Food for Thought

1. How would you describe the best of you? 
2. As to your role in Globaloria, what do you think has been your best or greatest accomplishment so far this year?

STEM and Civics

I have thought for several days on how to address this topic, the correllation between STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Civics I suppose it is sort of like my thoughts about Art. As I tell my students, Art is everywhere, it surrounds us, it is in our homes, our media, our clothes, products we use, etc. According to the Encarta Dictionary, Civics is: "Civics – civ^.ics (noun); definition: study of citizenship; the study of the rights and duties of citizens".  If we are looking at being good citizens then we should look at ways to improve the way of life for others, whether in our own communities or in other areas of the world.

I believe that our Globaloria students become confused about their role in developing the games that they do.  One of the first things we ask them to do is to go to the "Play to Learn" section of the wiki and the first link takes them to another page where the one of the first links are to action game types. Perhaps this leads them to think that their most important function in the class is to create a game that is full of action and extensive game play. I don't think that is our function. I think our students' most important role is to develop a mindset of creating a fun, rigorous, educational experience for THEMSELVES as well as the gamer.
In a round-about way I suppose what I am trying to say is that any game can be tied in with STEM and Civics, just by the virtue of making the games relevant to being productive and socially aware global citizens.

Love this dancer

So this was posted on Jarraca"s page on Braxton High's wiki. I wanted everyone to see it. More later


Isn't this great! My students loved it. To me it shows a joy of life and just danced for the sheer joy of it. Shouldn't we all feel that way about what we do? Sometimes teachers and students get bogged down with the 'have to's and forget to enjoy the 'right nows'. Just a reminder to live life to the fullest and enjoy the moment. A timely reminder right before Thanksgiving week. Be thankful for the good things in your life and have a great week!

Last time, this time...

Ok, last week I posted about what makes a good game but now I want to know about what makes a good team. While some schools have their students working individually (and of course at the college level it would need to be working on their own), I think one very relevant aspect of the Globaloria program is having  students learn to work as a team. Later in life students will be required to work with people that they don't know, have no common ground or possibly that they even won't like but they will still have to be able to work with them to complete projects or to get the job done.  If they have learned from this program how to put aside their differences and look for the common ground then they will have a life skill that is priceless.
To my students in the Computer Assisted Art/Globaloria class, write a blog about what you think is crucial in creating a successful team for designing and completing a thought-provoking, fun, STEM or Civics  based game. How many on a team? What should the different members be able to do? Should there be one overall manager/leader or does everyone have an equal role? Answer these questions and other topics relevant to the team-building process.

Making a "Worthy" Game

Ok, so our students have been reviewing games in the Play to Learn section of the Globaloria program. Several of the games are about the type of game genru that can be created. Now the question is...What makes a GOOD Social Issue Game? Do some serious thinking about this and post a RICH blog about how you can create a fun game and still cover a Social Issue, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) or Civic Issue. 

Saturday Night Live

Do any of you remember (or in the case of our students seen it on reruns!) Gilda Radner's character on Saturday Night Live called Roseann Rosanna Danna? She was one of the best they ever had on that show. She was definitely one that died too young... Do you remember when she would do the news with Dan Acroyd (I think it was him) and at the end of one of her rants about something he would say something like "what does that have to do with anything?" and she would say her catch phrase: "Well, it just goes to show you, if it's not one thing it's another". That is how I feel. After finally getting over my bout with bronchitis I now have messed up my back. Trying to do some wheel thrown pottery, I sat in the wrong position for too long of a time last Sunday and strained my back. I have babied it along all week but it really became much worse on Friday evening and I was very disappointed to not be able to go to our home football game. I like to support our students as much as possible so I felt bad twice - once for the back pain and once for not being there for our team. Hopefully it will improve.
I did go to our local Communities in Schools fundaraiser on Saturday and helped my Art students do free face painting for anyone that asked. Five students had said they would come and help but only three showed up. We had a good time but since I had to fill in for some of the missing students my back became very tired.
And this leads in a round about way to my closing thought "If it's not one things it's another!" I'll try and stay focused on the positive and let the rest go by the wayside. Don't remember Gilda Radner? Check out one of her videos.

