An Awakening Moment to Remember

First off, I hope everyone's year is starting off well. I know how hectic this part of the school year can be for a teacher and the students. I even had to have my computer tech and assistant principal help me bend some rules a bit to allow my students to take their online survey before they signed their acceptable computer use policy. I was very excited and eager to get my kids started. That was when I had a learned, or should I say relearned, something from one of my students. I may have been excited and ready to begin another adventure in ActionScript but my students were not necessarily as eager or excited.

Having been in this venture for two years, my familiarity with the program and how great it is colored my perceptions a bit on that first day. So, I stepped my verbal game up a bit. I couldn't tell them a lot about the program details until after the survey, but I could hide the stress of getting everyone logged on for the first time this year, getting them all on the right website, and dealing with all the minutia of the school year start-up process. I kicked up the tone and excitement in my voice about the survey and how great this approach was going to be for them. That was all it took to get them really into just taking the survey. Now, I really can't wait to get them into Flash.

The big lesson is: don't just expect the students to be excited because you are. They have as much going on as you do this time of year and we have to get into the role of cheerleader sometimes to help them get their energy flowing and get on board with something new.

Introductions Are in Order

Hello to all the Globaloria-WV Blog readers. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Bill Dorsey and I am going to join forces with Rachel as your new community co-blogger. For those whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet, here is a bit about me:

I teach Biology at Capital High School in Charleston, WV. I have been a participant with Globaloria since September, 2007 and am looking forward to another great year with the program in 2009-2010. For more about me and my approach to blogging, see my Globaloria blog and Global Biology blog. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.


As eager as I am to get started with this new school year and Globaloria, I am just as excited about adding my voice to our community's blog. I am already impressed with what I have been reading in some of your blogs and am ready to help celebrate your successes, provide my version of insight, connect you with resources, and enrich your blogging experiences through the opportunity that this blog provides. With that in mind, please make sure to blog about the successes and issues both you and your students have on your own blog and I'll do my best to address them all and make my blogging voice worthwhile reading.
Now, on to the blogging and good luck with the start of the school year!

Exit Interview

Check out Maitreyi Doshi's exit interview filmed on the car ride to the airport on her last day of work. We already miss you Maitreyi and wish you the best of luck!

Globaloria Academy 2

Globaloria Academy 2 has been a blast! Thank you all for your participation, insight and great work. Jim and Bill offer some great reflections on the new educators' remarkable progress between Academy 1 and 2. We were all blown away by the games The Hillbilly Ninjas, the Fab Four, and the Battlestar Globalorias.

I was so thrilled to see the returning educators really step up as session leaders. A special thanks to Denise, Ingrida, Patrick, Angie, Jim and Bill for their help in planning and presenting this Academy.

A special welcome to Bill and Ingrida as new mentors. Your leadership will be instrumental in making this next year a success!

A highlight of the Academy was a speech and Q&A by Gaston Caperton:



To top it all off, we got to know David a little better. I'm not toeing the line when I say he's truly a great person and will be an amazing leader for you in pilot year 3.

Finally: I want all of you to teach by example with your blogs! Personalize, update and use multimedia to make your blog space not just a resource but a model for your students to follow.

Good luck!

Your GB,
Rachel

New Flip Cams!

With all the excitement, we weren't sure you heard David's presentation on using the Flip Cams in your classroom. You can upload the footage straight from your Flip Cams to a YouTube channel (or whatever video streaming website you use). Below is a quick video I made of David's speech and uploaded to this post in about 3 minutes:



Enjoy them!

Digital Open Contest

Greetings Globaloria Educators!

Just another reminder that there are 6 days left to reach out to your top Globaloria students to submit their projects in the Digital Open contest!

In addition to being eligible to win some very cool prizes, students who submit to Digital Open will have the opportunity to share their open-source projects with an amazing network of experts and peers.

I encourage you to explore the website and its categories. It's exciting to see organizations like Digital Open creating great opportunities to celebrate your students' work!

That's it for now-- see you all in Charleston next week!

Your GB,

Rachel