By Joseph Wright Hello again! It has been a while since I posted, and I thought that I'd better post an update. My wife and I made the decision to jump in feet first, and to take a position across the country. I will be taking a position as an assistant principal at a school in New Hampshire. There are some challenges, including a fair amount of animosity from the staff towards the administration, and other struggles. Nevertheless, I feel strongly that making this move is the right call. I look forward to the chance to serve a community in need. Though we are a bit anxious about the move, we are also very excited for this opportunity. I'll keep you posted!
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Whew! What a crazy year it has been! I haven't been able to dedicate as much time as I might like to my blog, but I found a fun little Kahoot "hack" that I think will be beneficial to my fellow educators, especially if they are working with online students, or if your school / classes have been transitioned online due to covid-19. Here it is: did you know that you can let students utilize Kahoots all on their own? Believe it or not, it is true. I know many teachers who use Kahoots (see my mention of Kahoots here: https://gamify-ed.weebly.com/kahoot.html), and use them frequently myself. It is a fun and engaging way to get students to review / preview content. If you are willing to pay for a subscription, they offer additional tools that you can utilize as well. Here's a video re: some of the paid features and benefits (no, I am not sponsored by them, just sharing for those who may be interested): Honestly, I am tempted to make the plunge over to the paid version, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet (but I can certainly see a lot of cool potential with it). In the meantime, as many of you can relate, I don't have a lot of money to throw around, so I've stuck with the free version. So, let's get to how you can use Kahoot with your solo students. The regular version is fun and all, but it really only work when you have a live group of kids in class, or streaming live all together. If only there were a way to utilize all that great stuff you've put together for the lone online student that is working at home at their own pace, or couldn't make it to the live class stream...and there is! Actually, there are a few. I explain in the following video: I hope that this "hack" will help a few of you to use Kahoot more effectively with your solo / online students. I think these options are a great, quick and easy way to your Kahoots (and the work you've put into them) with even more students than before. Best of luck to you in your educational adventures!
By Joseph Wright Well, we have been at this for almost 4 months now, and I thought I ought to post an update to how things have been going at our school, and our response to COVID19. For context, Utah has really been struggling, especially the last few weeks, with cases hitting an all-time high yesterday with over 4,000 cases in a single day, setting a record (Dudley, 2020). I imagine that schools here will likely be returning to an online-only model soon. This is in fact the recommendation of the Utah Education Association (basically the local Utah version of a teachers' union), as of last week (Utah Education Association, 2020). My wife and I have been discussing these elements together, and as she is an RN in the ER, I take her opinions on this health crisis very seriously. She felt like we had made a huge mistake in closing earlier in the year, and instead should have waited to close until now. I agree with her assessment. We were discussing how the earlier closures this year in Utah, starting in March (when confirmed cases were in the dozens), had led to a mess as schools were thrust into an online-only format, with little warning, when our governor mandated such a move. It was a disaster, and from talking to teachers across the state, it wasn't only our school. In fact, when this was announced, the state superintendent, Sydnee Dickenson, literally told teachers to "go easy" on students making the transition to online learning (Bruce & Nelson, 2020). Now, given the situation that was thrust upon all of us, I get the need for understanding. Unfortunately, there are many underprivileged students who do not have parental support at home, and didn't have easy access to chromebooks / laptops to complete their work. We certainly faced this as a Title 1 school, with a high low-SES student population. However, there were definite cases of students who interpreted the closures to mean "Summer vacation is here early!" and then disappeared off the face of the earth. The state literally told us to allow any such seniors to graduate anyway, even if they made no effort at all after the closure, despite our teachers' best efforts to get all material online and available in multiple formats (which we spent many long hours doing). By closing our schools, we did these students a huge disservice. I believe it will cause irreparable harm to our students to again move online (though I am not sure, given the soaring COVID19 cases, that we have an alternative). The COVID19 crisis is a global dilemma, and though we as a school have been seeking to get more laptops / chromebooks for our students since the outbreak in Spring 2020, so that we can better transition to an online format as needed, we have been told that we will have to wait till late Spring 2021 before we can get any in significant quantities (due to breakdown