Presenting at miGoogle and Michigan State

We will presenting The Way of the Google Drive: Thoughts and Tools to Inspire Change at two conferences the first week of November.

• miGoogle 2015 in Brighton, Michigan
• Michigan State University College of Education Technology Conference

It will be a fast paced combination of motivational thoughts and practical examples of how we've seen the ideas work.

To prepare, I've been posting articles here or on my other blog every day of October. Here are some popular ones from this week:

• The outline of our session
• Always Striving to Improve - My interview with Jake Gentry, who will be presenting with me at both conferences
• Lifelong learning, PBL and a passion for encouraging others - My interview with Clark Rodeffer, who will join us for miGoogle

Click here to see all posts from Teaching Like an Artist with the tag "The Way of the Google Drive".

And if I haven't promoted it enough yet, don't miss our EPIC session trailer!

Thoughts on 'Most Likely to Succeed'

I first heard about Most Likely to Succeed about six months ago when organizing some staff professional development for project-based learning. I watched the trailer and all the sound bites gave me chills. The things the teachers and the experts were saying in the film were all the best things I was discovering in the job as I was implementing project-based learning.

A few weeks ago, while my mind has been swirling with ideas for my upcoming conference sessions, I was thrilled to learn they were screening the movie at a nearby college. My wife and I were able to watch it tonight.

I won't give a detailed review of the movie. I would want to watch it again and dig into a few claims before I would do that. I want to get a few thoughts out, though.

To provide some background, the film contrasts the traditional education system with innovative teaching methods and organization of High Tech High. What's wrong with the current system and the promises of the new approaches to teaching come out through interviews with familiar faces like Sal Khan and Ken Robinson as well as staff of High Tech High and experts in business.

I enjoyed it thoroughly from start to finish. I want to watch it again as soon as I can. Every educator should watch it the first chance they get. It raises excellent questions and even if you think some of the visions were too idealistic or that High Tech High is too unrealistic, it offers at least a glimmer of hope for what education can be. Seeing the students perform or show their work in the exhibitions was powerful.

As someone who has been working in ed-tech now for almost eight years, a lot of the points were nothing new. Yes, the current system was originally designed over 100 years ago with a purpose of turning out good factory workers. Yes, computers are making many jobs obsolete and we don't know exactly what careers will even be available for today's K - 12 students.

Some of these insights will be new to many, though, and what I appreciate most is the film made them loud and clear. Viewers will be forced to think about the questions that are raised. Teachers will have to form convictions.

One of my favorite statements came from Dr. Eric Mazur. He raised the question of why we test students the way we do when we know the posture and restrictions of a student taking a test is never what we see anyone doing in the world of work. I have a lot of respect for Mazur's work and it's something I've pointed out myself. He put it brilliantly.

I enjoyed how it let parents and students provide the counterargument to the ideal world of High Tech High. Parents of the students who attended the school asked great questions of the teachers about the lack of course content. In one school, the students banded together against their innovative math teacher and said they just want to be prepared for college, not necessarily life. In some cases the teachers didn't have much to say in return.

The film ultimately portrayed a decision between these extremes as a gamble for the parents. The facts are simply not in yet as to which is better. As a parent, I waver on this myself. The traditional and the innovative approaches have some benefits. Is a good balance possible? If not, which is best? What about the majority of us who don't have a very innovative option for our children anyway?

But the biggest question in my mind during the film was this: Who decides what matters?

Is development of "soft skills" like empathy and leadership more important than the broad exposure to traditional content? Do we let the government decide the standards by which schools are measured? Or do we listen to Sal Khan and the rep from Google, as they talk about what the most forward-thinking companies should be looking for in their employees? Do SAT scores matter just because they matter to colleges?

I look forward to exploring these questions with administrators in my district and with my colleagues. I hope the film will be widely available soon. At least parts of it will be excellent for use in class. I want to hear what students have to say.

Let's keep the conversation going with a focus on being the best educators we can be.

_________________

I'm doing a challenge this month to post on one of my blogs every day. It's in preparation for my conference session, The Way of the Google Drive. Be sure to follow me on Twitter or on either blog to keep up with the "thoughts and tools to inspire". 

Click here to see all the posts from Teaching Like an Artist with the tag The Way of the Google Drive.

Game Design in the Classroom - Part 4 - Developing and Publishing a Game

One of my old design notebooks and some prototypes

This is part 4 of a series. The previous articles are:

• What I learned from making games.
• What others learned from making games.
• A classroom game design challenge.

In this fourth part I will look at how to develop a promising game idea. I’ll also describe two relatively simple ways to make your games available to more people.

First, two notes:

• The process below will probably not be a big part of most class projects. I offer it as recommended reading for the students who think they are on to a good idea. This falls in the “for further exploration” category.
• The tips and questions that follow can apply to games of many types, but my experience is with non-digital games. They were most likely created in a classroom activity, possibly my one-hour game design challenge.

Developing your game idea

My goal here is to help you take your game that a few people (probably you and your friends) have fun with and turn it into something many people will have fun with. Every game is a special case, but here’s a very general series of steps I use and I recommend them to aspiring designers:

1. Clarify your goals. 
2. Play it more, with more people.
3. Identify problems. Based on what you see and hear from the players, what is working and what isn’t? 
4. Make changes to the game to resolve those problems. 
5. Go back to step 2 until the game is working as you intend it to.

Steps 2 - 5 form what is often called an iterative process. It’s vitally important for people in many fields. Computer programmers, writers and designers of anything from cars to coffee cups work through it.

Try something, test it, tweak it, test it again and so on until it does what you want. (You might even recognize similarities to the Scientific Method, as scientists will form, test and revise hypotheses in their work.)

Let's look at these steps for development in more detail.

Clarify your goals
Be sure you know what you’re trying to accomplish with your game. Ask yourself questions such as:

• Why are you making this particular game? Maybe it’s a personal challenge or maybe it’s for a particular group of people. Nail down your motivations.
• Who do you expect will enjoy it? Describe these people. That determines your target audience.
• What will make those people want to play your game?

Actually write those things down so you can return to them as you continue your work.

Play it more, with more people
At first you need to just be sure the game works at all. Try it with close friends.

Some of us even play our games by ourselves at first. Seriously, who wants to waste their friends’ time with a boring game? We will need their help in the future, so let’s not turn them off too quickly!

This process of playing the game while you’re developing it is called playtesting. It is very important and the people you choose to help you are important too. I could write a book about it, so this is just a brief glance at the process. Here are some important tips:

• At first it helps to get opinions from people who play a lot of games, even if they’re not in your target audience. They might have to play just to help, not necessarily to have a fun, entertaining experience.
• Tell your testers what your design goals are. If they’re not in the target audience, they should know that. They have to help you make your game, not necessarily the one they want to play.
• Observe everyone when they play. Look for what’s making your game fun and what’s frustrating the players.
• Ask as many questions of your playtesters as you can get away with. Two of my top suggestions are:
• What were you thinking about or looking forward to as you were waiting for your turn?
• Would you ever play again and if so, what would you do differently?
• Remember to treat your playtesters with respect! They might not always be right, but if they played your game at all, you’ve given them the right to express themselves. Whatever their response is to your game, whether you agree with them or not, you can use the advice and the experience to help you become a better game designer.

