A First Milestone

Well gang, we have all reached our first major milestone: we have made it through the First Quarter Progress Reports!

For some of us it has become somewhat old-hat, but for others, it can sometimes seem very hectic. Josh has the most common of experiences, a feeling of accomplishment and ease now that the first one is under your belt. I'm sure that as we all look back on the completed form, we realize it's not as daunting as it may have initially seemed. I also want t encourage everyone to read and comment on as many reports as you can. Not only can they be a source of inspiration, they can help foster a sense of community and belonging. Its one of those "we-have-all-been-there" kind of things.

It's about this time that we really start to see the community working together. Not only do we have a great new tutorial from Matt, but we also see how teammates Patrick and Josh can model great teamwork as they play off each others' strengths to the benefit of their class.

And our community does not end there-- we get to show our students just how important their work is through the participation of such great people as Gayle Manchin, the First Lady of West Virginia, who paid a visit to Tracy's class at Liberty High School. Through Globaloria, Tracy is building connections between her students and the West Virginia community.


I am really enjoying seeing this blogosphere come alive; but once again its time to turn the soapbox over to the rest of you. Have fun with it!

-Bill

Tutorial on Embedding Your .swf Files in Blogger

Greetings Globaloria educators! Today I have a special guest post for you all from Matt Payne on embedding .swf files in blogger. This is a great way to highlight your student's work, or encourage them to share some of their files. Thanks Matt for all your help! Take it away:

Hey there bloggers! This is Matt aka Banditt from Southern WVCTC. Here's a quick “How To” I made on posting your flash flies in blogger:

Step 1: Log in to your wiki and upload your file. Once you have uploaded it you should arrive at a screen similar to this.


Step 2: Now you have 2 choices. You can click the link I have highlighted in the above picture and load your swf and get the url or right click the link and copy the link address (this may vary depending on the browser you use). If you don’t know what I’m talking about just click the link and load your flash file.

Step 3: Highlight and copy all of the text that is in the address bar on your browser. I’ve highlighted mine in the below pic.


Step 4: Log in to Blogger and begin a new post.

Step 5: Use the embed tag to place the swf file on your blog post just as I have done in the picture.

<embed src="http://myglife.org/usa/wvwiki/images/2/27/Finaldemoninjas.swf"></embed>



Step 6: Preview your post to see if it works, then go ahead and click “Publish”.

Step 7: If you forget to close an html tag in Blogger, it gets all feisty and starts throwing error codes because it doesn’t like what you’ve written. Most of the time you can just check the box to stop show errors and everything will work fine. Other times you may need to go back and correct yourself.


If you have done it correctly you should be rewarded with a small version of your swf embedded within your Blogger post.


Why did it not show it at the full size you ask? Blogger automatically sizes it to fit in the small table area it creates just for your post.

Is there a way to make it bigger? Yes: you can add to your embed tag the width and height attributes. Example (in red):

<embed src="http://myglife.org/usa/wvwiki/images/2/27/Finaldemoninjas.swf" width="400" height="300"></embed>

And what you end up with is a swf that you can tailor the size to about whatever you would like.


If you want to tailor the embed tag even more (different background colors etc.) visit http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/embed2.html for a little more help.

Good luck!
-Matt

We are making a difference

To start our school year on a positive note, I wanted to take a moment to remind all of us just how much of a difference we are making through Globaloria. We are both impacting our students' knowledge base and changing how we and our colleagues view technology in the classroom.

So far this year, I have seen blog entries from all of us that really show our impact. Lisa Dolan is already helping students make the connection between society and blogging by having her students blog in response to President Obama's speech on education. And its good to see she already has her student blogroll up and running to help with that. Aaron Lester has a good blog roll as well and is already making an impact with students by bringing blogger, an unknown, into their educational experience and letting them run with it, personalizing their spaces and adding gadgets. Denise has even shown how broadening our impact on technology can be with the excellent example of her daughter's class and the use of iPhones to make sure all students could get an assignment completed.

I had a smile on my face when students in my regular biology class, not the advanced students as they may be labelled by some, showed me just what impact the Globaloria approach had on their class experience. We all know how bellringers work, gradeable material used to pique a student's interest. Not all students are interested it seems in these activities. But my stars, as I'll call them, were sitting in my class when the tardy bell rang. I reminded them to get their journals done so that we could go to the computers and work. They had already done the work and were eager to get started. Not everyone wants to teach non-honors classes. Some even view them as troublesome or difficult to teach. We are all proving them wrong with Globaloria. With this program, we really can change the world by groups of students at a time.

By the way, the image above is just one example of the Lab Safety Posters created by my "non honors" kids. You be the judge.

Okay, my turn on the soapbox is up. Who's next?

The Start of a New School Year

Greetings Educators!

It's the start of a new year and your Globaloria courses are really starting to take off! As many of you have already discovered, blogs are a great forum to share your thoughts on the start of a new Globaloria year. Here are some highlights from the buzz in the blogosphere:

Melonie has been reflecting on the old fable of "The Tortoise and the Hare"

"Most of my life I have aspired to be the hare, but that has not always been to my benefit. I have come to realize the tortoise was right in most cases. As we start our Globaloria classes my students and I are finding slow and steady works best"

Ingrida is kicking off the new year with some thoughts about the Globaloria program with the help of Ian Jukes' insight.



Ingrida writes,

"That's where Globaloria comes into play. This program does try to address the needs of these neurologically different kids by engaging them in the activities they feel are important to them, thus making their learning more meaningful.This program helps students use the skills they so artfully develop outside the classroom walls for academic purposes. Additionally, Globaloria lets teachers dismount their dead horses and try new strategies and approaches. "

And Jim makes some important points about the value of "process":

"For students and educators involved in Globaloria, it is important for us to remember the work in progress philosophy. Our journey will be filled with excitement. We will have frustrating struggles and taste tid-bits of success, we will make friends, and sometimes find ourselves in fierce competition. We will share "ah-ha" moments after being baffled over a seemingly unsolvable problem....As we take this journey, all of us should be encouraged to cherish these moments. Celebrate the small victories. Share them with others in our school and extended communities through posts on the wikis. Reflect on them and savor them by posting on our blogs and commenting on our peers' and colleagues' blogs. Enjoy this adventure we will share together....In the end it will be over all to quickly."

Thanks to all of you for writing such thoughtful posts! It's such a pleasure to read them. Keep up the great blogging!

Your GB,
Rachel

p.s.
Be sure to use your "comments thread" as a forum for dialogue. Respond to those who leave comments and see if you can get a discussion going!

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