Gaming

Throughout this week's readings I have really been doing a lot of thought about online games. Most of the articles I read about referred to online games that have realistic characters that go through problematic experiences. Many of the games I have my students play are quite difference. For instance, to practice math facts I have my students go to http://www.arcademicskillbuilders.com/ where they can race car by choosing the correct answer to a multiplication fact (or many other like games). This link doesn't necessarily teach my students how to do something but it's a great way to reinforce a concept that they will need to conquer the next building block in our math unit.

Another game I came across this week deals with literacy. http://reading.ecb.org/ uses a little man and an avatar to help students reinforce and practice reading skills such as making connections and asking questions, to name a few. All of my students were excited to play this game once I introduced it to the class, but unfortunately I didn't have enough computers for everyone to try it at once.

I am not sure of any games like "Oregon Trail" or the others mentioned in our article, that could work with my third grade curriculum, but I know that my students really benefit from the ones we use in our classroom.

*** My principal just gave a co-worker and me i-pads to utilize in our classrooms.  Our job is find ways to use them with students and to convince our PTA to purchase one for every teacher in the school. So far, I have found a plethora of games that I can use with my students and several "web 2.0-like" tools that my students can use to create things (plays, scripts, etc). If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them!