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Thursday, December 13, 2018

Ready, Set...BLOG!

Today I introduced my students to blogging.  This is a pretty momentous occasion for my classroom because I've been wanting to try blogging with my 6th graders for years...literally, 3 years!  I had dabbled around a bit with an 8th grade class I taught a few years back and had some successful moments.  However,  I was a little baffled at how to recreate the experience with 160+ students.  I couldn't grasp how to manage it, monitor it, and most importantly, how to utilize the resources that we already were using.  I was nervous about introducing another new tool.

The answer was simple and it was right in front of me...Canvas 💡We use it daily.  The kids are familiar with it.  I can monitor the content easily.  It is already linked to my grades.  I can't believe it took me so long to figure it out.  Canvas does not offer a blogs feature, but it does have a great discussion board option.  This gives students the basics of blogging and for now, it will allow me to have a bit more control over students and what they are commenting and posting on.  It also solves my biggest concern...99% of my students have never blogged before.  I am thinking Canvas will allow me to introduce this new concept to kids and also share the proper online etiquette for discussion boards with students.  Seems like a win-win situation!

Agency Blogs
I am most excited about how I am tying the blogs into our game theme.  Each period or agency has their own blog.  This will help me to keep my periods organized, but it will also allow kids to view what's going on in other classes.  I would also like to offer side quests and/or easter eggs hidden throughout the blog for students to discover.  Here is an example of my 7th period's first post...





Leading By Example

Now the really hard part...being an example for my students.  I was very active with blogging this summer and really enjoyed how it helped me to reflect on my classroom.  However, I haven't posted in a few months.  I had several of my students ask to see my personal blog today and one even said she was going to motivate me to write more.  My immediate reaction was...awesome!  If I am asking them to write more, then I should be doing the same thing.  Therefore, I need to lead by example.  If I expect them to post to our agency blog at least once a month, then I need to post at least once a month.  I think that is only fair.

I am very excited about this opportunity for my students and even more excited about how THEY will inspire ME to become a better blogger.





Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Let The Games Begin...

The two-week crunch is on!  You know the one I'm talking about...the wake up one beautiful, or slightly rainy in this case, summer morning and you realize students will be walking into your classroom in T-minus 14 days...TWO WEEKS!  

Yep, that is today.  I have officially two weeks of summer until my tenth year as a middle school teacher begins...and oh what I year I have planned!

The two week crunch time is nothing new after 12 years of teaching, but this year is slightly different.  My plan to gamify my class will officially beginning today when I send out 167 "secret" envelopes to 167 incoming 6th graders.  I am excited and TERRIFIED all at the same time!  

I know the kids will be intrigued by the postcards, I've done my research and shared it with several kids and have gotten a good response.  However, the postcard will invite my students to find a secret website link on the postcard to a survey and I am so worried that none of them will try to find it.  You can say that this is my first side quest in my game and since my game will be based a lot on students completing these quests on their own for no grade, then this postcard will be an indication of how my students will respond to this new idea...again, I am so nervous.  You know I'm going to be waiting at my computer for that first survey to come through...let's hope it comes fast!


Stack of cadet postcards that will go out to 160+ incoming 6th graders...EEK!

Even though I am super anxious for these babies to go out today, I am also so proud of what I have accomplished this summer.  I am in no way ready for those 167 young minds to walk through my doorway on August 7th, but I am getting there.  I put a lot of work into my planning at the beginning of summer with building my game website, which is not complete, and creating a plan for my game, which is also not complete...but oh well!  This is me jumping in with both feet.  Hopefully I don't drown 😂



Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Badges Galore!

Phyllis Nefler and her troop had it wrong - Badges are NEEDED and they will be a must in my classroom!




One of my all time favorite movies was the 1989 cult classic Troop Beverly Hills.  I think my friends and I watched this like a million times in our youth and I admit I get overjoyed when it plays randomly on cable TV.  One of the most famous lines came from when the troop was stripped of their patches, "Patches?  We don't need no stinkin' patches!"  I love this line!  It comes at a time in the movie when the troop has worked really hard to earn badges for mastering different skills and the evil Wilderness Girl Leader, Velda Plendor, has declared that the badges don't count because the troop did not earn the badges in the typical way a Wilderness Girl should.  Here is a classic scene of the troop earning their patches...



