for those of you struggling with gamemaker, i found an excellent tutorial for the game, a set of several different ones, actually, from http://www.yoyogames.com go there, click tutorials on the left hand side of the main page, and then follow the tutorial for the particular kind of game you want to create. I would print off the PDF of the instructions for the tutorial and follow along with the hard copy, rather than having to switch back and forth between the game and Adobe Acrobat.

sorry for the lag

I just now realized it's been 3 weeks or so since I posted something. I spent ten days not playing any games at all, just to get my arm feeling normal again, and since that point, I have switched to console games. I got a used copy of XMEN Legends for the PS2, and my brother in law gave me a couple of games for my gamecube that I've been playing as well. I find online classes are often harder to stay motivated with, and keep up to date on the requirements, at least for me. I'm not self-disciplined enough to do what I need to do, every day, on my own. I'm working on it, though. having to re-teach myself how to walk and do everything else required of my rehabilitation from my injury while my wife is at work has been a learning and growing experience.

over-gaming addiction

Well, as I stated in my last entry, I started playing Star Wars: Empire at War. I beat the game by playing nearly 20 hours a day, for the first week I had it. Then I went out and bought the expansion pack, and did the same thing. My wife started complaining that I played my game too much. And I knew she was right. I became addicted to it, and I had to shut it off. It got so bad, I even had a reoccurance of my nerve injury I developed while being tethered to a desk as a video editor and tech support agent-i thought it was carpal tunnel, but it really ended up being a pinched nerve in my shoulder/neck area, which, in addition to the broken leg, was causing problems with me sleeping. So I uninstalled both games, which freed up about six gigabytes of hard drive space, more than enough to finish off a freelance video project I was supposed to be working on for a friend of mine. I also had my wife hide the install discs for the games. I will have to find other games to play. But for now, I'm taking a few days off to get my nerves back in order, and I'm sticking to simple yahoo games games instead-something that I can cut off after an hour or so. The other ones were too much for me to handle or control, by myself. I guess you could call this post a confession of an addict.

EDUC 688 assignment

As part of my assignments for a class I am taking, I'll be using this page to record my thoughts and experiences while playing a game for my class, Educational Games and simulation.

The game I chose to play is Star Wars: Empire at War. I like the game because it ties into my other favorite thing to do, read and watch star wars related materials. I am attracted to games of this type, strategy based real-time games where-in two teams are pitted against each other, trying to take over "the world", in this case, the star wars universe-it essentially replays the movies, with a few other widgets tossed in. I've also played the Command and Conquer Generals: and Red Alert/Yuri's revenge series, much the same, but its the USA versus the russians in red alert, the chinese and a fictional terrorist army in Generals. I enjoy the strategy aspect of the games, its much like a chessmatch, different units in your army have strengths and weaknesses, as does your opponent. I like the strategy involved, but when I get frustrated, I cheat-i look for other devoted fans of the games, who have created or figured out ways to modify the game, to their advantage. Empire at War has three modes- one replays the events of the movies, one has certain limitations and you only have to conquer certain aspects of the star wars mythology, and one is just an all-out skirmish, either in space or on the ground, where you can sign up as the empire or the rebellion and just start shooting each other until one team wins. I like that mode when the other two get frustrating. I usually use the cheater program I found to give me unlimited money, then set the game on the hardest difficulty setting to see if i can still win. I usually do. The game designers created an expansion series, which adds a third faction to the game, a group of pirates, which opens up characters such as Jabba The Hutt and others into the mix. I may get that soon, as I can claim it is for my classwork, and I have to have it, otherwise my wife probably wouldn't let me.

Failed my First Year

Hello all, and welcome to my site.

I put this blog together for two reasons.

1. To vent my frustrations that came from my first year of teaching
2. To point future teachers in the right direction, so they don't repeat my mistakes.

So this site will be about all different topics relating to teaching, including classroom management, lesson planning, discipline strategies, KERA( I teach in Kentucky, so that's a big part of what drives what I teach), NCLB, and on occasion the history, philosophy, and purpose of education in society