SNOW

Boy did Greenbrier County ever get hit!!24 inches..thank goodness I live next to my brother and he has a snow blower or I would not be able to get out. Took a day out yesterday in the jeep and helped getting people out of ditches. Love how the snow make everything so pretty. I like sitting out by the fire and listening to she silence and the few bird that are our and about. God sure nows what he is doing. Christmas lights are a beautiful thing as long as people can remember the true meaning of CHRISTmas.

Moving Along

Out groups are moving right along doing the different video tutorials and trying our hands at this flash game design. I have had some students moving through good and helping other so the team work is happening without me even having to force it. The attendance things is still an issue with my students but not as bad as it had been. We will see what the weeks ahead will hold for us.

www.myglife.org/usa/wv/egmswiki/index.php/Main_Page

So Sad

Very tragic day at EGMS, a student chose to end his life last night. Many questions arise, did we miss something did he give us any clues that would have allowed us to help him? I just cant wrap my head around it at all. Life is suppose to be easy when your a teenager.

Mini Game

We are off and running on the mini game and having fun with it. Little things amuse kids. It seems class is over before you know it. My big problem is still getting kids to come to school. I have a couple of students that miss at least one day a week, I have to wonder how they can get away with this. It is so hard to get them caught up but yet still move ahead for the others.

Internet

I live in an area thats rural in nature but by no means out in the country. I have been trying to get internet at my house for 2 months now. My neighbor has internet but for some reason they company cannot find me??? I have a phone line with this company but for some unexplained reason they can not connect me with the internet. I have been told it will be another 2 weeks before they can help me. I am so confussed. I have told my students to stay connected, work on their wiki and blogs from home but I am unable to be connected. It always sees to be something.

Big Difference

I was thinking back to where my class was this time last year and remembered how awful it was. The obstacles we went through were trying to say the least. Then I look at how the students are so far this year and we are way ahead and enjoying ourselves. It is nice when the students have made the choice to be in the class instead of being assigned to it. The energy they are bringing to class is a nice change. I look forward to things to come.

Underway

Well another year if underway and we all feel the excitement. My Globaloria students are excited to be learning about blogs and wikis. Yesterday we watched the Presidents speech and they all attempted to make a blog about it. I saw that we will be working on what should really be in a blog, more than just we watched the President. But I see that we will make strides in this class as we go along.

Flips are fun

Funny thing happended on the way to the fair......

Day of Excitement

I love to watch the students on the first day of school. Some so sure of themselves and others very shell shocked. I stood watching the as they walked in the front door, the excitement was overwhelming. The upper class men swayed in knowing finally it was their turn to be the big dogs on campus. The 7th grade had a clam look on their faces, they were not sure if they should be happy to see their teachers and hug them for fear of blowing their cover of being "cool". The 6th grade, well what can I say about them, looked like little lost sheep with no sheep dog to guide them. All in all a pretty good day. Day one of sanity we will see what tomorrow holds.

BLOGS.....My interest

The blogs I chose for my list hit home to me. The first is stroke awareness. My best friend, at the age of 35 had a massive stroke what they call "stroke in the young". I believe they call it this instead of 'we don't know why in the hell someone this young would have a stroke' to make people feel better about it. Every day activities that I used to take for granted are things she can not do for herself. Clapping at a ballgame, laughing at a joke, typing with two hands on a computer, or just having a conversation with more than one person at a time.

The second blog I have added was Special Needs Kids. I am fortunate enough to have just about every special needs student go through my class in a school year. Luckily my tech ed class is a hands on class and 90% of these kids succeed in this type of setting. However, this is not the case for these kids in other classes. I hear teacher complain everyday about having to provide 'modified' assignments for these students. ".Wow" you mean do our job and make sure every child gets the concept we are teaching. I stand up for these kids when other push them aside, they all have so much potential if we as 'adults' would just give them the opportunity.

End of Year

Well to say the least this has been a very interesting and exciting year. We got off to a slow start but have gained power to enter into next years program. Students this year were somewhat of a stuggle because of the varity that were in the classes. Some really wanted to learn others just used up air. Next years class will be better because we have met with them and they have chosen to be in the class. I gained alot of knowledge this year and can only imagine what the students will teach me next year.

March 23-27

We are rolling right along. Students are working on their game pages and updating wikis. We have been working in flash looking at tweens, buttons, and navigation. We will be focusing more on completing our main pages to the games this week and seeing more of where our games will go.
The weather is finally changing for the better but in Greenbrier County you never know when it might snow. I remember having 3 feet in March before. We'll wait to see where this goes.....

3-2 to 3-6

This week we will be coming up with game ideas and begin making our prototypes. I am excited to see what this group of students will come up with. I am sure there will be some creative ideas.

Feb. 23-27

Weather continues to cause trouble here in Greenbrier County. We missed monday and had a 2hr delay yesterday. Students in my class are handling it well they try to stay on task. This week we will complete the assignment on social games and begin the assignment on game ideas. I plan on dividing them up into teams of three. This group of kids should come up with some neat ideas they are a little more excited than the last class. Time will tell..........

Feb. 16 - 20

Last week was crazy, I only had students for 3 days because of NAEP testing and club day. We have gotten started working on our wiki pages and today we began loading up our blog pages. As I expected some that can follow directions and some that open their mouths before opening their ears. We hope to have all blogs completed and wiki updates done by mid week. This semester should go a little smoother since I now have flash.