An Education in Holidays

Last year and this year I used Mental Floss videos around the holiday times to give an unbiased account of "facts" about the holidays. Whether it was Thanksgiving, Halloween, or winter holidays, I've found Mental Floss to be a great source of really random and interesting facts that my kids feel a little bit smarter for knowing and I've heard many stories about how they shared some of the wacky facts with family and friends.

And let's not forget, my kids LOVE John Green, so that doesn't hurt. I liked the song guy, but my kids were way more into John Green, because they love his books that became movies.

Here are my favorite Winter Holiday videos from Mental Floss that we watched in Social Studies this year.

How my Geek Inspired a School

Our school has a goal to build a passion for Literacy! I'm part of an academic team that is trying to create monthly themes with weekly activities to engage Morning Meeting (Homeroom) groups in a Literacy activity. Literacy is composed of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It also includes Visual Literacy. Telling story through pictures and representing ideas through visuals is part of Literacy.

For the month of December I designed a Book-to-Movie themed activity using The Tale of the Three Brothers from J.K. Rowling's Tales from Beedle the Bard. It's also used in the Deathly Hallows movie. So my activity included doing a read aloud of the short story, then as a group the classes create their own visual story for the short story (I provide little squares with quotes from the book that they draw on and put the story in order), and lastly, they watch the video clip from the Deathly Hallows, which is read by Hermoine and is animated.

To help out some of the teachers who were consistently concerned about the amount of extra work that our Culture of Literacy activities were putting on them, I really wanted to relieve all the stress by making a read-aloud video that provided context, read the story, and gave discussion topics. So I made a video. It's rather amateur and I had to rush it (filmed it the morning after learning of the death of a family member so that I could edit it over Thanksgiving while we were with family for the funeral). Arrival on set was at 5:30AM (before almost anyone is even at the school and it still feels like midnight outside).

Here it is. I hope you enjoy and at least get a little laugh. It's supposed to be funny for Middle School kids.

It was pretty awesome and now I am known as "that YouTube teacher" for the kids who don't know me. Kids who knew me sought me out to tell me how awesome the video was AND give me high fives. I received some incredibly complementary e-mails from co-workers and it was just an overall great experience. They are so psyched for the future activities, it's amazing how they are excited about Literacy. Happy dances all around!

Just another addition to my crazy list of teacher geekery!

A Monster Calls

This past school year, I wanted to try to pick some books for Read Alouds that were unusual and fit me and the kids. I was a little frustrated this year, because it's hard to do a Read Aloud EVERY DAY! I mean, there just isn't the time to get everything done. So while I was looking for books to start the year off with, I stumbled upon a unique find: A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.

What I first noticed was the cover and how it felt intriguing. I wanted to know more about what I was seeing. Then I read the back and it was about a boy who was dealing with his mother's battle with cancer. Talking about hitting me right in the kissah! It felt like something I could connect to. Something timely and intimate for me.

Finally, I looked at the chapters and they were all nicely portioned into manageable sections. So each chapter was the perfect length for a Read Aloud. Add in the gorgeous illustrations that I could put on the SMARTBoard from my Kindle copy of the book and we're in business.

It was the best book I could have selected to really get my kids into what we were doing. We were all so into it and looked forward to reading the chapter each day. I did the monster voice and the Kindergarten Walk when there were pictures to show that didn't show up on the Kindle book. When the book ended, my students were so frantic and full of thoughts and energy, we spent the class period reflecting and having group discussions. It was amazing!

One of my substitutes, who deviates from the lesson plan, looked up the book and noticed it was going to be turned into a movie. Well, the kids were so excited about it. So when my husband linked me the teaser trailer, I KNEW I had to make a lesson out of it. And here we are, the three rough days before Thanksgiving, indulging in critical analysis and reflection of a teaser trailer for a book we spent two months reading!

First I asked my students "If you were to make a trailer for A Monster Calls, what would you make sure was in it to lure the viewer to watch your movie?"  They made a list, making sure not to include any spoilers, but to make it engaging enough.

Then we watched the Trailer (twice, for good measure).

After that the students wrote about how they felt about the trailer (and why), what they were disappointed they didn't get to see (and why), and what they would have added to the trailer (and why). I tell you what, these kids need to be contacted by Hollywood, because some of them even created their own trailer and how it should be laid out. AMAZING!

Now, this was just a teaser, but the kids came up with so many wonderful ideas. Some of the kids were disappointed the trailer did not hint at 12:07 or that his mother had cancer. One of the students even brought up that the trailer made it seem like he was some sort of loner kid and was dealing with friendship issues. They also wanted the trailer to mention the stories or the tales that would be told and they were, all, upset that they didn't get to see the whole monster. Granted, they understood why they weren't going to see the monster.

I was shocked at the level of disappointment, but at the same time, they had such lofty ideas of what they wanted from the trailer. SO! Since it was a teaser, I told them that when the official trailer came out (probably during a holiday movie), we'd review our writing on this and watch that one, too, and discuss it. I'm all about visual literacy and helping the kids to apply their thinking and think deeper.

Loving the passion my classes have developed for Literacy of all sorts and that I'm helping to inspire them. It's been absolutely amazing! They were even planning on having a viewing party next year for the movie. Can't not be excited about that. So we'll see where things lead us.

If you haven't had a chance to read this book, I highly recommend it, because the book itself is absolutely amazing. My kids are concerned that the movie won't be as amazing as the book, but I think that's slightly unfair. I already am excited to see where they go with it.

#ALLMYMOVIES - A Social Experiment

I teach sixth grade Literacy. I try to teach my kids to apply what they learn in Literacy class to real world situations and events. This year we have been learning Kylene Beers Notice & Note Signposts to apply to their fiction reading in an attempt to encourage deeper thinking about what they are reading. When notice one of the signposts, they need to stop and take note of it. Then they need to ask themselves a deeper question to get at the heart of what the author wants you to understand.

As I started to teach these signposts, I started to notice myself asking signpost questions in my everyday life. I would then use these real life examples in class to encourage my kids to take their thinking outside of the classroom and into their own lives. But last night, I had an Aha! Moment for a real life application to the signpost Again and Again.

When you're reading a book and something is happening again and again or a word is being used or a situation keeps being mentioned. . . whatever it is. . . if its coming up again and again, you need to notice it, stop, and take note. Then you are to think how could this help you understand the story deeper. Will it help you to understand the theme and conflict of the story? Can is help define a character in a deeper way? Does it provide a sense of foreshadowing to the story? My students were having trouble going deeper with this signpost.

