Jill Hudson

Centennial Middle School

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How will I introduce Scalable Game Design in my school?
I will use Scalable Game Deisn to teach my students different art terms and art history.

Project Journal
Summer Institute, June 1-11, 2010

Reflection 1, June 1, 2010

The first day was a little overwhelming. I have never programmed anything on a computer so I was a nervous. When I found out that we were going to create a Frogger, I was excited because it was a childhood staple of mine. I could spend weeks on Frogger but I realize we are suppose to be learning Agent Sheets, not just how to make Frogger. I realized on the first day that I might need to pay more attention to detail, especially on the worksheet. It was easy to accidentally layer objects or miss a function. Like I always say to my students, "practice, practice, practice!"

Reflection 2, June 2, 2010

I made Sodoku in replacement of Sims because I was on my own. I taught myself throught the online tutorials. It was more difficult to teach myself. I took advantage of all of the help I received on Tuesday during class! It probably took a little longer than being in class with instruction, but I got through it! The tutorials online are a helpful resource to learn the programming methods.

Reflection 3, June 3, 2010

Again, I was on my own for Space Invaders. I'm definitely missing some guidence, but I used the tutorials and FINALLY got most of it to work! Class helpers would have been helpful. Next year I won't schedule two jobs at one time. Space invaders had a lot of components to work through. This was another one of those games that I played as kid. I'm starting to get better at building cause and effect connections. Slowly but surely!

Reflection 4, June 4, 2010

I began working on my own game today. I am trying to make a game that might students might make to learn some basic art terms. I am using some Sokoban ideas and I am attempting to build this game without looking back at my Sokoban game. We'll see how it pans out! It seems like the more I force myself to just "figure it out" the better I get at the program. I sure am glad for some of the tutorials!

Reflection 5, June 5, 2010

I finally got into the computer lab and got some help on the final steps of my space invaders. Everyone there was completely helpful and believe me, I greatly appreciated it. I started getting components of my own game together and thought I could work the rest of it out at home. I am still stuck on the "setting value" function. I'm looking forward to my crafty lab programming experts to guide me tomorrow. I'm not that excited at how my own game turned out. It is honestly quite boring, but I do think that it would probably resemble something that a lot of my students would make. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself. This is a lot of information to take in.

First Unit

Day 5/Week 1 Reflection, June, 6, 2010

I have learned an enormous amount of information this first week. I missed a lot of class time and I don't think that I have everything memorized. This concerns me a little moving into week two. I do think it will help me to be in class three of the five days this week. The program is going to be so much fun for kids to learn. I know how much they talk about games and I'm sure they pick this stuff up quicker that I do! I can see how they would get really excited to take their classroom knowledge and turn it into a game.

Day 1/Week 2 Reflection, June 7, 2010 Today seemed a little long, mainly because we were listening more than working. The diffusion presentation was hard for me to grasp. I am a little concerned because I will be on my own on Wednesday to do the Ants simulation as well as Thursday. It was nice to hear what went well and the challenges other teachers had when they taught the lessons. It gave me a sense of how to teach it and what to expect.

Day 2/Week 2 Reflection, June 8, 2010 Pacman went pretty well for me today. I thought the presentation was great...just my pace. It was easy to follow and I felt confident in the results. I liked the easy little tricks such as duplicating, right click options, rotating images, etc. These functions are starting to become easier and more natural to use. Programming the scent was a hard concept but Sandy's enthusiasm got me through it...and her creative way of explaining! Thank you Sandy!

Day 2/Week 2 Reflection, June 9, 2010 I didn't get to do the Ants simulation today so I'm not sure what to write about. I have been working at home this evening on our color simulation lesson. This is going pretty well. I'm hoping some of this work will make up for some of my absence from class! I thought this would be a fun way to teach students about primary, secondary, and tints of colors. This is still in process but I hope to upload it soon!

Day 2/Week 2 Reflection, June 10, 2010 I was not in class today and the expectations for me are a little unclear. Mark and I worked hard on a color mixing simulation, wrote out a lesson plan, an assessment, and class presentation.

End Of Unit Reflection, June 11, 2010 ' This week was overwhelming, as was last. There was a lot of information that I need to keep practicing to avoid forgetting. If I were to do this again, I'd definitely just do the institution. I have been juggling time and feel I missed some important instruction and information. I worked hard to teach myself the information. The tutorials were great for some simulations and not so great for others.

Other, June 11, 2010

The following is the lesson that Mark S. and I came up with for our students.

STEM Art Lesson
We made a simulation that shows what happens when primary colors mix with other primary colors (red+yellow=orange etc) making secondary colors. This simulation also shows how mixing white with a color changes the color to a lighter color. This lesson can be found by clicking here.

Contact Information

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