Welcome to #XPLAP tonight… I hope you are ready for so fun questions that will get our ideas flowing… Please introduce yourself and share one of your favorite places… Bonus points if you add a google image or link to google maps.
Good evening, new friends! Fourth grade teacher, instructional tech guy, and future admin from central Illinois who has a class game tabletop library and a personal collection of about 200 games. Excited to join my first game chat! Favourite place is Australia! #xplap
200 games?! We are getting close to 50 with our club (not counting my personal games that make an appearance here and there. That's great, man! Game on! #XPLAP
HELLO #XPLAP!!! I'm Adam from SC. I teach 11th US HIS. Fav Place is DisneyWorld (oddly only as an adult now that I have kids... and they have Star Wars...)
a1) I feel like teaching science should be all about discovery. Last week Ss were given their first experiment they had to design and perform all by themselves. They were only given a question to guide them, they got to discover the rest. #XPLAP
A1: For me, unique opportunities each and every unit, called “Adventure Paths” is how I add adventure to my class. Students love them and so do I. Risk reward moments in my game. #XPLAP
A1: When I teach social studies units, I tie them to the concept of journeys. We ask why people went where they did and why, then compare to our own journeys. #XPLAP
A1: By having a good narrative. Something I've been struggling this year. The school I work at is called AdVENTURE, and my students are AdVENTURErs! :o #XPLAP
A1 Really enjoyed doing Pursued: The Google Street View Game w/ students for a sense of adventure. Kinda like GeoGuessr & GeoSettr https://t.co/IINMyF56t2#XPLAP
✨A1: DON'T DETERMINE THEIR DESTINATION! OFFER CHOICE. We can add adventure and discovery in our classrooms by allowing students dive deeper into their interests and passions. #XPLAP ✨
A1: I'm considering a #TombRaider theme for my game next year. I would love to bring my students to fantastic places to break codes and find artifacts. (I teach math, by the way) #XPLAP
I thought google expeditions could be awesome for climate studies. I don't know if it exists but it would be awesome to go somewhere like glacier national park and then suddenly have the students jump back in time to see what it looked like before they melted #XPLAP
A1. I'm on paternity leave and in my recordings for students my son is "Talking" to them...
Ex.
aahahh
eieiiiiiiii
which is a code (its the last letter in each sound). If students break the code they get a little bonus and bragging rights.
#xplap
Welcome Lauren, I am honored that #XPLAP is your first twitter chat. Just watch the #XPLAP hashtag on twitter or TweetDeck. Respond to people and questions with A1 A2 A3 in your answer. Enjoy.
A1: One of the best ways to add adventure and discovery in the classroom is putting together LPs that open up new doorways to the world. I teach HS English & we hit on strong themes that can broaden their worldview. They need to see things through OTHER people's eyes. #XPLAP
A2 Not sure this is in the spirit of the question, but I really enjoyed writing false histories and narratives for the quests and adventures... would also challenge students to write false histories - they love it! #XPLAP
A2: This part for us is relatively easy. As you may remember I loop Ss for 4 years, so I am able to reference other years and iterations of our game with ease. "We learned this back when we were playing as knights" #XPLAP
A2 I've been thinking about this alot for my college level classes. I want to start creating projects that can build on each other like databases and archives. Allow each class to learn from and build on previous classes #XPLAP
A2. I had this one mission/project called "The Me" I created a slide deck of various things about myself and challenged my students to do the same. #xplap
School: Dr. Eureka (I have enough for the whole class to play at the same time.) Home: Just got Rise of Augustus two weeks ago. (Had played it before and finally bought it.) #xplap
✨HAVE A BACKSTORY! Either provide students with the history, or let them write it! Regardless if it's a fictional history or non-fiction, it ups the engagement in your game by adding it! #XPLAP ✨
A2: One cool thing we did: we played a few memory games (inc. breaking out the electronic 'Simon') before speaking about the importance of memories and remembrance. This was done before teaching the Holocaust memoir "Night" - big theme is keeping memories alive. #XPLAP
I can definitely relate to this, @MrPowley - we always challenge students to ask what indelible mark they are going to make on this school - what creation of theirs will we show future students to learn from you? #xplap
A2 - I've never tried it myself, but I can think of Mario is Missing or Where is Carmen Sandiego as examples of this kind of game mechanics. They could support travel and history research very well. #xplap
a2b) I want to include historic facts about the science topics we're exploring, but haven't got a good/engaging way of getting them in there yet. Maybe some sort of puzzle scenario... #XPLAP