Identify problems
If you clarified your design goals like I suggested, then you can define “problems” as anything keeping your game from meeting those goals. Make a list of what is working and what isn’t.

This can be the most frustrating part of game design. Ideas usually do not turn out like we expect and it can be hard to accept. Yes, even after months of work you might end up with so many problems that the best decision is to abandon the idea and work on another.

Be honest about the game at this point. Take a hard look at it and call it like you see it.

Also, give this some time. Usually problems look different when you wait a day or two after a playtest session.

And finally, don’t be afraid to change your design goals. You have to be careful with this because doing it too much will keep you from finishing anything. Still, there are times you’ll discover a promising idea that leads you somewhere you couldn’t have imagined at the start. Leave room for that possibility.

Change the game to resolve the problems
Discovering a great fix to a nagging problem with your game is one of the best rewards of the game design process.

It is also hard work and it takes time. Like I said about identifying problems, don’t rush. It is tempting to quickly tack on a new rule to fix a problem, but that’s a good way to end up with a design very few people care to learn. Rule sheets turn into mini-books and players often overlook special cases, resulting in mistakes and bad experiences.

Work hard to find simple solutions! 

Repeat playtesting and making changes until the game is done
As you keep testing it and tweaking it, think of this as bringing a fuzzy image into focus. It’s your rough idea becoming a finely tuned, working design.

Here are some things that generally happen in this process as you bring that dream to reality:

• Ideally the changes you make will become less and less drastic. In my experience, at first I might make changes to the whole turn structure or I sometimes change the format entirely. My dice game might be reworked into a card game. Then near the end of the process I might just be changing a few numbers on cards.
• The playtesters you use should change from a few friends to more people you don’t know. In later stages they should mostly be people from your target audience.
• Your cards, board and other components (usually called a prototype) should improve in appearance and playability. At first the cards might be handwritten, but in later stages they should be made with a graphics program. Give more attention to using icons and making the language extremely clear. When a game is nearly complete you don’t want any part of the components to detract from the play experience.
• The rules will progress from a list of things you just tell the players to a well written document that contains everything a player would need to know.

Besides just making the game “work”, you’re trying get to a point we call blind playtesting. Here the rules and prototype are so clear that players can figure out the game on their own. If they can’t, the game isn’t done yet.

And that raises a huge design question. When is a game done? 

Ask many designers and you’ll get many answers. Some say it’s when the game is worth what you’re going to sell it for. Others say it’s done when people want to play again right away.

Ultimately I would say it’s done when the game reaches your design goals. You decide. (But just remember anyone else in the target audience will get the final say by playing or not playing what you made!)

One of my games published through The Game Crafter

Taking it to the world

Once you’ve completed a game, you probably want to get it out to your target audience. This involves publishing and promotion. All the options to consider here could turn into my second book!

I’m going to offer only two suggestions for getting games to the masses. Neither of these will make you rich, but they will certainly get you important experience and increase your opportunities.

Both options would be considered self-publishing. It means you're doing it rather than getting someone else (probably a publishing company) to do it for you.

Self-publishing will require you to take on many jobs such as graphic design, writer, PR manager and webmaster. In other words, you’ll learn a lot more than just how to design a game.

Besides these general directions, I’ll also list some resources at the end if you want to do more research.

Print and Play
With this publishing method you’d make a PDF of your rules and components. You’d post it on your own blog or website or maybe you’d upload it to a game site like Boardgamegeek.com. There, people could download it and decide if they wanted to print it to make their own copy.

You can see some examples of popular print-and-play (PnP) games at this link.

But just making an attractive game and an attractive website or blog to post it on will not get your game played. Plan to promote it.

Look for other people who might play the game and write reviews or comments about it online. Most games take some effort to learn and even to play. In the case of print and play, players also have to through the process of actually making or finding all the components. If a reputable gamer with a following gives your game a positive review it’s more likely others will take the time to do all that.

One last tip--When you ask people to review your game, don’t just send them your link and expect to see a review. Contact them and if they agree to take a look, make a copy for them yourself. Mail it to them and give it some time.
,
Don’t be a pest, but if you don’t hear anything from them in a couple weeks, it’s fine to politely ask if they have any feedback or plans to post something online.

And the second option for publishing is...

Print On Demand services
Years ago it cost so much to set up the printing for a game that it wasn’t worth it to churn out just a few copies. Designers had to pay for at least 1,000 or more copies if they wanted to see a quality, physical version of it or play it with their families. Taking the step to print a game that way was a huge financial risk. Hopeful designers got a big bill to for the job and many ended up with stacks of unsold games in their garages.

Now there are companies that will print just a single copy of your game and it won’t break the bank. So imagine buying a nice copy of your design for yourself and a few for family and friends. If you think others might pay for it, you can even post a link to the print service from your blog or website. People (probably aunts, uncles and maybe your neighbor) could pay for the game that way and you might even make a little money from it.

This process of printing games only as often as they’re ordered is called print on demand and it offers some great benefits. Just be aware that when you order small numbers of games, each one will still be relatively expensive.

My recommended service for publishing this way is The Game Crafter. I have used their services for several years now and their site and work have greatly improved over time.

It will take some work to turn your graphics into something that works at their site. For example, when I print my prototypes I usually have 9 - 12 cards on a single page of paper. To make my game at the Game Crafter, every one of the cards has to be on a separate high resolution graphic. Imagine how much work it takes to make individual graphics for a deck of 100 cards!

And as I said, it’s not exactly cheap. It will cost more than if you bought a game with the same number and type of components from a game store. And though the quality is good, it's not quite as good as a professionally published game.

I’m happy to pay the price to get an edition of the game myself or to give as gifts.

If you want to sell your for a profit to others, though, remember you have to put an even higher price on it than you paid. That likely will be more than most people will want to pay.

That is, unless you have a great game and you do some excellent promotion.

Just like the print and play process above, promotion is necessary. The Game Crafter even has a page of suggested reviewers you can contact. Here's an example of a review one of them wrote for me a few years ago.

If a reviewer agrees to look at your game, you’ll have to order one from the site and ship it to them. Yes, it's one more expense and there's no guarantee they'll even like the game.

Wrapping Up
I hope this short summary of game development and publishing makes it clear how much work goes into a good game. I also hope it helps you bring your game to others. Finding that something you made can bring joy to people is a satisfying reward worth the effort.

I compiled a short list of other resources for more information on these concepts.

