User:Cruikshanka

From WVWiki

Personal Information: ______________________________________________________________________________________________
My School's Website:Capital High School
My name is Angela Cruikshank, Business Department Head at Capital High School, in Charleston,WV. During the 2009-10 school year, I will be teaching Globaloria for the second year in a row. I am excited and proud of the students that shared the first year's experience with me, and am anxious to see where year two will take new learners.

Globaloria Learning Story--Year 2 In Review (2008-09 Academic School Year)
Wow! This year of teaching has changed my profressional life! I have learned so much. As a result, I have changed my thinking about education and where I am going with 21st Century learning skills, while I incorporate more technology. My thinking has been forever changed. My learning curve has been nearly a 180! Slowly the curve is relaxing, the tention I felt for new learning is lessening as I am continually adding new learning to my personal learning resource pool.
This was my first FLASH creation! I was so excited......the kids thought my skirt was too short! This came along after the school administration had been harping about the dress code.

Welcome Class

Frustrations:
For me, the biggest frustration was the lack of knowledge I thought I needed to make my class a success. I was and continue to feel inadequate in Flash. I am not a gamer, and thus I have struggled with coding, and understanding where students are wanting to go with their games. Classroom management frustrations included poor student attendance, which caused team frustrations. Also, putting students into teams early in the school year caused me added frustrations as I had difficulty ensuring all students learned the various concepts.

Ah-Ha! Moment:
I had two young men who decided on their own to form a team. Together, they made more overall progress than any other team. They took charge of their own learning, and learned to work together and to communicate and collaborate. The social interactions these two students learned will help them in future life endeavors. They became my poster children for the program within my school.....even presenting in the last Faculty Senate.

Recommendations for next year:
Don't be afraid to reach out to other educators.
Be open and honest with your students---they know when you are bluffing and have no clue!
Teach/Plan processes or tasks involved in the class.
Don't assume your students "get it" the first time!

Prized Students

June 2009 Learning more Flash

Additional Information about me: ______________________________________________________________________________________________

• Meaning of your name:"Angelic"
• Favorite food(s):chocolate, italian
• Favorite music:rock/country
• Place in the world you'd most like to visit: Australia
• Hobbies and things you like to do outside of school:boating, camping, car shows/collecting
• Educational or Social issue(s) you are passionate about: Prevention of Teen Violence
• Favorite technology 'gadget' and why: cell phone--simply so that family/friends can reach me
• Describe when you started using computers:1988--when I was in high school
• Describe what you like to do on the internet:email, read newspaper, shop, plan travel
• In what ways have you used computers in your teaching, previously? Teaching MS Office, desktop publishing, Quark Xpress(journalism), sports marketing, travel WV(marketing), and digital imaging
• Why did you join the Globaloria program? to gain knowledge about other software and how it is expanding the ways in which we communicate, and to get involved in something that will capture student attention
• What do you hope to achieve in Globaloria this year, personally? Survival of creating my own game and communicating the process to students!
• What do you hope for your students to achieve in Globaloria this year?‎ Success in building their own games, and a self desire to continue learning more in their individual futures.

Classroom Pet: ______________________________________________________________________________________________

• During the 2007-08 school year, I adopted a red ear slider male turtle, named George. Please look on this page in the future for my own attempt at a teacher tube video of my own and of George, the class pet turtle!

• While you wait for my personal video, you may want to watch the following video on red ear sliders:

For additional information on red ear slider turtles please visit: Red Ear Sliders Please comment on my blog at: Mrs. Cruikshank's Blog

My Personal Teaching Philosophy: ______________________________________________________________________________________________ I believe all children can learn. Every child brings his or her own understanding to the classroom. In order to teach well, you must gain the trust of your students, let them see that you genuinely care for them and are interested in their success and future. Students see the true you, and gained trust is the key to them working for you in class.

Progress Report: ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Please update this table with a progress report on your work.

Topic	Date(s)	Time Spent	Notes
Introduction	07-12-08	1.5 hours	I returned home late on Sunday, and got a late start on the pre-assignments...carried over into Monday, July 13. Could not figure out the image thing.
Training Day 1	07-15-08	7.0 hours	Our first day of training seemed confusing until we actually got to the hand-on changes of our Wikis with Itay. I learned how to add my image! It felt really great to get success so fast!
Training Day 2	07-16-08	8.0 hours	Much more intensive hands on! Flash is a very powerful program, it would have been nice to get started in it on the first day. This is where I foresee having to have a large amount of help.
Training Day 3	07-17-08	6.5 hours	Saturation point was surpassed! Working in a group can be helpful, yet frustrating! Not being able to edit simultaneously is problematic. I would really liked to have worked on a simple shape game, with all features, to see the whole thing come together. Hoping that August sessions calm my anxieties. It has been nice meeting new people!
Update	07-29-08	2.0 hours	This morning, I have responded to the survey of Globaloria round one, I have posted a new blog, and I have worked on this Wiki page. I have a few things to do at home today, but plan to work on my flash skills in the afternoon.
Update	07-31-08	2.2 hours	This evening, I have started over on the development of my flash contributution to the group. It seemed logical for me to do so. I learn via repetitive actions/processes. It was obvious to me, that my first attempt, was not great! Okay, not great. So, I have worked on a new one, consentrating on the layers, and keyframes! It worked! It isn't finished, but it worked. No time to upload now!
Update	08-02-08	1.0 hours	This morning, I have attempted to upload my new flash creation to the group site-Team Go. When I try to upload, I am getting a server error message. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I thought it had to be uploaded to the gallery (both versions) prior to be being able to be added to the Team Go site. Time is running out for me this morning....!
Update	08/19-20/08	18.0 hours	The workshop held at WVCPD in Charleston was much needed. I was excited leaving Fairmont's training, but wasn't sure how it was all going to work in the classroom. I like to be prepared for class, and feel comfortable in what I plan to do. This session has helped me realize that they will be leading at times, I will just be a facilitator much of the time. I wonder what reactions I would have had if the sessions were turned around...I know about teaching...maybe get teachers comfortable with how it will be implemented, then teach the game design(student part. I don't have the answers, I can only work with them to solve the issues----Thank goodness Mr. Dorsey was moved to the classroom across the hallway!}