of production and shipment due to COVID19 closures worldwide). Meanwhile, we continue to limp by with the ones we have, and many of them ought to be retired, but we cannot afford to, as we need every single one. Gov. Gary Herbert, at his most recent executive order (Nov. 8th, 2020) mandating mask wearing, limiting family gatherings, etc. (Herbert, 2020). In light of this, and the fact that many students have struggled immensely to remain motivated / participate in online learning since this crisis began, I fear that another full closure will set our students back even further than they already are statewide. Sadly, in retrospect, I think most realize that we should have remained open in the spring, when cases were relatively light. That would have allowed us the summer to prepare for the inevitable flu / cold / COVID19 season this fall / winter. Instead, we overreacted by closing earlier, and burnt out our teachers, parents and students, and now, when a closure makes a lot more sense, everyone is dreading it. I sincerely hope that we are able to keep our schools open and in person, because if we do not, I am afraid that we will be hobbling our rising generation with a subpar education. They deserve better. Nov. 16th Update News broke today that a second company* has come out with a nearly 95% effective COVID19 vaccine, and that doses of the vaccine could be distributed by December, in just a matter of weeks (Steenhuyson & Erman, 2020)! This is excellent news, because it could mean that we may finally be beating this thing, and may soon return to some sense of normalcy re: COVID19. I only hope that it is true. *Pfizer had also reported they had a 90% effective vaccine a week ago, but they reported that it was going to take a few months to get distributed. That makes this most recent story that much more impressive! Sources:
Bruce, B., & Nelson, P. (2020). Gov. Herbert announces COVID-19 to close schools rest of year. KSL.com. Retrieved 15 November 2020, from https://kslnewsradio.com/1923268/gov-herbert-announces-covid-19-to-close-schools-rest-of-year/ Dudley, G. (2020). With backlogged positives added from Friday, Utah reports 5,352 new coronavirus cases. KSL.com. Retrieved 15 November 2020, from https://www.ksl.com/article/50048926/with-backlogged-positives-added-from-friday-utah-reports-5352-new-coronavirus-cases Herbert, G. (2020). GOV. HERBERT UPDATES STATE OF EMERGENCY AND PUBLIC HEALTH ORDER. Retrieved from https://governor.utah.gov/2020/11/09/gov-herbert-updates-state-of-emergency-and-public-health-order/ Steenhuyson, J., & Erman, M. (2020). We can stop COVID-19: Moderna vaccine success gives world more hope. Rueters.com. Retrieved 16 November 2020, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines-moderna/we-can-stop-covid-19-moderna-vaccine-success-gives-world-more-hope-idUSKBN27W1E6 Utah Education Association. (2020). PRESS RELEASE: UEA Calls on the Governor and School Boards to Shift Secondary Schools to At-Home Learning in High COVID Transmission Areas. Retrieved from https://myuea.org/Articles/press_release_uea_calls_on_the_governor_and_school_boards_to_shift_secondary_schools_to_at-home_learning_in_high_covid_transmission_areas.aspx By Joseph Wright This past week, I had the privilege to be invited by the Utah Education Network (UEN) to present at their Reimagine Learning Conference. I decided to host a discussion about our school's experience, and compare that with other schools. See below for the recorded Zoom meeting: I think that the most enlightening part for me, regarding all the craziness of COVID19, mandated school closures to in-person learning, etc., is the fact that so many schools had such similar experiences, as the video illustrated. At the time of this writing, we still weren't sure what our schedule would look like, and how it would go, but we have a dedicated staff of teachers and admins that sincerely believe in their cause, so I have faith we will succeed.
Feel free to comment and share what your experience has been, and how you have responded. What successes have you had? How have you learned from your failures / struggles? Past & Present Meet via the 1918 Spanish Flu / COVID19, & the 1919 Red Summer / 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests By Joseph Wright As the turmoil of COVID19 and the Black Lives Matter movement has subsequently swept our nation, I thought I’d take a step back and share some of my personal feelings as an educator, and more particularly a history teacher regarding these rapid changes. As I have seen these movements sweep across our country, I have watched in fascination at the responses to both, and both have reminded me of similar events that occurred here over 100 years previously. First, let’s look at the corona virus. It has led to the near shutdown of society, closing businesses, schools, etc. Many have gotten sick, and certainly many people’s mental health has suffered as well, cooped up and not able to interact as they normally do. Tragically, this has led to several side effects, notably the rise of domestic abuse, both here and abroad, which is a terrible consequence (UN Department of Global Communications, 2020). While the side effects of quarantine are noted, the disease itself has merited the lockdown procedures. As of June 7th, 2020, over 400,000 people worldwide were confirmed to have died of the disease, according to data from John Hopkins University. Additionally, there are over 7 million infections, and nearly 2 million of those are from the U.S. alone (Slotkin, 