RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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What are the best games for educators to use?
What resources are available for teachers who want to use games in their classrooms?
Which games have you used in your classes?
Are there any Paizonians who teach using games?
Are there any Paizonians who teach students to make their own games?
*Paging Dr. Nardi. Paging Dr. Nardi*
I can't speak to proper education, but I do know that my friend's boys improved their grades once they started gaming. Both as the incentive to do well so they could play, and the books expanding their volcabulary.
I think "Hook Mountain Massacare" should be required reading for all pre-teens. Mammy Grall would ensure a successful 'Abstinance only' program. :-)
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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What are the best games for educators to use?
What resources are available for teachers who want to use games in their classrooms?
Which games have you used in your classes?
Are there any Paizonians who teach using games?
Are there any Paizonians who teach students to make their own games? *Paging Dr. Nardi. Paging Dr. Nardi*
Who?
Dario Nardi is a prof. in CA who wrote the Pact Magic books.
Edit: Yep, that's him. He's around on the boards sometimes, when he working on a project and wanting feedback.
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I never used games in my class room, per say. I did make my students do a lot of in character writing which had them use what they learned to create a belivableletter or journal rom the time period we were studying. My administration was leary of using role-playing in the classroom though, since it was a therapudic facility.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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I never used games in my class room, per say. I did make my students do a lot of in character writing which had them use what they learned to create a belivableletter or journal rom the time period we were studying. My administration was leary of using role-playing in the classroom though, since it was a therapudic facility.
Roleplaying might be a hard sell, but strategy war games are a gateway too harder and harder games with more complex rule systems.
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I never used games in my class room, per say. I did make my students do a lot of in character writing which had them use what they learned to create a belivableletter or journal rom the time period we were studying. My administration was leary of using role-playing in the classroom though, since it was a therapudic facility.Roleplaying might be a hard sell, but strategy war games are a gateway too harder and harder games with more complex rule systems.
Well the other problem was I taught at an all girls school. They really weren't interested in anything beyond board games, and even that was a stretch at times.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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For role-playing, it depends on your goals.
As I've mentioned before, I taught a middle school literature class back at the beginning of my teaching career. I designed a unit on role-playing games, and we discussed the ways games could be used to tell stories, versus the way narratives work in books.
I brought in a couple of my more literate gaming friends to speak to the class. For some of them, who'd "not experienced success in school" themselves, coming in a guest lecturers was a strange experience, but their lesson on "how to be a Game Master" had the kids hanging on every word.
For that lesson --which was all about the story, the text, characters, plot, themes, and setting-- I wanted a very rules-light system that wouldn't get in the way of the storytelling: stat + 2d6 vs. target number.
If I were teaching a unit on probability, I'd want to design a game system that addressed the topics in the lesson. It'd likely have more crunch in stranger ways.
I have taught a high school unit on board/card game design, using some excellent essays by James Ernest* and Richard Garfield. That was fun, and they got to tie together a lot of different themes.
*who was nice enough to design and print off a version of "Kill Doctor Lucky" for the class, that didn't have the inappropriate-for-school company name anywhere on it.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Well the other problem was I taught at an all girls school. They really weren't interested in anything beyond board games, and even that was a stretch at times.
That's interesting. I was running the middle school lesson in the mid '90's, and of the students who wanted to start an after-school gaming club, 3/4th of them were girls. (And serious DragonLance fans, I might add.)
And the RPG of choice among 12-year-old girls?
Which surprised me. But when I asked why, they indicated the illustrations. Unlike all the other games on the market at the time, their preferred game showed an equal number of men and women, and the women had reasonable proportions, were dressed sensibly, and were committing acts of derring-do without anybody drawing attention to their gender.
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Well the other problem was I taught at an all girls school. They really weren't interested in anything beyond board games, and even that was a stretch at times.That's interesting. I was running the middle school lesson in the mid '90's, and of the students who wanted to start an after-school gaming club, 3/4th of them were girls. (And serious DragonLance fans, I might add.)
