FINAL BLOG POST !

Chezzzz (:

Jessiii (:

Riverside High School = LOVE

This has been the best year ever! I've learned a lot from my English12 class at Riverside High School and I am very glad I was in this class. Globaloria was probably one of the hardest classes I've been in my whole life, but I managed to get through it. I'm so very proud of myself, the teacher, and other classmates. Ms. McChesney is one of the smartest people I know and I'm thankful she was picked to teach this class. It was a great learning experience and I'll never forget it!

The hardest thing, in my opinion, was creating our games. It was very challenging, especially not knowing anything about what you were doing. It was nothing like I expected. Usually when you go to an English class you sit down, read, and write on paper all period. Then you have this big report due at the end of the class and the whole time you're dreading it. I know that's what everyone was expecting from this class. But we were totally wrong. Our class was all about the computer, creativity, technology, and it involved a lot of thinking. I guarantee our Globaloria class was harder than the average English12 class, but it was so much more fun!

We worked on the computer the whole time- never wrote on paper. It was so much fun. But we did the same work as any other English class, which includes reading and doing such things as reaction papers. Only ours wasn't on paper, it was on the computer in blogs, like this. This was an experience I definitely will never forget.

Then we had the other part of class, which involved drawing in a program called Flash. That was easier for me to catch on to because I took a class last year where we had to use Flash. But I wasn't familiar at all with the coding and different frames and such. That's mainly what made this class so stressful. It was the most difficult thing I've ever done, learning all the different codes and having to be as creative as possible. But I had the best partner ever, my best friend, Jessi Smith. She helped out a lot.

Jessi Dakota Smith is one of the best people I've ever met in my life. There were a few days when I had to get onto her about sleeping in class and starting to slack. And she did the same for me when I had my days. We both pushed eachother until we about broke. This class would not have been the same AT ALL if she hadn't been in it with me, that's for sure. I love her with my whole heart (: She, being in this class, made my whole senior year all the better, because as everyone knows, senior project is a huge part of senior year and it's very important to enjoy it. I definitely would not have enjoyed it if she wasn't with me!

I love this class, and I love you, Chez. I will miss you greatly and I promise to come back and visit. Riverside High School was not only my place of learning and education, but it was like my second home. I spent half my time here and I will miss it more than I ever expected. I received so much appreciation from the staff, and even a lot of students here. The class of 2010 is most definitely THE BEST THERE'S EVER BEEN!

Team Pages - Games

Which team pages did you visit?
Katie's and Amy's; Sam's and Tyler's.

What is your overall constructive review?
Katie's and Amy's game was great; so was Sam's and Tyler's.

What do they still need to work on?
Katie's and Amy's needed more coding done to it; Sam's and Tyler's didn't look like it really needed anything else. It could maybe use some better graphics but other than that, the game was good.

What ideas might you take back to your own team page?
I didn't take any of the ideas back to my team page. I think my team page is good to go (:

Does the topic of the game meet the educational requirement?
Yes, both of them meet the educational requirement. Katie's and Amy's game educated you about staying in high school and Sam's and Tyler's game educated about the o-zone layer.

Here are the links to their team pages.
Katie's and Amy's & Sam's and Tyler's.

Group Chat

For class, we had to get in groups and read three poems. On GMail, every person in that group had to get in a group chat. Each of us had to read the poems. One person for each poem gave a summary on the group chat. Then we had to respond to the summary that the person wrote by asking a question and the person had to answer that question. The poems were really hard to interpret. It was super confusing. But thanks to Ashley being in the group, we understood it because she helped us. The group chat was pretty cool, though. I like how you can have multiple people chatting in one box on GMail. I liked it.

Adding Interaction in FLASH *

This class is pretty easy if you actually come to school everyday and pay attention. I miss a lot of school so it's a little harder for me, but I'm a fast learner. Working in Flash has been fun. I used it last year in one of my classes and I liked it then too. The only thing is, we didn't use actionscript last year so that's something new I have to catch on to. I'm having problems with our game though because I don't know the codes to use for how we want to set our game up. I'll have to do some research on the codes to use. It's a little complicating, but I'll just have to deal with it. I'm hoping to get at least enough of our game done to be able to kind of play it but I'm not so sure that will work out as planned. But sure enough my partner and I will get a decent grade on the assignment. We've worked hard.

