Blogging Failure

Well, it seems as if I let the semester get to me. I am a complete blogging failure. I have let the whole semester go without me posting since September. I have not set a good example for my students to follow by doing this and have also let my mentor down as well. As the semester is finally coming to an end I have come to realize that I possibly over-exerted myself these past 16 weeks. I took on the task of teaching Gaming I, along with 18 hours of classes at the university. I started out okay but as the semester wore on I wore out. I let my classes get the best of me and even waited to the end of the semester to try and complete an online course that had 15 weeks worth of work in it. These I should not let be an excuse. I now know how much extra time and effort I need to continue to teach Gaming at MCTC. Next semester will be a breath of fresh air as I will graduate in the spring and will no longer have 18+hours of classes to deal with. I hope everyone else managed their time better as I did not. Hope everyone's presentations go well.

Class To Date

Finally!! Today we will begin the "Imaging Your Game" topic in Gaming I. We have been talking about this topic for a few days and I believe most of the students already have their game in mind. This is the part of semester where I feel the students really begin the creative process. Some will put a lot of time and thoughts into this topic others will not. Either way this is the first major step in creating their game.
I'm also glad to report that the Gaming I students are starting to make their blogs more interesting and attractive, now if they'll do more with their wikis I'll be really satisfied. Some students might want to check out Benjamin King's blog for some good info on the new Halo game. This game has been brought up several times during class by myself and other students. Though not necessarily educational it makes for some time-consuming fun. =)

Today is the due date for our Globaloria Project Reports. For the first time doing it I felt overwhelmed at first but, now that I have it under my belt I know the next ones will be very manageable. Yesterday Patrick finished up leading the students through the Mini-Game Project. Being as he is very strong in getting newbies to understand the basics I decided to have him lead them through this first big step of Flash. I was there as technical support for students who were having coding issues among other things.
Things are finally starting to wind down around here at MCTC. My IT Support job is not affecting my schoolwork or my teaching as much now. So I'm a lot less stressed out now and feel that this is going to turn into a great semester. Thanks to the training sessions over the summer I am officially bored in my web programming class...for now. Already know this basic HTML and CSS stuff.

Mini-Game Project

Today is the start of week 3 here at MCTC. Having Monday off was more of a burden than a blessing. We will hopefully get through the mini-game topic today. I have high hopes that the knowledge my students have will be able to push through this topic with ease. But, if not we'll take what is given to us and run with it. I have lots of things going on right now so my blog updates have been slim but will soon pick up.
I thought to myself last night why I'm doing all of this again. 18 hours of classes at Marshall University+20 hours(usually more) of IT work a week at MCTC+prepping for and teaching Gaming I 2 days out of the week. I know a lot of people do this sort of thing all the time but man, it's tough. Trying to take in all of this knowledge in between working and then passing out knowledge too.
Thursday at 5 having to attend the WebEx meeting is going to be interesting. Hopefully, I won't be so tired from the day that I start to fall asleep...just kidding! I think that the session will be very informative and helpful with my teaching.
Well, I better get back to listening to my professor lecture....not kidding at all.

Choosing a Topic

Today I plan on going over the "Choosing a Topic" lesson. I will be explaining to the students what each of the topics mean and how best to decide on one over the other. We will discuss this and make sure that everyone gets caught up on their wikis and their blogs. Now that school is settling in I will be making updates more frequent and with more information.

Gaming 1 - Day 1

Welcome students to your first day of classes at MCTC. This is my blog that will follow our class throughout the semester. I will explain a lot more of this to you in class today so pay attention. This is going to be an exciting journey for you and I so let's make the next 16 weeks as fun and enjoyable as we can.

UH OH!

This could be bad. I guess we can just hope for a fast solution. Microsoft better get this fixed, like now! With everyone starting school soon this could be very bad for us all.