• How to Make Games - Playtesting -  I created this video a few years ago. You'll see similarities to what I wrote above.
• Playtesting Forum on BGDF - You can learn from the discussion on this forum and possibly find some playtesters for your game too.
• Interview with Scott Almes - Here's a great interview with practical advice from a very successful up and coming game designer.
• Protospiel - Many years ago I helped start this gathering of game designers. It has grown to a larger network around the U.S., so see if anyone is meeting near you.
• UnPub - This is another convention for game designers.
• 10,000 Feet to Publishing a Game - Here's a hard look at what one successful publisher says it takes to make your game. He knows what he's talking about, but he's describing a very professional production.
• An Overview of the Game Design Process - This is an older and more in depth article I wrote about taking a game from concept to reality. A lot has changed when it comes to game publishing since then, but the development ideas still apply.
• Making What's It to Ya? - This is my story, starting with an idea to making a $10 printing investment to ending up in GAMES Magazine's Games 100 to seeing the game go around the world.

And as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, be sure to look at the other ones in the series:

• What I learned from making games.
• What others learned from making games.
• A classroom game design challenge.

Reminding Students that Dreams Matter

I had a great opportunity to help with some music projects in a lower elementary Music class the past six weeks. We wrapped things up with a music video project about dreams.

I talked to the class briefly about why dreams matter to me. I told them how I had two big dreams as a teenager. I wanted to have a band and I wanted to make movies.

Both dreams came true, sort of. They didn't reach the scale I had envisioned some 30 years ago, but I do get to play music with my kids in church every week in our worship band and I get to make videos with students on my job.

So dreams definitely matter! I assured them their dreams might look different as they grow older, but the dreams in their mind now are there for a reason.

For the project the teacher and I had the students draw pictures of their dreams. I asked my daughter (16 years old) to write a simple chorus about dreams for the young students. I took her lyrics, fleshed out a couple lines and added the music.

We taught the song to the students and recorded them singing. I used GarageBand to add the rest of the arrangement and I edited everything together with Corel VideoStudio.

If you want to use the song, here are the notes and chords.

Here is the full video we finished with one class. I worked with them for three class periods and spent a good amount of time during the weekend putting this together.

Creativity, Passion and Meaningful Contribution in School

Last week I had the privilege of presenting as part of the Education On Air conference. Jake Gentry and I did a session on my process of creating comics with Google tools. I was glad to see Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook highlighted both of my classroom activities from the presentation.

Before I got into all that, though, I gave a short, big picture overview of why I believe some teachers are wearing themselves out to make learning happen. I presented some thoughts on the importance of creativity, passion and meaningful contribution in learning. In about four minutes I talk about things such as:

• How I breathe life into a classroom.
• Why teachers need to dream more.
• Why Google tools make this easier.

That part of the session is in the video below.

If you're interested in seeing the entire session, you can find it at this link.

Teaching Like an Artist

New for 2014: Follow the continuing Teaching Like an Artist series on TeachingLikeanArtist.com.

I had a lot of chances to express myself creatively this past year and it has been exciting. Without a doubt it has been the best time of my 20 years as a teacher.

Through reflecting on this and through blog posts, the theme that developed is Teaching Like an Artist.  The general idea is 

Artists get a vision for something that doesn't exist, 

they work to make it real 

and they share it with others. 

As teachers we can inspire more students if we follow that same pattern.

Here's a list of those articles, beginning with a couple that I didn't even know were in the same series when I wrote it:

• My Attempt to Encourage Creativity - The risk I took that eventually became an exciting project
• Fear, Love and Coming Alive - How I learned so many of us hold back
• 6 Ways to Teach Like an Artist - The original post after a summer of thinking (and revised after getting some input)
• 5 Benefits of Teaching Like an Artist - What I learned after consciously putting these things into practice and paying attention
• 6 Reasons Your Students Need to See Your Mediocre Art - Why you should share your talents even when you're not a pro
• Raising Questions - Artists inspire wonder.
• Know Your Audience - How teachers as artists leads to a striking metaphor
• The Smart Jams Music Video Project - The creative project that developed over the course of the year

Five Benefits of Teaching Like an Artist

New for 2014: Follow the continuing Teaching Like an Artist series on TeachingLikeanArtist.com.

“All things have been given to us for a purpose,

and an artist must feel this more intensely.” - J. L. Borges

I wrote a post at the end of summer about teaching like an artist. It is what I have learned after about seven years working in education at jobs that let me express creativity and passion in school. Contrasted with about 12 years of a largely dull approach to teaching high school math, it has been an invigorating experience. I’m still living and learning it daily, but I want to share what I’ve found so far.

I’m taking the broad perspective of what it means to be an artist and what counts as art. To me, the artist is someone who sees, works to make and then shares something that didn’t exist before. It might be physical or it might be an idea. But in any case, the artist is driven to bring the dream to reality.

And what drives the process? Certainly many things, but primarily it is because the artist is meant to create. I have to believe people are here to make a contribution, to make their piece of the world somehow different than when they first came. To do otherwise is to slowly squeeze the life out of their existence.

Instead of squeezing it out, artists are those who know how to let life shine through. Emotions, especially love for something, personality and talent, come through like light through a prism. What emerges, the art that didn’t exist before, grabs the attention of anyone who can see it.

Defined this way, we can all be artists to some extent. Any sphere of society where we might find ourselves will benefit when we become aware of ourselves in this way, but this is so true of schools. There adults impact the younger generation daily. There it feels like too often the goal is to just find some answer everyone else already knew. Schools desperately need more artists!

I’ve been trying to consciously live this out and here’s my current list of benefits of teaching like an artist:

Teaching like an artist has restored my sense of purpose on the job. I feel connected to why I am here. When I talk to a group of students about the projects I will be involved with, I am amazed at the memories across forty years that flood my mind and add up to what I need to say to inspire learning. I can share stories to encourage, model skills for their success and relate to their dreams and frustrations. It feels like the moment is a gift, not something that just happened.

It is refreshing to see the fruits of our contributions, whether large or small. In a largely consumer culture that requires a lot of input for fleeting moments of enjoyment (TGIF?), the artist can draw energy from regularly creating. When people and parts of the system in your school are different in real ways because of work you have done, you’ll experience something money can’t buy.

Artists enjoy sharing their work. This is related to the above point, but by this I mean sharing beyond the day to day job. Technology allows us to easily share our best work with other teachers around the world. Listen to artists talk about the reward. They often say it is in seeing others enjoy what they created. That’s the reward we can experience when we find other teachers used our lessons or got ideas from seeing what we did.

Students will be inspired when you create. They will thank you for what you taught them or, perhaps more accurately, what you awakened in them. They will begin to create and discover their own ideas and they’ll be excited to tell you about them.

There is excitement and anticipation when you live between your vision of what can be and what your vision becomes. This sure beats the boring approach I hear so often from tired colleagues (though I love them all) who already know the result of their hard work. Within minutes of seeing their class lists they can tell me how the grades will turn out, who the trouble students will be and which projects will fail.

Of course life reflects their low expectations and their reward for being right is as uninteresting as their classes. Isn’t it more exciting to dream and see if the dream could come true? What would school be like if everyone came in wondering how things might turn out?

Artists can live in the face of the negative emotions. Yes, ideas will fail, teaching will be exhausting and students will disappoint. I have struggled with deep frustration and depression throughout my career and many times I have seriously questioned if any of what I say here is worth it. It has helped greatly, however, to recognize all of that as part of living in the space between vision and reality and that I was made for that.

