Arrays and Randomization

Had a lot of practice with arrays latey. I was even trying to make a nested array with movie clips to be attached in a random order, but, that was taxing my mind just a little bit to start off with. Though I am enjoying the control that arrays give you with just a bit of code. If anyone has good information on using arrays to randomly project movie clips, it would be appreciated. Check out Our Lunch Tray. It is a work in progress but needed to test the coding out.

Folders, frames, and clips OH MY

A real quick blog today, but I learned more about using folders to organize everything you are creating in Flash. I have just been building the skeleton of our redo on The Ultimate Lunch Tray game and have used Folders to organize different sections of the game and already I feel more comfortable in the programming aspect.

If you haven't used them before, try out some Folders in your games.

Recovered and Renergized

It's saturday morning, cartoons are playing (yes, still a kid at heart), and I feel very rested. After the third day of our June 2009 Globaloria training session, I sat down very tired friday evening. That was when I realized just how much we had done and learned. We didn't do physical labor, break a sweat, or lift a finer for much more than typing and eating the incredible meals over the past three days but we had really worked our brains, imaginations, and our mental limits.

This morning, like I said, I woke up very rested and refreshed. Not that it was over but in the way that I felt ready to take on the digital world again with even more gusto. I woke up thinking about what I needed to do for our virtual team assignment and not with dread but excitement.

Thanks to everyone on the Globaloria team for helping make that feeling possible.

A Memorable Learning Experience...

When I found out our home blogging assignment was to write about a meaningful learning experience in our past, my first thought had nothing to do with school. Don't get me wrong. I learned a lot in school, but it alwasy came easily to me. The most meaningful learning experience I had came as an adult and was very much performance based.

As a member of the Boy Scouts of America, I was very active and was eventually honored with membership in an elite group. Part of the ceremony surrounding that elite status was tending a fire all through the night. I had been working as a waiter and trainer for Chi Chi's Restaurant at the time and had to go to camp the next morning after only 3 hours of sleep. Needless to say, I was dragging all that day prior to the ceremonies. It was so bad I even drank coffee, yes that foul and bitter concoction that everyone else in the world seems to thrive on but forsome reason remains an anethema to me.

The learning experience involved NOT having everything come easy. Try as I might I had the most difficult time in maintaining my campfire. It had rained earlier so everything was soaked. My placement was at the base of an old camping road with wind nearly constantly whipping down the hillside. No matter what I did, I could not keep a steady fire. I would try time and time again with what kindling I could deem dry enough. Even when I got the fire to a point where I thought it would continue to grow, the wind would race with greater force down that old road and snuff it out.

What I learned was hard, it was that success is not always in the result but in the effort. I had the misfortune of never having to learn that as a child, but am glad I learned it as an adult. That has replaced my expectation of success with one where I can truly learn from all my experiences, without any fear of failure.

These are a few of my favorite blogs...

As part of my homework assignment, I have added a few blogs to my blog roll. The first is the Invasive Species Weblog. I added this as a way to show how organisms interact with their environment, especially when they don't belong there. We too often see animals that we take for granted and don't realize they don't belong. Pigeons, starlings, and house sparrows we see everyday. The most we ever think is that pigeons are nasty. We don't always see that they were brought here by wealthy colonists who missed them and now they all run amok, taking over niches of wonderful creatures who don't know how to cope with these new neighbors.

The second is the Bird Treatment and Learning Center. I want students to see this blog as a way of understanding how humans can interact with a wild species in a positive and healthy way. We all too often see animals, especially in our youth, as cute, cuddly, and forever. This is a good site about stewardship.

The last blog I want to talk about is Global Biology. In the process of transitioning from an afterschool HSTA program to an onschool time Biology class, I have decided to create a fresh blog. Please make sure to add that as my new Globaloria blog to your own rolls. I have already added several sites to Global Biology's blog roll, including those mentioned above.

As you can see, the blogs listed reflect pieces of who I am. I am a zoologist by training, an educator by vocation, and an ecologist by heart.

GLOBALORIA TRAINING Part III

Hey guys,

Its been a while since I posted. Been a really busy semester with these new classes. Well, just finished our third Globaloria session this weekend and as always I had a blast with everyone. These always help to remotivate and energize me. I really appreciated the trouble shooting and suggestion sessions as well as the tutorials that we were given. I can't wait to show some of these to the students and it makes me feel even more that I will be able to incorporate into a classroom next year.

Thanks again,
Bill

Two Weeks In...

Hey guys, sorry its been a while. Its two weeks into the after school program or so and things are picking up. We are still having some difficulties with other afterschool activities not being that permissive about attending for some of our students but we are at the "playing to learn" stage. Some have already writtend their reviews. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of game ideas they come up with this year. I am working on getting them to keep track of their hours on the wiki so hopefully will see that improve shortly.

Have a good week all,
Bill

Crazy Week Going On

This is a crazy week. I was hoping to start the after school activities, but ended up only having Tuesday available. This is thanks to having an Early Out Day on Wednesday and Open House on Thursday. No one showed up after school today. I anticipate that it was just hard to get out of after-school practices this early in the year or could be still that initial getting them back in the habit kind of thing.