The Big Question

I wrote last week about asking better questions.  Here's my short presentation on the question that I ask now as I try to view school from the perspective of the students.  I pose it to teachers and I keep trying to think of good answers for it that I can put into practice next year.  If you've got some suggestions or solutions that you've seen work, I'd love to hear them.

Epic Mythology Videos - GoAnimate with high school students

Melinda Newcombe teaches Mythology at the high school in the district where I work.  She asked me a couple weeks ago if we could pilot GoAnimate4schools with her class.  It ended up being a great project, definitely one of the best of the school year.  I was extremely happy with the engagement that I saw from the students at this point in the school year.

Here's a video that sums it up.  I also have the resulting videos embedded below.  The folks at GoAnimate have asked me to write an article for their blog and you can find the post here.


The Myths...
Persephone


Odysseus and Polyphemus


Ceyx and Alycone


Pyramus and Thisbe


Achilles and Hector

Why Bother?

For the past year I've been trying to get past the surface issues of low test scores, poor attendance and behavior problems.  I want to look at the culture of the schools in our district.  I want to identify and put into words the many tiny forces that, over a period of 13 years, add up to the atmosphere in a building or a classroom.  By the last four years that we're with the students, we try to control this force with rules and requirements, but by all indications students are missing the point.

I haven't been great at this yet, but I think I'm asking better questions.  Here's how I am phrasing it now.  Consider two groups of students in the secondary buildings--those who are learning what we'd like them to learn (group I) and those that aren't (group II).  This includes learning the content to a high standard, plus any of the other important things we want to see in young people such as responsibility, punctuality and so on.  In the other group we have everyone from the struggling learner to the talented but lazy to the outright resistant.  

Now, my question is this:  What do the students in group II see regularly that will encourage them to make the changes necessary to move into group I?  On an emotional and rational level, what is set before them throughout their waking hours that says it is urgent and worth the effort?

I think the time at home might outweigh what we can accomplish at school in this regard, but leaving that aside, I tried to answer this question from the students' point of view.  I thought of a school day, the teachers and classrooms that they will see.  I thought of the messages they get through words and actions.  I don't yet know what the solution is, but as I considered this, the frustrations I hear from the staff in the high school suddenly made more sense.  There's just not much reason to aim high.  

I don't know if this is obvious and I can't say it's a problem anywhere other than in the buildings where I work.  I do know it doesn't get asked in this way in the meetings I attend.  I'm going to start asking it more of others and of myself.  I'm going to propose some answers and put them into practice.

What's It To Ya? Game

My Oh, Really! game is present throughout this blog, but before it was Oh, Really! it was What's It To Ya?. It is a fun game that is useful for initiating discussion about values and opinions.

My friend who published that older version of the game is now blowing that inventory out for only $2.39 per copy.  Check it out here at Fair Play Games.  (Note that I am no longer getting royalties from the sale of this edition of the game, so sales do not benefit me directly.)

Each copy will allow up to eight players to play, so four copies will probably be enough for most classrooms.  But beyond the K - 12 classroom, the game has entertained everyone from couples and families to Sunday school classes and college students.  This is probably the best price you'll find on the game, so consider ordering a few.

And here's a rules explanation you could use in class or anywhere else to teach everyone how to play in about four minutes.  (And after watching you can see it's pretty easy to make your own set of the game with note cards.)

Creativity and Games - Classroom Presentation

This post about my highly entertaining classroom creativity games (which some refer to as class presentation games) has been one of my most popular. There are two parts here. First are links to the games, then I have a related presentation that introduces the exercises and the games.

Recent Updates 2/2016: I created this updated creativity game using Google Slides and these tutorials showing how to play any of these games using Google tools. The Google Apps make it much easier to enjoy these games with your class!

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The Two Classroom Creativity Games

My generic creativity game system can be found here:  The Classroom Creativity Game

More recently I finished this creativity game about the important elements of a great story:  Coming Soon.  In it students compete to create the best ideas for a movie trailer.  It's part of a larger work I'm developing based on Donald Miller's Storyline book and process.