While I was surfing the net after a long day shaping young minds, I stumbled upon Shia LaBeouf's #ALLMYMOVIES art instillation in NYC. He had rented out a theater and was watching all of his movies in reverse chronological order. While he did this, he was live streaming his viewing. 3 days he would sit in the theater and watch his entire body of work. It was free for people to come in and watch the movies with him, but he had taken an artistic vow of "silence" from people, but did still interact in some capacity. The essence of this is that we are watching him, watching himself.

As I sat there, watching the live stream, I thought to myself, "What message is he trying to send with this?" I was watching someone watching their own movies. Again and again, he would sit there as a new movie rolled out and the live stream would continue to stream. It felt very voyeuristic I thought about it for a while, but then went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up and found myself checking the stream to see if he was still watching. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I did. Then it was off to work and while I was prepping my lesson for the morning, I had a stroke of genius: My students could try to figure out the meaning behind him doing this activity again and again.

I would introduce to my student Shia LaBeouf and his previous artistic endeavors, as well as the movies he's known for. Then I would explain the experiment. I would pose to them the question, "What is the theme (the message or lesson to be learned) in this artistic endeavor?"

Because, the point of art is to evoke a response, an emotion, or just a deeper level of reflection in our own lives, I wanted them to write a reflection on being part of this. So when I introduced this to my students, they all laughed and acted baffled and scoffed, but once it was on the screen, they were completely taken in by it. I explained that they were also taking part in the artistic act and have become part of the art that is being created. I took back-of-the-classroom-photographs to further validate the art.

Once they had watched for a little bit, I encouraged them to start recording how they felt and their feelings and what they think the point of all of this might be. Some of the students went deep and thought about the deeper implications of something like this, while others made it through the first step of why would this actor be watching himself, but couldn't make it to the next step of "what does us watching him have to do with it?"

They came up with some great observations and potential guesses for why he was doing this.

1. Shia LaBeouf is doing this because he wants to see if people still like him. He is looking at tweets on the internet and streaming stats later, as well as seeing, in person, the amount of people who come out to watch his work. He just wants to feel famous. 

2. Shia LaBeouf is doing this because he is reflecting on his own body of work so that he can be a better actor. 

3. Shia LaBeouf is doing this because he wants to encourage people to reach for their dreams, just like he did as a child actor. We're watching him experience the joy of reaching for his own dreams. 

4. Shia LaBeouf is doing this because he wants us to reflect on how we treat celebrities and celebrities are just normal people like everyone else. He's also putting himself in the shoes of a normal person, by watching his own movies. 

5. Shia LaBeouf wants attention because he wants all the people there to give him attention and he just wants attention from people on the internet and twitter and Facebook. 

6. Shia LaBeouf is doing this because he wants to be a better actor and reflect on the things he likes about his acting and the things that are bad so he doesn't do them again. He let other people in so that he can see what they think is funny or good or bad, too. 

7. I think this guy is crazy and too into himself. 

8. Shia LaBeouf is doing this because he wants us to think about our own obsession with looking at ourselves through pictures and images and he wants to record the good and the bad of the experience. 

9. This guy just wants us to think about our obsession with watching people on TV, especially in reality shows. He did this to try to stop reality shows from being mad, because it is wrong to spy on people. 

10. He wants people to confront their own craziness by watching his craziness. 

11. To give other people to chance to try to be crazy on camera, like that girl with the green hair who put the picture on his seat or the guy who you said was sitting behind him last night and is now sitting next to him all day.

These kids are 11 and 12-years old. Some of the thinking that came out of this was powerful and others were a bit more blase. It was such a moving activity and the kids just couldn't stop talking about it. They even realized how hard it was to not keep watching, like they were going to miss something important. I joked with one class that he is looking back at you. That really creeped them out.

The strange part was, they were unable to put into words why they kept wanting to watch. I asked a few of them and they were incapable of figuring out their own reason for watching this. Some of them said they felt a little inspired or they were thinking of how they viewed celebrities. Others said they weren't going to post pictures online anymore or they were going to stop watching reality shows, because this realized to them how creepy and stalker-like the activity was.

In the end, the lesson was a hit. The kids were engaged. The idea of going deeper was applied to real world situations. They will not forget thinking about the world around them as having meaning and having value beyond the surface. Will they apply that always? Probably not, but this art instillation or social experiment or reflective moment was powerful and its taking moments like this and sharing them with students that helps to make a more informed and powerful world.

On the flipside, my co-workers through it was crazy insane and just, overall, weird, that I would have used this. It was immediate. It was involving them in real time in something that was going on. Powerful beyond words.

This opportunity was magical and I am so glad I was able to participate and allow these discussions to take place. So proud of my students.

Halloween 2015

It was a simple Halloween. One devoid of my usual decorating prowess. I was at least able to get a costume made and I had one of my geeky-bucket-list moments!

I slaved an entire evening away making a hobbit costume that I could wear to school the next day. It made me so happy to be a hobbit, because in my soul I an totally a hobbit. I bought reusable items and only a sheet of fleece cloth for the cloak. I made a leaf button from scratch and used my husband's letter dice ring as my One Ring. I was pretty frickin' happy.

My daughter, lived her dream of being a T-Rex (the dog is a Raptor and it didn't last long).

Oh the dreams that were made this Halloween!

So Happy Halloween and here's to 2016!

GenCon: Trade Day Teaching

As an educator, I like to take advantage of Trade Day for GenCon. It's held the day before the official convention starts and there are tons of seminars hosted for educators, game store owners, and librarians. I went last year and had a great time learning about what other people were doing with games in their classrooms and being able to validate my own practices.

This year I was encouraged to run my own seminar on how to start a middle school game club, since I have a pretty successful club. Last year my husband was talking to some people while I was in a seminar and he nabbed some info on what they want out of a seminar. Thus was born my Middle School Tabletop Seminar.

As if that wasn't enough, my co-teacher totally fluffed my ego and encouraged me to do a seminar on my Lucy Calkins Cumulative Tabletop Unit. Feeling successful and wanting to have faith in my epic skillz, I submitted to run a seminar on my sixth grade Literacy unit for Tabletop Games.

GenCon gave me the opportunity to share the work I've been doing in my career field with other people who actually care about what I'm doing in my career field! I worked hard to create meaningful and informative powerpoint presentations and I used my performance humor to try to deliver a reasonably well-done seminar.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. . . I have no issues getting up in front of my students every day and teaching them. I can hear myself say "Showtime!" when I hear the bell ring and the kids stomping up the stairs each morning. I'm on, turned up to 11. Humor is my teaching tool and it works for me. Banter and inside jokes. I'm good to go.

Put me in front of my coworkers to present something or share ideas. . . I go cold fish and, on my last presentation, I was literally shaking by the end of the presentation. It's intimidating. At least here I didn't know any of the people. But I put pressure on myself, because I felt that if some of them had to pay for that Trade Day badge and were attending, they deserved to get their money's worth!

