In June, Tech Integration Specialist Mr. Badura (@mrbadura) sent me a website link on gamification in the classroom. <http://www.mrmatera.com/category/blog/podcasts/gamification/> I finally sat down to read it the last week of August. Gamification was totally different than what I thought it was. After reading the website I pulled out some paper (I compose better with paper) and started planning my Homesteading "game." The ideas were flying out of my brain and on to the paper. The next morning I excitedly showed Craig my plans. His supportively said "go for it." It sat on my desk for a couple of days, I shuffled it around on my desk and then back and forth from school to home. I kept planning to get it into Google forms but never found time to do anything with it. Finally, I realized I could make this Homesteading game a website. It was Labor Day weekend and I had three days to work on it. It took three days to finish it. When I finished it Monday evening it consisted of eleven webpages and the integration of embedded Google forms, photo analysis activities, surveys, links to other websites, iTunesU video, canva.com for Homesteading Points graphics, a Puppet Pals video, and a puzzle maker.
My new website <hamiltonhomesteader.weebly.com> was launched in my classroom Tuesday, September 2. Students' answers are submitted by email or in a Google form response spreadsheet. I tried to keep up grading answers while they were working but when I fell behind I spent my time after class checking answers and tracking their HPs (homesteading points). Students are finishing up their homesteading game this week. I will share the answer spreadsheets with them and then I will give them a test over the entire Shifting Power of the Plains unit. Overall, even though it was a lot of work, I liked having the students be able to work at their pace and it feels like they are more responsible for their learning. It is also something they can access outside of school.
Something else that Mr. Badura showed me after school today was the assessment feature in eBackpack. This conversation started with me asking him about websites or apps that would grade my objective questions on the Homesteading website and then moved on to trying out this new feature. I had a test in Exam View already to go so we played around with how to upload the questions to eBackpack. I see a lot of potential for this assessment feature.
My new website <hamiltonhomesteader.weebly.com> was launched in my classroom Tuesday, September 2. Students' answers are submitted by email or in a Google form response spreadsheet. I tried to keep up grading answers while they were working but when I fell behind I spent my time after class checking answers and tracking their HPs (homesteading points). Students are finishing up their homesteading game this week. I will share the answer spreadsheets with them and then I will give them a test over the entire Shifting Power of the Plains unit. Overall, even though it was a lot of work, I liked having the students be able to work at their pace and it feels like they are more responsible for their learning. It is also something they can access outside of school.
Something else that Mr. Badura showed me after school today was the assessment feature in eBackpack. This conversation started with me asking him about websites or apps that would grade my objective questions on the Homesteading website and then moved on to trying out this new feature. I had a test in Exam View already to go so we played around with how to upload the questions to eBackpack. I see a lot of potential for this assessment feature.
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