Rest assured that in doing it right we will at times appear crazy, to others and to ourselves, as we work toward our visions. It’s not about living a life void of the negative emotions and moments of insanity. It is living in spite of them. If we won’t push through, who will? And what are we really choosing if we choose to do otherwise?

In short, the teacher who lives like an artist is more alive. To be fully alive a person must recognize the blessings of life and fulfill his or her responsibilities. Artists train their eyes to see both parts. They possess the talent and have developed the skills necessary for the part they are meant to play.

Teachers living like artists get to do this surrounded by young people who are starving for such an example.

Apps for Six-word Memoirs

The 11th grade ELA teacher recently asked me to help with a project where students would summarize their recently completed memoirs into just six words, then add those words to a photo of themselves.  This notion allegedly stems from a challenge made to Ernest Hemingway when he was asked to write just such a short story.

Any search will bring up a ton of examples and challenges related to the idea. I like this project as we are doing it because students are always eager to present their passions in fun ways and the technology is just a tool, not taking the spotlight.

Our first task was to create a video of examples from the teaching staff.  I used those memoirs and photos to zero in on a good, flexible way for students to make their memoirs. Students will be using their own devices or possibly computers in the lab this upcoming week. 

I started with the Aviary app (available on Android and iOS) on my iPad because it is simple, but has a lot of good features for adjustments and effects. It is usually my go-to app for quick classroom projects involving photo editing. I made the first few memoirs with it, but soon grew tired of the one available font. Here's an example where I simply cropped the picture and added text using Aviary.

This led me to try Pixlr Express, another app I have on my iPad, but rarely use. I always liked the control it offers, but with control comes more options. aviary had been my preference as it fell between Instagram and Pixlr for control and simplicity. 

After editing several of these memoirs on my iPad and computer, though, I have to say I am very impressed with Pixlr. I am now recommending that to the students for their devices for this project. Since the same tool is available on their website as well, it makes a perfect option all students can use after seeing just an example or two.  As you'll see on the website, there are three versions.  I recommend the Express version as a good blend between ease of use and control of the final result.

Here's my six-word memoir for this project. Most of the look of the photo came from the room's lighting rather than a feature of Pixlr. I really appreciate the variety of fonts and the ability to adjust the strength of any effect with the slider. The only downside I had to get used to was it is easy to accidentally apply a bit of text before moving it in place. There's an undo button, but it still requires the user to start that piece of text from scratch. 

6 ways to teach like an artist

New for 2014: Follow the continuing Teaching Like an Artist series on TeachingLikeanArtist.com.

Note from 11-8-2013:  I wrote this post at the end of summer.  I've been developing the idea both in writing and by trying to live it out.  After three months of that, I wrote a related article here:  Five Benefits of Teaching Like an Artist

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge." -Albert Einstein

"I am an artist....  I am here to live out loud."

 -Emile Zola

We've probably all seen the websites and books that encourage us to teach like different things--pirates, rockstars, champions.  I didn't search long and hard, but I imagine there are probably lists out there already about teaching like an artist.  In one way or another, we're probably saying the same things.

I like the idea of teaching like an artist, though, because it allows for passion, personality and maybe even some insanity.

Artists dream and bring the dreams to life.

It's fun to hang out with artists.  They can straddle the line between deep insight and admiring things that just look, sound, taste or feel good for reasons they don't care to figure out.  They show us another angle we wouldn't have seen on our own.  

Our students would have a great time hanging out with people like that day after day.

To me, art is love expressed freely.  It might involve a lot of other emotions too, but behind it all there is love for something.  Art is something powerful + you, the artist.  And what comes out is unique.  Artists know how to capitalize on that uniqueness and make the world a better, more beautiful place because of their work.

Almost everyone falls in love with another person.  We go through the stages like most people and similar events happen in all the stories.  But artists put those things in words, songs, pictures or other creative works in ways that inspire, connect and encourage those who experience the art.  Artists remind us we're not alone, that there's something worth getting out of bed for and that at times life will demand everything you can possibly give.

School needs more of these people!

I could go on, but for now, here's the list:

---

6 Ways to Teach Like an Artist

1)  Think of a new way.

Make a habit of putting a new spin on something you always do.  Give it a new name, retype the version you've used for a decade or use some other tool to present it.  Don't change it for change sake, but make it your own.

Artists let personality and talent shine through what they do, but when we have kids showing up at the door every morning we forget to let that happen.  Purposely put your touch--some twist no one else you know would come up with--on something new each week.  If you can sing a little, sing more.  Draw?  Draw more.  Write poems.  It will be worth the extra couple hours on a weekend.

2)  Share your work.

This might be the best way to stay inspired and inspire others. It is certainly easier than ever to share your best work now, yet I'm continually amazed at how few teachers do so.  Artists know it is rewarding to see how far their ideas go.  Whether it's a blog, website or Pinterest, start an account and start sharing.  The joy of finding that someone else, possibly on the other side of the planet, used your work with her students will add significance to your hard work.

3)  Notice what you love and love it out loud.  

Students need to see more adults who are passionate about something.  I go from class to class in my district working with many teachers and too often the only real life examples I hear are related to jobs and making money.  Too often it's in the language of the mass market and commercials.  No wonder the kids are bored.

Life is filled with exciting opportunities to learn, grow personally, meet deep needs and leave a mark.  There are reasons to be so grateful you can't help but tell about it.  Do your students know what you're passionate about and thankful for?  Do they know why you decided to be a teacher?  Are these things expressed in ways that only you can?  

This isn't necessarily to make them love those things too, but it can show them what passion and joy for living look like.

4)  Let yourself feel and express the negative emotions too.

Let's face it, artists can be troubled people.  We know the stories, but chances are if you've made any serious attempt to be an artist of some sort you've felt it yourself.

It is frustrating to care so much and have your hopes dashed.  It might have some benefits to always see what others don't notice, but sometimes it can feel like you're the only one one the planet dealing with reality.

We can either avoid the things that cause the negative emotions or we can accept them as part of the work.  I've dealt with this personally for my entire career in the schools, but I'm trying to be brief.  When it's all said and done, here's what I've got: 

The heart that makes great art is also more sensitive to the pain of real life, so expect it to hurt.  Just keep doing the work because the only alternative is to stop really living. 

5)  Risk failure.

Seth Godin convinced me of the importance of this in The Icarus Deception.  In fact, he said if there isn't risk, it isn't art.  As with #4 above, fear of failure will always come along if you're working like an artist.  Expect it and live with it.

The best teachers I know are the ones who give everything knowing very well it won't always work.  They might look stupid for a few minutes when the new technology isn't coming through.  They might waste hours planning a lesson that is ruined by a snowday and some students in rotten moods.  They might have to reteach another lesson because the video they made didn't really do the trick.

This isn't a suggestion to be completely stupid.  Know the cost and proceed like a professional who does have bills to pay.  

