My sister and I once owned an N-64 and played Super Smash
Bros. on it only a handful of times. My
cousin on the other hand had a plethora of video games for us to play with
whenever we visited, and I think only now at the age of almost 23 can I say
that I’m mediocre at best when it comes to Mario Kart. My boyfriend and I once played Super Smash
Bros. and I don’t think you need to think very hard about who won that
round. Needless to say, video games
aren’t exactly my forte. To me they
represent this realm of toys and gadgets that I have just never really gotten
into. Sure I grew up playing computer
games like Pajama Sam, and the school appropriate Where in the World is Carmen
Sandiego?, Zoombinis, and Oregon Trail but since about 5th or 6th
grade my knowledge of these games has dwindled to slim to none.
Looking back on my middle and high school years, I don’t
think my teachers really implemented Internet-based games into their curriculum, I vaguely remember when I
was in 5th or 6th grade we had Computer Class where we
had the opportunity to delve into a few when we weren't learning how to type—but obviously games have come a long way since then. Due to my lack of knowledge about video games
in general, I decided to focus my assignment for class this week on BrainPop.
This website offers a multitude of
resources for all of the major subject areas we’ll be teaching. The first
thing I noticed was that a lot of the resources offered by BrainPop can only be
accessed by creating a username. However
this would allow teachers like us to communicate with others, share lesson
plans, read BrainPop education bulletins and design online assignments for students. They have a really great introductory video to BrainPop
educators that explains all of this! And
in the era of standards, there’s even a section dedicated to searching via
standard even narrowing the search down by state and/or subject! So I think creating a username is worth it for the access it provides.
I really liked the variety of topics
that were covered under the subjects of English and History. I think there is information on here for just
about everyone. Within the English
section alone there was a section on Study and Reading Skills where students
can access a dictionary/thesaurus, information on mood and tone as well as
paraphrasing. Each one of these topics
includes a video that the student must watch first before moving on. Although the movies are animated and include
a robot, I’d like to think that my middle and most of my high school students can still
learn something from the information provided!
Just for fun I perused the free
English section titled “Main Idea” and watched the required video.
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Afterwards students are prompted to take the
quiz, go to questions/answers, look at more information or to do the worksheet
activity. I really liked how the quiz could
either be graded, serve as a review or could be printed. The worksheet is a nice addition (albeit
seemingly easy) to help the students understand the topic. Overall, I think it would be a nice addition to a lesson plan, but I wouldn't base all of my teaching off of this website and what it has to offer.
Ultimately I think educational games
are fun and should be implemented in the classroom to a certain extent, especially since some
aspects of school should be fun! Kids
need a break from the droning voice of a lecture or repetitive slides on
numerous Powerpoints. I think games serve
the function of breaking up the monotony that schools sometimes fall into
especially with tight curriculum and standards guidelines. BrainPop seems to be a fun, interactive
website with bright colors that will appeal to a wide array of students. Check it out!
My sense is that you found some things to like on Brain Pop, Kelsey, both in terms of the games themselves and also in terms of the materials made available to support the game play in classroom terms. I also appreciate your mentioning the potential value of games in terms of varying the classroom fare. This potential value is not to be minimized, and you never know who you might reach, or what you might learn about a particular student, by offering them a different way to engage with school and show you what they know/can do.
ReplyDeleteHey Kelsey!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all..Oregon Trail. This brings back so many memories of 4th grade and how many times I played this (or how many times our teacher had to ask students to not name characters after her and then let them die). But reminiscing aside, it's great to hear about your enthusiasm for BrainPop. I wasn't aware of this program before and I was really impressed when you mentioned that one capability was that teachers can search by standards. This is so different from the game I experienced, it seems like it would be a valuable addition to the classroom especially with its quiz and worksheet additions. I'm looking forward to checking this one out.
Kelsey,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Brain Pop! I've never heard of it, but I feel like this can serve as a good resource in the future. I agree with you that these games should not overpower our lessons, but they are good additions or things to use for fill in time. I think having a student take a relevant quiz on Brain Pop may be more effective than having a student go through an extra worksheet. It is nice to break up instruction into different formats to keep students engaged. I will have to look into Brain Pop to see how I can incorporate this into my classroom!
It's funny because Nintendo 64 and Super Smash Bros. were the first game system and game I ever owned. I loved that game and Oregon Trail was a classic as well. On a more education-related note, I really like your idea of somehow incorporating these educational games into your practice. I remember in my 6th grade math class, my teacher had an old computer in the back of the room which was loaded with a bunch of math games. We had a sign-up sheet, and at the end of each day, the next student on the sheet would be able to spend the last 10 or so minutes of class playing games. The next day, the next student on the list would play and so on. I remember that students in our class would count down the days until it was their turn to play on the computer. It's just so interesting that students would get excited about playing a video game based on math.
ReplyDelete