User:Jallder
From WVWiki
Right now I'm Glad to be involved with Globaloria!
Statistics: This user has uploaded 27 files, and made 153 total edits.
- Who Am I? Jim Allder, Director of Instrumental Music, Instructor of Globaloria
- Meaning of your name: Hmm?
- School you represent: Greenbrier East High School
- Role in Globaloria program at your school: Lead Educator
- Favorite food(s): Grilled meats & veggies
- Favorite music: Rock, Pop, Ska, Bluegrass, Classical, Jazz, etc. As long as it's good.
- Place in the world you'd most like to visit: Peru/Bolivia
- Hobbies and things you like to do outside of school: Family activities, Music, Camping, Hiking, Wii Fit, Building my kids' Treehouse!
- Educational or Social issue(s) you are passionate about: Educationally: Quality of content. Professionalism. Socially: Living more efficiently for everyone's sake.
- Favorite technology 'gadget' and why: I love my MacBook Pro & iPhone are a tie! I love keeping up my website, blogs, and facebook as well as checking email. I'll have my iPhone 4 next week!
- Describe when you started using computers: I started using computers with an Apple ii E in gifted class in elementary school. However, I really didn't begin understanding them until college.
- Describe what you like to do on the internet: I like to find answers to questions I've been carrying around for a while. Also, I download music, purchase ebooks, and shop on ebay. After experiencing Globaloria last year, I have really started enjoying blogging and updating my GEHS Band Website PrideAndSpirit
- In what ways have you used computers in your teaching, previously? I have taught students to arrange and compose music using Sibelius notation software. I have also used the internet as a research resource for music appreciation classes. This past two school years I participated in the Globaloria Pilot program.
- Why did you join the Globaloria program? I am excited to have the opportunity to participate in this cutting edge program. Last year was rewarding. Now I am looking forward to improving on my skills.
- What do you hope to achieve in Globaloria this year, personally? I hope to advance my flash skills. In addition, I want to adapt the Globaloria curriculum to the alternating block schedule to work more efficiently and HOPEFULLY finish more games!
- What do you hope for your students to achieve in Globaloria this year? I hope students will find motivation through success in an area which they find interesting and relevant. I hope to give them opportunities to achieve small successes along the way to a larger goal. Success breeds success! I want my students to have some of the best games in the Globaloria community!
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My Globaloria Year Two Pilot Learning Story:
This past school year was my first year in Globaloria. While in the end, it turned out to be very rewarding, it didn't always go smoothly. In fact at some points, it was very overwhelming. Here is my story...
At the beginning of last school year, I began the Globaloria class as a Co-Lead Educator with Abbie Franks at Greenbrier East High School. We had 10 students that we recruited into the class. Our students were a mixture of grade levels, backgrounds, and skill levels. We started out by separating the class into two groups of five. After having the students play games to learn and experience what the program is all about, we had each team brainstorm game ideas. After going through several options, our teams finally settled on the following games. Team Fierce Kung Fu Llama Kombat Randomness decided on a social issue game about Drunk Driving, and Team AllGood decided to create an educational game about the epic poem of Beowulf. As we worked our way through the basic tutorials and lessons building up to game design, all of us, teachers and students, were feeling pretty excited about our projects. And then came "the darkness" Dun,dun,dun!
As we entered the 2nd nine weeks we were getting started in flash. During the workshops in the summer, I had followed along pretty well with the sessions we had, and although I wasn't very experienced I thought I would be able to lead the students through the processes of coding and drawing sufficiently enough. You see, in my little fairytale land, students would be so self motivated by the idea of making video games that they would find out everything they needed with just a little guidance from me. I was wrong, very wrong!!! For about the next two months the students, Abbie, and I felt like we were walking through a swamp of dark, thick, unidentifiable sludge. I personally felt the lifeforce being sucked out of me with the power of a Dyson vacuum cleaner. You know, the kind that doesn't lose suction... Without the necessary coding knowledge, our students lost focus and began using their minimal flash skills for malicious intent like the example below:
However, just when it seemed all hope was lost, we had the January Academy. THIS WAS HUGE. Brian lead us through a flash mini-game lesson and wham-bam, we were able to get back on track with amazing speed! Here is an example of one of our class mini-games:
From this point on, we were able to make great progress and the students (and teachers) stayed "stoked" through the rest of the school year. Although we were not ultimately able to finish our games, Abbie and I were very happy with the progress the students did make. Our Principal was very impressed with our accomplishments, and the lessons I've learned have made me a better teacher overall! Here is an example of the incomplete, yet very cool Beowulf Awesome game:
So, my advice for all the new educators is to realize that times may be tough, and there will be things you struggle with, but stick with it. It will pay off in so many ways. (but not in as many ways as Patrick gets paid....ha, ha, ha.....)
NOTE TO SELF: Announce Rookie Educator Initiation/Hazing Process
Here is the June Academy Minigame controlled with the mouse and using actionscript to duplicate movieclips:
Here is the fla file:
Here is the fla file:
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