Wild and Wonderful X3

West Virginia is my home; where I live now and where I will stay for the rest of my life. It is such a beautiful place and I absolutely love the country feeling I get here. I am a country girl and being in the mountains all the time definitely beats being anywhere else in the world. West Virginia has gone through some pretty harsh times but we always manage to pull through. The residents in this state are so strong when it comes to hard times. I think the majority of us are proud to be a hillbilly. Others hate it here and just can't wait to get out. I know a few people who are like that and I really don't see why they would want to leave. West Virginia is great if you ask me. There are a lot of others who don't think that so much. Out of state residents always make fun of West Virginia, but it's whatever. I don't really care to be honest. I know how we are here and I love it. I would never deny my home state. It's wild and wonderful (:




What people are going through now with the mines and stuff is just unbelievable. I feel so sorry for the families who have lost loved ones in the mining accident in Raleigh County. It has been rough here at school the past few days because one of the graduates from the class of 2008 was in the mining accident and it breaks my heart to know that he is no longer with us. I just can't imagine what people are feeling now that he is gone. He also had an uncle and a cousin that were in the mines while the explosion happened and they are no longer with us either. I fortunately cannot say that I have had a close relative or friend that has died because I honestly haven't. I am so thankful for that but I also feel bad because I can't say "I know how you feel". I don't know what these people are feeling and when I think about, it's unimaginable what they are going through. My thoughts are with the Davis family forever.

Adding Animation to our Flash Game

Adding animation isn't hard at all. It's just complicating after watching the video because the way the man explains it in the tutorial. He gives too much irrelevant information and it's hard to remember. I had to keep going back to the video and skipping through the useless information to get to what I needed to see. After you practice, it's super easy to catch on to.

PJ Foster helped the class tremendously with putting the codes in to make the games move and all. He is a very bright kid. I think this stuff is easy to catch on to as long as you pay attention to every little detail. In my opinion, adding the codes to Flash is the hardest, but it shouldn't be as hard once you get the hang of it.

My Class

Class is starting to be so much less complicating and less stressful. I'm super glad it's getting fun now. I love being able to come into a class and not have to sit down at a desk and write on paper for an hour and a half. I also like it because all the kids in this class are nice. Everyone in here gets along and it makes my day so much better when I walk in this class room. Also, I am very impressed with Chez for teaching this class. She's doing such a great job, especially for someone who is pretty much new to all this. It is a great learning experience, and it's definitely different. I will NEVER forget my English 12 class at Riverside High School. I love you all !

Buttons

Making buttons in Flash was not that hard for me to understand. I actually thought it was very simple after I watched the video on how to create buttons. I was in the Digital Imaging class last year and we worked with Flash quite a bit so I think I may catch on to things a little faster than others. The only thing I don't understand is the coding. That's more difficult in my opinion. But making buttons was not complicating at all.

The Canterbury Tales

In the prologue I read from The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer described many different characters. He used stereotypes while he was describing each character. As I was reading, I realized how each of the characters he described were stereotyped based mostly on wealthiness. I think Chaucer chose these specific characters because they are great examples of how no matter what time period you may be in, people are never treated equally and someone is usually always being judged.

I'm not so great at understanding things unless they are told in the "average" way..... like, in the English language. Ha ha. And I don't understand when people use figures of speech and such, I'm too simple for that. But the way I understood it, Chaucer was describing each individual in their own way, but yet he was comparing them to how today's society is; especially based on how poorly he or she lived, which is a very common stereotype used in the world today. There are so many judgmental people nowadays and no matter what, you can never be good enough for anyone or anything.

There were a few characters who stuck out to me, like the nun and the monk. The nun because she was described in a way I could better comprehend; and the monk because he was very simple. He wasn't fancy and didn't seem to be in the world to impress anyone. He also seemed like a hard worker... Like someone I could relate to. The nun to me, seemed like a very nice lady who didn't dress poorly, but also didn't dress like she was better than anyone else.

When choosing characters to put into your game, you must think of the kinds of details like Chaucer used while describing his characters. For instance, if your game is about space ships and fighting aliens, you may not want to use a princess as one of your fighting characters. But then again, that might be pretty cool because it would be different. Still yet, you have to think of the kinds of characters to use in your video game because when you just put things together without thinking of details, it doesn't always work out.

Audience

- 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?

