See you in September....

"Do you care to be the layer of the bricks that seal your fate?
Or would you rather be the architect of what we might create?"
- "Architects" by Rise Against

These song lyrics means a lot to me right about now. In my second post on this blog (which was over a year ago) I referenced them in the context of how the year didn't turn out like I had originally planned. This time around it's a little different. I've been teaching for 6 years now and for the first time in forever (yes, that's a Frozen reference) I am excited about what I will be doing in September.

This fall, I will be moving to a new school for the first time in 5 years - Hill Freedman World Academy. I'm joining an grades 6-9 IB school that is expanding to 6-12 over the next 3 years. I'm looking forward to being a part of the team that completes the expansion and make big things happen. This summer I'm going to start getting ready for a new challenge and hopefully that will lead to some blog posts. If not, I'll (hopefully) be back in the fall with some great stories and ideas.

Have a Great Summer!!!

Gamification: How to Start

This week I spent some time going through the first archived and the most recent chats for #levelupED. I went in to this with a list of questions in my head and came out with some answers and the basis for a plan to get my classes gamified. Both chats that I reviewed were about getting started with Gamification. What was interesting was how some of the comments made by the participants changed since September. It was refreshing to see people using this in their classes and still having the system evolve over the course of a school year.

There were very good questions asked in both chats I reviewed and I think the best way for me to get the ball rolling is to use those questions to develop my plan for the rest of the year.

Here is my version of a "How to Start a Gamified Classroom Questionnaire." (These questions are taken directly from the chats. I thought they were all great starting points so I combined them into one list.) I need to spend time thinking about my answers to all of these questions, but the tweets I've attached are helpful hints that I feel will guide me in the right direction.

---

How to Start a Gamified Classroom Questionnaire

1. How do you define gamification in your classroom? What classifies a class as being gamified?

A1: Using gaming elements within instruction to enhance student motivation/involvement in their learning. #levelupED
— Jessica Anderson (@TriSciCurious) February 14, 2014

2. Do you think gamification is more using games to teach content or designing game elements in your instruction?

Gamification: A Preview

Although I have only been able to attend one explanation of Gamification and it's use in a classroom, I'm convinced it is something that would help my classroom. The first reason for that is because it looks like it would be fun - for the students and for me. The second reason is that I like to think my students will take to it with excitement and a desire to achieve something. I know that there is no way for me to know if the second reason is a definite until I try it but there have been moments this year that led me to my conclusion.

In order for me to start gamifying my classes I know that there is a bunch of prep work involved but I'm just not sure where to start. There are elements of the gaming structure that I want to have and I'm planning on joining the #leveluped chat tonight (it's on Thursdays at 10pm ET) to get some ideas and guidance.

One aspect of Philip Vinogradov's (@pvinogradov) presentation at EduCon that has been difficult for me to implement is the Flipped Classroom. I've tried to use a few online resources as homework in the past and the percentage of students completing it was very low. I also have a handful of students with little or no Internet connectivity.

My attempts at Gamification are not going to be perfect the first time. The plan is to use this blog and Twitter-found resources to make it work. In order to keep track of what I'm doing and share it with the world, there is a new page on this blog. The Journey to Gamification will be my continuing journal of what is going on in my world of game-based learning. Stay tuned for the fun!

It's Never Too Late to Make Changes

I started posting on this blog again around the time of EduCon 2.6 this year. I was able to meet some great people over that weekend and had my first opportunity to talk with someone in person about one of my posts. The information I took out of the conversation sessions is priceless and I still have a list of people I want to follow on Twitter and communicate with about ideas that were shared.

The biggest takeaway I had from EduCon and the weeks that have followed is that it is never too late to make changes. I've been very set in the ways of what I do, even though it never has the results I'm looking for. Making changes has either been "too much work" or "too much of a risk" for me. Once I started really thinking about what I needed to do, I started to realize that "too much work" is a sorry excuse for just saying "I don't feel like it right now." As for "too much of a risk," since I haven't been getting the results I was hoping to get, I figured what do I have to lose.

For your enjoyment (mostly mine, but you are welcome to enjoy them too) here are four major changes that are taking place with me right now.