It won't hurt to loosen up though.  Face the fear of failure and press on.  You'll learn some of your best lessons when you realize you survived the awkward moments.

6)  Tell the story in your way.

I know you'll be busy if you're teaching like an artist, but be sure pay attention to what's going on.  Tell that story.  First of all, tell it to yourself in a journal.  Record what you're learning.  I don't care if it's a sticky note or an email to yourself, don't let the moments slip by.  Keep track of them and polish them later if you find a reason to show them off.

But definitely show some of them off.  Tell the stories to colleagues and tell some to the world.  This goes along with sharing your work, because the story itself is art, but by the story I also mean the big picture.

It's not just about the art you made, but it's how it was accepted.  What did the students learn?  What did you learn?  What did you notice that everyone else should pay attention to?

Obviously you could write these things in a blog or maybe you'd even write a book over the summer.  It's all easier than ever.  But don't limit it to written narratives of what happened.  You could also write a poem, a song or a video (or a video with your poem turned into a song) inspired by what you learned.  Find a creative way to present it.  Call it an example for a student project or show it off at parent night.  

Just keep reminding everyone that it's worth doing the work.  

---

The world needs what only you can do.  

Dream big,

work hard 

and do it with passion.

What would you add to the list?

Note:  I already mentioned Seth Godin's book The Icarus Deception   I also want to point out that his book Poke the Box had a huge impact on me.  Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon also influenced how I view my work, which in turn inspired much of this article.  All the books are pretty quick reads, so check them out at a library or buy a used copy on Amazon.

8 things I emphasize in game design lessons

I love games, I make games of various types and I work with educational technology in a middle school.  This means I often have very excited students (usually boys) telling me their dreams of making computer games.  

On one hand I love their passion and I try to encourage them.  I have used it at times to motivate some otherwise very unmotivated students.

At the same time, I am wary of presenting a false picture of what it takes to make a successful (or even a good) game.  "Making it" with games (like any creative venture) can be frustrating.  I don't take it lightly when dealing with their hopes and dreams along with the very real possibility of failure.

I don't always have the chance to teach the class or guide all the aspects of the game design lessons when I'm supporting the classroom teacher.  Sometimes I do, sometimes I'm just in the room and working with the students.  From my experience as a game designer and my time with these students, though, here are the top 8 things I always emphasize in game design lessons.

1)  Don't think about money.  Don't even think you could live off any game you make.  Whether a card game, board game or computer game, you'll most likely invest hours of time and make no money at all.  Most people who make games do not make enough to live off them.  That's reality.

I've made a couple party games that have sold all over the world and I made very little money at it.  Most of my friends who have made games, some a lot more successful than mine, still keep their day jobs.  I make it a personal goal to never talk about the money.

2)  Approach it as a hobby and think about the people who will enjoy your game.  If you have fun with it and are grateful when you see others enjoy your work that is a great reward.  Remember that your work can inspire others, make someone smile or bring good friends together.  Those are great things and if you enjoy doing it, keep doing it.

In fact, I'd even go so far as to say if you're good at it, you should do it.  Sometimes when I wanted to give up on a game I'd push through simply because I felt a responsibility to see that idea go as far as it possibly could.

3)  Game design is work.  It seems like you'd get to play all day, but there are plenty of parts to the process that you won't enjoy.  They won't seem fun.

If we're talking computer games, there is a lot of work up front before you'll even be able to play a game of any complexity.  Learning to program is not easy.  Some applications make it easier than it used to be, but if you really want to build a game from the ground up it's going to require hours of learning, programming and testing.

I have programmed for years and just my simple Flash game, Pegged, about made my head explode when I tried to do the scoring piece.  Seriously, I had to get away from all people and noise, staring at my notes until it hurt.  No one gets that until they've seen it, but trust me.  It takes work.

4)  Know the difference between a dream and a wish...and make sure you're following a dream.  This applies to a lot more than game design, but it's good to throw this in.

When we wish for things we think about the end result--maybe we think about it too much--and we would love to somehow get to that without any real work.  We know we really want that end result.  It would be great and we'd be so happy to see it come true.  But it's a wish because it's a fantasy.  The end doesn't happen without the work.

To me, a dream is more realistic and worth working for.  Maybe some would call this a goal or a plan, and those calculated terms can comes into play, but I like to call it a dream.  It still involves the heart.  It's great to dream, but work toward the dream.  

I always say girls wish that One Direction would stop by their house when they're in town.  Boys wish they could make a living making computer games.  Both are about as unlikely.  Dream, but live in the real world!

5)  It is good to play many games, but do it with design in mind.  The fun part of the hobby of game design is that the "research" can be playing games.  I try to play as many as I can.

When you play, though, don't get so caught up in the playing that you forget about why you're taking the time to do it.  Learn what works and what doesn't.  Watch how the game affects others.  Think about what you understand and what you don't.  Make sure you know what makes something fun.  

Along with this, read about as many games as you can too.  Read reviews of good and bad games that you probably won't be able to play.  Read the rules or details of games from genres or styles you don't like.  Even though you don't actually play them, you'll still learn a ton.  Know what people have done and try to find the areas that are yet unexplored.

6)  Read articles and watch videos about game designers and the design process.  Austin Kleon, in his book Steal Like an Artist, says we do this not to get their ideas, but to get the thinking behind their ideas.

Look into the people who make your favorite games and figure out what makes them tick.  Read interviews about people who made successful games you don't really like.  What led to the decisions that resulted in those games?

When you read their stories you should get a better idea of what I meant about all the work that goes into it.  You will almost never hear a designer say that a game just fell in place.

7)  Record all your ideas for games.  You'll never be able to make them all and many of the ones you try to make won't really work.  Still, every idea is worth keeping because:

• In any art you should form the habit of getting and recording as many ideas as possible.
• It very well can be useful in another way at another time.

Watch my video on how to make games if you're interested in hearing more about keeping a game idea notebook.  (There are a few other good tips in that two part series as well!)

8)  Keep producing while the others play.  Never just play.  This might sound a lot like tip #5 above, but it encompasses all your research, play and work on game design.

If you do the things listed above, you'll be working on your craft even when it feels like you're having some fun.  You'll be getting better every day while others are playing and that's a huge edge.  

Links to resources

I usually make board and card games, so I am mostly familiar with those resources.  Here are a few starting points based on the steps above and some are related to computer games as well.

• Designer interviews at Fair Play Games - I interviewed a lot of board game designers several years ago.  Their tips on design can still be useful.
• Tips for Success from Dominic Crapuchettes - Dominic is the most successful game designer that I know personally.  He worked hard to bring his dreams to life and he's enjoying the rewards.  
• Tom Vasel's game designer interviews - Tom interviewed many game designers over the years.  Here they are compiled on the Boardgame Geek website.
• The Boardgame Geek - Speaking of this site, it's a great place to learn about tons of games (good and bad) throughout the ages.  They have subsections of the site devoted to video games and role playing games too.
• Inspiring Creativity - Here's a post I wrote in 2012 about a friend of mine who creates iOS games.  Be sure to read Kory's post about how he made Blockhouse.  It's a great example of the work that goes into even a "simple" game.
• Meeting with experts - Last school year two of my designer friends met with some of my students in a Google Hangout.  I wrote about that experience and some of their tips in this post.
• My posts on game design - This is not the most organized way to find the information, but the link will take you to all the posts tagged "computer game programming" from this blog.  
• Making What's It to Ya? - Here's my fairly detailed account of how one of my most popular games became an idea in my head and went around the world.  Here's the brief story as a video.
• How to Make Games - I linked to this above, but wanted to put it here two.  Part 1 and Part 2 of this presentation can be found on YouTube.  They haven't been very popular, but I gave away some gems in there, in my opinion!

