As a fourth year teacher I am starting to get a hang of how this whole teaching and learning thing really works. At first things like objectives, scaffolding, and student voice were just buzzwords that I heard but never REALLY knew what they meant. But after seeing how a real classroom works and how learning takes place now I know, now I understand how movement and competition in boys helps them learn complex ideas. I now understand that in order to understand complex ideas sometimes you have to start small and simple. I even understand the idea of sandwiching new material (no not that!) The idea that when teaching material it is best to review previous related material, introduce new material, and then finish with a review of the new material again. These ideas, concepts, and buzzwords all mean something and if you can understand these basic laws of education than you can begin to get creative with HOW you scaffold your content for maximum impact. As a history teacher I have tough job, I have to make a subject that traditionally people hate into a fun learning environment that draws diverse students in and pushes them to think deeply. This past month I have begun to develop a new way to make this happen, a way to incorporate deep thinking, core concepts of my class, competition, collaboration, and even fun into a history class. The idea is a game, the Nation Building Game (forgive me I am still workshopping the title). I am big believer in the relatively new educational concept known as “Gamification.” A concept that I have written about in the past and defined as incorporating video game elements into the classroom consisting of four elements: Competition, Collaboration, Constant Tracking of Progress, and Constant Reward. In my constant effort to make my class better I try my best to incorporate these concepts into everyday life at my school. I have even developed a complex badge and reward system for my class that students can collect throughout the semester, a game known as “sector 6.” This idea of gamification is at the core of what I believe in as an educator. The idea that we must stop fighting growing societal norms and instead embrace what our students do in their personal lives and use it to our advantage. When researching more gamification content I came across a Ted Talk by John Hunter a fourth grade teacher who developed a Geo-political world peace simulation for his students. The Ted Talk explains it all but essentially his class is divided into nations and those nations must put aside their differences and solve a set of real world problems that they inherit. These problems include pollution, global warming, water rights, land disputes, and even terrorism. After watching the Ted Talk 10 times I became consumed by the possibilities in my classroom. I teach modern world history which if you want to boil it down to a simple objective my students explore how the modern nation state was formed including the creation of individual rights, as well as how industrialization and imperialism led to the great wars of the 20th century. A hefty lesson for any 15-16 year old to understand but my students are great and have yet to disappoint me. After listening to John Hunter for the fourth time I realized how applicable his game could be to my classroom. With some modifications I could have my students create their own nations, develop individual societies, industrialize, conquer new territory, make war (or conduct diplomacy), and end up in roughly the same situation as the REAL WORLD is in now! At this moment I could introduce many of the problems currently plaguing the world and see how my students handle those situations.
In this construction, competition, and collaboration the lessons learned from the past semester will be reinforced and new insights reached as the students struggle with many of the decisions that world leaders faced throughout the last 600 years. My hope is that through this game these students can become independent thinkers who use the past a guide on how to solve the problems of their future. I am no-where near ready to release the game to my class but my self-imposed deadline of Fall 2016 will be my guide. Check back to see how the game is coming and what elements will be a part of it!
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Brandon LewisMy name is Brandon Lewis and I am a high school history teacher in St. Louis Missouri. I practice the art of teaching at St. John Vianney High School. Archives
March 2016
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