2020). While this is unprecedented in our own lifetimes, the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 infected nearly a third of the world’s population at the time, and left 20-50 million dead, including 675,000 Americans, with a higher mortality total than the entire Great War (“Spanish Flu”, 2020). While over 100 years ago, the 1918 Spanish Flu has many similarities to the corona virus outbreak (KSL-TV, 2020). World War I, and the Spanosh Flu, left the world a mess in its wake. People were desperate to recover from the wounds of this conflict, both physical and mental. Many could argue that this recent Covid19 pandemic has left people similarly stressed and eager to get outside, to relax, and be themselves. Yet over 100 years ago, there were other wounds festering as well, especially that of racism. Many white men were returning from the war, only to find their jobs had been filled by others, many of them black laborers. The tensions ran high, with several riots and attacks occurring. It finally boiled over with the death of a black swimmer named Eugene Williams, a young man who was hit with a rock in the head by a white beach-goer in the summer of 1919 on a Chicago beach, and subsequently drowned. When the police refused to arrest his attacker, more riots broke out, and it gradually became known as the Red Summer, as riots and violence erupted in major cities across the country. When all was said and done, hundreds had been killed, and thousands wounded (records are sketchy from that period), due to racial and economic tensions. This also led to the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, and racial disparity and discord would continue to escalate until they climaxed in the 1960s via the Civil Rights Movement. The recent death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, in May, 2020, seems to have rekindled some similar racial strife. We like to think that we have come a long way since those dark days 100 years ago, yet race continues to divide and tear at our country’s seams. I believe that this is in part due to the stressors of the corona virus, and the government lockdowns and stresses that such a situation creates. It helped build the pressure, and the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer (like many similar deaths before) burst the pressure that had been building, exacerbated by the corona virus pandemic. What lessons then can we learn from the past? I believe that we must follow the advice of Martin Luther King, Jr., and learn to see past skin color, and learn to forgive, and forget the hatred that has bound us for so long. As he said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that…The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.” And finally, perhaps we can one day realize his dream for America, as he shared in 1961 at a meeting of the Fourth Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO, Miami Beach, Florida, on December 11: Here Dr. King is shown speaking to a group in Atlanta, Georgia in 1960 (Associated Press, 1960). “I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream - a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man's skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality” (King, 1961). I too yearn for that day, Dr. King. I too desire, as John Adams did (when he spoke in favor of the Declaration of Independence on July 1, 1776, in Independence Hall, Pennsylvania) for a better country and tomorrow for our children: “But whatever may be our fate, be assured, be assured that this Declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood, but it will stand and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations… Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it” (as quoted in “Current Literature”, 1895). We are the inheritors of these magnanimous efforts. Yes, we have certainly made progress in the years that have followed these quotations, but work still remains. I don't pretend to know the best way to do that, but I do believe that it will require dedication, forgiveness, and understanding. We (especially as educators) have been given the momentous task to help keep and further fulfill these dreams. Can we stand idly by while they yet remain unfinished? Certainly not. May we lead and inspire present and future generations with the vision, courage, and integrity to do our utmost to honor the task that has been entrusted to us. Sources: Current Literature – A Magazine of Contemporary Record. Our Fourth of July: Patriotic Sentiments. (1895), (Vol. XVIII, No. 1), 1. Retrieved 15 June 2020, from https://books.google.com/books?id=AbUGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA1&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false. King, M. (11 December, 1961). Untitled. Speech, the Fourth Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO, Miami Beach, Florida. Slotkin, J. (2020). Global COVID-19 Deaths Surpass 400,000. NPR. Retrieved 15 June 2020, from https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/07/871640321/global-covid-19-deaths-surpass-400-000. Spanish Flu. History.com. (2020). Retrieved 15 June 2020, from https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/1918-flu-pandemic. UN Department of Global Communications. (2020). UN supporting ‘trapped’ domestic violence victims during COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/un-supporting-%E2%80%98trapped%E2%80%99-domestic-violence-victims-during-covid-19-pandemic. By Joseph Wright (Corona Preview...released a week early, because we need it!)