How to Inspire Creativity and Teach Content - Music video projects in under 3 hours

I've been doing more music in school the past two months and I'm finding it very encouraging. Obviously many students have a passion for it. Several of them are talented in that area and technology is making it easier than ever to create music even without a lot of skill.

For almost a year I have been testing and tweaking a process of creating simple songs and music videos based on classroom content. (Here's the post where I compiled all my music resources.)  The videos below highlight my latest attempt to present the basic idea.

I created a song and recorded it in UJam in about an hour. I finished a couple short videos in one to two more hours of total work time.  That time wasn't all in one setting, but I'm confident that with some focus and solid deadlines a group of students could make an original song and video in around three class periods.

This first video explains the process and contains all examples. Here's the breakdown of the video:

• Quick tips 0:38
• Writing the lyrics  0:54
• Recording the melody using GarageBand   1:21
• **Using UJam to make the music 2:33 - UJam is amazing!  Definitely watch this part if nothing else.  
• Recording the video with Video Star  4:53
• Editing the video in VideoStudio  5:54
• The example videos I created are at the end of the video, but also you can find them separately below.

Music Creation for the Classroom - Some compiled resources

So much of my blog has been about creativity games, but I realized this week music has shown up now and then.  It has always been a huge part of my personal life and recently I have seen how it can motivate students in school.

When it comes to infusing passion into a lesson, not much can compare to the effect music has on many students.  Some of those who are hardest to reach are also deeply interested in music or musically inclined.

Technology has made it easier that ever for anyone to create something along the lines of a song or music video.

Here are a few thoughts and resources that I have posted previously.

The basics:

• This post sums up a method I use to create original songs and videos in about three hours at the most.
• The main idea behind these projects is to encourage learners to make something that involves passion and creative expression, publish it and learn from it so they can do better next time.  
• It's easy to spend a fortune on good equipment, but in all my efforts with recording I keep it simple.  Even a mediocre musician like me can get a lot of mileage out of free online resources, Audacity for recording and Gsnap for pitch correction.  You'll probably need a mic and headphones too, depending on how you plan to perform and record.
• GarageBand for the iPad is amazing.  For several months I thought of it as just a tool for sketching song ideas.  Lately I have been using it to record short songs like some of those shown below.  I use the iRig Mic Cast microphone and iRig guitar interface with it for recording.

From other posts:

• An overall plan for creating music in the classroom - This was written in the summer when I had some untested ideas.  It still serves as the outline for the projects I have done with students.
• My latest music video with students - Two middle school students wrote this song.  I helped them record it and I edited the video using mostly video and pictures taken under their direction.
• My example of a math music video - When I told students about my ideas, some were afraid to sing or perform on video.  I made this video as an example to encourage them to take the step.
• Scientific Method Rap - This is one example from my first effort to assign a music video project.  The post is the best example here of what worked from start to finish in the classroom.  I did about eight hours of work on this after the students finished, just to see what was possible and how much work it would take.  
• Another rap - This example also came out of the class project above, but without my additional editing.  
• Kevin Honeycutt - Since I first came across Kevin's conference session in 2011 he has been an inspiration to me.  I love how he inspires students to be creative and get their ideas out there.
• Music Video for Tech PD - This is a song we had some fun with for a PD session.  I was encouraging teachers to put some passion in their work and to do something new.  This song was a result.  It also serves as an example of what can be done using just the iPad for recording.

Updated Creativity Exercises and Games Presentation

I updated my popular post about creativity games and exercises (which some are calling class presentation games).  You can almost sit back and let me teach your class for one hour with this important lesson that I am passionate about!

Well, actually you'll need to be there to handle discussion and run the games.  But please take some time to consider this lesson.  We definitely need to teach more creativity in school, especially at the secondary levels!

The original post is here and I suggest you look it over to see all the details.  The information below is included in that post.

Just so it is available on the front page for a while, I also am including the new stuff here:

There are two videos below that you can play to present the information to your students, or you can watch my version and present it in your own way.

• The first video could result in some notes and discussion with the class.  
• The second part introduces a creativity exercise that you can run with them (stopping the video a few minutes to do the activity).  
• Both parts have suggested presentation games that you can play with the class.

Links to the related games are also below.  If you don't use ActivInspire you can download a free "personal edition" from their website and play the games or you can make your own versions.

Here is part 1 of the presentation.  It covers the purpose of the activity and provides a definition of creativity.  

The presentation leads into two free classroom games I created.  You can find information about those here:

• Oh, Really! classroom game
• This or That? classroom game (based on the game Take Your Pick)

And here is part 2.  In this one I lead a couple of brainstorming activities and show what it means to make connections.  After those practice exercises the teacher could lead the class in one to three games, which are listed below.

Games for this part of the presentation are here, along with the rules:

• Why Did the Chicken...? and the popular Why Did the Chicken...? Mythology Edition
• Say Anything and the Back to School Edition of Say Anything 

Please let me know if you have questions or any good experiences with this lesson.  I hope to improve it over time.

Tips for Success - An interview with Dominic Crapuchettes of North Star Games

Here's a brief interview with game designer Dominic Crapuchettes, founder of North Star Games.  

Dominic created the excellent party games Wits & Wagers and Say Anything.  They're both great fun and (with his kind permission) I turned them into classroom presentation games for ActivInspire.  With two editions based on each game, they have been some of my most downloaded classroom activities.  The games themselves are also a great addition to the classroom.  I have entertained many students with both titles.

I met Dominic in 2002 when we both were part of a newly formed game designer convention.  His talent for games was apparent immediately.  From that time on I watched him devote his life to a dream of having his own game company.  Rather than focusing on the smaller market of "hobby games", he set his sites on the big time--having his games reach the masses through the large chains like Target, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart.

With his talent and hard work he has done just that.  I asked him to share some of his story because I believe it can inspire creative students to follow their dreams.

He also had some unique educational experiences that remind me that to help students be successful I have to do more than just cover the Common Core Standards in my classes.

Mike Petty:  Dominic, thanks for taking the time to answer these questions for us!  To start, what can you tell us about the success of North Star Games?

Dominic Crapuchettes:  North Star Games started as a dream in my basement over 10 years ago.  Since then, we have designed 6 games and won over 100 awards.  Wits & Wagers is the most awarded party game in history!  Our games are sold in Target, Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us, and over 25 countries.

