Just moving along... or are we?

I have just noticed that I haven't blogged for a while. November has been a crazy month, with all the holidays and snow days to get over, but now we seem to be back to our routine. The students are becoming more and more independent in thier learning endeavors even though I have to get on to some of them here and there to get them to work more productively. The students are really enjoying the class even more so, after we have installed Flash on our wireless lab. Now we can spend time in the comfort of my classroom where the students don't get as distracted as they did in the big lab. This arrangement is benefiting even more so for our second group who are not as advanced as the kids in the first group. But they are learning quickly because, besides tutorials and videos, the students from the first group are more than eager to help!

I have noticed that I have learned quite a bit about Flash myself. I have become one of the students either experimenting with Flash by myself or getting throug the tutorials with some of my students. This is probably the best way to learn! During the summer academies, I was plunged into Flash adn thought it would always be a dark domain for me. However, I am gradually becoming comfortable with some aspects of Flash, which tremendously boosts my confidence in using this software. Yay!!! Denise was right- you will learn it alongside your students, with the students becoming your occasional teachers!

Navigation is fun!

For the past two weeks Group 1 have worked on adding navigation to the scenes- creating buttons and adding action script to navigate between the scenes. I was worried about this unit because my skills leave much to aspire for. Thus, all the work was left to the students and their questions for the webinar, which we had on Thursday! And, again, I sighed with relief- the students did not cling to me for answers- they put in extra effort to make the buttons work and fix the glitches in action script. Of course, I am learning along, but I cannot stop being amazed at the skills of collaboration, investigation, and learning from each other my students display. It was so genius of Globaloria to tap into the kids' social habits to enhance their learning. Our students do not think of Globaloria class as a class, really. It's their time to be themselves, in the setting they are comfortable with, doing what they like- learning something new and not being banned to talk to each other, run around the computer lab sharing something new and exciting they know others will love for them to explain.

We had glitches with the action script firts, and even Josh, our expert so far, couldn't figure it out. Finally, Tyler found out how to get the buttons work from scene to scene, and you should have seen his excitement!!! He has done something others did not expect him to have accomplished!!! Josh, of course, was jealous, but eventually they both took charge of videotaping their explanation of the things to do in this unit for Group 2, who are behind a unit. These two were the ones with the most questions for the WebEx session we have conducted on Thurday. It was the kids' first experience with this type of class, and they were nervous. However, now they want to have more of these because the session proved to be informative to them because they experimented with the topics Brian talked about later on, on Friday.

Reaping the effects of Globaloria

I have spent most of the week in Charleston at a conference and was very worried that I would feel out of loop with what was going on with my students. However, my worries were unsubstantiated- all I had to do was to look at the kids' project pages and get caught up in 10 minutes! The conference was very productive- we talked about using data to drive student achievement and shared the positives and negatives of what was going on at our schools. I proudly talked about Globaloria and its effect on our student learning, as now I can see how their independence in learning is developing so well in addition to their collaboration skills and, very importantly to me, writing skills. Many people from other schools were very interested in the program and wanted to know more. It is really amazing that the way of delivering content I am still considering challenging but already "normal" was a completely new way of teaching for the educators in other schools. I can say that the program wowed them in many ways.

I have also realized that I am still not completely detached from being "a sage ib a stage" because I did not give kids enough credit for keeping up with their work and not get too distracted with experimenting in Flash. The students amazed me with their quite detailed project pages and thorough game descriptions. I guess, I will have to catch up with them, not vice versa! But I am not intending on going away again for a couple of months, so catching up should not be a problem!

Paper prototyping- done!!!

