mrwaugh+Journal

Week 1
When I was younger the main thing my father and I had in common was technology. While he and I have different views on what are fun games, he got me into computers real early. The original Nintendo came out with I was 1, and when I was 5 I got my first Nintendo with Duck Hunt, Mario, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In my life I have owned an Atari 2600, NES, Sega, N64, PS1, PS2, N64, Xbox, Dreamcast, Game Boy, Game Gear, GBC, and a Wii. As we speak I currently have a PS3, an imac with Steam, a DSI, and an Xbox 360 with the new Kinect hardware. In Short I am a gamer. I tend to lean toward sports games, but the list of long games I have finished is growing by the day. I have a pretty large knowledge on most console games and a fair knowledge on computer gaming and handheld gaming. Realistically I could go on here for some time. But to put my nerdiness on the map and give you some specifics of 20 or so games I have enjoyed the last two years click [|here] and [|here].
 * Describe your background and history with video and computer games?

In real life I am Patrick Waugh, a husband and expecting papa; while during school hours I am Mr. Waugh who is basically the same, just a bit more reserved. Online I have the same basic forms I am ptwaugh on twitter, facebook and xbox live and mrwaugh on wikispaces and second life. Basically, I am myself in all of these issues, the main separation being between mrwaugh the teacher and ptwaugh the non-teacher. Not saying I am all that different either way, but I am a bit more responsible as Mr. Waugh.
 * What are some of the real and/or virtual ‘identities’ you take on?

I tend to agree with the idea that the typical version of literacy is the driving force behind education. It seems that literacy is what we use to measure our students, when in fact learning is so much more so the definition of literacy should be so much more. So I guess this new definition will have a big impact on teaching, but that is because I think we are looking at the next big shift in education here and the new definition of literacy is just a nice little way to put it.
 * What impact might James Paul Gee’s definition of ‘literacy’ have on your teaching?

I am actively learning how to transition between the husband domain into the future papa domain. While it includes the same people (well with the addition of one more in a few months) it is a very interesting transition. The way we have been doing things and living our life is changing in a brand new way. In fact the phrase the Waugh family is taking on a whole new meaning now.
 * What experiences have you had learning in new ‘semiotic domains’?

I am a gamer but this week was hampered by a start to the new school term. Anyway this week I played a good amount of NBA 2k11, which I play anytime I have a basketball itch. I am involved in the Goozex.com community, which is a game trading site. Anyway I got three different games from them this week. Puzzle Quest 2 which I have played a lot and really enjoy. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit which is okay, and looks great, but I am not much of a driving game person. Finally I also got De Blob 2 which i promptly played for 20 mins and sent out in a trade to someone else. I played a bit of Call of Duty: Black Ops because a friend wanted to play and Halo: Reach because I bought a new map pack. Oh I also bought the original X-Men arcade game and beat it in about 30 mins. There was not a bunch of playing this week, but a lot of little gaming.
 * Games this week?

Week 2
I am not really sure I have a solid answer for this question. I think that if we were actively using video games in our curriculum it would be an easier question to answer. In math I am not certain how I would say this other than using my actual blog and online identities to help out the classroom. When I blog on our classroom website or contact students through the web I am projecting myself onto my mrwaugh online personality. But I think for a lot of students they see mrwaugh online as Mr. Waugh offline.
 * How might virtual and projective identities be important in your teaching?

I teach a remedial math class and I would say that most of them have a severely damaged math identity. They have low math skills and come into class with a very poor attitude toward math. Usually it is because they personally believe that they cannot do math. In other words they have a very low self-esteem. This is the second year I have taught a remedial class like this and it took me a big part of the first year to really figure out how to reach them. So this year when I got a new group one of the first things I did was try to raise their self-esteem on math. Little victories where they can see that they can do it really helped out some of the students. I lowered my expectations a bit and took baby steps because once they believe they can do it we can take bigger steps, but if they don't believe in themselves they will not even try.
 * Describe an experience you’ve had in teaching a student with a “damaged” identity.

We have been talking recently about a Net. Well when I say net the students instantly get an idea of a basketball net or a fishing net, and so the initial idea that I need to help them out with is to change their verbal meaning of a net when it comes to a 3-d shape. Once we have that understanding down, we start to bring in real life 3-d objects and try to trace them to get the net design down. Eventually we work on getting them to visualize the net in their head when they see a shape so that they could make a net without the object or a cheat-sheet. Now our students have a verbal idea, a visual image, as well as many concrete examples of a new.
 * Give an example of a situated meaning in your content area, and describe how you might help students gain a more embodied understanding of it.

In early January my classes had their first try on the OAKS state math test. We had spent time reviewing what they needed to do and then when it was over we looked at our results and tried to figure out where our learning gaps were. We hypothesized that we needed more time with surface area and volume. We just took our second try this week and we are seeing some of the same struggles. (They just raised the 7th grade standards up 6 points which is making the jump very difficult for our students.) We will now re-probe the problem and see if there are more issues than just the types of questions so we can rethink our learning strategies.
 * Describe a recent learning experience that involved using the probe, hypothesize, re-probe, and rethink cycle.

I have played very few games this week. I got DJ Hero 2 in the mail and tried that for a bit, but really did not spend much other time on my 360 or PS3. I did spend a good chunk of time playing Lure of the Labyrinth and Red Dead Redemption for my reviews, but other than that it was just masters work for this class and others.
 * Games this week?