Closing the gap...

It's a great feeling to have the teams begin to close the gap in progress and skill level. Those who were so far behind and made some last ditch efforts to catch up and it has paid off! I'm really proud of you guys! Keep up the good work.

Movin' right along...

We are well on our way to finishing up the mini game activity. A few "bumps in the road" caused a delay in embedding the seven Flash steps, but almost everyone has completed that project and moved on to the next step...Playing (games) to Learn. The class is really excited about this activity!

Slow but sure

Although we are not moving through the activities as quickly as we had planned, our class is doing well, so far. I am especially pleased with how attentive and enthused most of the students are. We are getting ready to do the mini-game activity and I think everyone is ready. Time will tell...

Fresh start...

Although most of the Globaloria folks are wiping the slate clean for their fresh start in Globaloria 2011-12, I have decided to keep my posts so that we can use them as a reference point for the coming year.

My goals for this year's new students will be to HAVE FUN WHILE THEY LEARN about what's happening in their world!

What a ride...

To my students...
I'm sure you will agree that this year has been a roller coaster of a ride with lots of highs and some lows that almost did us in. But through it all, most of you gave it your best shot. Some of you even made it to the finals. And I must say that you did it against all odds. I am really proud of all of you.

I truly believe that the experiences that we have had in this class have better equipped us to live with more compassion for others as we do our work in this world. I am certain that you will not forget the debates that we had over the social issues that our country now faces. I hope that you will remember the lessons that we learned together.

My best to all of you...I will miss you!

Guest speakers aren't always boring...

What a diverse range of views can be presented when you have a variety of guest speakers to visit and interact with students. It's such an old strategy for getting your students to think and discuss, but it is still an effective one!

Those who visited our class during the past two weeks were a wealth of knowlege and we appreciate that they took their time to share their expertise with us.

Next year, the plan is to have more interaction with experts in the field of civics and current events.

I can't believe it's almost over...

As I was updating my course schedule for the week, I was simply amazed at how little time we have left to finish our work in Globaloria. I can certainly see the why in having a timeline like the course schedule to keep us on track. Hopefully, next year will be more productive since our computers and Flash will not be the negative issue/obstacle that we have to overcome in order to get the job done! At any rate, our class will continue to work, even though many of the students realize that the possibility exists that they will not get their games completed.

Debate...

Wow...what a lively debate over one of our team's choice of topics in Globaloria! In order to defend their position, one team is eagerly digging deeper into the world of research to learn all they can about their topic. In my opinion...this is where real learning occurs!

Animation works!

Yeah! My students loved the animation lesson/activity. They are having fun again with Flash!

The week of buttons...

What a tough time some of my students have had this week trying to get their buttons to navigate properly. I wish I had better trouble-shooting skills with the action scripts. I have two teams that are at a standstill. I finally had to contact my mentor and she is looking them over. Hope she can locate the problem for us.

FYI, PLC meetings are great!

Our county has implemented a way for the Globaloria teachers to meet once a month after school to discuss our work and share ideas. This Professional Learning Community or PLC has been of such benefit to our Logan County team of six Globaloria educators. Although five of us are new to the project and one is a returning veteran, we all learn from each other and enjoy the time spent together.

My reason for posting this information is that I think this idea is one that others in the program may want to try. If anyone would like more information, please feel free to contact me or any of the other Globaloria teacher in our county.

Newer computers=more efficient work in class!

What a difference the right equipment makes in trying to get the job done! How I wish that our Globaloria students could have had access to the newer computers all year. Who knows we may have been ahead of the rest of the teams throughout the state/nation with computers that actually worked! At any rate, we are so happy to have them and the kids are burnin' them up with the amount of stuff they are now producing. I am so proud of these kids. I'm thinking about having them download the free trial version of Flash to use on their home computers. This may help them to get caught up and at least have a chance to finish and submit their work in the game competition.

Changes...

Finally, they are swapping out the old computers in our Globaloria lab for newer ones. My kids are so excited because they will not have to wait 15-20 minutes for their computers to even start up. Hopefully, we will be able to get some really productive work done in Flash now. With all the technical problems we have had in our class this year, our students are so scattered in the level and range of work and skill. It has not been an easy task to keep everyone caught up when one or two students have computers that won't work for a several days and the rest of the class has been moving forward.

Troubles...

I am still having trouble with my team page "Revisionist"....it will not completely load. I thought it might have been a problem with the older laptop that I was using a the Globaloria training, but when I came back to school and tried it on a newer laptop, it did the same thing. At this point, I am at a loss...so, help desk, here I come!

Finally!!!

I can't believe that I am actually able to get on blogger to post...

Right now I am at the Winter Globaloria Academy. Our task is to take an assigned student game demo and revise it to improved it. Specifically, we are to look for quizzes that are built into the game and find ways to circumvent the quiz by offering another option for the game player to use as a learning tool. This is not as easy as it sounds!