Gamification includes using elements of board games, video games, and social games in the classroom to motivate and engage students in learning.
Dec 31
In my 30 years teaching I’ve gotten 48 grants in 24 years totaling just under $371,000. In the last 22 years straight I’ve gotten at least one grant per year every year. That’s quite the streak and the Ocean Guardian Schools project is one of those grant opportunities that I can apply for year after …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/31/grants-and-prizes/
Dec 30
Last year I started a 6th grade esports club and we got off to a great start before the pandemic closed our schools. A group of kids in the club remained active during the spring. I expected more to be able to participate because the nice thing about esports is that we don’t have to …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/30/esports-thriving/
Dec 26
Before I share an amazing resource for getting some awesome gamified Science lessons, I wanted to share a cool resource for having students request photos to be taken of locations on Earth from the International Space Station (ISS)! Yes, the students choose where the ISS camera will take the photos based on the ISS’s orbit! …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/26/gamified-science/
Dec 26
I’ve written and shared quite a bit about Classcraft as not only a full-fledged Learning Management System (LMS) but also as a way to easily gamify any class and content for students. I’ve mentioned before and it’s worth mentioning again that of all the edtech tools I use with students this is the only tool …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/12/26/gamification-of-online-teaching/
May 14
Races provide fuel for viruses. Dozens, hundreds, sometimes thousands of runners in close proximity, breathing for long periods of time greatly increases the risk of getting enough virus in your system to get sick. So races have gone virtual to follow quarantine orders and to protect runners and spectators. A virtual race is when the …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/05/14/who-trains-for-a-marathon-during-quarantine/
Feb 23
We had SO much FUN! Friday, Feb 21, at 7:30 am Chimacum, WA, time 10 Chimacum Elementary School students logged in to their school-issued Minecraft Java Edition eSports accounts. They then joined a Minecraft server hosted by the Club Minecraft UK (Club Minecraft Twitter) group located in Surrey, England! The US and UK kids played …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/23/wa-state-and-surrey-uk-minecraft-games/
Feb 21
I was able to start a Minecraft Esports Club for my 6th graders even though I know nothing about what I’m doing and I’m learning as I go along and I’m learning by trying and failing. Why would I also try live streaming when I don’t know anything about that, either? To offer students the …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/21/broadcasting-esports-games/
Feb 20
In my last post, I reflected on my course gamification efforts so far this year. In this post, I will share my game-based learning (GBL) plans. Ever Since I started gamifying my classes I knew that the real power of engagement wasn’t in making my normal course more game-like only, but in having kids play …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/20/game-based-learning-planning-gbl/
Feb 19
To make learning in school more playful and game-like, I’ve been working with Gamification for years. By gamifying my courses I continue to teach what I have always taught but more like a game than a school course. Running my class like a game makes it more exciting than just learning Science (or learning how …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/19/gamification-update/
Feb 16
In my last post on Esports with Minecraft, I shared resources that helped me get a Minecraft Esports Club started for my 6th graders. I got as far as having everything I needed to get started in that post, and now I’m going to show what happened after that. In that post I shared a …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/16/esports-with-minecraft-getting-started/
I'm a Curipod Ambassador! :)
I've presented at NCCE
2016, 2017, 2019, 2022,
2023, 2024, and 2025!
I presented at WSTA 2015!
