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/
Feb 16
Esports with Minecraft
Yesterday I wrote a post about a game that some of my 6th-grade students played with kids in Surrey, England, Friday, Feb 21, 2020. In this post, I’m going to share how I got this going for my school. I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this you know what esports are. If you …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2020/02/16/esports-with-minecraft/
Feb 15
Esports and Minecraft Bring Kids in the UK Together with Kids in Chimacum, WA
We’ll be live-streaming a game on Friday, Feb 21, 2020, starting around 7:30 am on Mr. Gonzalez’s Twitch account. Tune in if you can, otherwise we’ll share the broadcast on Mr. G’s Youtube Channel. [Note: Click on any image to see it full size.] Within the red circle in the above map is an area …
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Dec 16
Quest-Based Learning – QBL
Quest-Based Learning or QBL is one aspect of Gamification. As you read this post you might wonder, “do I need to gamify my course or use technology to offer choices, multiple pathways, or differentiate?” The answer to that would be a resounding no! Nothing here is new but added to a gamified classroom, the strategies …
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Dec 05
Naming Saturn’s Newly Discovered Moons
On October 15, 1997, the Cassini Orbiter was launched from Cape Canaveral. Cassini explored and collected data on Saturn, including gathering data on Saturn’s moons. Cassini found 20 moons that had never been discovered before, according to Carnegie Science, bringing Saturn’s moon total to 82 moons! The NASA Spacecraft ended its 20-year mission by crashing …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2019/12/05/naming-saturns-newly-discovered-moons/
Oct 08
Talking About Grading with Larry Ferlazzo
Just recently I had the pleasure of being interviewed once again by Larry Ferlazzo for his amazing BAM Radio Network show, Classroom Q and A. Larry also shared a written commentary I wrote for his EdWeek column that goes with the show on Grading. My commentary focused on gamifying the grading process to make it …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2019/10/08/talking-about-grading-with-larry-ferlazzo/
Sep 09
Gaming vs Reading
Struggling with Reading Back in May of 2012, I wrote a blog post sharing my struggles with reading. Although I read and read well and always did well in school, I don’t read much. Reading is often very tedious for me so it’s easier to read snippets or short passages, which is why I start …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2019/09/09/gaming-vs-reading/
Aug 21
Teachers Raising Funds for their Classrooms
I share as much as I can here about getting money for your classroom because it’s so doable. It takes work, but it’s doable. Recently, I wrote about Getting Even More Money and I took the points I shared there for a fantastic EdWeek Column by Larry Ferlazzo, Response: Show Me the Money! Ways Teachers …
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Jul 18
Upping My Game
I’ve been thinking about how to up my class game. After making the decision to use Classcraft as the only LMS and gamification engine this coming school year, I’ve been thinking about what to do to make Science more immersive and game-like. Classcraft adds a flavor of fantasy and with daily random events, adds excitement …
Permanent link to this article: https://educatoral.com/wordpress/2019/07/18/upping-my-game/
Jul 09
Classcraft Finally Beat Rezzly
I started gamifying my Science classes in the 2012-13 school year. I came up with my own custom badges to keep track of what students were learning and I used Moodle to push out assignments, or quests, with my students. It was more difficult than I thought and didn’t work very well. By the 2013-14 …
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