Creating Video Games in the Classroom

At the MACE conference I attended a presentation titled "What Teachers (and Students) Can Learn From Video Games" from Curtis Chandler, Kansas 2011 Teacher of the Year.  It was one of the best sessions of the conference and I believe that video games can play an important part in educating our students.


Video game use in the classroom is broken down into three different categories.  The categories range from fun/motivational, to simulations to create multiple solutions to a single problem, to the creation and sharing of video games.


Curtis used Burger Tycoon and Incredibots 2 as examples of simulation games.  Both of these were great examples of how students can use critical thinking as well as trial and error to learn cause and effect.


I was the most impressed with the power of video game creation.  Video game creation is not regulated to programmers and with these free programs, teachers can incorporate video game creation into their curriculum.  The incorporation into curriculum is only limited by teachers' imagination.  Some of the game creation programs used by Curtis include Scratch, Storytelling Alice, Sandbox, and Wii Game Studio.


If you are interested in incorporating video games into your classroom, you can watch Curtis Chandler's presentation below.  I would also be excited to help you utilize these tools in your classroom.

Keep Track of News and Blogs with Google Reader

Numerous educational blogs exist that can help you in the classroom.  Google Reader can help you to organize your blogs.  Everyday users can use Google Reader to keep track of news and blogs outside of the education realm.

Google Reader - follow the instructions or view the video

1. Create a Google Reader account
   • Go to http://reader.google.com/
   • Sign in by typing your District Gmail password.
2. Find educational blogs, news, or information that you would like to add to your Reader account
3. Once you find an educational blog that you wold like to follow:
   • Copy the link of the site
   • Go to Google Reader
   • Click Add a subscription
   • Paste the link
   • Click Add
4. Check Google Reader periodically as it will go and find any updates to the blogs you are watching and post them in your Reader account.

Google Reader Instruction Video
This video is a little dated.  You will be able to login with your email password instead of creating a new account.  In the interest of saving our district's Internet bandwidth, users outside the district cannot view this video.

Finding Educational Blogs

To find educational blogs, you can search the web or you can visit MrsSmoke’s blog post, “Educational Blogs You Should Be Investigating” listing and categorizing many different blogs.  Don't forget to add the Eagle Technology blog!

I also use Google Reader to keep up on state legislative news.  Here are three sites you can add to Google Reader to keep up with the Kansas State Government.  Add these feeds to your Reader to get easy, automatic updates.
The Topeka-Capitol Journal - http://cjonline.com/do/not/override/panel/taxonomy/term/15/2
The Wichita Eagle - http://www.kansas.com/news/legislature/index.html
LJWorld - http://www2.ljworld.com/news/politics/kansas_legislature/

English teachers be sure to check out and add the Grammarly blog to your Reader!

Parents, be sure to add the following teacher blogs to your Reader feed!
Teresa Bradshaw - http://bradshawssocialstudiescentral.blogspot.com/
Rebecca Huelskamp - http://mrshuelskamplanguagearts.blogspot.com/

Grammarly@edu (Formerly SentenceWorks)

Fine tuning writing skills can be a tall order. Grading student writing is a very time consuming task, and students must write frequently and receive feedback to improve those skills. Grammarly is a tool that will allow your students to check their papers for over 150 grammar rules, plagiarism, vocabulary enhancement, and spell check. This is a resource that you can require your students to use to get immediate feedback and fix their writing before turning in a paper. English teachers know that a well written paper is easier and quicker to grade than a poorly written one.

I checked this blog with Grammarly. The program reminded me about preposition use and suggested that I reword my sentence so I did not end with one. Passive voice was pointed out to me, and I chose not to correct it in this sentence. Grammarly felt like my nagging high school English teacher constantly critiquing my paper with red ink. I kept modifying my paper and reviewing my changes until she had almost nothing left to say.

Grammarly is currently in use within USD 331. According to our stats, a number of teachers are currently using the online resource regularly. Please contact me and I can resend you the registration information if you wish to have your students utilize this tool.