A2: If I can, I try to add narrative for the past. For example, for our leadership and conflicts unit, we did a breakout that introduced the background of We Are Marshall and now analyzing the film #xplap
A2: I've been wanting to take my class on a walking tour of our community. We have so many historic landmarks and works of art that connect to history, we can literally go on a journey to explore the past. #xplap
A1: I believe we need to provide travel in our classrooms by sharing our own personal experiences on travel. This can allow S’s to gain an understanding of what is out there. #XPLAP
A1: I love to add side quests where I post coordinates and students have to figure out where it is. Right now the students are trying to figure out where one of the special agents is being held. I had a student email me 4 times on Sunday trying to figure it out. #xplap
It's a great game - my HS students really get into it as well. They misplaced one of the marbles, so it has turned into a 3-player showdown now... #XPLAP
A3: Total coincidence! Right now we're working on Paired Poem Projects in Brit Lit, where Ss are pairing a modern song/poem with a 18th/19th century Brit Lit poem. Creating book anthologies on Book Creator App, then post on PInterest #XPLAP
I'd love to hear more about that. One thing I've struggled with is how to gamify without doing a disservice to the topic. We just read Freedom Walkers about the Montgomery Bus boycotts and currently reading about the Holocaust. #xplap
A1: History is vital to my game because it connects us to the theme and to our novel series.
Our mission is to overthrow the king to bring peace to our post apocalyptic world. Understanding England in the 1400s is a huge component in understanding our mission! #XPLAP
A1: History is vital to my game because it connects us to the theme and to our novel series.
Our mission is to overthrow the king to bring peace to our post apocalyptic world. Understanding England in the 1400s is a huge component in understanding our mission! #XPLAP
A3: Fusing the past with the present happens often in our literature units. Just taught poetry: we read poems from all time periods & we ended by bringing in a modern-day poet/songwriter to chat with the kids about the creative process. One of the best classes of the year! #XPLAP
A3 We've been looking at old video games in our course and discussing how they would be viewed in a 21st century lens, considering issues of race, sexism, accessibility, etc #xplap
I ended up making all my cards off that site… I didn’t like that all your cards are public… I was worried a 6th grader would just start printing my cards. #XPLAP
✨A3: ALWAYS UPGRADE! Each year I take what worked well in the past and upgrade it to fit my current students. They are more deeply engaged when the game ties to the things that they are interested in and passionate about. #XPLAP ✨
A4: Our food truck race and Amazing Race adventures whisk Ss around the globe in discovery of our world’s best cuisine. Challenges, fast forwards, road blocks, speed bumps...oh my! #xplap
A4 I open every unit or mission with a little narrative introduction... We are going to collect a forbidden DVD or we are staking out a government meeting location. #XPLAP
A3: Took a S centered project where S’s created 1920s movie posters in Google Drawing & gave S’s the opportunity to make movie trailers of said movie posters. #XPLAP
A4: This usualy for me ties into the way I present things. I've often heard, "but this is science class, why are we learning about (insert other content)". Can you guess my reply? #XPLAP
A4 Have students close their eyes and imagine while you describe a scenario. Music can also be a good tool for getting the feeling for a setting or time. #xplap
A4: When we do inquiry projects, the students work with a common set of questions, but they pick their topics and how they will present. This takes them all over the place, sometimes literally! I once had a kiddo travel to Chicago to research a fish for a science project! #XPLAP
A4: All my quests provide opportunities for different skills and knowledge. One when they have a certain # of quests done they have conquered that world and are ready to move on to the next #xplap
A4: I do Wikipedia topic surf with my SS. They start on the topic they would like to write about… AKA Rome (to big of a topic) they read and click on links that interest them… again read that new page, click, read, click, read… Now this tiny page, is their new topic. #XPLAP
A4: Getting students to connect to the outside world can be challenging, but we are fortunate at our site to have access to tech. We have been using the Station Rotation model (@Catlin_Tucker) & created #EdTech mini-lessons to expand the main text & open up the world. #XPLAP
What a fun idea! I am always looking for ways to tie my game more into my content. It is too late for this year, but this idea is going at the top of my list for next years version. #XPLAP
Discus has a topic web feature that is useful in this sense. Type in Montgomery Bus Boycotts and it pops a web of related topics each with their own sub sets. #xplap
