A Fantastic First Day of School

Today was fantastic.

When I put aside / ignore / block out any of the little annoyances that have no influence on the students right before my eyes, the first day of school is great.  Any hiccups today had nothing to do with the students.

I was able to mingle with the students to start learning their names and getting to know who they are. (See Legos for the First Day of School) Some were very creative with their Lego sculptures today, giving me some good insight into the people I’ll be working with throughout the year.

Some highlights:

This student expressed a fear of heights.

A rocket enthusiast built this specific type of rocket / launcher that I don't recall at the moment. 

The half Lego person and the walls are showing that this student gets overwhelmed a lot.

The swing symbolizes that the student loves to play outside.

This person expressed seventh grade to be a window of opportunity to learn new things.

Just focus on those students and allow their personalities to shine through, and it will be a fantastic first day…..I’m optimistic it will be a fantastic year.

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If you had a fantastic first day with your students or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

Gamification in the Classroom: Big "G" or little "g"?

There’s one week left before I begin learning about my new students. As part of my preparation this summer, I have explored reasons and techniques to gamify my classroom.

“Rpg, Game, Play, Dice, Dungeons.” Rpg Game Play -
Free Photo on Pixabay, pixabay.com/photos/rpg-game-play-dice-
dungeons-468917/.

My eyes have been opened to the fact that gamification exists in multiple ways in our lives: businesses use badging and credentials in training, stores and restaurants offer rewards cards, businesses offering free trials, fitness apps offering badges and recognition, etc. They are all ways to motivate people to come back for more and/or to excel. In addition to engagement, gamifying the classroom can offer great opportunities for student choice and collaboration.  Done appropriately
students can become better learners.

I am, however, still up in the air for my classroom. Big “G” Gamification or little “g” gamification. 

Two different approaches to gamifying the classroom. I understand the former as a full-fledged, year-long commitment to Gamification: storyline, XP, items, badges, levels, leaderboards, side quests, etc.  These are elements of video games and other role-playing games. In a nutshell, little “g” gamification would be using those same elements within an activity or employing games to elicit engagement, student choice, and collaboration and enhance students’ learning.

Still wrapping my head around Gamification, I have to make my choice within this week. But recently, as I have had this debate in my head, I’ve thought of another possibility.  Perhaps I could lay Gamification out to the students and give them the choice:  Is this something we should try together? 

I could then ask for ideas (within certain parameters) as to what our game should entail. They would help design the game which could encourage even greater engagement in the game but could also, and more importantly, a evoke greater desire to learn.

We will see where this Gamification/gamification adventure leads me.


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If you gamify your classroom or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

Bringing My Learning Into Class

As a teacher, summer can rejuvenate and provide opportunities to hone my craft. I also like to take the time to learn and try new things.

This summer I dabbled in music.  Toward the end of last school year, I took several lessons to learn a bit about playing the ukulele.  Over the course of the summer, I committed myself to practice. I have picked up the ukulele for at least 30 minutes nearly every day.  Naturally, I have improved - though not so much that I’m comfortable sharing those skills here.

I will, however, speak with my students about my learning, my practice, and my improvement. Maybe, if I build up my nerve, I’ll play for them. 😮

Another learning adventure involved prop making.  For absolutely no reason, I became intrigued with prop making techniques I bumped into on YouTube.  Using Odin Abbott’s YouTube channel Odin Makes as inspiration, I made my version of Wonder Woman’s shield.  Despite its flaws, I think it
turned out pretty nifty for a first effort.

I’ll probably bring it to school for decoration and imagine it will generate conversations with the students.

Even though both of these pursuits were for my own growth, I will be able to transfer them into opportunities to generate conversation and develop relationships with my students.

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If you bring interesting elements of your life to engage students or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.

Legos For the First Day of School

Jarrett, Kevin. “LEGOs Donated to My Classroom.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 30 

Aug. 2015, www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/20387355543/in/photostream/.

Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)  

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Several goals come to mind for the first day of school:

• I want students to feel at ease.
• I want many opportunities to interact with each student.'
• I want students to enjoy themselves.

So, this year, students will manipulate Legos.  I have used them in the past as a way students can show understanding, so, if past experience proves, true, they will enjoy themselves and be at ease. Playing can easily allow students to feel relaxed and help wash some anxiety away. This type of activity has shown that it is accessible even to those students who don't enjoy Legos or who doubt their creative abilities.

With six large bins of Legos waiting for the students, I will have them create objects or scenes that show the following:'

1. something about themselves as a learner (strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes)
2. something about themselves as a person (personality, passions, values)
3. something they are looking forward to in 7th grade.

As they create, I will engage in conversation with the students. I'll speak with them about what they are constructing and extend the conversations as well.  The activity will provide me the opportunity to make a personal connection with each student.

Once done with their sculptures, students will use Chromebooks to take pictures and write what each shows. They will eventually share those with me, so I can refer back to them.

I'm looking forward to meeting the students and am optimistic this activity will help us all get on to the right feet the kick off the school year.

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If you have engaging activities for the first days of school or, if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.