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

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!

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.