Monday, Feb. 8, 2010

Happy Monday!

Today's Agenda:

1.  Read The Second Part of Beowulf.  pages 43-48.
2.  In a blog post answer the following...The ultimate purpose of the epic hero is to leave something of lasting value to his culture.    What has Beowulf left his people?

3.  Have your blog roll set up by Weds.  I will be looking on your blogs to see if this has been done.  It is a graded activity.


*See the Course News Chart on the Main Page of the Wiki for ALL upcoming due dates.

** Please try to be in class all week long.  We will be starting to work with FLASH this week.  This program takes time to understand.  

Dancing Heroes

XHA1 Test video HD Success! from Mike None on Vimeo.

Seeing that we are discussing the hero, I couldn't help but post some dancing superheroes!!!!!  Get your groove on.

Friday, Feb. 5, 2010

TGIF!!!!!

Today's agenda:

1.  Read pages 31-38 of Beowulf.  This will conclude Part I.

2.  In the last blog post for the week answer the following:

-  When the first teller of Beowulf prepared to share the tale, what assumptions do you think he (or she) made about the purpose of the story?

-  How do you think the storyteller's beliefs about the intended audience--men gathered in mead halls--affect the content of the story?

-  How do you think YOUR beliefs about your video games' intended audience (you will need to determine who your audience is) will affect the development and final version of your game?  Think of age appropriateness, learning goals, types of characters, etc.

3.  Be sure to have all blogs completed.  I will be grading the blogs this weekend.  An up to date blog will have the following posts:

a.  online safety post
b.  Playing To Learn reflection post
c.  modern day hero post
d.  Beowulf as a hero post
e.  Audience post

You have this opportunity to review, edit, and revise past posts, please do so if it needs done.  I remind you that I am looking for content rich posts that display appropriate and correct standard uses of English.  Do not type like you text.

4.  I will be grading your Project Pages on Monday evening.  You should have your Playing To Learn Assignments up to date and Choosing A Topic Assignments up to date.  If you don't, you have some homework.  

Have a great weekend!!!!

Thursday, Feb. 04, 2010

The first thing that I would like for you to do today is a blog post.  Your blog post should include a picture of Beowulf or what you believe him to look like.  The content of your post should include discussion on the following:

In what you have read of Beowulf so far (You were to have read up to page 30.  If you haven't, get to it.) how does Beowulf meet the requirements of a hero?  Would Beowulf make a good character in an educational video game?  Explain your answer.  What qualities would a character in a video game need to have?

Once you have finished creating a new blog post that fulfills those requirements, you may continue to finish your work from "Choosing A Topic."   

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010

Good afternoon!

Today, I would like you to take about 10 minutes to finish your Play To Learn Assignment on your Project Page and to finish writing your reflective blog.

Afterward I would like you to use the remaining time to log on to the online textbook.  I have your username and password if you haven't used the online textbook before.  Send me an IM and I will IM it to you.  You will be using the 6th edition GREEN book for English 12.  

Once you have logged on and have access to all that the text holds, open up page 20 and read The Quick Write.  I would like you to complete the Quick Write in a very short blog post.  Short does NOT mean sparse in content, but rather to the point. 

Do not spend an incredible amount of time on your blog; you still have reading to complete.  Begin to read "Beowulf" Part I.  It begins on page 21 of the online text.  You should be able to read up to page 30 by the time the class is over.  You are responsible for reading up to page 30 before class meets tomorrow.  Be prepared for a reading quiz to appear on the blog tomorrow.  You will email me the answers to your quiz.

Do not forget to update your Learning Logs.  The first Learning Log grade check will be Friday, Feb. 12th. 

Monday's Agenda

Today, we are going to:

1.  Learn how to edit the Learning Logs.  You will be responsible for updating your Learning Log DAILY!  I will also be updating my Learning Log daily.  I would get into the practice of taking the last 3-5 minutes of class time every day to update your Learning Log.  Your Learning Logs can be found on your wiki profile page.

2.  Continuing to Play To Learn.  Continue to play the educational video games as you were instructed to do under the directions in the Play To Learn Section of the Wiki.

3.  I will show you how to edit your PROJECTS page.  This is where your review of the games will be placed on the wiki.  The Projects page can be found on your wiki profile page.

4.  Write a blog post about your experience Playing To Learn. 

I will grade your Project page on Tuesday. 

Friday, January 29, 2010

Today, I will be grading your blogs and wikis to insure that they are up to date and meeting the proper criteria.  You will take this time to play some video games!  Please go to the RHS Wiki Main Page.  Under the "Game Design Topics' Tab is a section labeled "Playing To Learn."  Please follow the instructions, ALL of the instructions, that are listed on this assignment page.  This is a graded activity.  It does require a blog post at the end.  Be sure to READ ALL OF THE INSTRUCTIONS and ELEMENTS of the assignment.  Please pay particular attention to some of the Social Issue Games.  I will be grading this activity on Monday afternoon. 

On Monday I will also be showing you all how to use your Learning Logs.  If you want to take the weekend to see if you can figure them out for yourselves, knock yourself out.