Hey all! I hope that this post finds you well. I am writing from home, after over two weeks of school quarantine, and this seems to be a really hard thing for everyone. The uncertainty that COVID19 brings has left my colleagues, my students, and myself in a strange state. Being forced into online learning is a very different experience from choosing to do it. I have experienced this, both as a teacher at my previous job, and as a student while getting my Masters of Educational Administration. None of the public schoolteachers nor students that have been required to do so these past few weeks had a choice, but here we are. Rapport and camaraderie are powerful things. I've mentioned using Jackbox games before in my classes, but these last few weeks, these games have been a literal godsend. These uncertain times have left students lonely and isolated, and that isn't good when you combine it with mandatory instruction that is in a format that is often foreign or very different for many students. They need an outlet, and for my middle schoolers, Jackbox for my students has been that outlet. After the first week of the quarantine, my students asked: "So Mr. Wright, what are we going to do for Game Club?" I shook my head, because I didn't know what we'd do. One suggested: "Hey, we could stream Jackbox over Zoom (our streaming meeting platform), couldn't we?" I nodded (wondering a bit at the legal ramifications), and decided we'd give it a try, and although it wasn't perfect (there was a bit of a time lag, so students had to get their answers in a few seconds early to avoid missing the time-out), it went pretty well, and the students had a lot of fun with each other. We played Guesspionage, a game that pretends to use metadata collected by the government (really just from online polling) to ask funny and interesting questions, and guessing how people responded; Monster Seeking Monster, a faux-online dating game where everyone is secretly a monster trying to wrack up successful dating experiences; Fibbage, an online version of Balderdash!, and many more! After playing for nearly two hours, you could tell that the students were grateful for the experience, and they weren't ready to be done, though I had to shut it down. What a great thing, and it reminded me (again) of the importance of social interaction, and of course the importance of gamification. If we educators and managers can better encapsulate the motivators that gaming offers, we can transform our schools and our jobs, I truly believe this. Thanks for reading, and best of luck as you Gamify Ed! By Joseph Wright Hello everyone! I thought I'd give you some updates into what I've been doing at my school, to gamify things. I recently learned that here in my state of Utah, our legislators recently approved the creation of sanctioned eSports teams, and I thought that this was fantastic! We have a lot of students that enjoy gaming at my school, and we do some of that on Fridays and during lunch when I don't have lunch duty. Well, I found out that, lo and behold, Utah recently approved some of these games, like League of Legends, Rocket League, and others, as official high school sports! Here's a recent story that discusses this change, which happened just last month: Esports now a school sport in Utah. Anyway, I know a good number of our students are into this, so as soon as I heard, I went to the playvs.com website, to learn more, and immediately realized the potential it had. After discussing the possibility with a few other teachers whom I knew would be interested, we were able to set up a schedule to join the league this spring, which was beginning the very next week! While we have had some hiccups along the way, we are into our second week of official competitions. We decided (given the short notice) to simply call it a club this year, and plan on making it a more official sport next year. We are only doing one game, Rocket League, but we've gotten the ball rolling, have matches each week, and are practicing another day each week as well. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm glad to be part of it! However, the recent COVID19 scares have lead to an unprecedented closure of schools here (and elsewhere, from what I've heard), so we aren't sure how that will affect things, but we'll be playing it by ear. The league said we could participate from home if we wanted, but the state asked us not to have any official extracurriculars, so we are kind of in limbo. For those unfamiliar with the game, Rocket League is basically soccer, with cars, and rocket boosters. And yes, it is just as fun as it sounds! Anyway, as soon as all this settles down, we'll get back into things, and ultimately we should be well situated for official participation next year! Feel free to check eSports out; these games can be a great way to involve students in an official school function that otherwise may feel marginalized. Best of all, it is a lot of fun!
By Joseph Wright So since the beginning of this year, 2020, I have been thinking and reflecting on ways that I can improve my rapport with my students. I have found that having a good relationship helps a lot in class, and while it is great to gamify our learning in class, that isn't always easy. So, I decided to extend beyond some of the things we've been doing in my Game Club after school. As mentioned before, I have been playing around with Jackbox Games, and there is some real potential with these games. For example, I've already created a few as review & preview activities for my Utah Studies class. If you'd like to do the same, check this out: Custom Episodes of Quiplash 2 & Drawful 2. The lunchtime game club that I've been doing since the beginning of the year has been a big hit, and is lots of fun! Well, I've also allowed free-play of my Jackbox games during lunch, and it has been excellent for student morale. It isn't long (just enough time to play 2 short games), but the kids appreciate the break, and as long as they follow the rules, we've done well. Yes, a few of these games have the potential to be abused, but anytime anyone has even been a bit out of line, I am quite clear that such is inappropriate, and it hasn't escalated beyond that. They know that if they dismiss my warnings, the games stop, and that has worked thus far.
