I’m teaching Social Studies again this year. Grade 8 Social Studies. My curriculum is…world history. Pretty much none of it is off the table. As a fan of history, this is great. I started the year by running a Classroom Story where students create and run their own city-states/islands. We learned about some of the terminology…
I started this series earlier last year (Part 1 & Part 2), examining how video games have become one of our culture’s favourite types of text. But this series is not just about video games. It’s about how the benefits of games can crossover into education. This series stems from my fascination with how people…
Read more Dichotomy in the Classroom: Teaching a Gaming Generation (Part 3)
In part 1, I explored ideas relating to the current state of video game culture; the way video games have evolved with the ubiquity of social media and video sharing and how our students participate in this culture. Here in part two I’m examining: how gamers have personality types, why we should view students as gamers, and why we need to…
Read more Bartle’s Kids: Teaching a Gaming Generation (Part 2)
At a semi-recent PD day, I got the chance to try a Breakout Room scenario thanks to Tara McLauchlan. In a Breakout Room (or escape room), participants are immersed in a narrative that takes place in a single room and requires their escape. Escape is typically achieved by opening a heavily locked box. Elements have been placed about the…
Schmidt's Class 