Are we ever going to get back to work???

Well, snow days have provided a nice relief here and there, but I am sooo ready to do away with them and have a decent work week. I guess, we haven't had many cancellations as other schools have, but they still messed with the schedule. Through the chaos of snow days and semester changes, the groups switched schedules, and now the second group is coming in for eighty minutes. The kids are absolutely loving it! The first group, however, are not happy with the change, but so far it hasn't affected them that greatly.



We are starting to reap the effects of Globaloria by... letting our students help teachers who want to find out more about new Web 2.0 tools. Yesterday Sara and I were asked by a teacher who is happy to have evolved from a digital dinosaur into "just a big lizard" (her own words :) to help her learn more about wikis, blogs, and podcasts. Instead of jumping in right away, we offered... Josh to help her out. So, as soon as our snow days are over, they are going to meet every morning to learn more about these tools. The growing confidence and belief I have in these kids are another proof that this class helps not only students but also teachers to embrace the 21st century teaching and learning. Of course, I still have long ways to go in the means of acquiring knowledge and prefer conventional ways rather than skyping Jeff far away in NY to help me out with the glitch in the game (Josh :), but I am definitely moving along. What's the next stage of evolution from a digital lizard, I wonder???

Reflections on Globaloria coming into 2009...

Yesterday, while celebrating the coming of year 2009, I started evaluating our work in Globaloria in 2008. What have we accomplished? What have we learned, on our own and from each other? What have we struggled through? Where have we succeeded? The term "we" for me includes the students and the teachers, because in this class we are all learners, which, as hard and impossible as it seemed to me in the beginning, has proven to be the most rewarding aspect of the class. The end of the physical year is sort of a mid check point for the class, which is getting more challenging but more rewarding at the same time. So, if going back to August...

We have originally started with a diverse group of 15 students, 15 different personalities, ambitions, working habits, etc. that totally "made" the group. The beginning of the semester was chaotic because the structure of the class, the independence in learning, as well as the need for collaboration and dealing with new software to all of us required constant attention, reinforcement of rules, and reevaluation of practices in close collaboration with Denise. Of course, we could not have done anything without the support from our school and district administration as well as the Globaloria team, which ensured quick install of Flash...

From there on, the life in class has taken a form of its own. Up to date, we have lost two students and have accepted a new one, these being the changes that made us reevaluate our grouping practices for the next year because of the huge role collaboration plays throughout the course. The class has also opened various talents in our students and heightened their interest in school (the testimony of one of the parents!). Their game ideas are very relevant to the social issues of today and are overflowing with creativity.

The students constantly surprise me with their catching on to the new things with Flash. Whatever I could not figure out in a million of years, they get it in a snap! However, not everybody is this way, so these students and I slowly go through the tutorials and learn something new ourselves! Of course, if the overachievers don't jump in and explain everything in an instant! I cannot wait to see what this class will bring during the second semester, especially teh final product, which is not only the games, but also my students' social learning, collaboration, and work skills honed throughout the course.

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.