My first presentation was at 10AM and focused on How to Start a Middle School Game Club! Everyone is going to run their club differently and bring different strategies to the table, but if I can help someone just get organized and have an idea of where to go, then I'd be doing what I needed to do. My husband and our friend were with me and helped me get my projector setup and distribute handouts.

My keypoints were:

1. How is a Tabletop Club Different from Other Clubs?
2. Preparing Expectations to Pitch Your Club
3. Approaching Your Administrator
4. Getting Games
5. Plan Your Year
6. Create Student Expectations
7. The Role of Teaching & Being Taught
8. Hosting Events
9. Community Participation
10. Enlisting Parents
11. Making it a REAL Club (Add some BLING)

If you're interested in some of this information, check the end of the article for how to contact me to learn more about starting a club.


During the presentation I used my humor. I had to make several Wisconsin references, because, seriously. . . teachers are in a bad way in Wisconsin. So much so that several of the funding suggestions that were made involving Unions or Government/Private Grants, I had to say were great ideas, but weren't for me. I know how much schools in general are struggling to find funding for their CLASSROOMS; the places where children are learning and need supplies and materials. I love my club, but it's a club. It's supplemental to the learning in the classroom and should not trump the needs of the classroom. Until things in Wisconsin are better, I would feel guilty seeking funding from government and private grants. I do, though, chose to do fundraising. . . fault me, but candy bars turn the biggest profit! I've had lovely game designers offer games to the club and the rest is just out of my pocket as a labor of love.

There was also a joke at the expense of a student I really treasure having in my club. It was demonstrating how it's important to work with kids on how to behave while playing games. Ways to enhance a positive gaming experience. Certain expected standards of behavior for gamers (personal space). But I had brought up playing Shadows Over Camelot with my students, which has a traitor option. As we started playing, one of my kids decided they were only going to draw black cards. First of all, this draws attention to you and is somewhat challenging others to call you a traitor, which then also hurts the cooperative nature of the game. It also hurts everyone else, because you're drawing black cards instead of taking a hit-point or two. The point of this little story was that, it turned out they weren't the traitor, they were just being a jerk! How do we handle this kind of behavior with club members? I know the students, so I understand what's going on, but when you're doing clubs like this, you have to be prepared to handle these kinds of issues.

The presentation was progressing and I felt good. I was doing well until I realized I'm not going to finish my presentation. I tried to cover basic points, but one of the things I wasn't prepared for was there being no transition period between presentations. My room poster said there was not a presentation after mine, so I figured I had time to strike-down, but with 8 minutes left, a lady busted into my presentation and said she's next and needs to setup. It was really quite embarrassing for me and I tried to wrap-up as she started setting up her stuff.

My husband and our friend swiftly removed my projector and I removed my crates. I was visibly shaken when I left the room. No one was after her, because there was a lunch hour, so would it have killed her to have been polite about the situation and just taken 3 extra minutes into the noon hour?

Being the overly self-critical person that I am, I felt my presentation was disappointing and could have been better. A learning experience for the future that I can use to develop and grow. Then my husband and our friend, who don't dole out compliments freely, said it was really great, even with the snaffoo at the end.

My husband always says when he's in my classroom watching me teach, it's like seeing this other person. I just transform into this confident person. I always say, my classroom is my safe space. I am confident and I have no fear in my classroom. The minute I step out of my classroom, the confidence cloak just fades away. But when I'm teaching I need to just know that I'm doing an amazing job.

The second seminar I had organized was at 1PM so after some downtime and mingling, I went to my next room to set up. The problem I was having with the projector was that the walls were not white. My first presentation denied turning the lights "off," but the second presentation, they all approved! YEA!

Last Spring I was able to create a cumulative unit for my Literacy class using the Lucy Calkins writing program. My students made some amazing games, but the focus of the unit was on writing and the vehicle was Tabletop Games. It allowed for a real world application to the writing skills they've been learning all year!

The presentation was laid out following the weeks that I covered and what we covered each week.

• How to Prepare for a Unit
• Unit Outline
• Where to Begin
• Creating an Idea
• Narratives, Instructions, and Components
• Publishing
• Presentations & Sharing Final Product
• Scoring

This was the presentation I was meant to present! I was confident. I knew the information that I wanted to share and get across. I was able to discuss everything within the time allotted AND had time to clean up and get out! Immediately I was thanked by people for my presentation (which didn't happen in the other one) and people were asking me lots of questions. I was an expert!

It was liberating and made me feel great! I remember walking back to the car and I could literally feel the swagger in my step. Yea... I'm cool. One audience member said something like, "your seminar was exactly the type of information sharing he was looking and had hoped for." I don't want to direct quote, but that's almost exactly what he said. Seriously wow.... A few more people approached me through the con commenting on my seminars and thanking me for the amazing handouts and presentation. Really made me feel great. So next year I'll be back with one or both presentations.

I wasn't the only one to overhear or be directly told compliments. Another lady approached my husband, who I involved in my presentation, because he acted as my volunteer Game Developer for the kids (and is my rock during the unit). She said to him it "was the best seminar she's seen not just this year but in multiple years" (potentially not a direct quote). Blessed++ when I hear amazing compliments like this, because if you saw me stressing out about my presentations and preparing them and wanting to make them worthy of GenCon you'd think that was my plan all along.

Was my goal to help people achieved? I think yes. Starting with these two seminars gave me an extra boost for the next teaching experiences I would be participating in at GenCon.

If you're interested in the work I've written about above or would like more information, you can tweet me at @NerdyCaptSenpai or adventgeekgirl [at] gmail.

Calkins & Tabletop Games: The Awards

With such a huge unit, there has to be some over-the-top celebrating for the hard work these students have done. The grades are in the grade book and the page has been closed. Now it's time to hand out awards.

I designed eight different categories for the work my students did. I didn't want it to be one of those "EVERYONE GETS CAN AWARD!" because it takes away from how special each individual award can be. So everyone was fare game and all the awards were approved by three teachers and my husband, who was part of the process. When in doubt on who deserved an award, we turned to the final scores are tie-breakers. With the exception of two categories, each category was allowed one winner from each of my two classes.