What I learned in...

Do you remember the book What I Need To Know I learned In Kindergarten ? Well, this post is more about what I learned in the first days of school. Some good, some not so good. To get it out of the way I will begin with the not so good:

- First, our school is going through a major renovation which I believe is about 3-5 behind schedule. This led to not having all of technology up and running when school began.
- Schedules were a work in progress for several weeks.
- Laptops did not work because of blocks on students until all AUP (acceptable use policies) forms were turned in and students could be allowed to even sign into computers, much less use the Internet
- When laptops did work, the Internet went down again.
- I got bronchitis and missed a lot of school

Now for some of the good:
+ I have a greaaaat class of students! That makes up for almost all of the frustrations (except for the frustrations the students have felt about the technology)
+ We have several tech-savvy people who are willing to go above and beyond to help us fix our technology issues. We truly appreciate their help and understanding when we get very frustrated and cranky.
+ I was told about a site where you can download a free program called Blender. I have not had the time to work with it but one of my students said it is awesome. It is supposed to compare to Photoshop.
+ The culture of our school has undergone a very positive change this year. We have seven new teachers (we are still waiting for two more new teachers to come on board) and they are a very diverse group. While a few are from WV, one is from Romania, one from Peru, one from India, one from Virginia, one from China and one from Detroit, which is kind of like a foreign place to our rural students. All of the new teachers are doing a fantastic job and I believe this has given new life to the teachers that have been here a while.
+ The students have been very receptive to this diverse group of teachers and responding well to the new alternating block schedule.
+ I am now feeling much better, not well, but much better than I was.
So while there have been great frustrations about some things, the overall atmosphere of the school is hopeful and positive. To my students, write your blog about your impressions of the first weeks of school. Discuss your hopes and expectations (and maybe your fears!) about your learning in the Globaloria program this year. To fellow teachers, please comment about your experiences so far this year and...Gooooo Gloabaloria!
Squirrel!

Challenges

To my students for the upcoming school year: Are you ready? Are you ready to meet the challenges of our school being in the middle of a major renovation and having to navigate through all of the construction? More importantly, are you ready to be a creative problem solver who will look for ways to challenge YOURSELF to make relevant, interesting, structured, challenging (notice a trend here?) games in Globaloria this year?
Let me say right now that the most important part of this whole learning experience is not just the game, it is the PROCESS that you will go through if you follow the course schedule for the program. After two years in the Globaloria program, I firmly believe that letting the wiki guide the user through this learning journey will enable them to be successful.
Looking forward to having fun and adventure with you this year. If you read this before school starts, be thinking about what YOU want to accomplish this year.

Goals for the upcoming year

My personal game making goals have to do with me being much more proficient in Flash. It seems that I have forgotten everything that I used to know about Flash. I know that this is my own fault - 'if you don't use it, you lose it'; that is what has happened with me. I hope to develop my skills across the board with Flash, from drawing to Action Script.
I also plan to start out differently, students will be given highly detailed assignments and only a certain amount of time to complete them in the beginning. They will be required to post a blog at least once a week. SInce the class will be 90 minutes on alternating days. I would like to have the students complete their games by late January.
I will also post subject matter that their games can be about. That list I am still working on. Students will be in teams of two.
That is the plan so far...

Pride

Well, they say pride goeth before a fall so I hope that this is not the case for what I am about to say. I am so proud of our students and their presentations! They did a wonderful job of presenting, especially considering that we had some problems to overcome that day. If you view their presentation videos you will see and hear some of those problems.
First of all, we are just beginning the renovation of Greenbrier West and the day of the presentation was when they decided to excavate right outside of my classroom windows. And I mean RIGHT OUTSIDE OF MY WINDOWS! In fact, I think they actually hit the wall a few times with the excavator bucket. The telephone with a built in speaker was not available, that went on the fritz the day before our presentations and there was not another room available with a landline and a Smart Board to present with so we had to use a cell phone which left the sound quality not the best. We also had the electrician come through at least 6 times to get to the utility room which is accessed through my storage room and he cut the power one time. I was trying to recover from a very hoarse voice, at least 6 announcements were made over the intercom during the presentations and we have lost our air conditioning so it was very hot in the room.
Two of our students were also supposed to be going with the sophomores to a Career day event so they had to arrange for alternative transportation to the event.
With all of that going on and the students being very nervous about the day, I thought they all did a tremendous job with their presentations. We all want to work on their games more extensively and that tells me that they are fully engaged and wanting to learn. That is what this is all about, isn't it? Having students go through a process that makes them want to learn. I am very proud of that.

