September 11 Mini-Workshop!!

Happy Friday Everybody!

is it the weekend yet?

Just wanted to take a minute to remind everyone about our upcoming Mini Workshop on TUESDAY September 11, 2012 at 7 pm EST (6 pm CT, 4 pm ET). The topics covered in Tuesday's session will include: Setting Up Code, Custom Cursors, Blog Management and an overview of the new Wiki features.

Please complete the assignment on the September Mini Workshop Page and post your work! Make sure to bring your questions to Tuesday's session.

Thanks guys!


Yvonne

Award Day and Leadership Training: Leaders of Today cultivating Leaders of Tomorrow

After spending four days with teachers, it was soon time to celebrate with the students. That means: The Globeys!

Who needs the Olympics when you have this?

For those who don’t know, The Globeys is Globaloria’s annual award ceremony for student games. We have a ceremony for each of the states we work with, this year’s being Texas, California, and West Virginia. Because Globaloria focuses on effort and creativity, we don’t solely look at whose games work the best. We look for a good idea, originality, education factor, and how much effort went into the production of the game. So, potential is just as important in doing well in this competition as quality would be.

The energy during the ceremony was fantastic! Everyone was very excited to be there. It was especially nice to see the smiling students and their hard work being shown off. In addition, for me, it was nice to see how everyone’s hard work – from the school’s side, with teachers, students, and administrators to the World Wide Workshop side, with Shannon, Denise, and many others – came together. It really helped me understand the impact that everyone’s roles have. Kudos to everyone making this all possible!

The Winners!

After the Globeys, we had another training session devoted to training administrators. We did not have them make games, but we did show them the tools they needed to support their teachers. It was nice to see the administrators take such an active role in Globaloria.

After getting the administrators up to speed, we all headed to the Leadership Inspiration Awards at the Caperton manor. Being a newcomer to Globaloria, it was a very eye-opening experience. Various principals and superintendents shared their Globaloria stories, which really showed me how devoted everyone was to the mission of Globaloria. Overall, the entire trip was amazing, and I encourage anyone that has an opportunity to go to a Globaloria training to go and do it!

- Jonathan

Globaloria New Features Q&A Recording

Hi Everyone, Happy Friday!

 
Here is the link to review our Q&A session on new platform and curriculum features from last night.

Thank you Natalie Ellis, for coming to discuss the new platform features! We enjoyed talking with you, good luck with your classes this year.

Everyone else - we realize this time of year is very busy. Please make sure to watch the set of videos we provided, do the suggested activities, and contact us through the Help Desk if you have any questions.

Thanks and have a great weekend!


-Yvonne

The Hidden Object Game: Old faces, new problems.

The latter two days were focused on actual game design aspect of the curriculum. This was also the time that the returning educators joined the fray. Flash design and programming was a new concept to the new educators. The returning educators had experience programming in Flash after going through their first year, but they had to work on a Hidden Object game, a new addition to the curriculum this year. So, ultimately everyone was on the same page as far as the project goes!

The new educators working on their games.

The new educators did a great job in the short period that they used Flash! The games weren’t perfect (what game is, really?), but they had some really wonderful ideas in the scope of a Hidden Object game. There were games about literature, game about history, and some about science. All of them were great! It was especially nice to see the educators grow more confident with Flash (quite literally) overnight! A lot of them surprised themselves on how much they understood about the program after a few hours of tinkering and experimenting with the features and with the curriculum. Future educators, please note: You can do it too!

The returning educators working on their games.

Watching the returning educators tackle the Hidden Object game was very encouraging to me. They really showed what a difference a year of experience can make. The returners were in the same shoes as the newcomers last year, so seeing them so confident with Flash after about a year of use was nice to see. Once again, future educators: You can do it too!

Overall, everyone did a great job! Kudos to all of the educators!

WV New Educators 2012: Stepping up to the plate.

Shannon talking more about the curriculum.

The first two out of the four days were dedicated getting the new educators up to speed about Globaloria at large. This means getting them acquainted with who we are, what we do, and what their roles are. Shannon and veteran teachers Denise, Bill, and Diane lead the discussions. Me and interns (and Globaloria alumni) Lindsey and Valerie were also there to help. All of the educators had eager faces, and were a combination of being excited about the program, and being terrified about programming Flash. Nonetheless, they were all willing to give the program a try, which is what the program encourages – effort.

Bill leads the discussion about Blogger.

Training in Charleston, WV 2012

Hello everyone! My name is Jonathan, the new kid on the block running the Help Desk for Globaloria, among other things. To further facilitate my training, Shannon invited me to join her with her trip to Charleston, West Virginia. There I helped out with training both the new and returning educators of WV (and one from TX). It was a great time, and I have some neat pictures showcasing the busyness and energy of the event. I also stayed for the West Virginia Globies, which was a blast as well! Without further ado, let’s get started!

Austin Globaloria Academy

The Austin Globaloria Teacher and Leadership Academies here in Texas finished up a couple of days ago, and everyone involved had a brilliant time! Here are a few shots of the action:

Morning of Day 1, everyone getting acquainted

Nyssa giving Jessica a hand

Mandy working on her hidden object game

Leadership Academy

Leadership Academy

Denise explaining reports to the leaders

Bill helps Kelsey solve a coding issue

CA Summer Training Day 4! - Carlos Inda wins Best New Educator!

World Wide Workshop VP Shannon Sullivan congratulating
Best New Educator Carlos Inda as Idit cheers them on from the NY Office!

Today we took a moment to video chat with Dr. Idit Harel Caperton, the President and Founder of the World Wide Workshop, who answered questions and inspired everyone in the room! As she looked on, we also honored one of our Best New Educators, Carlos Inda. Carlos is a second year educator at Christopher School in San Jose, and has done a wonderful job so far! Five of his students won Best Game at this year's Globey Awards, so we think he deserves to be recognized with Adobe Flash Software and a drawing tablet! Great job!

Check out the winning game, Math Sports from team Barcelona!

CA Summer Training Academy - Day Two & Three!

Educators working hard on their games

Phew! We just finished day three of our California Summer Training Academy at the Krause Center for Innovation, here's a recap of the past two days. On Sunday, our superstar educators worked on converting their paper prototypes into drawings in flash, and adding game ingredients to make their Hidden Object Games come to life!

Mentor Educator Bill Dorsey and his presentation group

On Monday, all educators broke up into groups and presented their final games and their projects pages, showing all the hard work they did so far. We were so impressed by all the awesome games and ideas that we saw. Can't wait to see what their students come up with!

Shannon Sullivan and her presentation group

Looking forward to tomorrow, when we'll go over all the awesome new tools you can use to manage your Globaloria class!

Whee Training!!

CA Summer Training Academy - Day One!

Educators Working Very Hard!

We are in the beautiful hills of Los Altos at the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothill College. This year, our new educators are making Hidden Object games. So Exciting! Today we made profiles, blogs, and started choosing topics and planning for our games. Tomorrow we'll start drawing in Flash. Hooray!



-Yvonne