Paper prototyping has let our students truly work on their collaborative skills, with even the shyest ones and the most distracted ones being forced to step out of their comfort zone. The students had to join the team to come up with a good project and abandon their "slacking" or shying off habits. Now we are starting on drawing in Flash, and the students just take off on their own. Tutorials have helped them greatly in developing better skills of following directions because we struggled with this aspect in the beginning of the course. However, the students like to also experiment on their own and find out stuff works in this manner. I would have never done that- I go by the manual :) But, that's where the major difference between my student generation and my generation lies: they learn new stuff by playing with it whereas we need to go to the instructions manual:)

I am learning a lot from my students and learning more about myself as a teacher. I don't scare away when group work comes in with its noise and perceived chaos levels and have become more comfortable with using technology in my other classes even though I cannot say I was completely ignorant about it before. I believe that this class is equally beneficial to me as it is for my students.

Paper Prototyping

This week, after we have finally separated the schedules for both groups, things slowed down and proved not to be as hectic or frustrating as they were before, when we were making the second group rush with their work, so that the first group wouldn't have to wait. This week was also the first in trying out Flash, and even though I was worried about it, Denise was right- the kids will teach themselves, even though some of them don't like the idea that their teacher is not a 'know-it-all". While reading the students' blogs, I have stumbled across their "pacts" with each other to help if one finds something new on Flash. So far, this has been the way to go. Josh has read and experimented with Flash more than anybody else and discovered motion tweening, and before we knew, he has taught half the class how to work it! And this is all before we even hit any of these tutorials!!! I am impressed, and now I need to ask Josh to teach me, even though he generously noted that I am still cool even though I am struggling with frames and layers:D

Paper prototyping has started smoothly. The Alliance are working so well together, even though this group has some really strong opinionated people! They, however, hear each other out and do come to a consensus within a group. Fourth Column is a lot more argumentative, but good ideas come from these arguments, so we might enjoy good products in the end of the class. We have slackers who do not want to admit that besides fun, this class is tons of work. But, we'll bring them up to date.

We are starting on Flash!

This week was quite hectic with WESTEST 2 field test being taken at school. We managed to have classes for the most part, even though they were shortened. However, we got most of the students' presentations taped and even started on Imagining Your Game unit!

While waiting for Flash installations, we asked the students to respond to a questionnaire so that we could group them correspondingly. Thus, we ended up with four groups: The Alliance of Super Tr33 Stumps (don't ask why "e" became "3"- something out of the teenage lingo:), The Fourth Column, Guitar Heroes, and Gamavision. The students brainstormed their ideas and spent some time getting ready for mini presentations. We informed them that they would be videotaped, so that their presentations could be placed on their group wiki pages. That made them nervous (at least, most of them- Josh, "the muffinman", enjoyed the whole process so much, thus becoming the creative guru of his group), but being nervous helped them work more productively and come up with great game ideas and presentations.

However, Flash is installed, and we have started on the first tutorials in Flash. The students are very excited about starting on Flash and are already helping each other with it! I have warned them that I am as much of a learner in this process as they are, so they have to go through tutorials very thoughtfully and ask experts and their friends for help when needed. I know I will always be there for them, but I will probably learn as much from my students as they will from each other. I am very worried about this part of the course as I am not as comfortable with Flash as I am with working on the wikis and blogs. However, everybody keeps on telling me that I need to give more credit and freedom to my students and believe in their ability to learn from each other and provide help to others in what their strenghts are.

Just trucking along...

Well, this week has been devoted to social games design unit, which helped many students to start identifying the topics for their future games. I was surprised (and very excited and pleased at the same time) as to how many of the students feel passionate about the issue of global warming and its consequences on the lives of the peoples of the world. I am very proud of these kids who will take on researching more about what is happening in this world today to teach about that through their video games.

Being nosey, I looked at RTC's wiki pages to get some ideas to utilize in our classroom. I will definitely go and update my news page as I did not think about putting the necessary assignments for the students to accomplish for the day. I am certainly having tons of blond moments recently! This weekend, I will definitely devote time to catching up on my own learning and going to Flash to try and figure that pen tool out! Plus, I need to sit down and play more games to finish my own units of evaluating the games!

