That Moment

I have always been someone who, upon hearing about a good education idea or product, has assimilated it into my classroom if at all possible. I am kind of a hoarder of best practices. Working in groups and coaching more than lecturing, sure. Incorporating something like Classflow or Google Classroom if the technology is available, that is a good idea for the 21 century classroom. Add hooks to material that, maybe doesn't excite your average 9 to 13 year old to draw them in, that makes total sense. Building toward larger, more real world problems? Yes, please.

All of this is just logical and, as research would suggest, good teaching in a post industrial country where we find ourselves now. How we teach kids to look at material is changing. Our classrooms are changing. Our learners are changing. So we must change too. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, connected teachers are everywhere, in every subject, at every level. Do not be afraid to look for them. You can find people who inspire you. People who spark ideas. People who make you put the book down and shout brilliant! Why haven't I been doing this all along!?

This community can produce that moment when you know you have found something that you should have thought of a long time ago, but you never allowed yourself to go there. For me, I knew I had to give this whole Gamify thing a shot when I read about boss battles. You see, in gaming, bosses are the big challenges at the end of a stage or area where you use all of the skills and abilities you have gained to take down what is usually some big, nasty, powerful bad guy or monster. Hmm. That's weird. Using all the skills gained in an area to take on a big challenge. Sounds just like our modern unit by unit breakdown.

So I am reading Explore Like A Pirate, and the author says that his kids don't take tests, they complete boss battles. You set the students up with an enemy on the board. It could be a historical army, the villain from the story that they read, or just a big angry looking knight with an intimidating magical glow. Assign the enemy a number of strikes needed to defeat it, my recommendation is whatever amount would be needed for the groups or class to achieve a benchmark score. Then let them rip. Students, as they get older, care less and less about reaching a benchmark score (with the exception of your highly motivated learners). But you tell them that Lowthar the Devourer of Babies and Puppies is here and every correct answer counts as a hit against him, most kids want to put the troll in the ground.

Did I mention the rewards? If your classes are in full on game mode, their character should be receiving a nice experience point bump, maybe a cool item to use in class, and/or a special boss based badge (say that three times fast).

This was the moment for me. I have been beating bosses since we unwrapped the Nintendo Entertainment System when I was 5 and that big old turtle-dragon-dinosaur Bowser came waltzing into my life. Why had no one in my life ever stuck that motivation in front of me? Moreover, why wasn't I doing it for my learners?! Well, here and no further. January 26th is our first boss battle, I will tell you all about it...cause that's what blogs are for. Go forth and be awesome!