues that we cannot control.  That being said the teams have not made the progress I had hoped at this point.  It also didn't help that we missed over a week of school because of Hurricane Sandy.

On a positive note the team games are good and they are making progress.  After the first reviews I worked with the students to make changes where needed and they have done a great job of making improvements to the game play and concept.  Teams are presently working the the game demo.

I look forward to their demos and I look forward to achieving a goal I have set for myself.

I just watched a training session on Adobe Connect.   WOW!  I need to change several things about how I teach so I can record my sessions and then have available for students who are absent or need to review.  Education is going to move more and more to online learning and this is a place for me to practice my teaching strategies for that environment. 

I have been back in the classroom for four days and my head hurts with all the things I need to learn.  For all the technology educators in the world, we need training, learning and planning days just to keep up with last year's developments.

I love technology:)

Adobe Educator Awards  Educators!  I know many of you can win this competition.  Please submit entries and good luck.