✨A4: BLING (XP)! Students will always go above and beyond for the Bling. I love offering choice (open ended options or menus) because they can take the content anywhere they want it to go! #XPLAP ✨
A5: I incorporate “free cooks” once in awhile where Ss can raid the frig or bring in own food and create something they’ve wanted to make with their group. #xplap
When I was teaching social studies, the games and project ideas came so easily. We played the game mercantilism. With math, it is a struggle. I've been thinking of something cool I have done, and nothing is coming to mind. ☹️#xplap
A4: Working on building Adventure Paths through US History using Google Sites. Ss would travel a time period, completing small tasks to unlock possible side quests. #xplap
A5: I make my room as restful as possible. Lamp lights rather than fluorescent. A couch, pillows, moon chairs, as well as regular seating. I try to make it relaxing yet still a place of working hard #xplap
I think mini-games provide a bit of a rest. When kids can focus on a skill (even if it isn't real) like shooting a mini-basketball or even rolling a dice, with the content being added after the skill they have a break from the press for academice achievement. #XPLAP
The struggle is real in math. I trying to find a workaround, but am still mulling it over. It's a work in progress... #xplap I'd love to chat sometime. There are so few of us.
A4: I make it a goal each quarter to work in every content area into my game at least once. Some kids right now are working on a series of math problems that will turn out to be the code to unlock the dungeon. Next will be a map to get out w/ some sort of SS connection. #xplap
After posting that, I now realize it is very confusing, heh. We actually have a LEGIT, on the schedule session called Master Mini-Games, @MrAguina - game meet-up will FOR SURE happen again though! #xplap
In reply to
@MrAguina, @Slapshot99, @mrmatera, @MrAguina
A5: Try to find fun simulations that are just designed to have fun, like harpooning a “whale” & harvesting “oil” during our study of the early industrial growth of the US. #xplap
A5: We created a "Chill Zone" in the back office space of our Music Room. It had colouring books, a couch, a table with white board covering for doodling, puzzles, ukuleles, plants. Kids could work in there whenever they wanted. #XPLAP
A5: HUMOR! I try to keep it light and fun when I can… Show students that school and life doesn’t have to be what it appears to be, we can make it something different! #XPLAP
I want a game that goes beyond them having to complete certain steps, but I want something that will involve them in the math. Something that makes them apply and see the connections. You know? #xplap
A5: Powers and curses for my leaderboard are distributed every other week. This gives guilds that were attacked by dragons, destroyed by bombs, or devoured by zombies a chance to recover their lost XP! #XPLAP
A5: One gentleman I met at an artisan fair is amazing. He has been encouraging me to get my Ss to make games. I want to do something with origami. Yes, I think I may be on to something. #xplap
A5: My students love playing @ProdigyGame! After a math lesson, I pull up my account on the big screen and battle students. Even though they are still mathing, they love the break from the normal routine! #XPLAP
A6) my Ss have a limited amount of items they can have. no one has (or is expected to ) reach the limit this year, but eventually there will be ways to expand the bag. #XPLAP
Totally! HUMOR!!! I also like to crank up the music for random dance parties or group karaoke - how can you go wrong belting out some "Bohemian Rhapsody" or getting your line dancing on?! Some crazy Snapchats come out from those classes (and it raises my street cred) #XPLAP
Hey #XPlap...did you see @mrmatera awesome video for #LemonsForLeukemia? His daughter is super adorable...and his BFF ain't too bad either! :) Check it out and take the challenge!
A6: I restrict the number of items they can “carry.” Have to think about what to bring with them into the next unit, based on what they might need. #XPLAP
To start out on this last grading period we had a limited resources day. Only 3 items could be saved and all others had to be "powered down" by handing them in. It was interesting to listen to the decisions and collaboration as Ss decided what to keep. #XPLAP
A5: I met a gentleman at an artisan fair that makes all sorts of board and card games out of whatever he finds. He has been encouraging me to get my Ss to make games. I want to do something with origami. Yes, I think I may be on to something. #xplap
A5.1: I also scheduled "Decompress Days" when I could tell the kids needed them - days where kids could play music of their choice, have jam sessions, work on other schoolwork if needed, help each other with activities, go to the Art room to paint, read, talk, etc. #XPLAP
Hey #XPlap...did you see @mrmatera awesome video for #LemonsForLeukemia? His daughter is super adorable...and his BFF ain't too bad either! :) Check it out and take the challenge!