If you're interested in more information on these and other styles of games I have posted on this blog, see these pages. (They are also accessible from the top menu.)

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The Presentation

When I began posting about my creativity exercises and games I also started developing the presentation I use in class to introduce them.

If you want to use (or deliver your own version of) this presentation, here's the outline:

• Define creativity.
• Offer practice with specific exercises.
• Give an opportunity to play fun games related to the lesson.

Effectively presenting and practicing the exercises before playing the games will greatly enhance the students' enjoyment of the games.  Written feedback from students has been positive with many expressing how fun it is to practice creativity.

Students learn that they can improve creativity by practicing certain skills.

This has been very encouraging to me and I am continuing to develop this into a unit of study or possibly a 10-week course on the subject.

The video presentation and tips for modifying it

I created two videos below that can be played for the students in class.  Normally the outline would be:

1. Watch the first video.
2. Play the example games I refer to.
3. Watch the second video.
4. Play the creativity games while they practice the skills.

Alternatively, a teacher could use my presentations as an example, but presentation the information and exercises in her own way.  If you're thinking of adapting it, here's a more detailed flow of the presentation:

• Examples from my creative pursuits in game design - A teacher would want to substitute his or her personal examples here.
• A working definition of creativity - "Making connections to find new, good ideas"
• The distinction between an idea and a final product
• Some questions for classroom response systems to measure students' own perceptions of their creativity
• Examples that allow students to practice the skills of brainstorming and evaluating ideas and making connections
• Sample games - Two are just examples of my own work.  The third is Why Did the Chicken...? which allows some students to compete to write the funniest answers to random riddles.

Here is the first video of the presentation. It covers the purpose of the activity and provides the definition of creativity used throughout.

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

• Oh, Really! classroom game (And if you don't have ActivInspire, here's a free browser-based version of the same game with a different name--What's It to Ya?)
• This or That? classroom game (based on the game Take Your Pick)

And here is the second video.  In this part I lead a couple of brainstorming activities and I 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 

Again, if you don't have ActivInspire, these generic creativity games can be played in a variety of ways on many more computer systems than the versions above:

• The Classroom Creativity Game - Combines several versions of the creativity system into one webpage.
• Coming Soon - The Creativity Game of Great Movie Trailers - Students compete to come up with the best ideas for a movie.  This can be used to teach the elements of a great story.

Other things I've learned from using this in class:

• Have a backup plan in case the riddle game is not going over well.  Other creativity games or activities can be found through the related pages linked from the header of this blog.
• Pick yourself or another teacher as one of the nouns for the first riddle of Why Did the Chicken...?  It makes it much easier for them.
• The games and presentation does not have to be completed in one sitting.  Break up the elements of the presentation over several days or throughout the semester.  Most of the games I have created would work well as a prompt for the end of class.  Homework could be to turn in one or more answers to a riddle.  Votes for the best one could be done the next day or even later after the teacher has narrowed it down to some possibilities.

If you're interested in the previous version of my videos, they are here:

These videos are notes to a teacher rather than the presentation that could be played in class for students.

Part 1:  Definitions, examples of my work and the questions for the class

Note:  I neglected to mention in this recording that I also talk about the need for more creativity in school and how creativity enhances one's life.  I never present these activities as a way to convince students their ideas will make them rich.


Click here to view Part 1 at Screencast.com.

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Part 2:  Examples from a game of Why Did the Chicken...? and some practice exercises for brainstorming and evaluation

Note:  In this clip I'm not sure I brought out the purpose of the brainstorming practice very well.  The end result is to find connections between the two lists.  I purposely did not have students turn those possibly good ideas into answers to the riddle.  In other words, I asked them to find the first good idea, but they did not necessarily turn it into a finished product.  Some naturally went further and made a funny joke.

I tried this activity last week without the creativity exercises before the game and the responses were much more interesting from the class that did the exercises.  Based on their answers in the game and written responses after we played there is no doubt they were thinking more and they better grasped the point of the activity.

Click here to view Part 2 at Screencast.com.

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