Well a few expressed an interest in learning to play D&D, but the administration put an end to that real quick. I was more talking about playing wargames when I said there was little to no interest.
I'm a youth arts worker, and alongside approaches like drama and art I use D&D with groups as the basis of group work, sometimes issue-based group work.
I write bespoke campaigns and adventures according to the preferences of the group and identified themes worth exploring.
The group have explored their own interactions to some extent through the game, they have also gone on to write and run their own adventures for each other.
I use AD&D, or a slightly simplified version of it for new players. This means less time is spent scratching heads over character sheets and mechanics, allowing us to focus on the role-playing aspect. This may be simply because I am so familiar with the system I can help others to make a start and be in play within minutes. Or perhaps the system is more amenable to new players...
..now fight each other over that point while I return to my work.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Well a few expressed an interest in learning to play D&D, but the administration put an end to that real quick. I was more talking about playing wargames when I said there was little to no interest.
Oh, my principal was savvy enough to distinguish between "role-playing games with a pedagogical support" and "Dungeons and Dragons", which he felt would upset too many parents.
So we met on Fridays at 3:30, in the community recreation center located conveniently across 10th Street from the school.
I can imagine that wrgaming appeals to boys more than girls.
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Well a few expressed an interest in learning to play D&D, but the administration put an end to that real quick. I was more talking about playing wargames when I said there was little to no interest.
Oh, my principal was savvy enough to distinguish between "role-playing games with a pedagogical support" and "Dungeons and Dragons", which he felt would upset too many parents.
In this case it was a single prent that we were worried about upsetting. One of the girls who expressed n interest was in our program because had what was, for lack of a better term, a dragon fetish. Of course she also suffered from undiagnosed Asperger's Syndrome which was discovered during her treatment. At that point we met as teachers, therapists and administration to reconsider the ban, but it was ultimately decided that it might anger her parents and while it might have some therepudic value, there was not much therapy that could be done if she was pulle out ofthe program
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I am not a professional teacher. My experience with teaching is tutoring adults in math while I was in high school and being an Assistant Language Teacher of English in a small Japanese middle school for two years (I also taught community education type classes in English for elementary students during this time). My experience as a student is much more extensive, of course. :D
My favorite games in the classroom were with my third and fourth grade teacher. I went to an extremely small elementary school where every classroom contained two full grades of students. Mrs. VanTil had some fun games for the kids. "Around the World" was a simple math flash card game. But my favorite game involved Venn diagrams!
She had three large plastic rings, one in each of the primary colors. She would lay these out in a typical Venn Diagram layout (sorta like this: http://piercework.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f11b8be883401156ea82e6b970c-800wi). She had plastic shapes. These were placed outside the Venn Diagram circles. Each student in turn could pick up a plastic shape and place it somewhere in the Venn Diagram. The teacher would indicate whether or not the item belonged where it was placed. The plastic shapes differed in various properties:
Color:
- Red
- Blue
- Yellow
Size:
- Small
- Medium
- Large
Thickness:
- Thin
- Thick
Shape:
- Triangle
- Square
- Circle
So let's assume the teacher attaches the property "Yellow" to the red circle, "Thick" to the blue circle and "Square" to the yellow circle. If a student places a Thick Square in the union between the yellow and blue circles, the teacher will allow the shape to remain there. If the studen places a Blue item in the red circle, the teacher will remove it.
I loved this game because it excercised different mental muscles than most schoolwork. As it's been 20 years since I've seen this game and I still remember it, I guess you can surmise it made an impression.
So let's assume the teacher attaches the property "Yellow" to the red circle
Then that teacher was evil, and should be destroyed! Woah. That would COMPLETELY freak me out. Any sane human would attach the property "red" to the red circle. Otherwise, in the words of Jimbo Jones from the Simpsons:
"She's messin' with our minds, man!"