education

What is education to you? Is it just your time in school or are there other aspects of 'education'? What are your thoughts about education? I hear students say "I can't wait until graduation; I can't wait to get out of here." Why? What is it that leads sutdents to say that? Are they just tired of the process? Do they think everything will magically come to them without as much knowledge or 'education' as they can accumulate? Tell me your thoughts...

Degrees of Separation

It's all in the details isn't it? While one person will not react at all to something someone says, someone else will take offense. I say this because I have been thinking about the girl in New Jersey who committed suicide because of harrassment and it seems that more students here are saying that they are being picked on or being taunted. I can remember (yes, I'm not too old to remember!) in Junior High and High School catching on to the fact that if I reacted negatively to remarks that fellow students would make then they would continue to make them. I think it is something about a power trip with some people. If they can get another student to react then they can feel that they have some power. Isn't that sad? There must be something in their lives that is not too good if they feel that they have to bring another person down to make themselves feel more powerful. It seems to be the nature of the beast. I am not excusing those people at all but I did learn not to give those kinds of people the power over me. I would ignore them or respond back with some type of lowkey response so they would not know that it affected me. It seemed to abate the situation and kept from happening more often.
I tried to teach my own children that, to not let others dictate your actions, or reactions. I find it very distressing that some students are allowed to just stay home from school instead of addressing the problem in some way. What are we teaching our children? I am not saying that there needs to be a big confrontation but there needs to be some type of dialogue between parents, teachers, students, whomever. Don't just quit.
That leads to another problem - absences. I know, I know, you have probably heard enough from me about this, but when did it become ok to blow off school to go skating? to go shopping? to just stay home because the student DIDN'T FEEL LIKE COMING TO SCHOOL? You can't learn if you are not here, there is no degree of seperation on that.

Grandson's input

So I had my daughter and her family in this weekend for our annual Ruffed Grouse Society banquet that my husband co-chaired and my grandson and I had some time to go and look at our students's work. I had shown him their work when he was visiting us before and he asked if he could look at their work again. He is 7, reads very well and loves computer games so I feel that his opinion is valuable. We looked at our students' progress that was posted; he especially liked Team SEE's house with the clickable items. I know that our students are doing a great deal more then is shown, they just aren't posting as frequently as I would like. My grandson and I looked at the games on "Playing to Learn" link. I will have to say that he was shocked when he clicked on the first couple of links because they were 'shooter' games and he is not allowed to play games where the player shoots at PEOPLE. I tried to explain to him why they were on there and what they were about but we went on to others games. We especially liked the one about the Preamble; he read all of the questions, we tried to logically come up with the answeres for the ones we weren't sure of and I was very impressed with his reading skills, his knowledge of the different states and critical thinking skills (ok, I do have to brag a little bit, after all, I am a grandmother!) As for the game, it was great! It had wonderful graphics, sounds and good questions and transitions. Check it out:
http://http://www.texaslre.org/PiratePreamble/pirates_game.html

Art and Science

So David and Andrew came into our classroom to do some filming, getting some interviews and film footage of our Globaloria classroom. One of the topics that was discussed was how this class is a correlation between an Art teacher (me) and a Science teacher (Mrs. Leef). TO me this is not an anomoly because if you really think about it Art is everywhere. It is in all of the surroundings around us each day, from the simple pencils we use to write with to the most complex of machines that make our lives much simpler (??) to the art that is produced for our viewing pleasure. With new technology comes new ways to express our artistic impulses. Art is not just about painting, drawing, and sculpture; it is also about light, motion, color and how we perceive our world and our place in it. Like to hear more? Click on this site to hear a piece on NPR about an artist trained at MIT and how he uses technology in his artistic endeavors: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=4176103&m=4176104

Spring

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome." ~Anne Bradstreet
"No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow." ~Proverb
I know that it has been a long time since I posted, I can only say that Spring had not got to me yet!
Please post your thoughts about the above quotes.

