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 !