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So let's assume the teacher attaches the property "Yellow" to the red circleThen that teacher was evil, and should be destroyed! Woah. That would COMPLETELY freak me out. Any sane human would attach the property "red" to the red circle. Otherwise, in the words of Jimbo Jones from the Simpsons:
"She's messin' with our minds, man!"
But that would encourage sloppy thinking and making assumptions rather than encouraging us to stretch our pint-sized brains to attack the problem logically!
I really appreciated that game because it made me think, rather than encouraging rote memorization.
Mrs. Van Til was really cool. She was born in the Netherlands, and her dad was part of the network that hid Jews from the Nazis once the Netherlands was occupied. One story she told really stuck with me. Soldiers arrived, having heard he was helping hide Jews. He refused to talk to the Nazi officer questioning him, and then the soldier put a gun to his head and threatened him again in front of his wife and children (Mrs. Van Til obviously remembered this clearly), but he still insisted they were wrong, and he wasn't hiding anyone. The soldier left without hurting any of them. Afterward her father admitted that if the soldier'd held his gun to his wife or one of his childrens' heads, he'd probably have given them the information they wanted. She told this all with her thick Dutch accent. "W"s? What "W"s?
Great story; sounds like a great lady, too.
But that would encourage sloppy thinking and making assumptions rather than encouraging us to stretch our pint-sized brains to attack the problem logically!
My reaction went like this: Logically, I had sufficient evidence by that age to know that I was not color-blind. Therefore, for me to accept that an obviously red object was "yellow" would be to ignore my own observations in favor of a statement with no evidence to support it other than an appeal to authority. The non-existence of "Santa Claus" had already taught me that adults enjoy lying to children. I would therefore have concluded that the circle was indeed red, but that the teacher had some sinister ulterior motive in claiming that it was yellow.
You can see why I became a scientist, later in life.
When I was teaching high school earth science, for the fossil fuels unit I used to divide the kids into 4 teams: "government," "oil companies," "inventors," and "environment." Each had their own advantages and goals: government had funds, and wanted to get re-elected (we had a blind ballot at the end to see if they would); oil companies had funds, and wanted to stay in business; inventors had no funds, but could develop technology no one else had; and environment had no assets at the start and wanted funding above all else; they were allowed PR campaigns, and their votes counted double. All groups were allowed to create overt signed contracts with one another, or engage in secret deals, with the cateat that any deal for votes had to be secret.
I ran this game with 4-5 classes a year for 5 years. Almost always, the oil companies bought out the inventors with tacit government approval, and environment couldn't rally enough votes outside their group to influence or oust the government, despite theirs counting double. One time, one of the kids in the environment group started crying that it was no fair, and I had to explain that in real life, the situation wasn't fair, and if that bothered her, she could choose a career and vote wisely so as to do change that.
The second most common outcome was that oil would offer environment funding, then talk to the government secretly, and declare that all those votes hinged on the government restricting the inventors' development.
Once, the inventors and environment teamed up and blackmailed the others, by both being overtly willing to subsume their own goals if needed in order to force the issue. Government caved in to their demands and they got their way, as I recall.
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Great story; sounds like a great lady, too.
But that would encourage sloppy thinking and making assumptions rather than encouraging us to stretch our pint-sized brains to attack the problem logically!My reaction went like this: Logically, I had sufficient evidence by that age to know that I was not color-blind. Therefore, for me to accept that an obviously red object was "yellow" would be to ignore my own observations in favor of a statement with no evidence to support it other than an appeal to authority. The non-existence of "Santa Claus" had already taught me that adults enjoy lying to children. I would therefore have concluded that the circle was indeed red, but that the teacher had some sinister ulterior motive in claiming that it was yellow.
You can see why I became a scientist, later in life.
No, no, the red circle has the property that items inside it must be yellow. Totally different!
:Þ
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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I am not a professional teacher. My experience with teaching is tutoring adults in math while I was in high school and being an Assistant Language Teacher of English in a small Japanese middle school for two years (I also taught community education type classes in English for elementary students during this time). My experience as a student is much more extensive, of course. :D
A former ALT? That's great. Did you have a good time in Japan?
