Second Semester Building Begins

Some of the students choose Virtual Worlds as an elective again but some of the students were brand new. The continuing students just took up where they left off and required very little from me during the class period. That gave me lots of time to work with the newbies. (See video below)

We Got Blogged!

We got mentioned in this educational blog today! Please check out the article.

Day Two of Floor Plan Challenge

Students continue working on their floor plans. It's amazing to watch them work! (See video below)

Students Begin Floor Plan Challenge

Today the students in my 8th hour Reaction Grid class began their first collaborative project. Groups of four students began work on a real floor plan. They had six choices and although they had a bit of a shaky start placing themselves on the building platforms in groups, once they had their plan, they went right to work. (See video below)

Live From Phoenix! Art Island is a Tourist Attraction!

This past week we have had three sets of visitors to our island! The first group was from the Virtual Pioneers History Conference. We were streamed live into Second Life for those who could not make the grid hop. Then Pathfinder Lester brought his Hypergrid Adventurer Group to tour the sim. Today the 8th hour Jr. High Elective class was working and another group of grad students came to visit and the kids got a chance to see avatars from Canada, North Carolina, and Australia! This has been a very exciting week on Art Island!

Today the Jr. High Students were streamed live on the internet from the Virtual Worlds Conference. Chris Hart of the Reaction Grid team showed the students finishing up their avatar apartments for the Top Design Challenge. Various visitors remarked that the students were sweet and polite, which made me chuckle because I was in the room with them and although they are great kids, they are not always polite to each other. Good to know that their communication skills are improving. Their building skills have come a long way also and I am proud of the work being done. These students are getting a chance to be part of the global community by participating in events like this. (See video below)

Minion Challenge Continues

Another group of students gets to do the Minion Challenge. Since the movie was so popular, it continued to be a fun project dealing with spatial reasoning and proportion. Students were aware of where things were placed in a 3D environment. (See video below)

First Prim Work done by 5th Graders!

Even though I lost my great job as a technology integration specialist at the district, I was happy to have a job as an art teacher at Herrera Elementary. I would not get to work with Mrs. Baron at Lowell anymore but I could at least virtual worlds to my art students in the guise of design and spatial reasoning. This was a small class and very easy to work with. (See videos below)