David Mueller started a petition to let HMH know that there are those of us who would benefit and whose students would benefit if they could keep their current form of Classcraft running for us when they start their new version. Please take a moment to help us and sign this petition: Click Here
It was in September of 2017 that I decided to go all in with using Classcraft as my main gamification app and LMS. And after almost seven full years of using Classcraft it is honestly the ONLY tool that I have used every single day of the school year and that ALL of my students enjoy and engage with every single day! That’s 100% of students engaged all year for seven years! That includes my 5th grade students who re-join my classes as 6th graders the following year, so Classcraft has been enjoyed by students even when they had to access it for two years in a row! Nothing else has ever done that and I can’t imagine having to replace it. I can’t imagine having to replace it even now that Classcraft has officially come out saying that Classcraft as we have come to know it, will be shut down as of June 30, 2024. It is with great sadness that I write this post to say goodbye to the best tool I’ve ever used with students and to deal with my own loss of a tool that I have invested countless hours perfecting and adding all my assignments and coursework in the past seven years.
We got to see the writing on the wall when HMH came out as having purchased Classcraft. HMH was offering something very different from what the Classcraft teachers and students have loved for the past decade. Those of us who use Classcraft regularly were wondering what they had in store for the original, gamified, Classcraft. It was not comforting when the team who worked with us Classcraft Ambassadors would not tell us anything other than the official announcement will be coming out in February. Then on February 21, 2024 the official announcement came out and it was as we had feared, the Classcraft we have come to love will be no more.
No more avatars that students rush to class every day to check on.
No more joyous and exciting random events to start of our classes:
That is the iconic rider of Vay, as the random events tab is called, Riders of Vay. I named him Tommy back in 2017 and seven years of my students have lovingly called him Tommy Vay ever since. We will miss you, Tommy.
No more fun quiz review in the form of Boss Battles, either:
And all my dozens of random events and quests full of every assignment I’ve created for students in the past seven years will also be gone so I have to painstakingly copy each one, one at a time or lose them all:
No more experience points or XP, no more leveling up and gaining new powers, no more gold to be earned and spend, no more pets, and no more kind and appreciative Kudos that students would give each other. Classcraft did so many things to gamify a class and to try and replicate them is a daunting task. Classcraft offered something that NO ONE ELSE offers. 3D Gamelab, later re-named Rezzly, did offer a gamification LMS but it shut down years ago so there truly is no other gamified LMS out there.
I wanted to wait until the end of the year to tell my students but Classcraft has placed an announcement on their login pages so I will have to break it to my students without breaking down into tears. My 5th graders will not have Classcraft next year and they know how fun it is to have it so they will miss it. I don’t teach all our 5th graders so at least some of my 6th graders next year will not know what our classes could be with Classcraft so they at least won’t miss it.
And if some teachers were even willing to give the new HMH Classcraft a try to see if we could access anything of value, HMH squashes that by ONLY offering their services for schools and districts, NOT for individual teachers. That blew me away. I can’t imagine that they decided that it’s better for their business to do away completely with a tool with such a loyal following and to replace it with something that only schools and districts can purchase. It must be true or they wouldn’t be doing it but all that tells me for certain is that their new tool is NOT for me. NOT for my students. Not only are they removing everything that makes the tools fun and engaging for kids but they are also making their tool inaccessible to individual teachers.
For years high schoolers who come and visit often ask, “do you still use Classcraft?” For the first time in seven years I will have to sadly say, “no, not anymore. It’s gone.” In a time of inclusivity and access for all, this just seems wrong.
