A Dip Into Serendipity

According to wikipedia, serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.
Sometimes we ask students to do one thing and they end up stumbling on something new all on their own.

I had this happen last week when I asked my students to update their blogs, learning logs, and versions of their most recent project. My student, Sierra, not only uploaded her most recent progress and blogged about it, she figured out how to insert a link directly to the file from her blog. She was so proud of herself and so was I. She had taken what direction was given to her and added a whole new dimension to it.

Encourage your students to take a little dip in serendipity as often as they can.

Until next time the soap box is yours.

Globaloria Educators Are Superheros

We all knew that they had superpowers - no reference to a documentary film about charter schools intended. But on Halloween they decided to dress as their super-alter egos all day.

Introducing: the Galactic Tech Crusader




and the Wiki Witch of the Web



Both are able to open minds of previously bored students in a single bound. Note that the Wiki Witch also goes by WWW for short. Thanks to East Austin College Prep Academy administrator Marisol Rocha for the photo of GTC.

A MILLION STARS ARE BORN

Often, in our commercial society, we applaud all the antics of our favorite stars. The biggest problem I have with this is that WE should be our favorite stars. Too often in the past year as a mentor, I would see students' wikis that showcased images of their favorite actors and musicians more than anything else. There is nothing wrong with having imagery that depicts our likes and dislikes. I just think we should blow our own horns a bit more.

So, in this post, I thought I would highlight some students who have really put themselves onto their wiki user page. First, at South Charleston Middle school, Kaitlin shows her love of softball. Nicole at George Washington High School shared a great picture of her beautiful daughter.

Like the sun, the star you see the most of often seems to shine the brightest. But, in a nebula, millions of stars are born and shine just as bright. Our students should see their own light as brightly as that of their idols.

Until next time, the soapbox is yours.

Connections

Globaloria game design leads students to interact with big ideas. Here's an example from the blog of a 7th grader in East Austin:

If we stop caring and start damaging these coral reefs would just be a huge open space of land. The people in this movie think that these coral reefs could be endangered because of overfishing. Which means that if we could fish less we could stop damaging these coral reefs. I'm not saying that we should stop fishing but just fish less because that's how we are losing our fish living in the coral reefs. And not only are coral reefs beneficial to the fish and plants, but they are also beneficial to us. They are a lot like the rainforest this is also where we can also get our medicines from the coral reefs. So if these coral reefs are beneficial to us why shouldn't we care for it? Another way we can stop harming it is by not dumping stuff in the water anymore. Toxic waste kills the animals and kils the plants and it kills the whole coral reef. And as I say if we have no more coral reefs it will not be good for anybody. It kills the plants and kills all the other organisms and could also harm us.

Juan is thinking of a problem in the world, and begin to connect to possible solutions. He thinks about another ecosystem in trouble, the rainforest, and makes connections. The students in East Austin are just beginning to design games using these big ideas, and I will share more about the games here.

Creativity in the Globaloria Classroom

Recently in a sixth grade Globaloria class at East Austin College Prep Academy, I heard one student muse aloud ‘but how is that like a game?’ The students were doing some research about social issues, which are central to the Globaloria game concept process. He was reading about ocean pollution. It was interesting to him but it struck him that it was NOT fun in the way you might expect a game to be. That day, the student answered his own question with an idea, which quickly drew a comment from another student, who was a sudden collaborator. A spark caught and quickly led to the bright light of their discussion.

This excitement and spontaneous creativity is happening before with kids even begin to make their game. Students know there is a big difference in this class. I think most kids haven’t given the difference a name yet. To be sure, they know there is much more to come.

What sparks have you noticed in Globaloria classrooms?

Laura Minnigerode is research manager for Globaloria in Austin, Texas.

Eastern Greenbrier Middle School Students Recognized

Two Eastern Greenbrier Middle School students were recognized for their Globaloria games they created in Mrs. Melanie Sheppard's class during the 2009-10 school year. Malachi received a laptop and Adobe Flash software for his grand prize game. His classmate, Ryan earned a digital video camera for his game.

Ryan (left) and Malachi(right) spoke to the audience in a crowded (standing room only) board room. They complemented their educator, Melanie Sheppard, for "making them work hard" and spoke quite eloquently about their Globaloria experience. Both students are in Jennifer Hayes' Globaloria class this year at EGMS.

So, the final awards have been presented...and the new school year is off to a fantastic start. I am looking forward to the new competitions added to the realm this year. Good luck to all Globaloria students (and their educators) in creating games this year.