So, if you are thinking "Hey, I'd like to get to know the students better, perhaps in a more informal way," lunchtime meetings / clubs can be just the trick; at least for us, they have! Best of luck as you continue to "Gamify Ed!" By Joseph Wright I am betting that some of you are familiar with Jackbox Games, a series of online party games that allow anyone with a smartphone or other internet connected device to engage with others in a group setting. While these games may initially seem to have less of an educational purpose, let me share with you some of these games which give you the option to hone them into something that can be used as a review and learning tool in your classroom! There are several games that you can create your own episodes within the game. That way, the prompts, instead of being something silly or noneducational, can instead be used in the classroom to promote learning! Whether you use them as a review, or perhaps a preview, or maybe a formative assessment, these games can in fact be quite fun and useful in your classroom. The two that I recommend are Drawful 2 and Quip-Lash 2. Both can be purchased and used on PC through STEAM, and can be edited to review and assess knowledge that you are discussing in your own classroom. Whether it is geography lesson, or a Spanish Vocab unit, these individualized games can help gamify your classroom and make learning fun again! See a preview below: By Joseph Wright We all remember those college or high school courses that were tough, that expected the most out of us. We probably also remember getting some challenging assignments in those classes. I recall having such an assignment, from my Honors English Teacher, Mrs. Dutton, a fiery woman with bright orange hair to match, who expected the very best from all of her students, including myself. To be honest, I'd never had a teacher quite like her. While she was a bit rude and even crass at times, her class and assignments taught me that I was capable of many hard things, if I was willing to push myself harder and further than I ever had before. I decided to take her challenge, and I'm glad I did. The challenge? To create a year-long, comprehensive portfolio of all the many things we had done over the year, and even a few inclusions from previous years as well. I was overwhelmed when I first heard about the assignment, as a sophomore (she was the only honors teacher at our small high school, and so also taught Honors English for the 11th and 12th graders as well), but she softened the blow by having us only focus on a few key things the two years prior: a reading log and reflection of the various books we had read each year, and a few key assignments that we kept. Junior year, she upped the ante a bit, giving even more assignments for the dreaded portfolio, obviously in an effort to get us better used to keeping track of our work, and reflecting often on our efforts. Finally, senior year arrived, and it seemed that we were working on a new portfolio assignment on a weekly basis. Mrs. Dutton taught us that if we were to be successful, we needed to set a schedule, and I also found that rewarding myself periodically for my efforts was helpful in motivating me to continue at my task. Now, I do have some ADHD tendencies, though I've never sought to be diagnosed, but it is something I have had to personally deal with. Such goals are especially motivating to me, since I can often get distracted and sometimes have a difficult time focusing on a task for very long. Through such efforts (as well as using the comic Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson as a fun theme to tie all my work together) I was able to eventually succeed, ending up with an entirely full 4-in binder of English wonderment, which I still have today. This type of action is a form of self-regulation, which, as defined by the University of Nebraska, is "the method or procedure that learners use to manage and organize their thoughts and convert them into skills used for learning." Here are some photos and excerpts from that mammoth undertaking. It took an immense amount of effort, but I'm proud to have accomplished it and have a cool compendium of all that amazing work I did in high school. Self-regulation skills are crucial to success in school and in the workplace, whether you're making a portfolio, completing a science fair project, or completing an assignment at your job. The person that cannot learn to motivate themselves will struggle to achieve most anything of import. Sure, they may be cajoled into a menial line of work, but even then, they will always be a mediocre worker at best. However, good self-regulation skills will lead to better self-motivation, which in turn is the spark that is needed to drive an individual to continue to work hard not just for a few hours, but for days and even weeks on prolonged, often tiresome tasks, with the end in mind. So how can we foster better self-regulation in those that may struggle to find any motivation in their education or career? Gamification can often help! There are numerous apps and programs out there that realize this, and if you'd like to get some ideas / motivation for yourself, I can personally highly recommend Habitica, which is one such app that I myself have only dabbled with, but I have several family members that use it to great effect. It allows users to gamify just about any goals / objectives they may have, and it extends much further than just the classroom, allowing you to gamify just about anything in your own life. Once we as educators have a good grasp on using such motivators ourselves, we can then turn to using such tools to motivate our students as well. There are many such examples, such as a classroom economy, with points or "class cash credits" that can be utilized to reward good behavior (i.e. think of the Harry Potter Hogwarts and their House Cup, and points awarded or deducted from each house due to good or bad actions), or other rewards (i.e. "Ok class, if everyone does at least 10 minutes or reading each day the entire month, then we'll have a pizza party afterwards!"). Once students learn how effective and fun such gamification is, they can extend that to their own life, and Habitica and other such programs can help them to do just that. Ultimately, we are all responsible to ourselves for our successes and failures. However, when there is outward motivation (created either by ourselves or others), that is a real factor in how efficacious and enduring our efforts will be. We as educators have a responsibility to do our utmost to ensure that our students develop these crucial skills. We should be modeling and exemplifying this daily, and also showing students how to self-regulate themselves as well beyond the classroom. As we do, we will be helping the next generation lift up themselves, and they will one day do the same for the next. Note: While reading through a book that I use in my Speech & Debate class, Writing and Rhetoric by Brett McInelly. I was reminded about self-regulation. That thought inspired this posting. |
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