It's certainly not a "smoothly-flowing" blog, as it is a weekend, and September has been quite busy for me: getting into the schedule, getting my Spanish students all lined up and ready to go, as well as taking on tons of "paperwork-y" responsibilities as I go through the weeks. I cannot wait for my one-weekend vacation in Shenandoah, which, I know is an interesting way to get a break-in the midst of all the beginning craziness:)

Finshing Game Design

Today is the last day of the learning game design unit. The students had a lot of fun playing the games, but some needed more nudging to start thinking about the game reviews as well. Processing the game from the developer's point of view was probably the most challenging part for them because they never really thought about it from this standpoint. I could easily associate with them because I was puzzled tremendously when I played some games before starting to work on the Success Elevator. Now I can do it easier and can spend more time with the students helping them understand the concept of understanding the game design from different perspectives. Of course, the class is slowly getting divided into those who get stuff done easily and early and the ones who lag behind. However, this challenge opens tons of tutoring opportunities and learning from each other, which provides help for all the kids at all times and helps Sara and me not to spread ourselves too thin. Tomorrow we are going into the next unit, with some students still having to spend time on the current unit because of the various reasons (being absent during one of the days, having PE 5th period, etc.). I am expecting the students to acquire different paces at some point without too much lag in between their activities.

Wrapping up the getting started part

Today we have finished the getting started part and discussed the participation guidelines with the students. During the discussions, we realized that we have indirectly shared these guidelines with the students during the first stages of course introduction and setting up a profile and a blog. However, when talking about sharing with each other, one student pointed out that he wanted the guideline for not taking the game ideas from each other. That raised some questions in my mind. I understood what he wanted to say but did not know how to render it to the other students. The wanted to make sure that, in this environment of sharing, nobody steals his idea for the game. But, how can you tread between sharing selflessly and abusing the privilege? How do we entice creativity without letting students use each other's ideas for the particular game? We ended up not putting this item on the list for the guidelines because so many concerns come into mind. Anyways, tomorrow we are starting to work on game design topics. That should be fun! The students are already excited about this part of the course.

Finally, the first week is over...

Now I can take a breather, as this week involved a lot of running and lots of lack of structure in my day. However, now the students are feeling more comfortable with the wikis and have started conquering the world of blogs. And they are not doing too bad! I was impressed with their ease of communication about their beginning life in Globaloria. I am also learning alongside the students. We have introduced them to creative commons, which I am still quite confused about. Do we use any images we can find through that site or need to be picky? I migh sound like a food for wondering about that but I'd rather ask. Yesterday I spent considerable amount of time putting the profile links on the wiki user gallery- I am getting more and more comfortable with using the provided templates instead of shying away from adding something new or something I don't know how to add to the wiki. I might even become comfortable with Flash before the year is over:D

You live, you learn...

Today was an interesting day. Our students have finally gotten to experimenting with their profiles and finding the pictures to add to their pages. Well, that was a huge learning experience for us! Obviously, the students use tons of stuff from Photobucket, but that stuff is copyrighted and cannot be put on their profiles (thank you, Maitreyi!), so tomorrow is going to involve tons of explanation and learning about copyright, as well as exploring http://creativecommons.org. I am kind of glad it happened because it presented a good teaching opportunity for the students. I thing, I cannot get over enough is their constant collaboration. When one finds out how to do stuff, he or she goes over to their friends and shares. As long as they get their stuff done, I am welcoming it!

The first day of school

Today was the first day of school for the students, which, as always, proved hectic and full of running around without accomplishing much. BUT, the one class that went as planned (for the most part) was Globaloria! We managed to talk about Globaloria, explain the essence of the program, and get the students to take the survey. During the class, we also had students sign up for gmail to be able to set up their blog easier later on.

