Engagement matters for making a lesson memorable. While nothing is engaging for 100% of students, we do know that Minecraft is very engaging for many students. Heck, I personally spend hours playing Minecraft and lose all track of time. We may know Minecraft as a game that our students (and personal children) play. Yes, Minecraft is a game. But what… Read More »Super Basic: Create a Minecraft Lesson
Choice is very motivating. Try using my gamification template to create a Google Sheets choice board. Make a copy for each student so they can check off their choices and level up. Template Use alicekeeler.com/badgegame to make a copy of the template. Note, I have formulas all over the spreadsheet, be careful not to delete them or the board breaks.… Read More »Badge Game – Remote Learning Challenge Board
Youcubed out of Stanford is on a mission to reframe mathematics education. That there is no such thing as a math person, we are all good at math! Week of Inspirational Math The first step is to help students to have a growth mindset towards math. Youcubed provides what they call “Week of Inspirational Math.” Youcubed has a lot of… Read More »Math: Remote Learning with Youcubed WIM
Kahoot Brings Fun to Distance Learning We all know gamification works, kids will run to class and poke each other in the eye to do a Kahoot. This is my long standing joke I’ve said for years. Now we are in the position of having class online and we want kids running to learning even when it’s virtual. Student engagement… Read More »5 Ways Kahoot Supports Distance Learning
Immersive Reader Helps Our Struggling Students Google has awesome tools. Microsoft has awesome tools. Both are free. Why not set up both accounts to take advantage of the best innovation to help our students. Right now, Immersive Reader is a big deal for helping our students. Immersive Reader is a free tool that uses proven techniques to improve reading for… Read More »Why O365… Because Immersive Reader
What if Rube Goldberg Played Fortnite? Guest blog post Steve Isaacs Fornite in the Classroom? Are your students playing Fortnite? Silly question, right? Here’s another question. Have you thought about bringing their passion for Fortnite into the classroom? There is no question about the fact that Fortnite is quite relevant to our students. You may not realize it, but Epic… Read More »What if Rube Goldberg Played Fortnite? by @mr_isaacs
Start Playing Minecraft Minecraft is a virtual world that can be used for collaboration and building. This is an excellent tool for students to demonstrate their learning. Important: You do NOT need to know how to play Minecraft to teach with Minecraft. – Steve Isaacs. Allow Students to Use Minecraft Easiest way to start teaching with Minecraft is to just… Read More »Teach Better, Play Minecraft… Badly
Roll dice right from Google. Fun and easy. Great for any classroom. Gamify your class with Google Dice.
Play the Water Bottle Flipping Game I am a day late and a dollar short on this one. Water bottle flipping is no longer the in thing, but I suspect some students would enjoy the game anyway. Divide the class into 2 teams. Each team gets a water bottle. Each person in the class gets one flip of the bottle… Read More »Water Bottle Flipping – The Game
A Guest Post by Alicia Motter Impending inclement weather often precipitates conversations among teachers and students about snow days. Everyone wants one, don’t they? But the downside is that students remember less about the previous lesson because their routine has been interrupted. This is especially true when it happens right after starting new material. That is what happened to my… Read More »I’m Not a Science Teacher, I’m a Game Master
Play Like a Pirate by Quinn Rollins Reviewed by Erin Whalen In this 2016 book from Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc., author Quinn Rollins takes us on a journey of bringing fun back into our classrooms through play. Each of the three sections, Toys, Games, and Superheroes, Graphic Novels, & Comic Strips, reminds us of the importance of play and how… Read More »Make your Classroom FUN Again!
A3. I turned my entire syllabus into a welcome back game. Now it’s a team challenge through 10 stations with action-oriented work products at each so we never have to read the class rules again. Day 1 empowerment. Please steal it! https://t.co/fNci7xbwnM #hacklearning pic.twitter.com/tf4dgK5ka7 — John Meehan (@MeehanEDU) August 19, 2018 A Gamified Syllabus Guest Blog post by John Meehan… Read More »A Game-Changing Approach to a Back to School Syllabus by @MeehanEDU
Quizizz Gamified Quizzes Guest blog post by Barton Keeler “I still don’t know how to use a semicolon,” “What’s the difference between a hyphen and a dash?” “I have no idea what parallel structure is!” Every year it’s the same. I have the students complete a survey in my English classes to find out what I didn’t teach or what… Read More »Quizziz–My New Favorite Tool
Have fun with Quizizz I Periscoped Steve Isaacs experiencing a Quizizz for the first time. Quizizz gamifies multiple choice questions. This is not substitution, Quizizz genuinely makes learning better. Unlike a worksheet, Quizizz builds in engagement. Engagement matters to make learning sticky. Unlike a worksheet, the student gets immediate feedback as to if they were right or wrong. A student cares… Read More »Steve Isaacs Does His First Quizizz
Play Farkle in Google Slides Previously I had blogged on playing Farkle and provided a template in Google Slides and Google Sheets. The Google Sheets spreadsheet had a menu I coded to allow students to roll dice within the spreadsheet. I think using actual dice is better but when we do not have access to dice, it’s a decent alternative.… Read More »Practice Strategic Thinking: Play Farkle