MP:  It has been great following your rise to success over the past several years and I have learned a lot from you about what it takes to realize a dream.  When did you know you wanted to create games for a living?

DC:  I knew through most of high school that I wanted to design games for a living, but I didn’t think it was something I would end up doing.  My senior paper was a business plan for a board game company that I wanted to start.

MP:  There is a lot of talk about games in education now, and in some ways gaming seems to be more popular than ever.  But the hype almost always is focused on computer games.  On the other hand, you and I have been creating traditional games for the most part.  What do you think the advantages are of either playing or creating the traditional games?

DC:  Focusing on board games has forced me to be frugal with rules, and strive for elegance and simplicity.  This is because the players have to keep track of everything, as opposed to having a computer do it.  Every creative endeavor benefits from striving for simplicity, including my endeavor to grow our company.  Even Einstein always sought the simplest explanation for the things he saw.

MP:  I know you worked extremely hard to get to where you are now.  There were times I thought I was working hard trying to balance a job and my pursuits as a game designer, then I'd talk to you!  Tell us a little about those early days.

DC:  It is very difficult to start a company.  I found a great partner when I was going through business school.  We worked about 80 hours a week for two years… without any pay!  There were several times when we thought we were going to go bankrupt.  But we stuck with it, and now it is starting to pay off.  We get to do what we love, AND we get paid for it.  Not many people can say that.

MP:  Would you say you’re living your dream? 

DC:  Yes, I would say that I am living my dream, but keep in mind that this is still a job. I have to set my alarm each morning and drive to work each day.  Then I spend most of my day doing things that are not all that fun like answering emails.  But this is mixed with things that I enjoy greatly, like designing and testing games, and then working on the graphics for them.

MP:  I know your talents well enough to say you could have succeeded in a lot of areas.  You chose to follow your creativity.  What are some benefits of exercising creativity in life, including as a hobby or in other ways that might not make money?

DC:  There are ways to be creative in just about any job.  Finding a creative solution to a problem is not only useful to the company you work for, but it is also very satisfying.  Following my heart led me to start a game company and gives me the opportunity to create games, but most of my creativity goes into figuring out how to make our company successful.  The more creative we are with solving problems, the better our company does.

I believe that it is important to balance your passion with meeting the needs of your community.  Your job is NOT about doing what YOU want.  It is about serving your community.  So look for a way to serve your community in a manner that you enjoy.  It’s a life-long process to balance the things you want with the needs of your community.

MP:  That's a great point.  I try to remind my students of the responsibility they have to others.  It's easy for all of us to forget!  

What was your experience like through formal education.  Do any teachers or classes stand out as your favorites?

DC:  I did not enjoy high school.  Memorizing facts for tests was not interesting to me.  So I went to a college where we read philosophical works and discussed their meaning in class.  That’s when I started getting passionate about my education.  I had many favorite teachers.  They were able to inspire me to get excited about the material.

MP:  Are there specific things you do to keep ideas flowing in your business?  

DC:  I look for my inspiration in the other games I play.  I am always considering ways to improve them, or mix elements from one game into another idea that I am working on.  I do the same with my company.  I read about other companies, speak with other business owners and learn as much as I can from their failures and successes.

MP:  I have some common themes that I present to students when I work with classes at many grade levels or in any subject.  I wondered if you have any comments on these, particularly how they might relate to technology and success.

For one, we increase our chances for success by making the most of everyday opportunities.  Forming the habits now of working hard or making good relationships, for example, makes success more likely in our future.

DC:  One of the most important things is life is forming good habits.  Even the smartest person on Earth has a limited amount of brain energy.  Forming good habits allows you to focus on something without having the rest of your life fall apart.  For instance, I set reminders on my computer for everything I need to do.  Then I can focus on the task at hand without worrying that I will forget something else that is important (like picking up my kid from school).

MP:  Right.  Another theme I emphasize is the importance of learning how to learn.  The world is changing fast and students will always need to adapt to unexpected situations.

DC:  My entire college education was a lesson on how to learn.  Instead of memorizing ideas that other people came up with, we read books, discussed them, and came up with our own ideas.  Learning how to listen to others and adopt your ideas and opinions based upon the information you get from them is an important life-lesson that will help you in ANY job you get.

MP:  I agree.  Thanks for putting it in words for us and for providing the example through your own success story.  I wish you and the company the best in the future!

To keep up with information about Dominic's company North Star Games and their great line of party games, please visit:

• Their website at http://www.northstargames.com.
• Or their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/northstargames.

Computer Game Design in the Classroom - Stencyl as a tool for creating Flash games

I've been briefly highlighting some computer game creation tools over the past week.  The first two articles are here:

• Gamestar Mechanic
• App Inventor

For this installment I want to focus on my current resource of choice:

Stencyl

Update 2/2/2014:  I recently posted a review of a book that will be great resource for learning Stencyl:  Learning Stencyl 3.x Game Development. If you are considering using Stencyl in class or if you are just learning the program, I recommend the book.

I wrote recently about Stencyl and I have featured a few games I created.  For now, I'll briefly touch on my experience, the pros and cons and why I like this tool the best.

My Experience
My first attempt to use Stencyl was met with frustration, but I revisited it this summer after I realized they updated to version 2.0.  They also expanded some of the documentation.  Those changes helped me to understand the elements and I was able to create a few games.  Two of them are hosted here on the Stencyl Arcade.

Like many other tools, users arrange code blocks rather than typing all the lines of a program.  That's generally a nice touch, though sometimes blocks are annoying.  I'm used to the old fashioned way!

But even if a user finds the blocks to their liking, it's not exactly easy to make a game.  It is probably easy to modify some existing games that are available, and that's a great place to start, but to create a game from scratch requires a lot of logic and planning.  And that doesn't even involve actually learning the elements of Stencyl itself.

For example, my games were simple in the fact that I did not need to handle collisions or many different "scenes" based on player interaction.  I made some simple card games.  The computer never had to respond with anything that resembled AI.  Animations were very simple.

But the logic behind some scoring elements made my head spin.  Dealing with lists (arrays) can always be an exercise in the abstract, but that along with how they're handled in Stencyl was a challenge for me.  My son, who will be in seventh grade this year, was surprised by the complexity of that part of the code.  He wasn't even interested in learning what it did or how I figured it out.  I know most students around that grade level would feel about the same toward it.

It's a simple fact that creating a decent game can be difficult on many levels.  It will be time consuming and require a lot of thought.  If anyone doubts this, they should read a few posts in the forums at Stencyl.  I can't even understand many of the technical discussions.

But why do I prefer it over other tools?  Because I am able to make games that are easily played online...at least with a computer.  Here are the positives and negatives in brief.

Positives

• Stencyl can make a great variety of games.  Even with the free version, one can make action games, puzzle games, card games, etc.  There are limits, but compared to Gamestar Mechanic this offers a universe of options for students to explore.
• The free version makes Flash games that can be played online.  While Flash isn't good for iPads or other mobile devices, it provides more accessibility for free than the other game creation tools that I explored.  
• There is fairly good documentation to get started.  It's not perfect and I didn't find anything geared specifically for educators yet, but it was helpful.  The forums also provide good support for new game designers.  I didn't use the video tutorials, but they do have some created by users that might be helpful for budding programmers.  

