In the coming year I hope to have another Globaloria winner.  My goals are to follow the curriculium and be more dilligent in grading the sections of the rubics and we finish  a unit.  I will not change how I teach the code or instruct the student in constructing games.  However, I will periodically check to assure that their games meet the educational criteria of the Globaloria.

wiki

This week we worked on Adding Scenes; as always the video was very helpful.  However, I found the directions for adding 11 key frames in the "Adding Scene" section, on the wiki confusing and unclear.  Because the instructions do not tell you whether to place the 11 frames on one particular layer or all the layers.  Also the sample shown is hard to read and does not follow the directions.  We must remember that many of the students and instructors we have are new to flash and require step-by-step instructors.

Blogging

Since I have a class blog, where I blog and post assignments weekly, it seems to me that would cover the weekly blog.  What are the rest of the communitys feelings on this matter.

Challenges

I place the assignment on the wiki and the students don't read it; so I orally go over it and they still don't get it right.  I place the blog prompt on my blog, read it, go over it, and constantly redirect students while they are completing the assignment and they still don't get it right.   This has affected students grades; I am hoping when they see the grades, they will make the necessary corrections.

Class Progress

This year is so much better than last year. Having an idea of what I am supposed to be doing, how the curriculum works, and knowledge about code has greatly increased my confidence and classes progress.

My favorite Beatle

The Beatles as I saw them on a black and white telivision, the first time they performed in the US.

My favorite Beatle was Paul: As a young girl, I can remember getting permission from my parents, to stay up late and watch the Ed Sullivan Show where the Beatles first appeared in the United States. I asked my mom why are all the girls waiting behind the barricades where screaming and fainting? My mom said they were infatuated; of course I had no clue what she meant. Paul was the lead singer and he had such a good voice.

GOALS FOR THE NEXT QUARTER

The goals I have in the next quarter are:
1. To finish the curriculum with the students,
2. Learn more about flash code,
3. Help my students to spice up the civics content of their game,
4. Encourage students by complementing their expertise.
5. Help students develop proper blog prompts and responses,

Snow days

It seems that we have been out of school more than we have been in school due to the snow. Therefore, the spring curriculium crunch will have to be implemented and some projects cut short. Today I see the sun for the first time in weeks and it is sooooo nice!!

Update

As Civics Educators, we had our first Civics Call in with David and Rachel. It was a very informative session as we went over the upcoming changes in the Civic Globaloria Track requirements for the spring semester.

Student Motivation

Student motivation is at an all time low. It stems from the fact that school, overall, is not motivating. Traditional classes lack the ability to stimulate student interest and must be modified to meet the needs and learning style of today's students. Children today require constant stimulation, yet they also need to learn the basic skills to compete in the current global market. They go home and spend countless hours’ texting instead of talking on the telephone and lose precious personal interaction experiences which make them novice communicators; or play games for hours on end. Globaloria has put a spark back into some of the bright, but undirected students who fit the description above. I found the student to be engaged learners, who still do not want to dress up or present in front of the class, but will do it anyway, because they are proud of their accomplishments. Give the students tools to accomplish the tasks they love and the motivation becomes automatic.

New Year Progress

The new year has been filled with many new and exciting successes from the students at South Harrison High School. I thought my students were having an enormous amount of trouble; however, upon viewing their presentations and games I was pleasantly surprised by the sophistication and knowledge incorporated into the civic flash game theme.

It has been a while

In the development of most games students want to make complex games without understanding the difficulty of developing code for the games they design. As an educator, in a high school setting, I have noticed that students do not want to make games at a beginners level because they feel it is below their current station in life and school.

CIVICS TRACK

Students are more interested in code and making items move than to research and work on the civics track. I have put a prompt on their school blog as Rachel has suggested to make the students think more about the civics track. Students answer; i we are not finished with our games and that is why it is not civics oriented when I ask what category are you using, what does the player learn, and is the game fun for a civics oriented game.

Globaloria Visit

It was such a pleasure to have David Lowenstein, Rachel Rosenfelt, and Abby Taylor visit our school. We were able to preview the beginnings of the students games, for the guests. The team visitors had good constructive suggestion for the students in my class on how to improve and fine tune their game topics in the Civics category. The student in this class displayed exemplary conduct and respect towards our visitors. What a great visit!!!!!!

Animation in Flash

We went over the topic in the curiculum on "Animation in Flash" The student were able to design, or use preset buttons and add animation so that the game jumped from one scene to another. All in all it was a good week.!!