As I am trying to close out the end of this academic year, I find my current students wanting to keep gaming, doing social studies, throughout the summer. In just 4 weeks, 51 students have completed over 1400 quests! That alone is an amazing phenomenon. I have introduced the program to students and parents of next years 6th grade class during our transition parent night. The general climate after the presentations was excited for new possibilities. I find myself preparing an introduction to other teachers in the school district on the possibilities that game lab has to offer to hopefully convert a few more believers to the movement of the gamification of education to motivate more learners through choice. While all of this is going on I have decided to use this platform to motivate high school students embarking on credit recovery in 4 social studies course. Needless to say, at least for this educator, Game Lab has opened new possibilities and motivate learners.
Day: June 8, 2012
Ed Tech 541 – Week 1
As I continue my journey in becoming a technology integrator, I am finding this course intriguing. It is validating the practices that I have employed in my own teaching and have encouraged others to delve into. I found this particular assignment very helpful as I organize my thoughts about closing the school year and reflect upon what has worked this year.
As an introductory piece, our instructor had each student select a digital image of ourselves and create an “I Am Poem.” I liked that there were models presented and that one of the models allowed the student to type in descriptive words an the poem would be generated from there. (Online I Am Poem Creator)I feel this sort of tool would be particularly helpful for students that have difficulty with generating ideas for writing. Many times getting started can be half the battle for struggling learners. The poem I generated and those of my classmates can be viewed at http://www.flickr.com/photos/78773858@N03. I can certainly see this as a great introductory activity to start out the school year next fall.
Here is my Relative Advantage Assignment for this week. Although my focus is on social studies I found that many resources I use in the classroom can be utilized across content areas at the secondary level.
Joanna Marcotte: M.E.T. Portfolio 