SOUTH HARRISON HIGH SCHOOL

2011-08-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-12T07:46:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-01T04:56:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-03-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-21T08:31:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-15T18:23:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-01-14T04:31:00.000-08:00

New Year Progress

2010-01-14T04:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-11T09:16:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

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.!!

Humans VS Inanimate Objects

2009-10-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

This week we started to design our game. I reviewed the students games and gave some suggestions. The class is made up of mostly boys and they want to construct violent shooter games. "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus"; how true this quote is in the preferences of each sex. I suggested that they replace the humans that are being killed with inanimate objects.

Mini Game Project

2009-09-29T06:04:00.001-07:00

The mini game project was more challenging than expected as the class students wanted more carrots, the wolf and the bunny. After many revisions and reading of codes we successfully completed our mini-projects and the class is getting ready to post it to the Project's page of their wiki's.

Choice of Games and Genre

2009-09-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

Most of my students are boys and of course they either want to have racing and shooting games. I told them they can do that as long as it is educational and relates to a civics project.

September Quarterly Report

2009-09-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

My quarterly report was submitted on time. I was amazed to see other reports with similar postings. Great minds think alike.

Civic Track

2009-09-10T13:27:00.000-07:00

Today I went over the Civics Track document forward to me from Rachel, with my student; we discussed how to possibly make a shooter game along with other types of games utilizing a civics topic. The students had some AHA moments.

All the students blogs are complete; I am still trying to impress the fact that they need to spell check and review the blog writing before it is published and the fact the "i" should be capitalized since they are very important people. We discussed the use of IM terms and the fact that they should not be used for the class blog.

Blogs

2009-09-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

Students have completed their blogs. Many of the students did not adhere to the Globaloria principles when designing their blogs and put videos of baseball and hacking flash games. We discussed copyright rules and regulations and how the blog should follow a Globaloria format.

Start of the School Year

2009-08-27T08:51:00.000-07:00

The second day of class has been very exciting. The students set up their Gmail accounts and requested wiki accounts on the Globaloria site. They began working on their profiles; they were thoroughly enjoying their time in class and worked until the bell rang. Thank you Globaloria for an exciting curriculum that keeps students engaged.

WV Technology Conference

2009-08-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended the West Virginia Technology Conference and increased my knowledge in delivering 21st Century Skills to students. One particularly interesting website was presented by Mark Moore: Jing at http://jingproject.com/ which allows you to convert PowerPoint's, images, and etc into SWF files. Check it out for free!!!

Progress

2009-08-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

I finished the final design of the presentation for Battlestar Globaloria's game. I completed it in PowerPoint as I was only the designer. I tried to upload the presentation to the group wiki, but the site would not take PowerPoint files. I guess I need to try to put this presentation in another format to upload. Any suggestions from the Globalorist's?

Tinkering

2009-07-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last fall our Web Design class began working on the Thinkquest Web Page Contest. During the process of completing the Web pages, using Html, the class encountered a problem with vidoes not playing on the developing Web sites. The class began searching for codes or ways to be able to upload the videos correctly. Through their tinkering and collaboration, several students found if they published the video on Google, copied the code, and pasted into the coded Web site the videos would work. That was an enlightening tinkering experience.

2009-06-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

My most memorable learning experience began when I went back to college for a teaching degree, at the age of 47, due to the fact that my husband was involved in a mine accident and could no longer work. Thanks to the United Mine Workers Union, I was provided the funds for a college education. Attending Fairmont State, a non-traditional educational institution, I discovered a comfortable learning platform with instructors that guided and encouraged students to suceed. I realized, at that time, that you are never too old to learn and that I had loved learning as well as, discovering and delving into the new emerging technological advances.

My second post

2009-06-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

My topic is going to be the Greening of America. I reviewed a game relating to this topic at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/climate_challenge/ ; the Climate Challenge forces the user, who is acting as the President, to make choices to please the people and provide basic necessities, insure international relations and reduce pollution. I was surprised at some of the poor choices I made. The final news article detailed the choice for the European people and how it influenced the approval rating of their current president, making great feedback. I found this to be an extremely well organized and educational game that will increase civics learning.

The other game I played was at http://www.myslife.org/Global_Climate/en/play/Sims/intervention which was Human Intervention in the Climate Cycle: You drag power plants, cars, and other items in and out of the picture while watching the effects of your actions on the production of CO2, which is evidenced by the increase or decrease in bars of the embedded chart. This is a very educational game especially for the sciences. It will also help with the project, the greening of American, which will be instituted in the classroom at my school. The game was interesting, educational, well planned and worked smoothly. I would recommend this game.

Human Intervention in the Carbon Cycle

My First Post

2009-06-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

The first morning at Globaloria has been exciting. I have met many new teachers and staff members. Everyone has been extremely hospitable.