Terri+B

__Day one morning__ what are your feelings about video games in general?

Generally I think that video games are a waste of good time. I can be doing something more productive with my time than sitting on a computer or TV playing a game. I know that many people enjoy games, unfortunately, I am not one of them. I am more kinesthetic of a person, not only in learning styles, but personally also. I need to be doing something constructive. Games are not constructive !! So then, why am I here? Because my students are not built on the same model that I am.

What are your feelings about video games as learning tools? I believe that anything that successfully teaches a constructive lesson is a learning tool. Many of my students are gamers, and learn by playing on the computer. If I deny them the opportunity to learn in this fashion, I am denying them an education that will affect their lives. I know what it is to struggle to learn something because it is not being taught in a means that I can understand, therefore, when I teach I like to use as many tools as possible to make it easier for my students to learn.

__midday__

what brings you here/why are you here? I want to bring new and exciting learning experiences to my students. I want them to be excited to come to class because they are going to learn something in a new way.

what are you excited about? I am excited to build a lesson plan that will excite my students. Since I teach social studies, the students aren't always enthralled with the past. If I can get them excited through a game, I am all for it.

what are you concerned about? I understand how/why the snafu happened, but I am still concerned about identity theft, the possibility of my check being cashed and the deposit not having hit the books yet.

__day one afternoon__ shutdown/power off

I think that the locations are greate for a 7th grade social studies teacher. I look forward to starting the storyline with Mansa Musa (an African King) making his pilgrimage to Mecca. I want to work with the animals (how to find food), and how to get back from Mecca. What will the people eat? How will they keep warm. I look forward to finding ways to keep this story alive.

__Day two morning__ how do you use technology in you class room? I put my lesson plan on wikispaces and project the entire lesson plan onto the smartboard. My students are asked to research topics that correlate to the lesson plan, and I actually create the lesson plan from the web at most times.

__Midday__ how does the technology you currrently use enhance your students' learning and your teaching? It allows me to give them notes that I wrote earlier and they can copy in class. Additionally, I can go online and show them realtime examples of what I am talking about. How do I know? I can get through the notes much quicker and bring things to the students that helps them to feel like they own the information.

__Shutdown/power off__

This has been vey interesting. It gets frustrating when the computer/program does not cooperate. It seemed that everytime I got a game set up when I went to play my game nothing worked--and I was told it wasn't my fault. I imagine with our own computers we will have a little more control.

__Day three morning__ Describe your teaching. I prefer to to have something for all of the learning modes to use. Lecture first, watch movie, create something.... Depending on what the subject is that day we could be writing a poem/song, drawing a scene, etc. I believe that the children learn more when they work on the learning.

__Midday__ describe how your students learn best. I believe that my students learn best when I give them an opportunity to use all of the learning modes. For instance I may give background information on the projector that I have them copy into their notes. Then I will have them research further on the computers either in school or at home. In each of their presentations they must include an activity for the class to do.

__shutdown/poweroff__ FRUSTRATION!!!! It seems that everytime I find an interesting city (for a lack of a better name) this * computer crashes. Now I know I have bad mojo, but I can't help it. Will the god of computers please come to my aid?

__Fourth day morning__ What do you do well when connecting with your students? Since I am an ILT, I am learning what I do well. It seems that it has to come to a problem that the student has that I help them find a solution to before they begin to trust me. I know that I look at things with black and white colored glasses, but as the school year goes on we learn each others differences and mesh better.

Do you have any concerns about connecting with your students? I have a problem with unruly students. It goes back to viewing the world in black and white. This past year I had a very tough group with which I learned almost as much as they did when it comes to classroom management.

__Midday__ what interests you in video games as a form of teaching? It is not so much that it interests me, but that interests the students. As for me I could live without the virtual world, but it seems that my students are deeply seeped into virtuosity. Therefore, the virtual world is a good way to teach these guys--or be taught by them.

__SHUTDOWN/POWEROFF__ It is interesting trying to put things into my world only to find out that they don't exist. On the otherhand It makes the time go by very fast. I enjoy finding out what I can and cannot do.

__Day Five Morning__ How can you use this game to connect to your students? I think I would like to use this for review. I could do a voice over to ask questions, and the students have to touch something to get the right answer. When they choose the wrong answer something representing the devil appears.

__Midday__ who supports and who benefits from your participation in this project? I think that Lee County School district is supporting my participation in this project. They seem to be agreeable to making technology available for all of the teachers. I benefit from all of the technological workshops that I attend, but my students also benefit because I use the techniques regularly in my teaching. What other technology do you wish you could use or have support for? All technology I can get my hands on. I don't know what to wish for because I don't know what is out there that I don't know. I always want to be up-to-date on technology.

__Shutdown/Poweroff__ Today was great! The computers arrived and I had greater succes on my new computer than I did on the Hi Fives/my hp computer. I am still having problems with sound, but I will be working with it during the summer (when I am not painting). Dr. Annetta and crew did a great job.