Negatives

• As I mentioned above, a game of any complexity is still going to take some serious work.  Besides just the logic and learning Stencyl itself, gathering or creating graphics and sound effects was a big job even for my simple games.
• It boasts the ability to make iOS games, but that will be costly.  You have to buy the Pro version and you need to pay for Apple's developers program as well.  Realistically for many schools, Flash games are about all you'll get out of this.

So for me the positives clearly outweighed those couple negatives.  I'm thrilled with what I learned and that I now have a few computer games that I can use in the classroom this year.

My biggest lesson so far is that I really can appreciate the work that goes into making a great computer game!  From graphics to sound to the programming itself, it's demanding.  Hopefully more students will see this and their desire to make games will motivate them to that level of effort.

Computer Game Design in the Classroom - App Inventor

I try to focus a lot on passion in this blog.  On the job I want to motivate students by appealing to their passions.

I find this to be most difficult when working with teen boys.  While there are certainly some tough cases, my difficulty is rarely due to my inability to identify their passions.  It's usually the challenge of bridging the gap between their interests and the required curriculum.

I know many these male students are very passionate about video games.  When I ask them what they want to study in our digital media courses, they often tell me they want to learn to make games.  (It is not limited to just the boys, but it is always the boys more than girls.)

It seems like game design could be an ideal motivator.  On top of that, it's my hobby too.  But somehow I have yet to find a good way to make video game creation accessible to all students in a way that meets all requirements of the courses in which I am working.  I've been exploring the options more this summer and I will post a few brief conclusions I've formed about some tools at our disposal.

Lesson plans and course flow are in the works too, but for now I'll start with the programming tools.

MIT App Inventor
I am starting with this one because it is 100% free.

My Experience
I used App Inventor for my own studies in a graduate course last year.  I have not tried to use it with students yet.

I was able to make a playable game quite easily with this program, but it did not look great.  I made no effort to explore the graphic capabilities.  Also, my game was not an action "video game" in the usual sense.  It was a fairly simple two-player game that involved selecting options.

Here's a video demonstrating the game.  I show it on the Android simulator in the video, but I did play the game on a phone as well.  (I have to love that one comment a user posted for it!  As a former math teacher, I'm used to less than pleasant sentiments expressed by the unimpressed.)

And here's the classroom project that it was derived from.

Positives

• It is quite simple to get started with App Inventor.  I have years of programming experience, so that probably helped.  The list of options are small, intuitive and well documented, though, so I found it to be the easiest application to take the game from concept to playing it on a device.
• Unlike most programs that allow you to create for mobile devices, it's free.  Being able to play their games on their phones should appeal to many students.
• Many resources are available for educators.  I have a lot of exploring to do in that area of their website.

Negatives

• It only works on Android devices.  You can test it on a simulator if you don't have a phone, but there's no option to post playable versions online.
• Testing was a little slow with the Android simulator.  The debugging process could get frustrating with small fixes and significant wait times to see what worked and what didn't.
• Files were quite large.  Even my simple games had relatively large files and when I tested them on my phone last year things were sluggish sometimes. 

For all the good I see in this program, I am not focusing on it as a possibility this year in school, mostly for the reasons listed as negatives above.  If you have more experience with App Inventor I will be glad to hear additional thoughts on this.

For my next installment, I will provide some thoughts on a resource I have more classroom experience with.

Advice to a new teacher...if I had a time machine

I really enjoyed Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon.  In it he gives advice about creativity by thinking about what he would tell his younger self.

That prompted me to consider what advice I would share with myself when I just started teaching.  Now, after 18 years in public education, what would be the most important tips I'd pass along?  I boiled it down to the list of six things below.  They're personal, but I think they have some application beyond my own life.

To set the scene I have to admit that the first half of my teaching experience was rough for me.  I did not enjoy much about teaching high school math.  There was plenty to be thankful for, no doubt, and a lot of students liked my classes.  I learned a ton about myself and I have some great relationships that came out of that time.  But dealing with difficult students and seeing my inability to reach all of them was tough.

I never could distance myself and simply say, "Well, I tried."  I felt like a failure many days.  

So here's a short list of what I wish I could have told myself when I was 25 years old, starting out in my career.

1)  Be realistic about what you're getting into.  The students you will be asked to teach are coming in with poor math skills and a poor attitude toward the subject.  Very few of them will see math class as the positive experience that you did.  Be prepared for this!  Set realistic goals of what you can accomplish in those first years as you are learning to be a good teacher.

2)  Take the work seriously, but don't forget about the relationships you are building everyday with your students.  You tend to get focused on the job and forget about people, but they are most important.  Even the difficult ones will respect you for your hard work if they also know you care about them.

Years after the class is over you'll see some of them.  They'll remember that you cared and worked hard more than they ever will the details of lessons, rough days, all those assignments or the grades they got.

3)  Start a game club right away.  That love you always had for games will be a highlight of your time working with students.  A lot of them won't fit in anywhere else, but they'll hang out with you at lunch.  Buy a few more of those games no one else has heard of and use them to connect with the students as much as you can.  Meet every couple weeks or so after school for gaming.  You'll like that extra-curricular work a lot more than organizing the prom.  (For the good of all, tell them you don't want to be a class sponsor!)

4)  Keep up on the technology.  You're kind of a traditionalist and in the debate of calculators versus no calculators you'll be tempted to keep it old school.  Instead, remember that many kids can learn the concept better if they come at it differently than you did.  It doesn't have to be all pencil and paper and a ton of steps.

Keep an open mind on that and use technology to give them a conceptual understanding useful for problem solving. When the principal asks you to try more with technology, do it.  Doors will open for you and you'll enjoy the change as the best years of your career.

5)  Assign creative projects, even in math.  Your department will focus almost exclusively on the state MEAP test, but don't let that drain your classroom of creativity.  You'll be busy and it will be easier to just keep it simple and routine, but things like the video assignment, personalized story problems and the artistic projects are vital.  Keep developing those assignments.  Add a new one every semester so that when students think back to your class, they remember those things they made.  You'll like it best when students say you're not like the other math teachers.

6)  Remember that you felt called to teach.  In frustrating times you'll think you should have gone into programming instead of working with kids who don't want to be there.

All those visions of being an amazing teacher will be shattered by reality and you'll think you misunderstood what you were supposed to do with your life.  But just like you did that day when you got the unexpected call and they offered you the job, trust that God knows what he's doing.  You are supposed to be there.

You won't reach everyone personally or with the math, but you'll connect with many students.  You'll remind them that life is exciting when chasing a dream.  They'll take notes when you talk about what true success looks like and many will thank you.  Among other things, you were called to pass on those messages.  Let them flow through all aspects of your work.

Here's the key to success you'll eventually share with them:

Always do your best

At what's most important

Whether you feel like it or not

You and many others will be thankful for the lesson.