The Definition of 'Success'

Today's French class was brought to you by the letters A - E - G and A. My grade 8s participated in a digital escape room organized by Cavilam. Our mission was to save the French language from disappearing, and there were a series of puzzles and challenges to complete in order to do so.  In my class, I registered five teams with five students on each team. The official instructions indicated that a minimum language level of B1 on the DELF was necessary to participate. My students have not written the DELF, but I would put their competence somewhere around A2 (the progression is A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2)  I knew going in that this activity would be a significant challenge for the groups.



About midway through the allotted 45 minutes, it was clear that no groups were going to be able to solve all 6 country challenges. This was not surprising to me, and I chose to announce to the class that it was highly unlikely they would win the game. Getting incredulous looks, I went on to make sure they understood that "success" was never the intention with this activity, and that I just wanted them to do their best.

When the time had expired, most groups had successfully solved one out of six series of challenges. And they were excited! We briefly discussed why I would have set them a challenge that I didn't expect them to finish successfully - their answers were astute:

"To give us an experience with different types of French."
"So that we could practice working cooperatively as a group."
"To have fun."
"To learn about French places in the world."
"To practice our reading and listening skills."

They did all of those things for 45 minutes, and persevered even when the task was complex. This will be an idea I return to over and over this year, and I love that we were able to start off with such a great example of a high-ceiling task. So much can be learned, even when we don't "succeed".

Where's the Line?

Been thinking about video games during free-time at my school. My students and I had a lengthy chat about this on Friday. It's hard to know where to "draw the line" when it comes to games in school, and I don't pretend to have all the answers. However, I will always err on the side of giving students the opportunity to show that they can make responsible decisions. 

Here is the body of an email I sent to my grade 8 teaching partners and my principal in regards to this question.

I had a long chat with my grade 8s on Friday about choosing appropriate games to play on school computers. I asked for the titles of some of the games they are playing currently, so that I could check them out. They all agreed that there are definitely some games that are more inappropriate for school than others. That being said, most video games have some element of confrontation inherent in the genre. If you think of games in the past like Pacman or Mario, video games are often about "killing" in some way. 

The three titles that we talked about specifically on Friday were Krunker (what is called a "first person shooter"), Rooftop Sniper, and Tank Trouble (both of which are 2D games). The first is a definite NO, in my opinion (and in the opinion of my students) It is 3D, graphic, semi-realistic, and involves stalking other players in order to shoot them. The others, while they do involve shooting, are not at all realistic. Rooftop Sniper involves repeatedly pressing one or two buttons in order to force your opponent off a roof, while Tank Trouble is about aiming where your shot ricochets in order to hit your opponent within a 2D maze.

I worry that if we try to police any game where there is some element of confrontation, we would be better to simply ban the use of school computers for games of any sort (which is not something I recommend). My students were very quick to admit that Krunker was not the right choice for an in-school game, but were honestly not clear as to why the others caused a problem (and I tend to agree with them). I don't think we can legitimately claim that a game like Tank Trouble is in the same category as Fortnite or Krunker. Thinking about cultural responsiveness, and as a player of video games myself, I think it is important that we validate and affirm students' interests in gaming, and then build and bridge to help them make appropriate choices in school. Obviously, if the games they are playing are causing serious real-world conflicts between students, those games would be better not played in school, regardless of their themes.

I've asked my students to hold off on playing games that they have already been asked to avoid, or that they know others have been asked to avoid, until such time as the grade 8 teachers can chat about this. I also let them know that if they think a game might be inappropriate, the better choice would be not to play it at school. Additionally, we talked about the fact that it becomes more of a discipline issue if they have already been asked to stop playing a game but choose to continue playing anyway.

I'd love to have a chance to chat about this with you all; I think we have an opportunity to do some teaching around digital citizenship, and appropriate decision-making, rather than clamping down on video games altogether.

ISTE 2016 - A Denver Adventure!

I recently returned from my first ever "away" conference (i.e. out of province). I attended the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Denver. With close to 20 000 attendees, presenters & exhibitors, hundreds of sessions on all sorts of educational technology, and thousands upon thousands of people to meet...

All in all, it was quite overwhelming!

Despite the hugeness of it all, I managed to come away with a number of ideas that I'm keen to implement in my classroom, and to share with others through professional development and conversations.

One of the best parts about the conference was the opportunity to sit down and have conversations with other educators, and to try new ideas for myself. There were the playgrounds (tables set up around a theme, with the opportunity to explore various aspects), the poster sessions (over 35 booths set up to showcase excellence in educational practices), the sit and listen sessions, bring your own device sessions, and the campfires (getting together to chat in small groups about a given topic).

The campfire I attended on Gamification was an excellent opportunity to talk through some of the challenges of integrating game-like elements into the classroom in a small group, which meant we got to really share our ideas.

Also, we sat around an actual campfire ;-)

There was so much to see and do that I can't write about all of it here. Advice that I got from a veteran ISTE-goer was to pick just one or two things to focus on for the coming school year, and it's advice I intend to take! Small things, like the 5 Minutes of Creativity session I attended, will be easier to implement day to day - it's the larger, systemic changes that will take time and effort to do properly. My big goal is to really improve upon my Core French gamification plan for next year. I'll be looking at ClassCraft to help me out, and drawing on the conversations and resources from this past week.

If there is one huge takeaway from the conference, it is in something that Michelle Cordy, the closing keynote speaker said. She said, "Go home, and continue to be a connected educator. Ideas spread contagiously." As educators, we need to be ready to connect with each other, to share great ideas, and to be bold enough to try new things. I found her speech very inspiring, and from the reactions of the crowd, I'm sure others felt the same way.

Here we are doing power poses during the closing keynote

If you ever have an opportunity to attend a large-scale conference as an educator, I would highly recommend it. Not just for the content of the sessions, but for the amazing connections you can make with other people who are just as passionate about teaching as you are! I will definitely be reaching out in the future to the people I met, and I look forward to ongoing collaboration.