When I sit back and watch this scene now as a teacher, I think it is brilliant!  It shows how any student can take the content they are to learn and not only master it, but connect it to their own lives to make it relevant to them.  They are making real-world connections...no matter how "out-of-the-box" their thinking is.  

As teachers, sometimes we think there is only one way for students to show content mastery.  Most often this in the form of a quiz or test.  Over my last 11 years of teaching I have come to realize that the sky is the limit on how students can show understanding.  Student choice is a HUGE part of this teaching strategy and I am hoping that by incorporating badges into my classroom this year, it will allow students to show off the skills they are learning and gain confidence in my classroom.


My Badge Plan

I've wanted to create a badging system for my science class every since I attended a STEM Conference at Purdue University in 2017.  At this conference, I sat in on a session where a college professor talked about using badges with her lab students.  She wanted to make sure the students knew the correct way to use specific lab equipment and came up with a system to have students record themselves using the equipment successfully, like How-To Videos you'd find on YouTube.  She shared how after grading the videos, students would earn digital badges.  Not only were the students more successful in future labs where they used the equipment, but they were enthusiastic and more engaged in their learning.  From this moment, my wheels started turning and I knew I wanted to do something similar with my 6th graders.

Unfortunately, my idea about badges didn't happen last year.  I bought the stickers, I made the list of badges they could earn, and I had an implementation plan...but it fell to the way-side and I didn't get to it.  NOT THIS YEAR!  I plan to incorporate two types of badges in my gamified course: mini badges and mastery badges.  


Mini Badges
Mini badges will focus on the soft skills that I want students to show growth in throughout the year.  Our school has a PBIS system in place and though I was already awarding kids for some of these skills, I decided to make it more prominent.  You could say it will be the foundation for my game.  I have used the Keys to Purpose Driven Learning, adopted from Michael Matera and Adam Moreno's websites, to coincide with the PBIS system my school currently uses.  I took the 10 key words and made a badge for each one.  Here they are...



The different badge colors relate to the 4 PBIS attributes we already have in place at my school.  
  • RED  =  skills related to respect.
  • GREEN  =  skills related to organization.
  • ORANGE  =  skills related to commitment.
  • BLUE  =  skills related to knowledge.

My students will display their Mini Badges on their interactive notebooks, which we use daily.  This will give me and their peers a easy way to assess how they are doing in developing this skills.  Students can praise their peers and possibly offer advice on skills they might be struggling with.  

I also plan to use these badges as part of the onboarding process of my game.  Students will go through a "cadet training" period during the first 2-weeks of school.  This training period will help them get familiar with my classroom, each other, and the game.  I want to use the Purpose Driven Learning to launch a lot of the everyday activities they will encounter throughout the year - vocabulary, article of the week readings, team building activities, sketchnoting, and lots more.  I am very excited about how the badges will create a very solid beginning to the year and my game.

Mini Badge Reference Sheet - click the link to view all the badges and descriptions.



Mastery Badges
Mastery badges will focus on curriculum content and are what I first envisioned implementing when I learned about badging.  At this time, I am not sure how many badges I will offer, but my hope is to have at least one for each unit. This would be a minimum of 7 badges; I figured this would be easy to implement on my first year and offer the student choice I want to foster in my classroom.

The first and ONLY badge I've created so far isn't actually related to my science content at all...but it is SUPER relevant to every incoming 6th grader.  I present the Locksmith Badge...



The badge description says it all...students will need to show that they can successfully get into their locker to earn this badge.  Sounds super simple, right? Funny thing is, this is one of the most stressful skills for 6th graders to master the first couple week of school.  I'm hoping that by offering this as a skill, it will hook student engagement and show that badges will be connected to real-life situations.  I am prepared that not all students will take the bait, but I am hoping that it will create enough student buy-in to drive the rest of my badges throughout the year.