The categories and winners are:

Greatest Turnaround (from Initial Pitch to Final Product):
Criminal Case
Llama Lyfe

Best Writing/Layout - Instructions:
Bakery
Midnight Marvel

Best Writing - Game Narrative:
Bakery
Llama Lyfe

Best Boardgame Sales Pitch:
Time Terror

Best Art & Production Design:
Everest
Sea Monsters

Best Family Game:
Panda Battle

Most Unique Departure from a Mentor Game:
Mibblonian - Dixit JINX!
Battle 4 Nations - Brave Rats

Best Overall Boardgame:
Mibblonian
Murder of the Maze

One of Those Moments

I talk about it all the time, but I guess I'll remind you, I have a Middle School Tabletop Club. They are my pride and joy. We have so much fun gaming together and building relationships and learning and just. . . it's amazing! We're a small family and we miss each other and we can't wait to see each other and it's like the highlight of our days. We laugh, we cry, we geek. . . it's wonderful.

I'm always talking about my club to people. I throw it out there all the time. . . yes, it's Middle School. . . we meet every day at lunch (for 45 minutes of gaming). It's hard, yet fulfilling. They are just such a great group of kids! I get to watch them grow and learn and develop into adorable little gamers. It does my heart proud!


So, of course, I use some of the really wonderful Web Series on games to help teach some of the games we play. I mean, seriously. . . I don't want to drone on every Monday or every other Monday about a game. So I look for neat and interesting episodes on the games we play. One of those shows is obviously Tabletop by Wil Wheaton and Geek & Sundry.

The kids just love him. Partly because they know him from The Big Bang Theory and some of them know him from their parents who watch Star Trek: The Next Generation. I mean, come on. . . he's a frickin' star and my kids know it! It also doesn't hurt that their teacher thinks he's da bomb diggity.

So on this average day at the end of the school year, the lunch bell was about to ring and I didn't have any students in my room yet, so I was checking my twitter. I saw a tweet from Anne Wheaton, Wil's wife, about how sick he felt. The bell rang for lunch and my game club students started coming into the room. I was like, "You guys! Wil Wheaton is really sick! Not life-threatening, just been sick for a few days and it sounds really bad."  One of my kids said, "We should tell him to feel better." So I composed a tweet to Anne Wheaton wishing Wil well from my Tabletop Club. I usually don't expect tweets back and it's more about just sending happy vibes out into the universe.

Within a few minutes, though, Anne Wheaton had tweeted my kids back. OMG PANDAMONIUM broke out in the classroom. The kids were already composing responses and asking me questions. One of the kids said, "Let's take a get well picture!" So we all went into the back and posed with our Pathfinder board, since all but two of the kids were meeting for their second-to-last Pathfinder campaign today. Sadly, the whole club wasn't there to participate. Many kids were stuck doing last-minute work for teachers or wanted to quick meet up with friends. But the picture was pretty great.

We tweeted it over with a thanks.

The day went on and I had meetings and things to do. When I got back from my meeting with my principal, there was a message from my husband on my screen. "Wil Wheaton tweeted you."

WHAT?!?!? WHAT?!?!?! I had totally melted. Mine and my students Tabletop Idol just tweeted us back! It was the end of the day and I didn't get to see my kids, but I came up with a great idea for them. I'm printing out the tweets for them and. . . totes geek. . . laminating them. A gift for them to remember how nice they were to their idol and that he appreciated it. And, can I just say. . . what a way to end the year!

I spent most of the night having my little fangirl moment with one of my co-teachers and then my husband at home. Then came time to figure out how to respond. I know I'm probably over-complicating it, but I feel it is my responsibility to demonstrate my appreciation for these two amazing people taking time to make my students feel special. Because, let's be serious here, this isn't about me. This is about my kids and them having the opportunity for someone they love to acknowledge them. Think back to when you were a kid and your favorite sports person waved at you or you saw your favorite singer in person and they winked at you. Do you still remember it and cherish it? My club kids just had that moment. For being nice and caring, they received a special response and it can't be more rewarding than that.

So I tweeted back and my husband was all, "You know they're not going to tweet back again, right?" And I said, "So? I know I did it. I put the good out there and if they do read it, they know the time they took to respond was meaningful."  That was that. Then, at lunch the next day, which consisted of a pizza party and final gaming, I shared the tweet with the kids and I let them decide what to tweet back. They all had so many short little burst messages to say, so I fit them all in. Even if they don't get them or they get buried under all their other response tweets, the kids feel good about getting their message out.

What a wonderful day and, like I said, an amazing way to end another great year of Tabletop Game Club.

Calkins & Tabletop Gaming - Celebrating Success

It is the end of the unit. We wrapped yesterday and had a celebration! During our 100 minute class periods we played the finished games of the students and I ran a slideshow of all the pictures I'd taken throughout the unit.

During lunch, my husband went and picked up some Hot n' Ready pizzas and the students brought in chips and drinks and we had a lunchtime party. We ran a slideshow of all of our pictures from the unit on the board. Students showed off some of their games.

I was also able to share feedback that had been left for them on BoardGameGeek. (PLEASE give thumbs and leave feedback. You have no idea how excited the kids are to see what people think about their games.)

Celebrating with the students is something that Lucy Calkins really promotes. The more you encourage and praise their successes, the more success they want to achieve. After each unit this year we always took time to celebrate the amazing job they did becoming writings. Our focus this year had been to build their writing stamina so that they could actually write without getting bogged down in the idea of "I've written 5 sentences. . . can't I be done?"

Plus, as we've told the kids, they just created something amazing, that is also very difficult for even adults to do.

I also had the students sign a "thank you" for my husband for coming and helping them. I laminated them and gave them to him in front of each class. The kids really appreciated him coming in and working with them. At this time of year it's sometimes good to get other people in the classroom to help, because the kids are sick of listening to you. Sad, but true. They're kids afterall. I always feel it's important, though, for them to always write or sign a thank you when we have people in the classroom. This year's class was clearly, truly thankful for his help. It did my heart proud.

Calkins and Tabletop Gaming - The Key is Modeling

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: One of the keys to success is modeling.

I've always been one who wants to show people how to do something through doing it myself. How do you know what you're asking the students or anyone to do unless you do it yourself? I can't teach a game unless I've played the game and learned it myself. I can't teach my daughter to make homemade pizza unless I've done it myself.

It will be a lot of work, but I recommend modeling everything for the students in this unit. That includes making a small game of your own. You don't have to go big (remember K.I.S.S.?), but you should make something so that you can also troubleshoot the problems that the students might encounter.

Below I've made a list of the activities you should prepare to model for the students so that they understand the expectations and can see what the end product or what they're doing should look like:

1. Research Reflections
Before you begin allowing the students to play games, you should prepare them for writing reflections on the games as part of their short research. By playing they games and thinking about what they like and didn't like, this will help them choose a mentor game and, hopefully, better understand how games work.

2. How to Write a Game Proposal
Before they can receive advice about their game, they have to fill out a rough draft of what they think their game should be. I filled out a rough draft of a game, as well, to show them how to do it. This also included brainstorming ideas for what kind of game they might want to make and choosing a mentor game.

