Adding Buttons

My kids have been working on adding buttons this week - well, some of them.  I have a couple of students that I just cannot get working.  They think that their partner is going to do all the work and then they will also get credit.  I have told them that it won't work this way.  It is starting to get hard and some just don't want to put forth the effort.  They want me to hold their hand and walk them through every step.....I told them at the beginning of this year that a lot of this class will be self-directed - I am no longer the "sage on the stage"....I am the "guide by the side".
                  

Finally

                       Finally - I think that soon I may feel like my head is above water.

Mind you, I'm not there yet.  I got myself so confused about what account I was logging on to.  My admin account was not correct (I was trying to update my 'Ms. Kail's Wiki' account), nor was my account from this summer.  Thank goodness for Bill.  He is so wonderful.  I e-mail his with the most dumbest question and within the hour he e-mails me back with the solution.  I have been updating my Learning Log under my account from this summer, not my Ms. Kail's Wiki account.  I think I am OK now - just have more work to do.  I am wondering how everyone else (the newbies) are feeling and how everyone is doing.
  Class-wise, it is going great.  The kids are really getting into it.  We are working on our paper prototypes this week and they are finally realizing that they need to have a "game plan".  The main issue this last week has been that the lab that I use for Globaloria is not mine and we walked into the classroom last week to find that ALL the keyboards had skins on them.  So my kids cannot see the keys to type - most are OK, some are floundering.  Am behind in my weekly progress report, but will include this as an issue.  I need my own lab.

Procrastination

Procratination...I seem to procrastinate when the task seems daunting.  I have heard so many seasoned Globaloria educators say "Don't put off doing your Quarterly Report - especially the first one....".  Soooo, August 11, the day we finished our training in August, I drove to school and got a list of my globaloria students.  That night I added all their names, and required information (that I had) into the Progress Report.  I was so proud of myself, I was NOT procrastinating.  But then, did I follow through?  Nope, not until last week, when I realized that my rolls had changed dramatically and I had to redo a large percentage of my quarterly report.  Arg....

I think that the first report will be the hardest.  Now I have all the student information added....but I am sure that, like anything, the report can be improved.....

This quarter my goal is to keep better track of the time I spend working on Globaloria, keeping my Learning Log up-to-date, and blog more often!

Let the games begin...

As the classes begin I am getting more excited.  I was concerned with how the "kids" would react to all the wiki editting and blogging but I have to say that I have been impressed.

 I remember when we were in class last July and we created our wiki and were then told to "personalize" it and I had no idea what to do. I felt stupid and helpless and I was worried about how my kids would react.  I walked the kids through looking at others' wikis and cutting and pasting and making it their own....and they ran with it.  I had to help a couple of them, but the majority went crazy with it.  When I started looking at their wikis I was so impressed.  These kids are doing great and are definitely going to teach me a few things!

Welcome to Globaloria at GW

WELCOME!!!!!

I am excited to be welcoming you all to the first offering of Globaloria at George Washington High School.  It is going to be an awesome year!  Throughout the entire year, we ALL will be learning, including myself, your teacher.  .

Ok guys, I know that you have been waiting all summer for Globaloria to begin, that time is finally here!

This is going to be a different type of class - I won't be up in front of the class telling you what to do and how to do it.

Instead, we are going to be working together, helping each other. Your game won't just happen - it is going to be a lot of work, research, and teaching each other. We are going to be working in flash, how many of you have worked with flash before?

Where to start?!

Where to start - at the beginning is the obvious answer, but sometimes just getting started is quite the battle. It has been one week since our Globaloria training;





I was going to give myself the weekend and then start in this past Monday. Well, that didn't happen, I just kept putting it off....now a week has passed and I have accomplished nothing for Globaloria. (I did get quite a bit of house cleaning done, spent some time tutoring, and ran my Mom to Huntington for a Dr. appointment). Today I received an e-mail from Cindy Daniel asking if I would help out the next two weeks with kids doing math credit recovery. Of course I said Yes. OK - so much for time in July. How about August? Let's see, I have training on Aug 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 and we start back to school on the 17th. My summer is essentially over - I actually didn't have one. I had one week that I was not at school or attending training....so, I have to crack down and do some work on Globaloria.

Deciding on a Knowledge Area

1. Decide on a Knowledge Area and explain why you're interested in making games on this topic.
Play with multimedia - upload a video, picture, and hyperlink to your post.
2. Update your blog elements (blogroll, design, etc) to reflect your Knowledge Area


I originally thought that I would like to create games that dealt just with Math (duh? I teach math). But I have changed my mind. Today while I was waiting for everyone to get 'on the same page' I kept playing the "Third-World Farmer" and became addicted. I found out that the game was much more involved than I thought yesterday. It was great. You had to watch the 'health' of your people (or else they might die). I built a clinic so it was cheaper for me to give them medicine. You could add a road and communications. I had the wife have another baby and let the daughter get married and move to another farm. I really got into it. I think that it would take a very long time to create such a game, but it would be so much fun. The resulting game would be much more fun to play.


I think that I could create a real life/strategy game that is in the STEM Knowledge Area. There are a lot of issues that deal with Science that also deal with real life - such as using a robot to help fix BP's broken oil well. (You can watch a live video link.)




I taught Robotics for 4 years to 5 graders at Sacred Heart Grade School in Charleston, WV. It was fun, but a challenge. After talking with C.K., I thought that a game that involved robots would be fun. I'm not sure exactly how it would proceed, would the player build a robot, then use it, would they learn about different kinds of robots and different uses and then play games based on this new knowledge? Not sure yet.

I know that when I was teaching Robotics, the kids learned a lot - again, due to the hands on, just dig in and learn. I went to a NECC (National Educational Computing Conference) in San Antonio and met two gentlemen who taught Robotics to a students from a high school in Arizona. The kids were labeled "from the wrong side of the tracks". If you want to see an awesome video about how constructive learning can take our "kids" far, you need to watch this!


So I think that I will focus on Robotics.

Why am I interested in this? I have discussed this a little. I am interested for many reasons. I used to teach it and I saw first hand how excited my kids would get. This excitement made them WANT to learn. I saw how the hands-on learning made them begin to be real problem solvers rather than number crunchers. I know the need to robots in the real world. I was a programmer, contracted to the military for 16 years - I know what robots can do.