It's All Fun and Games

Finally getting around to reading the September/October 2011 issue of Knowledge Quest, and guess what ... it's about educational gaming! I'm so behind the times. Actually, you know what? I was super AHEAD years ago. At least when it comes to actual games (versus gamifying lessons). Check out this snazzy collection development guide that I and a classmate put together for our Children's Lit class back in 2006: It’s Your Turn: Best Board Games for Your Children’sRoom

For the last day of school, I brought in Uno and Taboo. They're related, respectively, to math and ELA! I definitely want to plan for International Games Day in November this year.

Anyways, here are some ideas/resources from KQ:

• School Library System of the Genesse Valley Educational Partnership Game Library - They aligned all of the games in their collection to AASL standards! I need to get a copy of Mayer and Harris' Libraries Got Game.
  
  
• "Board games promote collaboration, inquiry, and critical thinking." (p.10, Annalisa Crews)
  
  
• 7Ate9 = math card game
  
  
• "[A]ctive learning through playing games allows the school librarian to deliver differentiated instruction. The nature of games enables students to use different learning styles, such as kinesthetic or auditory modes, to be successful in demonstrating mastery of information or library skills." (p. 20, Jennifer Siderius)
  
  
• starfall.com =  free phonics
  
  
• Three recommended online MYTH resources: The BigMyth; Thinkquest; and Myths Brainstorming Machine
  
  
• Gamestar Mechanic lets kids learn about game design and then create their own.
  
  
• Play science, math, social studies, and health games at Brainpop.
  
  
• Why not offer the option for students to design a game about the topic they're studying instead of a presentation or paper? (Alan Gershenfeld)
  
  
• When Mary Fran Daley taught a class in creating games with Scratch, her "'difficult' students were the learners of my dreams because they were having fun."
  

NPR YA TBD

NPR is collecting votes for "Best Ever Teen Novels." You can only pick 10. I chose these from the list they gave:

• Before I Die 
• Before I Fall 
• The Book Thief 
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
• The Hunger Games 
• I Am the Cheese 
• Make Lemonade 
• Nation 
• A Northern Light 
• Thirteen Reasons Why 

Some of the comments bring up the differences between middle-grade and young-adult fiction. And strongly disagree with the rating committee's delineations. And have fits that "Ender's Game" was left out.


Here is NPR's response.

Reality Is Broken

I finally finished Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken as part of the Level Up Book Club, and I think that every education administrator needs to read it too! And probably a lot of people in the corporate world as well.

Source: realityisbroken.org

Choice quotes:

p. 48: "As long as we're focused on intrinsic and not extrinsic reward, we never run out of the raw materials for making our own happiness."

p. 67: "The right kind of failure feedback is a reward. It makes us more engaged and more optimistic about our odds of success."

p. 68: "Being really good at something is less fun than being not quite good enough ... yet."

p. 113: "We want to be esteemed in the eyes of others, not for 'who we are,' but rather for what we've done that really matters."

 p.127: "And that's why today's born-digital kids are suffering more in traditional classrooms than any previous generation. School today for the most part is just one long series of necessary obstacles that produce negative stress. The work is mandatory and standardized, and failure goes on your permanent record."

p. 129: Re: secret assignments at the Quest to Learn charter school: "Obviously not all schoolwork can be special, secret missions. But when every book could contain a secret code, every room a clue, every handout a puzzle, who wouldn't show up to school more likely to fully participate, in the hopes of being the first to find the secret challenges?"

p. 131: Re: expertise exchange at Q2L: "By identifying your strengths and interests publicly, you increase the chances that you'll be called on to do work that you're good at. In the classroom, this means students are more likely to find ways to contribute successfully to team projects. And the chance to do something you're good at as part of a larger project helps students build real esteem among their peers - not empty self-esteem based on nothing other than wanting to feel good about yourself, but actual respect and high regard based on contributions you've made."

p. 268: "Collaboration isn't just about achieving a goal or joining forces; it's about creating something together that it would be impossible to create alone."

p. 272: "Co-op games deliver all the emotional rewards of a good game, while helping gamers avoid activating the negative emotions that can come with highly competitive play: feelings of aggression, anger, disappointment, or humiliation."

Games to play:

ChoreWars

The Extraordinaries is now called Sparked

Free Rice