My favorite games in the classroom were with my third and fourth grade teacher. I went to an extremely small elementary school where every classroom contained two full grades of students. Mrs. VanTil had some fun games for the kids. "Around the World" was a simple math flash card game. But my favorite game involved Venn diagrams!
She had three large plastic rings, one in each of the primary colors. She would lay these out in a typical Venn Diagram layout (sorta like this: http://piercework.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f11b8be883401156ea82e6b970c-800wi). She had plastic shapes. These were placed outside the Venn Diagram circles. Each student in turn could pick up a plastic shape and place it somewhere in the Venn Diagram. The teacher would indicate whether or not the item belonged where it was placed. The plastic shapes differed in various properties:
Color:
- Red
- Blue
- Yellow
Size:
- Small
- Medium
- Large
Thickness:
- Thin
- Thick
Shape:
- Triangle
- Square
- Circle
So let's assume the teacher attaches the property "Yellow" to the red circle, "Thick" to the blue circle and "Square" to the yellow circle. If a student places a Thick Square in the union between the yellow and blue circles, the teacher will allow the shape to remain there. If the studen places a Blue item in the red circle, the teacher will remove it.
I loved this game because it excercised different mental muscles than most schoolwork. As it's been 20 years since I've seen this game and I still remember it, I guess you can surmise it made an impression.
This sounds like a fun game. Do you have a name for it? I'm going to steal this one.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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For some reason, Jess has got me thinking of a game that one of my ESL students showed me. It used 'story cards' as props. One of the students laid down a card that might have a picture of a person, a magical object, a bit of landscape, or a phrase like "once upon a time" on it. The student who laid down the first card had to start the story by saying something.
Any other student at the table could then lay down another card and continue the story. Ostensibly, the objective was to empty your hand of cards while still making a coherent story but I would want to emphasize making a good story over 'winning'.
Is that description clear?
Would the gamemastery cards provide enough material for a similar game? What game could I make using Gamemastery cards?
EDIT: These plus these plus these might make a good story telling game!
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A former ALT? That's great. Did you have a good time in Japan?This sounds like a fun game. Do you have a name for it? I'm going to steal this one.
I did. It's pretty hard to believe it's been ten years since I first went there! I played lots of games with the students too. For the little kids simple games with lots of activity to keep the clever kids occupied were good. Laying down colorful origami paper and yelling out colors in english for the kids to dive for, flash card games, songs with silly motions, Simon Says, etc. were all good there. Roleplaying games like setting the desks in the classroom up like city blocks and putting "buildings" on certain desks, then having students give directions from the bus stop desk to the library desk, or playing shopper and clerk were good. Modified pictionary. I once even used the poor children to attempt to translate Japanese cartoons for me - I'd pick a short (10 seconds at most) section of anime from a video tape and have the kids do their best to translate it into English. Word finds on the blackboard.
Most Japanese school English instruction was dry memorization and poor pronunciation practice. I tried to make it fun and relevent - about communication rather than just test scores on written tests. Sometimes I was successful - sometimes not.
I don't remember what the game was called. It was a set - something she'd bought, not home made. I think. I was 9-10 at the time, ol' memory's slippin' a bit. :D
A former ALT? That's great. Did you have a good time in Japan?This sounds like a fun game. Do you have a name for it? I'm going to steal this one.
I did. It's pretty hard to believe it's been ten years since I first went there! I played lots of games with the students too. For the little kids simple games with lots of activity to keep the clever kids occupied were good. Laying down colorful origami paper and yelling out colors in english for the kids to dive for, flash card games, songs with silly motions, Simon Says, etc. were all good there. Roleplaying games like setting the desks in the classroom up like city blocks and putting "buildings" on certain desks, then having students give directions from the bus stop desk to the library desk, or playing shopper and clerk were good. Modified pictionary. I once even used the poor children to attempt to translate Japanese cartoons for me - I'd pick a short (10 seconds at most) section of anime from a video tape and have the kids do their best to translate it into English. Word finds on the blackboard.
