Lessons With Dad

Once I figured out what system I would use, the next step is to settle on a Theme. If you have not chosen a system yet, check out my earlier blog, " What System? " The Theme is a very important part of the gamification process because this is going to be the background or back story that your game follows. Theme can be one of the harder aspects to settle on because of its importance, but it can also be one of the most satisfying. Once you make a decisions on your Theme, other aspects start falling into place. What is Theme The Theme is the background story of what your game is going to be based on. It is the continually running story in the background of your gamified classroom that all the other aspects (badges, gold pieces, XP) are tied in to. Your Theme can change for each unit or it can be a year long Theme. How to choose a Theme Theme can be one of the harder mechanics of gamifying your classroom because of its importance. On the other hand, you may have part

Every year 4th graders take an exciting journey of traveling back in time! They travel back over a hundred years ago, when our little town became an incorporated village in Wisconsin. They get to experience what it was like to go to school in a one room schoolhouse and the responsibilities of students their age back in Pioneer Days! What is Pioneer Days Every year in March, 4th graders get to experience Pioneer days! This is the 39th year students will be participating in Pioneer Days. Each class will have two whole days of experiencing what it was like to be a student back in the "Pioneer Days." One of the coolest things of Pioneer Days is students dress in character. We work with our local historical society to set up times for students to go in and try on different outfits they would like to wear. If they would like to dress in character they are allowed to borrow an outfit at no cost to them. Activities at Pioneer School Day1 When students come in the mor

Ready for the ride! This year for Spring Break we thought it would be a good idea to strap down two toddlers in their car seats and drive to Florida! Yes! You heard right, we are going to TRY to drive to Florida with two toddlers. Now, before you laugh to hard, let me explain a little. My parents are retired and spend most of the winter in Daytona Beach and my wife's brother lives in Miami. Hopefully you don't think I'm that crazy anymore. We are taking a family vacation to visit family. We decided to drive because Mara turns 2 the night we are leaving, so we would have to pay for 4 tickets. With it being Spring Break tickets are not cheap and we figured why pay for the ticket when she would probably spend most of the time on moms lap anyways. Right now we are in the process of trying to get things organized and planned out for the kids. We have been doing research about things to occupy kids on long car rides. I thought, what a better place then to put it on the b

My wife works 12 hour nights, as a nurse at a local hospital. Before you start feeling bad for her, remember I am teacher who gets summers off and she still works less than I do, while making a decent amount more. She just came home from working a 12 hours shift and was headed to bed. I told her she should sleep on a towel in case something were to happen while she was sleeping. She was 39 weeks along and we were anxiously awaiting our sons arrival. While she was sleeping I decided I needed to get some yard work done. I got the lawn mower out of our shed and started to cut our grass. I hooked up my Iphone to Pandora and was all set to jam out while getting some work done. I made my first row around our entire yard, when I saw some movements out of the corner of my eye. I looked up towards the back of our house and there was my wife standing on our patio with a towel between her legs. I didn’t take my headphones off and tried to ask her what was going on? She pointed to her stoma

One of the greatest sounds a person can hear is laughter! I am sure you have all heard that laughter is contagious, but that takes on a whole new meaning when you become a parent. You can be having the worst day and just hearing those little giggles and laughter can turn your whole day around! Pie Face Showdown The other night we went to my brother-in laws house. To the kids, going to someone else's house is a gold mine for new treasures waiting to be discovered. As they were taking all the games out and scattering them across the floor it went quiet. This is usually not a good sign with toddlers. All of a sudden we heard a bunch of laughing. I peered around the corner and to my disbelief they were playing " Pie Face Showdown " They were playing it together, laughing! Parents know that these moments are few and far between with toddlers. Yes, you heard me right, they were playing and laughing TOGETHER! I had to take video as my proof. I had to capture this moment

This is a general overview of the system I use and how I am gamifying my classroom. I do not claim to be an expert on the topic, I want to share the decisions I made and what I am doing in my classroom in hopes that it may help other educators with decisions they are trying to make to gamify their own classrooms. I finally made the decision to go all in and gamify my year long math class. Now, I had the task of figuring out what system/s I would use. I had to make a decision about creating my own or just using one that someone else had already put together. If I pick the latter, then I could implement it right away in my classroom. I also hear a lot in education "work smarter, not harder". After having that sink in and seeing what was out there, I decided to combine the two. I use a spreadsheet that was already built and put together, but then I had to add a few things and align it to my current math curriculum. Explore Like a Pirate After reading the book " Ex