Mastery badges will also be displayed on student's interactive notebooks.  I hope that students display them with pride, but I also hope that they encourage peer collaboration.  I see mastery badges as a way for students to seek out help from their peers as they need it.  For example: if Suzie is struggling with metric conversions or how to use a metric ruler correctly, then she can look around the room at her peers' notebooks and see who has earned their Metric Mastery Badge.  She can then ask for help from Eric who has this badge and Suzie can get the help she needs and Eric can truly demonstrate his mastery over this concept.  Viola!  Student collaboration 🙌...I hope!


Badges are going to be a HUGE game mechanic for my upcoming year and I am excited that I am finally taking a long awaited idea and brining it to life.  I know that anytime I have been presented at earning badges as an adult, it has sparked excitement and ultimately lead to more engagement on my part.  I am hoping my students will discovery this same enthusiasm as they travel through my course this upcoming school year.



Monday, July 2, 2018

I ❤️ Podcasts

Podcasts have become my new obsession and I seriously can’t get enough of them!  When I started researching the idea of gamification for my classroom, I immediately was directed to the Explore Like A Pirate website.  After getting the book and diving head first into the amazing #XPLap community on Twitter, I quickly stumbled upon Michael Matera's (@MrMatera) podcast called Well PlayED (link provided below). 


Well Played focuses on how to bring playful learning into the classroom and it is presented in a quick 25-30 minute show.  This made it very easy to listen to on my commute to and from school each day.  I loved the topic and format of the show so much, that I binged most of the shows over a month long period.  It was exactly what I needed to get my brain wrapped around how to begin creating my year-long gamified course.  The only problem I ran into was that there were so many ideas in each episode, that I had to resist pulling off the side of the road to write them down.  Instead I opted for writing things on napkins at stop lights, stop signs and my driveway...LOL, it got so bad that I actually purchased a little notebook to keep in my car to tame my napkin ideas.

This past Memorial Day, I got in my car to make a 2 hour trip home to Ohio.  Instead of listening to the radio, I decided to load my phone up with podcasts.  Of course I listed to a view Well PlayEd episodes, but I also loaded a few new shows to try out.  I was so happy to see the my enthusiasm for listening extended to different podcast shows and content.  I am definitely hooked!


Education Podcasts

As I mentioned, my love for podcasts just started recently and I've discovered more educational podcasts for my own personal growth as a teacher.  Below are a few of the shows I have enjoyed and have started to subscribe to.  I've provided a link for each one, so feel free to click and start enjoying for yourself.

Well PlayED - by: Michael Matera
TED Radio Hour - by: NPR
StartEdUp  - by: StartEdUp Innovation, LLC
Sketchnote Army - by: Mike Rohde & Mauro Toselli


Science Podcasts

My next move is to try to possibly incorporate podcasts into my classroom for my students to enjoy.  I started to research shows that are both entertaining and informational, but also are appropriate for middle school minds.  I'll be honest, it has been hard finding all three of these components...I might find an episode/show that is interesting, but it would definitely go over my students heads.  Or I find one that comes across a little too young for them.  Either way, I see the potential that podcasts could bring by capturing kids attention towards science in a new medium.  Let's face it, most students probably haven't been exposed to them.  Below are a few of the shows that I think will work for my middle schoolers and that I hope to use this year at some point; again I provided links.  

Brains On! - by: MPR News
Tumble - by: Tumble / Gen-Z
Part-Time Genius - by: HowStuffWorks
BrainStuff - by: HowStuffWorks

I highly recommend Brains On!  It is super entertaining and I've learned some really cool sciency facts each time I've listened.  There was a great episodes on narwhals, the unicorns of the sea,  that I forced a friend to listen to with me.  At first I felt it might be a little too young for 6th grade, but if I can listen a long, be entertained, learn new things, and laugh out aloud...a lot; then so can my students!