The way the story is told made me think the teller might not have thought Beowulf was going to defeat the monster, but that thought might be in me head because I honestly didn't think he would do it. The detail the teller gives about the monster, Grendel, makes him sound like he can't be defeated. The teller might have thought the purpose of the story was to tell about a man, Beowulf, killing a murderous monster named Grendel whom no one believed could be defeated.

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

I was expecting the story to be more grousome and give a little more detail about how the men were killed. Most modern day stories are told like that.

- 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.

When someone plays a video game they can criticize on how to better the game, which will help a lot because you will know what to change and how to change it. I know my partner and I should create a game that is age appropriate for everyone. We also need to think of how to make it fun for most people so our game can be enjoyed more.

Stress.

This class is so stressful because I've missed way too much school and I'm really far behind. I have so much to catch up on. I have to blog about Chossing a Topic, Mini Game, Imaging Your Game, and Paper Prototyping. This is a lot of work to do and I'm really mad at myself for not trying as hard as I usually do. And I'm pretty sure my partner, Jessi and I are going to have to start all over on our game because we didn't know until the other day that we had to do it on a certain subject. I hope I can do all this on time. We are staying after school tomorrow (Thursday) to try and get caught up as much as possible. Wish us luck !

I'm So Bored!

Today in class, we are supposed to be finishing our prototyping assignment, but my partner isn't here at school today and she has all our stuff. But it's okay because Ms. McChesney isn't here either. I'm super bored so I decided to make a blog today because there is nothing else to do. MTV has been at our school video taping some of the students here for an event we do called Challenge Day. They are making a documentary which I think is pretty cool because my school is going to be on MTV. But the only thing that gets on my nerves is the camera people. They are so rude and just run into people while they are following the ones who are being recorded around; they don't even say they are sorry. Haha. I am so bored and I'm just rambeling on about nothing so I guess I'm going to find some other way to entertain myself.

Anglo-Saxons and Video Games - Comparison

Many great video games today are based on Greek Mythology and Anglo-Saxons. These types of cultures are interesting to me, and other people as well. Otherwise, kids these days wouldn't play the video games that are based upon these myths and legends. I am in the Latin II class here at Riverside High School, and I have learned some things about Greek Mythology and how the Romans used to live and communicate with one another. It always seems as if in every one of these myths, there is someone having to defeat a monster/enemy, just like in today's world. When you think about it, everyday people face these types of conflicts. There is usually a pro and a con to everything, and someone is having to battle with another person. I don't know much about Greek Mythology and the Anglo-Saxons, but what I do know seems quite interesting to me. I have also played some video games that are related to the Anglo-Saxons and Roman cultures. Such video games include God of War, Battle of Olympus, and Kid Icarus, which is an old Nintendo game. Many of these games involve fighting, which I think is fun! But, in these video games, and in Greek Mythology, the heroes always have some type of weird weakness, unlike in the real world. These gods and goddesses are magical, and mythical, hence the term "mythology". I think it's just something I have to focus on a little more, so I can better understand the way these myths and legends are told.

My Hero

My hero is Ms. Shirley Layne. She is very inspirational. She faces many conflicts everyday and she manages to get through them all, still having a smile on her face. The types of evil Ms. Layne confronts is the disrespect from students in the halls and classroom. Students can be so rude sometimes and I think Ms. Layne is one of the sweetest women, as long as you do as you are told. I don't know why some of these students here at Riverside High School show so much disrespect to the teachers just because the teacher tells them to do what they are supposed to be doing. Ms. Layne is a hero to me... I don't care what anyone says (:

Beowulf

My definition of a hero is someone who is courageous and fearless of most things... someone who can help a person in time of need. I think Beowulf meets all these requirements. He is very brave. Beowulf, I think, would make a good character in an educational video game; or an entertainment game for that matter. He is an exciting character. I think he would be best in a video game with a lot of action and gruesomeness in it. Hahaha. Like, games where you have to kill hideous creatures and such... I like those kinds of games; they're awfully fun. (:

Online Safety

Online safety is very important. You should never give out too much information about yourself on the internet. There are a lot of stalkers and molestors who would love to know information about you so they can stalk and molest you. Haha. But all jokes aside, NEVER give out things such as your address, social security number, or anything like that. Be safe. (:

Playing to Learn

Yesterday in class, we did an assignment called Playing to Learn. We had to play two games: one made by a professional, and one made by a student. Then we had to answer questions about both the games, such as "What is the name and purpose of the game?" and "How would you make the game better?". The games were pretty fun that I played and the assignment was simple. I had no problem with it.