3. How to Speak with a Game Developer (previously called the Publisher)
Have the volunteer or a volunteer show the students what you expect from them when they meet with the game developer for feedback on the draft of their game. Also, show them what types of notes you would expect them to write and what they are accountable for.

4. Writing a Narrative to Accompany a Game
I can give my students the narrative checklist from the beginning of the  year, but writing a narrative that demonstrates the expectation is even better! Then the students can read through the narrative and see if the checklist is being met. It also provides them with a mentor text. There is no excuse when you have provided them with an example.

5. Writing A Formal Instructional Packet
Filling out the packet that you want them to complete shows them the expectation. Use it as a teaching tool to demonstrate how to use bullet points, where to put periods, and what can be written in sentences or paragraphs and what needs to be written in steps. As they fill in the template, they can reference what you've done in your own example to guide them.

6. How to Create Digital Media
If you can show them your own finished product using the same digital tools that they will be using, it gives them hope and they see just how awesome their own creations can be. You can run a tutorial on these kinds of things, but it will always come down to having to work one-on-one with the kids to complete the task at hand. Still, make a demonstration of how to create their work digitally and have a final product to show them.

7. How to Construct Components
When you have your final components printed out or ready to construct, take a moment to show the kids how to cut out cards and apply them to playing cards or how to cut cardstock cards and glue them to backs. Showing them how to do it might seem silly, but in the end, it might give them a better perspective on what you are looking for in a final product. Sure, my 4-year-old can cut on a straight line, so you'd think a sixth grader could. It's amazing how many don't. So don't pass up the chance to show them exactly what you are looking for, even if it's just a quick 5 minute demonstration.

8. How to Playtest a Game
It may take a little while, but showing the students how to playtest a game is a valuable modeling activity. The kids want to treat it like real published games or they don't want to give the games a chance, because they can't figure it out in two seconds. Providing them with steps to follow can be beneficial and acting out those steps can also be incredibly helpful for the students.

9. How to Leave Feedback for a Game
Once you've done a playtest, make sure that you demonstrate how to leave feedback. The students would hopefully have learned how to do this prior to now, but since it is in another format and students struggle with transference of skills, it is important to show them how you want them to leave feedback. If you just give them verbal examples or quickly go over it, they will also seek to leave meaningless and inconsequential feedback for people when they play games.

10. How to Prepare an Argumentative Presentation/Present an Argumentative Presentation
I made a presentation. I wanted to show the students exactly what I am looking for in their presentation, while still allowing them their own creativity. So I made one and then I actually gave the presentation to my students. I asked them to use the rubric to score my presentation (or look at the checklist for the activity) and then I asked them to tell me what they noticed about me as a presenter. They talked about things like not looking at the board, looking at the audience, talking loudly, etc.

One thing that we found was helpful was reminding the kids before they present to look at the heading on their slide, then turn away from the slide and talking about the heading. Who knows more about their game than they do. Then, when they were done talking, they could look at the slide as they prepared to change, in case they forgot anything. It really made a difference in presentations, because the kids still felt mildly confident glancing at their slide, but they were so much more interesting and authentic when they were talking. I can tell my students that and even show them until the cows come home, but it wasn't until my husband said something that they listened. Broke my heart, but there are only 9 days left in the school year. They're sick of my yammering.

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There are so many more things you can talk about with modeling and all the different aspects of modeling, such as how to write a Works Cited for images and Mentor Games, but it's the game thing. . . walk them through it and write one of your own to guide them as a demonstration. I prefer to have my students write their bibliographies or works cited without using all these fancy new gadgets, because sometimes it's 50xs faster than plugging in a bunch of info to a thing and it spitting out a potentially flawed looking citation. I'm still old school like that.

Either way. . . modeling is a requirement of making this unit work. Not only for solidifying your own knowledge and understanding, increasing your ability to empathize with the issues that students might run into, but also to be an engaging teacher.

Putting in Extra Hours (The Exhaustion Conundrum)

I have a huge backlog of my Tabletop and Calkins reflections. My posting has been irregular, but I was able to put together this post about last week.

Last week the students spent their time digitally creating their game elements. I've already explained in a previous post (that will be posted eventually) the steps to doing that and how to work with the students on it. But there's always a step that teachers don't seem prepared for or don't know how to go about handling it. It is great that they digitally created everything, but how do you print it? Do you just use the school printing and do all the games in black and white? What materials do you use to print?

I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night at home printing out all of the student's digital materials, whether on sticker paper to apply to cards or hand-cut tiles, or on card stock to cut into specialty sized materials. Then I delivered them to my students the next morning. Thursday night was the worst. I was up late into the double digits.

Here's a photo of Thursday's print-stravaganza:

I do a lot of out-of-the-classroom work for my students on this project. I even spend time doing minor edits on their materials if I have time, just so that it looks good. What I loved the most was that the kids were very concerned when something didn't print the way they thought it looked. They were worried it would affect their grade and came to me worried. As someone who tried to make their visions real and with these being prototypes, I told them not to worry about that. I was more concerned about spelling and consistency than "oh no! A line printed that I didn't think would print!" It did my heart proud.

I also spent time scanning in artwork the students did and then formatting it once I scanned it. It saves them time and rewards them for their unique creativity. Then I had to know how much of each thing to print and make sure the counts were right.

I was essentially a publisher.  It was crazy! But when I can do this for them, it'll help them have pride, which will hopefully cause them to care more about their work. Then there were the stragglers who were behind getting their work done or needed extra stuff printed and I occasionally dropped the ball on that, because I had other things I needed to focus....

Calkins & Tabletop Gaming - Days 11 - 15

This week was a difficult week and could have easily been done in three days, not the 5 that it turned into. We had Badger Exams this week. The way they were arranged I was supposed to have some of my kids for each class on Monday and the others on Wednesday. That's not how it happened, which is fine, but it just caused problems in my original plan (insert "best laid plans. . ."). On top of all of that, I was attacked by a sinus infection and was out of commission on Day 12. That caused its own set of difficulties, because even though the students were in class and the subs did their best, the kids act like they don't know which end is up. I accepted the fate of the decision to not go in with a 100.8 degree temperature and barely able to pick up my own purse, but it still frustrates me to be absent, knowing how it's going to set back plans that cannot be set back at this point in the year.

As part of this end of year culminating unit, the students have to write a narrative using the Calkins checklist (see her program for the Narrative Checklist). Calkins' program asks the students to write a personal narrative, but I encouraged the students to use everything they learned about personal narratives to write a fictional narrative that develops off of their game. They are able to use the characters, the plot, the setting, etc. to help them write a companion narrative.

