Kim+C

=Day 1 Morning=

What are your feelings about video games in general?
Although I do not play games every day, I enjoy the challenge of the interactive, solve a mystery, "don't know what's around the next corner" video games. I like the multi-user aspect because of the interaction. I have three boys, all of whom play video games and are constantly trying to "beat the game". I know it is what our students are doing for many hours out of school.

What are your feelings about video games as learning tools?
I think video games can be a powerful learning tool. First of all it is what our children enjoy doing, and spend a lot of time doing. I think it could be effective in meeting the needs of a lot of our students who tune out the traditional style of teaching. It is interactive and can meet the social networking desired by our students, while teaching the curricular standards required. I think although many teachers would like to use video games in the classroom more often, IT limitations prohibit the effective use!

=Day 1 Lunch Time=

What brings you here?
For me this is a continuation of my Kenan Fellowship Project with Dr. Annetta. I am anxious to create another game using the new gaming engine.

What are you excited about?
I am excited that Lee County, who usually remains behind the curve because of our size and population, is involved in this project!

What are you concerned about?
I am concerned about the IT capabilities in the county running the games once the teachers create them.

=Day 1 Shut Down/Power Off= I think the hardest part of today to me was getting the teachers to understand that we are breaking new ground, and that everything is not going to be perfect right off the bat. Once they have the opportunities to play around with the system, I think they will feel better and be able to think outside the box in designing something unique for their students.

=Day 3 Morning=

Describe your teaching.
I would describe my teaching as very constructivist. I feel the classroom should be student-centered with a great deal of hands-on learning. My teaching involves a lot of Problem Based Learning strategies and units. I think it is important that what I teach be standards based, but relevant to the global economy and information-filled society our students will be entering. My teaching also involves lots of technology integration.

Describe how your students learn best.
Overall I think my students learn best when the activities and content are relevant to things in which they are interested. Of course each student has his/her own learning style and learning strengths and weaknesses. I also think my students learn best when technology is integrated effectively. Integrating technology allows them to manipulate the tools that come naturally to them and that they are using outside the classroom.

=Day 3 Shut Down/Power Off= Today was fun because the class got to learn how to incorporate sound and voice, which is really what brings the game to life! I was able to start constructing part of the world and found objects that will go with the curricular strand I want to use. The frustration came as the system crashed on every save. Hopefully this will be remedied by tomorrow so we can really make some progress!!

=Day 4 Morning=

What do you do well when connecting to your students?
I try hard to get to know my students' interests, backgrounds, concerns, and dreams. I use a lot of humor in my classroom. I think that humor helps to relax kids that are anxious. Something small that I do is that I always crouch to eye level when I am speaking to my seated students. I think this helps create positive relationships with my kids.

Do you have any concerns about connecting to your students?
No

=Day 5 Morning=

How do I expect this game to help me connect to my students?
I think this game will be a fun way for the students to learn about the movement of energy through an ecosystem. They are used to looking at diagrams in a book, but probably haven't been able to interact with the concept in a 3D way.