For the first week of April my elementary math number line game is free. You can find it here. It's a card game that requires some printing and cutting to make the components. If you have any feedback on the game, please let me know! I included this information about the value of such games at the end of the rule document: I knew from teaching math that number lines were important for visualization. I created a number line game years ago, but when I tested it with some first graders, I soon found my initial ideas had some issues. I put the game on the shelf. Then recently I heard Jo Boaler ma ..read more

I'll be presenting at the annual MACUL conference in a couple weeks. My friend Clark Rodeffer and I will be returning to a topic we presented on in 2017--non-digital game design projects. We are going to focus on just one game, which I called Diamonds and Stars. It's one of several Game Design Project Packs. They each involve a simple game students can learn and play within one class period. Then resources are provided that allow the students to apply a theme to the game based on what they're studying in class. Through discussing and exploring the content, they delve into the material to form ..read more

Our Go Beyond Challenge is wrapping up this week, as I prepare to show everything we've done at the MACUL Conference in Michigan. This post highlights a project I did with Katie Bryant in middle school Science.  Katie wanted to have her class create public service announcements about the declining sturgeon population. This is a project she has done at previous schools, but we tried it in a new way, using a combination of Google Slides and iPads. It's a subject that's important to her and the students. They have a sturgeon in a classroom aquarium, which they will release into the wild la ..read more

  I worked with LeeAnn Raible recently as part of our Go Beyond Challenge. She had the idea of letting students make word problems using addition and subtraction, then they'd record their solutions with Seesaw.  I'll embed some of their examples at the end of the poast. She called the project Number Story Ninjas, and we also connected with another elementary school in our state to get feedback. Giving the students an authentic audience was a fun addition. Here's the process we went through. Step 1:  LeeAnn assigned each student a role of Writer, Editor, Graphic Designer and Pro ..read more

In this third post about this project, I'll list some resources and focus on the final steps we go through to complete the digital products. I'll conclude with a bit about the challenges we faced to bring it together. If you want to read about the background, including why I think this lesson is so valuable, see Part 1 and Part 2.  The Planning Sheet Once students were given the younger students' responses from the survey, we gave them a printed copy of this planning sheet. I added the planning sheet this year, since we had seen students struggle with it in the past. Here's a breakd ..read more

This project is part of the Go Beyond Challenge I took on, along with some teachers I work with. See Part 1 of this project for some more background. I also explained how I started it off with a group of elementary students (who acted as the authentic audience). This second stage of the project doesn't require any technology use from the students. In it, I introduce some concepts about making good stories. I also share three powerful examples of people who overcame challenges in life. This took just over one class period this time. I met with the older students (6th graders, this year ..read more

Nicole Fazio is a middle school ELA teacher in our district. I teamed up with her for my Go Beyond Challenge, completing a project for her 6th grade Learning Through Literature class. We decided to improve upon a writing project we've done a couple times in in the past. It's a powerful activity, getting to the heart of what school, and maybe even our life stories, is really about. It has multiple stages, so I'll break it down into manageable posts and share related resources in each. The overall goal is to have older students write stories for younger students. The project accomplishes these ..read more

Melinda Newcombe teaches the Mythology class at our high school. We teamed up earlier in the month as part of the Go Beyond Challenge I raised to myself and several teachers this school year. In this overview, I'll link to a couple games that students made in this Mythology game design project. I'll also explain what we learned and give links to resources.  Key Challenge to Remember:  The course content has to be the goal. If the students are thinking and talking about the content, it's a win no matter how the games turn out.  We considered this project a big success in a lot o ..read more

I haven't been great about posting the projects, but we are still forging ahead with the Go Beyond Challenge I started this school year. Here are a few things we're doing or that I've learned. I had to decide recently if it was still worth doing this challenge. What does it mean to "go beyond normal" when very little feels like it went back to normal this school year? Is it crazy? We are still dealing with the effects of COVID on a regular basis, both in current challenges and the lasting impacts of the previous year. In the past two weeks, our district was one of many that was impacted ..read more

  Photo by Nextvoyage from Pexels Last month I wrote about the Go Beyond Challenge that I raised to several teachers in the district. Things have been going well. Here are some updates. I am formally working with seven teachers, ranging from 1st grade through 12th grade. Some of the other new things I'm doing within the scope of the challenge involve many other teachers. We're a small district, so this has already involved 20% of our staff. I wrote a post on my Teaching Like an Artist blog that summed up my goal when I'm working with students during this challeng ..read more