At first some of the students thought they had to write a story of how their game would play out and then became frustrated when the ending to their story would not be the same as the game. Lucky for them, I had decided to follow in the steps of Calkins by modeling how to write a companion story.

Over the weekend, I had decided to work alongside the students to make my own game and go through the creation process with them, so that they had a model for the process and not just a Mentor Game.

In my first lesson, I shared my game with my students. My Mentor Game is Dragon Slayer, because I love the press-your-luck feel of the game. I had the idea to make a Bakery Competition game out of it. I won't go into my games details here, but I have changed the game to be something of it's own entity. I'm really quite excited about it.

I explained the game to my students the same way they had to pitch their game to my husband. I even showed them the feedback I wrote down from my meeting with him. Then I shared with them the story I was writing (still in the process of writing). This way they could see what was expected of them from a story and had a frame of reference for how to go about achieving their task.

Here is a sample of my own story:

     The kitchen was sweltering and the sweat was dripping in large drops off of Francoise's forehead. He had never felt such intense pressure before, driving him forward, pushing through the intensity of the competition. Keep going! he told himself. You’ve got this!

     A glance around the kitchen reveals four other bakers mixing and kneading and scrambling to pound dough into something fabulous. It was only task one of the Bakery Masters, but it felt like an already bloodied battlefield. Above each of their heads hung a task list of what they needed to complete for task one. Francoise, while stressed, knew that he had task one in the bag. He had to make two batches of chocolate chip cookies and 2 dozen double chocolate cupcakes. Despite his stress, he knew he could complete the additional bonus task of 1 batch of macadamia cookies and 2 dozen white chocolate cupcakes.

 

     A quick check of the clock sent Francoise into overdrive as he finished up his cookies and got them into the oven. As he swung around to extract his cupcakes from the ovens, he smacked right into Berthe, his arch-rival. Berthe was a large, French woman of about 40 years. Her thick brown hair was wrapped up in a tight bun, covered with her pristine, white bakers cap. Her lips pinched together and she scowled at him as she shoved him off with her hip, her hands full of three cupcake trays.

     “Watch it, Francoise! You’ll live to rue the day you mess with me!” She rushed back to her station, stomping haughtily while she went. You could see the other bakers try to become one with their baking stations, squeezing themselves as flat as possible against the counter as Berthe stormed by.

      With a deep breath, Francoise steadied himself and hustled back to his station. He set the cupcakes aside to cool and started working on the frosting that would go with them, ever keeping an eye on the clock. Too late did it dawn on him that he should have set a timer for the cookies so they wouldn’t burn. As his anxiety ramped up, he wasn’t paying close attention to his frostings and they were starting to split. Not enough milk, then not enough powdered sugar, and as he dusted himself with an explosion of white snow, he started to smell the worst smell that could ever. . .

Now, the students have to follow demonstrate an internal and external story, as well as develop their characters, provide tension, have a concrete ending (no Cliffhangers. . . this isn't Fortune & Glory), and have their main character learn a lesson or hint at a message. For example, in my story at the very beginning my character's internal dialogue hints at the greater lesson he'll be learning by the end of the story. This is all part of the Calkins' curriculum and I provided students with reminder tools to write their stories, since we last dealt with Narratives at the beginning of November. I also have the reference charts hanging in the classroom to inspire.

Some of the students who were frustrated and didn't know where to go with their story were allowed to use Story Dice and Roll for Inspiration. I love the meta nature of rolling for inspiration while writing a story about a game. I use Rory's Story Cubes and I had just purchased three new packs: Prehistoria, Enchanted, and Clues. I the base set and Voyages that I use in class when we used to write fictional narratives. With the Calkins program, there weren't many opportunities, since the students were asked to draw on their personal history and experiences to write a semi-non-fictional-semi-fictional story. One of my co-teachers use these story cubes with her students to help them when writing their narratives, just to get them thinking about where to go next in their story or what they could do.

Another thing that I wish I could have brought in, but due to the rating, I could not, was Clue. It's essentially what we want to do with these narratives. The movie Clue, while not a direct story of the game, is still a story about the game! If you see the movie, you kind of understand the game. If you play the game, you understand the movie. I told the students about the movie and even how it had different endings. I went online to find something like that I could use and I found an episode of Psych (which I still couldn't use) that was an homage to the movie. It was overly silly, but fun at least. Since I couldn't find something that met the expectation I was trying to set, I reference the Tortoise and the Hare and the Hare and the Tortoise. There's always that commercial that is using it currently, so it's helpful. We talked about how the story and the game still have different outcomes, but the game was inspired by the story.

The students spent the rest of the week writing, editing, revising, and rethinking their projects. Their stories need to be finished and then next week they move on to creating their Instructional Booklet, which is call on their Informative Writing skills. A template is in the works to help guide them through the process so that when we get into the lab the following week, it's all about putting their drafts into electronic format.

Funny Story: Since this is a cumulative unit, my co-teachers and I have backed off a bit on giving detailed feedback and one-on-one critiques. We just do walk-arounds. It's that idea of a flipped classroom, but we don't have digital lectures and things like that. Plus, they have a partner they're working with, so they can work together to give each other feedback. On Friday, my students started to ask me to read the ending to their stories! I had to keep telling them no, because they're going to spoil my reading of your story! It became a whole class joke and I wrote a note on the board saying "I will not read the ending of your narrative. . ." and while I was writing it someone was asking if I would read the middle and so I wrote ". . . or any other part of your narrative." We were goofing around, but it was pretty hilarious and keep them excited. I told them to wow me for while I'm reading it to grade. Furthermore, I encouraged them to use their tools and really show me all they've learned by making a great story with a story with uber impact.

Again, for scoring purposes, I am still using the Calkins Narrative and Informative rubrics. The Informative rubric will be tweaked, though, to account for the writing-to-task standard and to make sure it covers the expectations of the project.

Calkins & Tabletop Games - Husband's Write-Up on the Kids' Games

My husband posted this to the BGG forums, sharing his experience working with the kids. I wanted to post it here to have to reflect on at the end of the process and for next year.

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So my wife is a 6th grade teacher and is doing her second year of a game design unit. Last year's was moderately successful considering she went into it with a lot of completely untested ideas and had to learn from mistakes.

I found last year's particularly interesting because she made it into a Research Project while they were studying human rights issues so the games were all portraying some relatively serious issues (The Birmingham Children's March, Human Trafficking, India's history with debt bondage, bullying, etc.)

There were ups and downs that year but in the end there were some very interesting final products, and a few that were genuinely fun and/or interesting to play.

This year she was coming at it from a different angle as a cumulative end of year project covering narrative, instructional, and argumentative writing/presentation. So the topics are much more free reign, but she's also expecting much more of a full experience from them.

