Thinking About Gamifying My Class

   Last year I went to our statewide technology conference. After sitting in on some of the presentation, I walked away in awe of how cool it would be to bring some of those games into my classroom.(Let me add, before this conference I had never heard of game based learning or gamifying the classroom.) As I started to look and see what games would benefit my curriculum I started to focus towards a game based learning approach. I started to look at a local market around Madison, WI called Filament Games. They have a bunch of games aligned to the CCSS. Most of the games are geared towards middle school and higher education but I did purchase a couple fo the games to use in my classroom for science and math.
 
 It just so happened that not long after the conference my school district was starting a book study on Explore Like A Pirate. Since this was the path I was heading down, I jumped on board and joined the book study. It really made me think about what direction I wanted to go. Was I going to go with a game based learning approach or would/ should I gamify my entire classroom? After giving it much thought I decided to gamify my math class.
   Now, people say to just start small, with a unit and build off of it throughout the years. I am not a person who only does things part way. I am an all or nothing kind of person. If I am going to put time and effort into it, I am going to make sure it is done right and done well. Don't get me wrong though, if doing it little parts at a time works for you then do it! It is better than doing nothing.
   I am not halfway through the first year of running my gamified math class and I have been amazed at the engagement in the students and their scores reflect it. The way I have developed and tweaked my game gives students voice and choice in what they learn, how they learn it and how they want to demonstrate their mastery of the concepts. It is self paced but with deadlines.
   My plan is to walk you through my experiences in gamifying my math class in my upcoming blogs. I will take you through my successes and failures and the process of how I gamified a year long math class for 4th graders!

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