Podcasts are just another great resource that I've discovered in my gamification journey.  If you have a favorite show, please feel free to comment below...  I will add it to my list.  I can't wait to continue to explore the HUGE world that podcasts as to offer for both me and my students.










Sunday, June 24, 2018

Mapping Out the Year

When I made the decision to move forward with gamifying my entire course for the 2018-2019 school year, I knew I had one very BIG question to answer...

How would my students confidently move through my game on their own?


Now before we go any further let me answer your question...no, I do not plan on having my students play the game on their own with no help from me, their teacher.  However, I do want to set up my course game to allow for students to feel confident enough to explore and learn the content on their own as they get more comfortable.  I see one of the game's main functions as providing enrichment and review opportunities to my students on a daily basis. There are so many activities I would like to do with my students throughout the year and so many topics that I would like to cover, but the reality is there is not enough time.  I am hoping that by gamifying my classroom, I will be able to provide my students with new learning opportunities that my daily instruction does not offer.  AND...I hope it will infuse A LOT of FUN along the way 😃



Canvas or Not?

Now back to the question...how will my students confidently move through the game on their own?  This led to another question - Should I use Canvas, my school's learning management system (LMS), to provide the game structure?  I LOVE Canvas and I am very proud of the course I have created for my students.  Obviously, this was the most logical place to locate my game, right?  

When I stepped back and really thought about it, I realized that I want my game to stand alone and provide students a true game experience.  I want them to feel like they were actually opening up a board game or opening up a game app to play. This is why I decided to create a website that would be completely independent from my classroom Canvas course. 


Insert - Google Sites!  

I wanted something that I was somewhat familiar with.  That I could update easily.  And that I didn't need a lot of time to actually create.  Google Sites seemed like the perfect fit.  

I had never worked with Google Sites before, but I had seen other teacher's work and thought that it was something that I was capable of tackling.  I started by making an outline of what pages I wanted to include on the website.  I then spent one day searching the internet for graphics and pictures that worked with my steampunk time-travel theme...it was a total time suck, but definitely worth the time.  It gave me lots of ideas!  

However, when I actually sat down to start dropping images into the Google Sites template, I quickly noticed there was a disconnect between the graphics I was using.  I'm sure it was only noticeable by me...but I still noticed it.  I ended up using Canva to create my own graphics and I am SOOOO happy that I did!  I just 💗 the way it turned out!  Check it out below...



The home page includes the backstory and the game trailer that will be the first impressions the students will get of the game.  (You can read more about these on my last post - First Impressions.in Gaming).  I do not see this page changing much as the year/game evolves. The buttons that appear on this page will take students to the parts of the game they will be interacting with regularly.  These pages will change as needed.

My site is a work in progress and not complete, as I will be working on it this summer.  However, if you would like to see it, you can use this link --> The Time Quest Website. 


Website Pages

I have organized my site into six sections:  
  • the Handbook - a resource guide for the game and my class.
  • the Map Room - the game/curriculum map students will use.
  • Leaderboard - a scoreboard of the top players in the game.
  • XP & Badges - the points and badges available to players in the game.
  • the Supply Closet - a collection of the items the game will provide.
  • Visitors - a summarized version of the game for "non-travelers" aka: parents :)
As you can see, I have a plan for what I want each page to look like and below is a description of what I would like my students to encounter on each page.




This will be the first page that students will click on when they visit the website for the first time.  The Handbook page will contain everything I want students to know about my class: expectations, learning goals, and the basic functions of the game.  I would also like it to contain game mechanics: rules and vocabulary.  This page might also contain How-To Videos for certain technology that students will run into throughout the game...maybe.  I like the idea of this page being like an employee handbook.  Since the narrative of my game has students playing the roles of time-travel agents employed by the Husky Corporation, I thought the website should provide a space for students to reference when they get stuck on the basics...just like an employee handbook would have.