• Change 1: Classwork System
• Change 2: Gamification
• Change 3: CrossFit/Whole30/Paleo
• Change 4: Making and Tracking Goals

EduCon and a New Outlook

Day One of EduCon 2.6 at Science Leadership Academy is in the books and to say it was informative and amazing would be an understatement of epic proportions. I enjoyed meeting a bunch of people who have great ideas and sound advice and was fortunate enough to add to my own little network of connected educators. I could spend a lot of time going over everything I took out of the first day (and maybe it will become a post of its own after Day Two) but I want to just write about my biggest takeaway.

Since I started this blog last year, I've posted questions to myself and tried my best to come up with answers. At times I wrote reactively and sometimes wonder if I still feel the same way about my initial thoughts. The beauty of all of this is that meeting up with other people can give me a new perspective on what I originally thought and allow me to change how I view those original posts (which could make for an interesting new post). After today, I'm starting to get a better sense of what I can do about whatever situation I am facing. Being able to spend the day with a school full of thinkers, innovators, high-achievers, and whatever other descriptor you can think of shows me that it is possible to make this whole teaching thing work. If all I am going to do is ask myself questions about why or how things are the way they are, I'm not going to get anything done. Update: I'm not against questions as a way to start a conversation, but I have a nasty habit of trying to find questions that are irrelevant or have no answer and use them as excuses. 

In the grand scheme of things, I'm still a relatively new teacher and I know I haven't mastered everything I want to master yet (and really, what teacher ever will?). What I need to do is to remind myself to look for the answers to the relevant questions in my world. There are thousands of people out there blogging and on Twitter that can help me. If I can stick to that, it might not be smooth sailing, but at least I'll have an idea of where I want to go and the support to get me there.

Why has it been 6 months since my last blog post?

Your guess is as good as mine. 

I started this blog last year with the thought of getting better at teaching and sharing that journey with whoever felt the need to read about it. I said at the beginning that I would post when I could and put out a good amount of thoughts in a short time. Since school ended last year, I just stopped blogging. Completely. 

I'm not happy about that. I'm not happy that I set out to do something last year and just didn't follow through. I'm having some of the same classroom and overall issues this year that I have had in the past and I don't think I'm doing everything I can about it. There are tremendous people on Twitter that really know what they're doing. Many of these people are a DM or mention away and I'm not taking advantage of that. 

What are my excuses? I don't have one. In May I wrote about my goals for this year. SBG, PBL, 20time, etc, etc. ice tried some of them out. I've had a little success and a little notsomuch. What I haven't done is write about it. I haven't reached out for assistance or advice. I haven't taken the time to self-evaluate. In short, I've done everything that I don't want my students to do. 

This is my 6th year of teaching. I was thinking today about how I want to want to come to school each day. Right now, there are days that are tough and days that are great. There are a myriad of reasons for that but in the end, most of them are just excuses. 

I want to use this post as my starting over point. Maybe I won't post all the time but I need to get my thoughts out of my head and into the world. Hopefully someone can see one or two of them and point them in the right direction for me.

See you soon. (Not sure when, but definitely not 6 months from now.)

Do teachers really get the summer off?

One of the most well-known benefits of being a teacher is that we "get the summer off." Before becoming a teacher I thought the same thing. Work for 10 months, take 2 months to do whatever I want. It's funny, those 2 months seem to fly by and are usually not filled with "whatever I want." In reality, many teachers most likely experience the same thing and don't stop working during the summer. Even if we don't actively plan, prep, or organize something for next year, we are constantly thinking about what just happened and where we want to go next.

This year I have more plans for next year than I have in the past and I will have to devote some of my time to that soon - just not for a few more days. When school ended for me on June 24th, I made a decision to not worry about anything for the rest of the month. This idea turned out to be a success! I thought about some things, but did not act on anything specific and with a little more than one day of forced rest left, I spent a little time tonight building a summer reading list and writing this post.

In the week since school ended, I was able to go to CrossFit 4 times, ran once, had 3 Daddy-Baby days, spent a day at the pool, went to Sesame Place twice and just enjoyed the company of my wife and daughter without distractions. This past week has reminded me all of the things I want to be able to do during the school year and not just during the summer. I have to get better at planning and organizing and grading and contacting parents so that I can experience this past week all year long.

Although July is right around the corner and we still have two more trips planned for the near future, taking the rest of June off was definitely what I needed and leaves me ready to go on Monday. Bring it on!!