Haiti

We often take for granted what we have, everyone is prone to it, it is the 'nature of the beast', being human or however you want to phrase it. When a disaster takes place we will then think, wow, we have it pretty good. Sometimes we getted bogged with the small things and don't look at the big picture. As a student, I used to think, I can't wait to get out of school and get on with my life. I say to you students: Enjoy your life where you are now! Look for the good, don't dwell on the bad. If you have a roof over your head, enough heat and food to survive, you are better off than a major part of the world. Home life not going the greatest but you have some friends, then you still have some positives in your life. If situations become to hard, look for others to help you. Never think that there isn't a way to improve, even if it is to look at - get the best education you can now and then be able to do what YOU WANT TO DO WITH THAT LIFE. Don't be satisfied with the status quo, make life better, for you and others. Globaloria is about looking at the world with a global view, not just about yourself but about others. One of the games created was about Haiti. It kind of puts into perspective what we have here. Go to this site: http://ayiti.newzcrew.org/ayitiunicef/ (you'll have to copy and paste url) and play this little game to relate to what is going on in Haiti now. If you can, donate to the Red Cross or other relief funds; if you can't, see what you can do in your own part of the world to make it a better place. What do you think? Post on your blogs a reply to this message and tell how you can improve 'our own back yard".

Be a Hooker

Ah, got your attention with that one didn’t I? And that is what we have to do, to find the hook that will make students want to learn because the learning has become the most important thing to them. We snag them with the hook of ‘you get to create video games' but it turns into the students buying into the system of the process of gathering information,assimilating the information and then turning that information into a relevant, viable learning situation via a video game format. It goes back to my last post I think, we have to create the environment where their first priority (at the very least while they are in the classroom) is to work on building the best, most informative game ever designed.
I think that I sometimes I go about it the wrong way, telling the students that there are deadlines that they have to meet. I believe that I will begin appealing to their pride a little more, showing them examples of what has been done and appealing to their competitive spirit. I hope that it will begin as extrinsic motivation that morphs into a more intrinsic style of learning. I do know that different students have different motivators and that we need to find the ‘hook’ for each one.

Priorities

Priorities, priorities, what do we do first? Quite often we neglect what needs to be done, like this blog. As you can see from my previous one, it has been a while since I posted anything. I've noticed that students have a difficult time putting their education at the front of their own priority list. Why is that? Right now, especially for a high school student, their education should be at the top. Some high school students work, some are in sports or other extra-curricular activities and they forget that their Number 1 priority is their education. IF you don't have a good education it will be very difficult to be where you want to be later in life.
Scene 1: Teacher meets former student out in the community a couple of years after the student has graduated from high school. "Hey there 'former student' (names protected), how's it going?" Former student replies "Well Mrs. Neal, not so good, I really wish that I had not missed as much school as I did" or "I wish I had paid more attention in class"; I'm just not able to get a job like I want". Some will say that they just couldn't make it in college or they just don't understand why they can't keep a job or get a higher paying job.
Students need to learn how to process information, apply the knowledge they have gained to real world situations, critical problem solve ON THEIR OWN and to have long term goals and work towards them. Coming to school and wanting to learn as much as possible is the way to achieve their goals.
Scene 2: Teacher meets former student out in the community a couple of years after the student has graduated from high school. "Hey there 'former student' (names protected), how's it going?" "Well, Mrs. Neal, do you remember when I thought about getting a job after school so I could get a car? And we talked about it and I decided that maybe it was too much to do and still keep up with school stuff?" " I remember" "Well, it has paid off, I've made the Dean's list in College and I've earned another scholarship! I've even got a really good job lined up for when I graduate doing what I've always wanted to do!"
Too simplified? Obviously! But you should get the point, we all need to figure out what our top priorities should be FOR THAT MOMENT and act accordingly. We would all get much more accomplished and be more successful.