The Map Room will be one of the most important parts of website and game.  It will guide students through the actual content they will be learning in my class.  Think of the old school video game maps that you would see in Super Mario or Zelda, each level is displayed and unlocked as the player moves through the game.  This map is what I want to create on this page AND I want to connect it to a similar map that will be displayed on a wall in my classroom.  The classroom map will be mostly for decoration and motivation, but the website version will display each level's goals and the side quests that are available to students.  I do not plan on having all the details of each level displayed when I launch my game, but that is okay because I know I will have to adjust things as the game and the year progresses.




This page is pretty self-explanatory...it will be the home of my classroom leaderboard.  Students will be able to return to this page as often as they like to compare their progress in the game with their fellow classmates.  I'm a bit apprehensive about this page because in the past I've rarely made student progress public.  However, I do plan to keep "the game" separate from student grades and this will be clearly stated.  I do hope that the constant presence of competition motivates some students to engage more in the game...I hope 😅




This is another page that says it all; it will be dedicated to delivering information about experience points (XP) and badges that students can earn in the game.  This sounds pretty simple, but it is the page I might struggle with the most in my planning process.  At this time, I know I want to include badges, but I'm not exactly sure how.  I like the idea of using two types of badges: mini badges, which students will earn for displaying soft skills like focus, teamwork, empathy, perseverance, and creativity; and larger badges, which will be tied into side quests and showing mastery of certain content skills taught throughout the year.  

I've wanted to try badging ever since I attended a STEM conference at Purdue University and I saw how a science professor was using it to show student mastery with lab equipment.  I walked away thinking the idea was brilliant and if she could get college students to buy into this concept, then I could certainly do the same with 6th graders.  I want my students to display their badges on the front of their interactive notebooks, which are used daily.  Not only will this allow students to show off a bit, but I hope it will help foster student collaboration.  For example, if a student was having trouble measuring with a metric ruler, they could then look around at their classmates' notebooks and find someone who had earned their metric ruler badge and discretely ask for help.  In theory, I think this is such an awesome idea...I just hope the kids engage in this aspect of the game.

I don't know how many badges I will allow kids to earn and I don't know all the details of how they will earn the badges, but that is what I have the summer to figure out...fingers crossed!





The Supply Closet will be the page that explains and displays all the items that students can collect throughout the year.  I plan on handing these out in a trading card format; just like I've seen so many other teachers use in gamified classrooms.  I really love the idea that students will collect and trade these cards throughout the year.  The items will be rewards and privileges that students can use in class, as well as Power Ups that will help them to earn more XP points along the way.  

My original plan was to allow students to collect as many cards as they liked at anytime; however, I have since changed my mind.  Again, after viewing a lot of #XPLAP teachers' websites and looking through past Twitter chats, I decided to only allow them to keep 9 cards at a time.  I think this will encourage students to use their items regularly in class and to be very decisive about the types of items they hold on to.  The Supply Closet will ultimately be a store for the kids to view items that are available.




This page was a not originally planned.  When I was adding the page buttons to the website, I started with five main buttons and it really looked uneven; so I added another.  I saw Michael Matera's (@MrMatera) game website, Realm of Nobles, and the first thing I clicked on was the Visitor's button.  This was when I first started reading his book, Explore Like A Pirate, and I found this page to be particularly helpful.  If offered a brief but detailed overview of gamification and how students would utilize the game website throughout the school year.  At the time, I wasn't even planning my own game website, but when I was looking for another page to even out the buttons...I knew this would be the perfect addition to my own game site. Thanks Michael 👍



To Be Continued...

The overall creation of the website shell took about two full days of working.  The majority of my time was creating the graphics and then trying to get them uploaded onto the Google Site template correctly.  A HUGE thank you to Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) and her blog Teacher Tech.  I was struggling with the banners on my website looking right and after a quick Google search a very helpful post popped up...it was a HUGE time saver.  I highly recommend her site if you get stuck!

My website is far from finished, but my goal was to get it started in the first couple weeks of summer break and that is exactly what I did.  I am looking forward to finishing it up!  I know that the overall process of completing the website will take time, but it will provide the structure needed for my yearlong game.  Ultimately...it is the map my students and I will use along the gamification journey we are on together.