Hey friends, this was great but my bed and my pillow are calling my name. Good night, all! I'll be back next week! (And I'm on Twitter a lot, so feel free to drop a line to connect more!) #XPLAP
A2: Next year will incorporate traveling back to 1916 to catalog the landmarks, sites, & natural/scenic features of the US to argue for the need for a National Park Service. #XPLAP
My students started a #LemonsForLeukemia challenge a few years ago too, when a teacher's daughter was diagnosed with AML! It's our annual fall fundraiser for our "Light the Night" walk team for the Leukemia Society of Canada. #XPLAP
✨A6: LIMITATIONS REQUIRE STRATEGY! It's fun to incorporate limitations into your games. It causes students to strategize and they get even more excited about the game! #XPLAP ✨
a7) I think some of the things my Ss have created are pretty grand. Last year we had a rube goldberg machine that was 4 feet tall and about 6 feet wide. Pretty impressive (even though it wound up not working in class) #XPLAP
A7: Next year’s game will allow Ss the chance to collect badges in dif categories. Earning 4 in one, & one of each other earns the hidden badge. Provides another victory condition besides the leaderboard. #XPLAP
A7: I try to have at least one epic room transformation each quarter, whether it's having tea on Mt. Everest, flying a plane to Nepal, battling a hurricane on the open seas, or hosting an epic poetry battle. #xplap
YES!!!! @KimSnodgrass gets it… Sometimes it is better to limit then give more and more options for students… Choice among a few can be even more powerful! #XPLAP
✨A6: LIMITATIONS REQUIRE STRATEGY! It's fun to incorporate limitations into your games. It causes students to strategize and they get even more excited about the game! #XPLAP ✨
As the kids have more choices through quests, mini-games and projects they are able to add their passions into their projects. When that happens they truely amaze me with the results. #XPLAP
A7: Build in quests or activities that ask kids to give back to their communities, or make community connections, or explore social justice activities. We took kids to sing "Valentine Serenades" at our local Seniors' Home - kids were req'd to learn songs from Sr's era! #XPLAP
a7) also I kind of want to redecorate my room to make it look like NASA mission control (I have a space theme). Not sure if admin would let me paint the entire room though. #XPLAP
A7: The moments when the students are ALL in are it for me!
I had 3 students come to me with a new "trio" power. It uses 3 different powers from 3 players from different guilds and is so powerful that it takes some XP to use! I was in awe of their thinking!
#xplap
A7: Make it memorable and truly collaborative. Been thinking of using QR codes that gets the Ss outside and having them take selfies as proof of completion. #xplap
A8: Visit every US National Park. I want my game to be engaging & have a dedicated day each week for Ss to embark on adventures in the game world. #XPLAP
A8: Well, I'm moving from NM to PA, and I'd like to get my game off the ground for more than a month this time. I have a much better plan this time. :) #XPLAP
A8: I would like to visit some friends around the US this summer. ;) anyone have a couch I can crash on… I want my game next year to have some more combos and elements in it. This year I tried some new things… They need some tweaking… #XPLAP
A8 Too many places I'd like to visit in real life - Morocco, Peru, Italy. In my game, I want to spend more time w/ my narrative to make it more immersive. Those imagination moments are magic! #xplap
a8) I want to go to every continent on the planet (got two down, Antarctica might be tough). Next year I want to gamify my Earth science class. Thinking a civilization theme. Ss land on a planet, pick a site to colonize, try to survive. #XPLAP
✨A5: MINI-TRANSFORMATIONS ARE THE PERFECT ESCAPE! During our larger game, my co-teacher and I also had mini-transformations for book tastings, or just for fun! It breaks up the game, and students love it (we do too!). #XPLAP ✨
https://t.co/40fUIEYaE0
A8: So many places I want to go! Peru, New Zealand, back to Europe as an adult. I want to increase global collaborations next year in my game! LOVING collaborating with @bmilla84 and @MrsCford_tweets classes this semester! #xplap
A8: I want to go to Sweden! Someday I will get there! In the meantime next year my game will go to Mars. I want it to have much more engagement and options for interaction. Love Well Played today! It let me know how fast my game can grow each year! #XPLAP