Both years I have served as the "consultant" and prospective publisher the kids had to "pitch" to and get suggestions and help from. It's been a very rewarding, if somewhat exhausting experience.

Just thought I'd do a quick rundown of the 23 games currently in development from these kids. I have varying levels of confidence in what the final products from each group will wind up being, but there's definitely a surprising amount of enthusiasm and willingness to improve there and a few I'm honestly excited to return for during the playtest sessions in a couple weeks.


1. FBI themed sorta Ticket To Ride/Pandemic-y hybrid as players take their agents around the country to resolve certain crises and situations that arise.

2. Sci-Fi planet drilling/temporal anomaly-stopping dice rolling/resource collection game.

3. Haunted House hidden traitor game building off of Forbidden Island mechanics. It smacks a lot of Betrayal at House on the Hill but the kids have not played that game. It also employs the dual purpose Day/Night card mechanic of Jamaica as cards help players discover Clues during the day at the cost of being subjected to horrible terrors at night.

4. Cave escape game that while not employing unique mechanics to US, are very unique to the kids as they do not mimic any of the games they got to play in the prep-period. Players draw directional cards to traverse the cave, but have to stay in the bio-luminescent parts of the cave unless they draw light sources. Sounds like it will wind up being quick and light but fun.

5. Bakery themed yahtzee style dice rolling/set collection game to appeal to specific customers that features a timed mechanic which was surprisingly similar to Pie Factory (another game the kids did not play...weird!). It's actually mostly a skin of Dwarven Miner with a few minor twists.

6. Cold War themed Tsuro with hidden objective and more board manipulation and trouble for your player marker once you enter enemy territory. Kinda feels like Tsuro+Confusion!

7. Mt. Everest themed racing game of betting, set collection, and random events. The kids had never played K2 either, but feels like a light version of that using the Hare & The Tortoise game play but with event cards and "waypoints" for bonuses.

8. WW2 themed microgame a la Love Letter/Brave Rats

9. Stranded pirate island escape game with multi-purpose cards and Pandemic's "Epidemic" style timer as several cards in the deck are a sea monster causing a tidal wave that smashes your progress of the escape-rafts you're building.

10. Game of ghosts in a netherworld maze trying to be the first to the center where a chance for reincarnation is. Another unique mechanic game as the "maze" is represented by hex tiles lined with colors that must be rotated to match before you can cross and a unique action point system where players deposit their "spiritual energy" as they take actions and the energy must be able to find its way back to you after all players have gone. Really looking forward to seeing this one in action.

11. Space conquest game that kind of combines Munchkin with Race for the Galaxy. WHAT, you say? Eh, I'm okay with 12 year olds using Munchkin as inspiration.

12. Pyramid treasure hunt game with Forbidden Island flavor. Tiles are laid in a pyramid fashion and going up levels of the pyramid requires additional action. Also (naturally) MUMMIES. >.>

13. 4 way asymmetrical quick card game of 4 alien races trying to dominate each other. Bit vague on this one...

14. A fairly uninspired Munchkin clone that has only barely changed the game its based off. They're gonna need to do some work to meet wife's standards.

15. Super cute dice chucking game called PANDA BATTLE. Probably the lightest game of the whole bunch but they won me over with it.

16. OMG A EURO GAME. SHOCK AND AWE! Irrigating dry lands, fertilizing them, planting various crops in sets for points. SO DRY but I nearly wept with pride.

17. Another silly game of recapturing escaped llamas. Press your luck dice game of making sets of colored llamas based on cards displayed to move them towards your pen on a gridded board. This one I'm happy with just because it's come a long way from first draft which was just a roll and move game (despite wife's STRICT "No Roll and Move" rule).

18. ANOTHER Maze game with Ticket to Ride style drafting but programmable movement as you can only move one of your 4 mazerunners when you can complete a set of 5 actions (either movement or overcoming obstacles/hazards/hostiles). I was skeptical at first but it has potential and if done right lots of varied replayability.

19. Game of collecting reagents to summon monsters to fight. Simple mechanics but the kid's partner is AWOL and he's struggled a bit so kudos to him for what he brought to me.

AND THEN...Then there were the Werewolf variants...

If I never see another Werewolf variant it'd be too soon. Of course, the kids love Werewolf so if my wife continues to do this I'm sure I'll see them every year:  I personally hate Werewolf, but all I ask of the kids is that they think outside the box and do SOMETHING unique so it's not just Werewolf with a different skin.

20. Vampire themed Werewolf. This started out with lots of groans from me. The kids knew they wanted the vampires to be able to TURN or eliminate villagers, but had no idea how to make that choice matter. I helped them with that and then we added Item cards each person gets at the start and can be stolen/lost/used, and a Scheming Vampire that gets to steal items and is trying to collect 3 items to revive an ancient vampire to overthrow Dracula (the chief role vampire that's always used) as its victory condition.

21. Jewel Thief Werewolf variant with Bag drawing mechanic. Drawing jewels from bags is fun so whatever I guess!

22. Marvel Werewolf with where the twist is extra narrator responsibilities as the narrator has "tokens" of all the in-play characters and those tokens flip each turn behind a shield and it changes what can occur (example: Hulk token flips between Hulk and Banner. If the villains target Hulk player and the token is on Bruce he's eliminated. If it's Hulk they get SMASHED and one of their numbers gets dropped. And then the narrator secretly shakes the token and slams it back down so the current status is always unknown).

23. Merfolk Werewolf with an interactive board and secret movement/agendas. At the start of the game everyone has a token of their role. This token is placed face down on a side of the board so that all tokens look the same. You have to keep track of your own position. During the Day each player can move ANY token on the board. If you believe your token has made it to the goal spot stated on your role card you can announce that and the narrator will check. If you are right, alternate win condition. If you are wrong, out you go.


All said and done, it's been pretty cool so far...

Calkins & Tabletop Games - Days 8 - 10

As part of this unit, I wanted to bring in someone who knew something about games and could help elevate the students to the next level. I wanted to bring in a "professional." I wasn't getting any bites on local game designers, but I do always have my husband. He has an amazing way of visualizing the ideas of others and making them into something tangible. It's a gift he has. After watching him work his magic last year when I taught a Tabletop Unit, I wanted to bring him in again to help the students further realize their vision and to hopefully work out some of the more intricate mechanics issues that the students were dealing with.