Yours in Education,

Monica Beane

Sandy River Middle School Students Awarded Laptops

Sandy River MS students, Kaitlyn and Billy, are all smiles with their laptops in hand at the McDowell County BOE meeting..also pictured are Ingrida Barker (Globaloria educator), McDowell County BOE members, and Superintendent Jim Brown.

Tuesday, I traveled to Welch, WV to present laptop computers to Sandy River Middle School students Kaitlyn and Billy. Their game entitled, "The Race to Justice" was selected as the winner of the first Civics Games Competition.

In front of a packed board room, Kaitlyn and Billy, members of the team "The Fox Racers," demonstrated their game and responded to questions from Superintendent Jim Brown and McDowell County Board of Education members.

I was very impressed with Kaitlyn and Billy's communication and presentation skills in such a crowded room full of high school students and adults. About 20 members of the Mt. View High School HISTA organization were in attendance as well. The look on their faces when Kaitlyn and Billy received their very own personal laptops was "PRICELESS"...and when I asked how many were interested in Globaloria, hands raised across the room.

The final presentation of laptops will take place next Tuesday in Greenbrier County...more blogging to come...

Monica Ann Beane, NBCT
WVDE

Raleigh County Students Awarded Laptops

Wow! It was very exciting to be part of a historic event for Globaloria in WV. Last night, David Lowenstein and I were privileged to present laptops to the winners of the first Globaloria STEM Games Competition. Madison Meadows and Celia Laverty, students in Mrs. Tracy Halsey's game design course, were presented personal laptops as their reward for designing the winning game in the competition that was chaired by Senator Jay Rockefeller.

Being honored in front of the Raleigh County Board of Education allowed these students the opportunity to tell about their experiences with Globaloria as well as demonstrate their winning game to members of the board and others in attendance.

I look forward to co-presenting Malachi McCutcheon, a student in Greenbrier County with his laptop on September 14. Malachi's game "Math Runner" tied with Madison and Celia's game "WV Animal Rescue Squad" in this inagural competition.

2010-11 is going to be a great Globaloria year!

Yours in Education,

Monica Beane, NBCT

Sandy River Middle School Team on iCivics.org

"The Race to Justice", the winning game in the 1st Annual Globaloria Civics Games Competition is now featured on former Supreme Cour Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's iCivics.org. Click here to play.

Designed by Sandy River Middle School Team, The Fox Racers, this game teaches you about civic law in a fun game-play setting, where you have to race to the courthouse to argue your case.

The front page of the iCivics website reads,

Civics and the World Wide Workshop Foundation are proud to present The Race to Justice, a student-designed game about civil law. The Race to Justice is the Grand prize winner from the 1st Annual Globaloria Civics Games Competition. Game designers Kaitlyn and Billy are incoming 8th grade students from the Sandy River Middle School in Avondale, West Virginia. They came out on top in a field of 25 teams from middle and high schools across West Virginia who researched, designed and programmed their own original civics games, using the Globaloria platform and curriculum.

Congrats to our winners, and to all the competitors in a truly excellent field!

We second that congratulations! The bar is set mighty high for next years' Civics Games contestants. We can't wait to play them!

Starting the new school year off "the Globaloria Way"

As the 2010-2011 school year begins this month, 50 Globaloria educators throughout the state of West Virginia are delivering their content standards and objectives in highly innovative and engaging ways that students across the nation have been waiting for.

Globaloria educators and their classrooms are equipped with flip cams, laptops, web voice and video conferencing capabilities, and skills that were sharpened at Globaloria’s July and August Summer Academies at the West Virginia Center for Professional Development. The trainings at WVCPD, which were lead by World Wide Workshop staff and Globaloria mentor educators, provided both beginner and returning Globaloria educators with on-going teacher professional development to engage students in harnessing Web 2.0 tools to research, report out on, and produce digital artifacts that demonstrate subject mastery.

More than twelve hundred students in 41 West Virginia schools will participate in Globaloria this year. They will be taught by 50 education leaders who teach a plethora of different subjects in a variety of different settings. The diverse Globaloria-WV educator community consists of professors who teach game design courses at community colleges, educators who lead classrooms at alternative education centers, and teachers in WV public middle schools and high schools who lead classes ranging from Math, Drafting, Language Arts, and Digital Imaging, to Social Studies, Music, Biology, Chemistry, and Earth Science.

These diverse classrooms have a common--but significant-- link. They are all made up of West Virginia students who will be creating blogs on the subjects they are learning about, conducting on-line research, making multi-media presentations on their findings, producing educational video games, and creating wikis to collaborate, share code and work in teams with other Globaloria students from around the state, just as their educators did this summer. They will do things "the Globaloria Way."

By David Lowenstein, State Director, Globaloria-WV