To my mind, the kids are very excited, puzzled, and intrigued. We have quite a mix of abilities and talents, but all the students can work well together, which is a key. We will probably need to slow down the curriculum, as some of the students are taking more time to do explore the content or set up an account, being more scrupulous than the others. However, it remains to be seen, as they may up the speed as we go along and they get more comfortable with all the components of the course. As for now, testing their gmail accounts, they have already added each other to their contacts lists, so really communication comes naturally for these digital natives.

Once some of the faster ones finished, Sara and I let them explore the games and the avatar gallery, which was such a hit! I honestly did not think they would get so excited over it! We'll see what tomorrow brings, but we are planning starting the course overview, getting their profile started and setting up the blogs. Should be fun!

A clear vision or a mud on the windshield?

I am slowly becoming more comfortable with the program. The initial panic settled in for a while and gave way to a growing confidence that we can do it. After going through the steps of working through the two units, I feel less anxious even though the total relief is not anticipated any time soon. However, healthy anxiety never hurt anyone:) !!! Before school starts, I will need to browse the wvwiki and the SRMS sites and add more RSS feeds to the Google Reader to become as prepared as I can be for the upcoming school year. However, the method of trial and error as well as tweaking the instruction to fit the student needs and frantically emailing Denise, Lee, or Stewart will be invaluable in the process of learning to facilitate this course. Sounds like a great year ahead of us!!!

Teacher Leadership Institute

I am listening to the first session of my last day in TLI. The boot camp experiences was what it was- a bootcamp, full of frustration and hard work, which eventually resulted in tremendous learning opportunities. I was able to authentically engage in problem learning experiences because our county team had a global awareness PBL project. Now I got a better understanding of the project as a whole and how easily I can implement the skills I have acquired to work within Globaloria program. I am ready to let my students use their learning skills to find resources and work collaboratively for a common goal. This learning experience, however, frustrating and challenging to think outside the box, was invaluable in seeing the benefits of PBL in the classroom and getting ready to be "the guide on the side", not "the sage on the stage". It's hard to abandon my TTWWADI (That's The Way We've Always Done It- Ian Jukes), but I am ready to work on it!

Review is good for you!

This week I tried to recuperate from the intensive workshop and all te Flash fun we have had:)! However, before I forget everything, I have decided to go back to Flash tutorials and review the content because, even having retained quite a few things, I've completely missed the motion tween as well as some other animation "tricks" in Brian's arsenal. So far, I haven't taken time to go back to my part of the game to start working on finishing it up, but it's in my plans for the weekend before the very busy week in Morgantown TLI. I know that Denise worked on some parts of the game, so GO DENISE! I am sooo happy you are on my team!

Well, wish me luck as I will endeavor to go back to the game!

My second day at the workshop

Well, today has eased my learning pains a little bit in the morning, but the introduction to drawing in flash has proven to be a tough undertaking. However, I have a great group of people in the team who are always ready to help out. Even though I still feel very uneasy about different concepts, my hope is that my students will help me learn alongside with them and that the program will be successful at our school.
So far the workshop has been very informational. I have learned tons of new stuff which I will be able to use in my language arts classroom. It's great that we could take litte baby steps in learning about technology, as it gave me more confidence and did not drive me completely insane, I don't do well with out-of-comfort zones:)!
So far, so good. We'll see what tonight and tomorrow holds.

The beginning

When thinking about my participation in the Globaloria program, I see a tremendous challenge as a person and an educator, which is ok. I love overcoming challenges to advance my knowledge as an educator and a learner. Participating in this program will be a huge learning curve which I will use as an opportunity to learn alongside with my students and assume a role of a facilitator rather than a dogmatizer.
So, today I have started working on my wiki page and evaluated a couple of games on the list. I have chosen the game on climate change and cost of life. I enjoyed playing the games after an extensive time spent on tutorials. I am a game rookie who never played Play Station even though I am seriously considering bying myself a Wii Fit:) Anyways, evaluation of the games helped me put the game design into perspective and critically consider their benefits and drawbacks from the learner's and designet's points of view. Hopefully, I will gain a lot more insights into this educational tenet during the workshop this week.