During this phase of the project, I have the kids prepare themselves for sharing their ideas with a "professional." I dropped the ball a little bit and didn't model the expectations ahead of time for them. This sadly led to a very frustrating evening when I was debriefing with my husband on what the students had presented to him. The kids were just sitting back there mute and not talking and my husband had said that he felt like he was wasting his time. That breaks my heart and the fact that the kids just weren't being passionate and excited about their brilliant ideas! They just want to sit and listen and not really interact and learn to share ideas. They also were not following the clearly written, spoke, and reminded direction of taking notes during the meeting. That shows a lack of investment in what they're doing.

So after day one, I took a step back and I wanted to make sure the students knew what they were doing back there. I made a rubric that incorporated a writing component (W69 - focusing on using new appraoches to revise their ideas) and I also added in two Speaking & Listening standards so that the students understood that this is something they are expected to know how to do and should be pushing themselves to learn to interact professionally. I gave each student the rubric, explained it, and then my husband scored them in pencil during his meeting.

I was even able to coerce my husband and his favorite presentation team in each class to come up and demonstrate what he is expecting of them when they come back. I had forgotten that important piece of modeling. The above rubric helped turn things around a great deal, as well as the modeling of expectations, and even enforcing note-taking. My husband left on the second day feeling much better about his interactions with students. He finally felt like the kids cared about their games and were invested in making them something special.

While the "professional" meets with the students, I have the "professional" keep notes in a google doc that allows me to read them in real-time. I have a back room in my classroom that I set up like an office for my husband. Then I would schedule the students when they were ready, and my husband would see it pop up on the form. I would then type to him, asking if he was ready or not and then he'd signal to bring the students back. I would bring them back and introduce them. If I didn't act as a "secretary," the kids would have been running back there, one after another, and it would have been very frustrating. In the google doc, I had the names of the students, the date they met, and what their mentor game was and then a spot for my husband to type of notes. I made a 1x2 chart for each set of students. Not only did this help my husband keep track of the kids and take notes for what he wanted to think about later or find out more information, it also helped when I debriefed with him each day and was an assessment tool for me as I evaluated and will continue to evaluate the students.

Since my teaching day runs from first hour straight through fifth hour, I took time during my sixth hour prep to debrief with my husband. We would go over the rubric of the students, discuss his feedback and what each students needed additional help with. I would then finalize the rubric, also taking into account my knowledge of the students and I would adjust their raw score, if needed, based on that. I never adjusted grades for the worse. If they were adjusted at all, it was due to things I learned after speaking with the students or my co-teacher or from observation later on. This offered for a well-rounded score for the students.

What I really appreciate that my husband does, and I know I am spoiled for it, is that he goes home each night and mentally runs through the notes he wrote that day and tries to envision the games. He makes additional notes, writes up information for the kids, or finds a way to demonstrate to them their idea by bringing in additional games and setting up a visual. I'm going to be honest, I couldn't have done all of that work in my classroom without him. Or, I would have had to schedule in a lot more time to the unit. I am, though, very lucky to have a volunteer who is willing to go this far to help with this project.

I also love that every year that I offer this unit, I am learning more and more from him. I had said to one of my kids that they need to take advantage of his genius while he's here, because I am merely a padawane of game development. I have not yet developed my Jedi skills. My husband gets all "Beautiful Mind" with this stuff and one of my kids said they could actually see him playing their game in his head. I've got something special here and I wish industry people would finally snatch him up like they should!

It was very important to stress to the students the finality of his visit. If they had questions, they needed to form them and ask them before he left the classroom. I even invited students to ask at recess while he was there. Only students who were in my game club took him up on the offer, but at least someone did. In this day and age, where it's not about losing grades based on work being late, because we function within the Common Core which is about assessing a standard, not a student's ability to adhere to deadlines, students have a tendency to ignore due dates and forget about timeliness. Forget is an understatement. . . they just downright don't understand the urgency. That is why I use the professional coming in. It is a one time opportunity. If you don't have something ready to present, how are you going to continue on with the process? You just missed out on your chance to get meaningful and vital feedback for your project. Additionally, if you don't talk over the feedback he gave you, how are you goig to know if you have questions? He is gone and I made it clear to the students that I can't help with every aspect of what they want to do, especially if they don't communicate what kind of help they require.

I love the real world aspect of this activity, because the students are supposed to use what they've learned all year for writing (Narratives, Arugmentative, and Informative Writing) and the rest is where I can provide support here and there. How can they apply what they've learned while also grappling with expectations and an assignment that they need to complete within a specific time frame. So far the deadlines are working and it's going well. This next week will be the real test.

By the end of the three days that the "professional" could be in the classroom, he helped 23 groups develop 23 games. What he is nervous about is them taking the game to the level they should be at to really develop the greatness that is in their game and demonstrate their own creative abilities. I tried to tell the kids that he sees something amazing in your game, but you have to be the one to make it so (yeah... Star Trek reference.... I run a geeky classroom).

What I took from these three days of working with the kids are the importance of sevearl things that will be applicable to the real world. I intend to remember them for next year so that I can be sure I do not forget them again.

1. 1. The importance of a "professional" to light the fire of their youthful creativity.
2. Stressing that a mentor game doesn't mean you're skinning it, it means you're using it in some way (the directions set, the pieces, the mechanic) to help guide you as you create something you've never done before.
3. Taking notes during meetings. Meaningful notes that you can reference when the professional is no longer there with you.
4. MODEL your expectation. You'd think this would be second nature, but oh how easily it slips the farther you get into the year. 
5. A rubric has the power to incentify your expectations. Once those points are on the line. . . they don't want to fail.
6. Enforcing the finality of the "professional." Get those questions answered before he leaves. You won't get another chance to ask him what he meant.

This is still an amazing experience and I'm starting to compile all of this into a packet/binder. My co-teacher, who is also my Literacy Coach at the school, is encouraging me to package this unit. With her there to build my confidence and reminding me that this is amazing for the kids, it makes me want to share this with others.

On a side note, while I am so happy to be doing this unit, I have a student or two who have decided to be a bit snippy. The other two sixth grade literacy classes are writing mystery stories. Watching movies, reading mystery novels, researching crimes, etc. It sounds like a really fun fictional writing unit (Calkins' 6th Grade Narrative is a personal narrative, not a story you make up out of nowhere). So one of my students said to me, "After this unit, I want to do what they're doing in Mrs. Other Teacher's classroom." I looked at him and said, "Hun, this is the last unit of the year." He looked at me, "Awe, I wanted to write a mystery." To which I reminded him, "You can write a mystery to go along with your haunted house game!" He only slightly perked up and responded with an, "Oh yeah!" When I told my co-teacher this, she said he should be celebrating and bragging to others how he's making a game. I totally agree. If I could only have counted how many kids were peaking their heads into my classroom to see the kids doing "research" by playing games.

Sometimes I feel like my chest is going to explode with the swell of pride I feel for what I've been able to create this year and that is beyond amazing!