Most Japanese school English instruction was dry memorization and poor pronunciation practice. I tried to make it fun and relevent - about communication rather than just test scores on written tests. Sometimes I was successful - sometimes not.
I don't remember what the game was called. It was a set - something she'd bought, not home made. I think. I was 9-10 at the time, ol' memory's slippin' a bit. :D
Geez, I wish my German teacher had taught like that, I might have actually learned German instead of only remembering a few phrases and words.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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For some reason, Jess has got me thinking of a game that one of my ESL students showed me. It used 'story cards' as props.
Would the gamemastery cards provide enough material for a similar game? What game could I make using Gamemastery cards?
That sounds like Once Upon a Time by Atlas Games (Wikipedia article).
The Gamemastery cards almost certainly do not have the kind of versatility you want in something like this. The OUAT cards have aspects ("this item can talk!") actions, and locations, and I think those are essential to getting the story moving in a plot, and not being just about the adventures of a magical cloak, ring, kukri, and wand.
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Geez, I wish my German teacher had taught like that, I might have actually learned German instead of only remembering a few phrases and words.
Immersion is best. if you're teaching adults, a bit of alcohol helps a lot too. It's amazing how much better my Japanese got with some sake in me - not that it really got better, but I was less paranoid about looking foolish for screwing up my grammar (which is still poor). Worked well with Japanese trying out English too - got much better once they relaxed!
Can't really do that with the children's classes, however.
If you're ever in an immersion / conversation style class - a little lubrication will do wonders. :D
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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For some reason, Jess has got me thinking of a game that one of my ESL students showed me. It used 'story cards' as props.
Would the gamemastery cards provide enough material for a similar game? What game could I make using Gamemastery cards?
That sounds like Once Upon a Time by Atlas Games (Wikipedia article).
The Gamemastery cards almost certainly do not have the kind of versatility you want in something like this. The OUAT cards have aspects ("this item can talk!") actions, and locations, and I think those are essential to getting the story moving in a plot, and not being just about the adventures of a magical cloak, ring, kukri, and wand.
Yes! Those are the cards. Once Upon a Time. Maybe I'll get that set. Still, I'd love to find an excuse to buy all the Gamemastery cards...
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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I saw this discontinued game being played the other day. A bunch of kids were preparing for a math test and thought this game was a blast. It shouldn't be too difficult to produce a game that had similar mechanics but was entirely photocopiable so teachers could use it more easily.
Anyone familiar with this game?
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I saw this discontinued game being played the other day. A bunch of kids were preparing for a math test and thought this game was a blast. It shouldn't be too difficult to produce a game that had similar mechanics but was entirely photocopiable so teachers could use it more easily.
Anyone familiar with this game?
yeah, I think I played it years ago! I remember a math based scrabble game with tiles. Probably played in Junior high, when I was in all the math competitions.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8
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For some reason, Jess has got me thinking of a game that one of my ESL students showed me. It used 'story cards' as props.
Would the gamemastery cards provide enough material for a similar game? What game could I make using Gamemastery cards?
That sounds like Once Upon a Time by Atlas Games (Wikipedia article).
The Gamemastery cards almost certainly do not have the kind of versatility you want in something like this. The OUAT cards have aspects ("this item can talk!") actions, and locations, and I think those are essential to getting the story moving in a plot, and not being just about the adventures of a magical cloak, ring, kukri, and wand.
Would this product solve that problem? I'd be more interested in mixing and matching some decks of Gamemastery Cards so that each group of ESL students would have a different set of cards to play with. I think I'm also looking for an excuse to plunk down money I don't have on a product from a company I love ...
When I was still teaching (before the state changed certification rules and my administration let me go before I could requalify), I used games as a reward for the class. Do well with your classwork, homework, tests, behavior, et cetera, and then we'll play a game.
Games ranged from The Great Dalmuti to Risk to Scrabble to just going outside and tossing a football or frisbee around.