Classcraft at ISTE 2017: schedule of events
Classcraft is attending ISTE 2017 in San Antonio next week, and we'd love for you to join us!
Stop by booth #2010 (near Microsoft and Google) anytime to meet the Classcraft team and the EdTechAfterDark hosts, who are hanging out with us this year. See Classcraft in action and get cool stuff! (
DIY science game teaches students about brain development
A Charlottesville school is using an awesome, homemade game to teach students about the brain's development in early childhood.
The "Brain Architecture Game" is a collaborative learning experience where teams of four to six people build a model brain from common materials like pipe cleaners and straws. Our Neighborhood Child Developmen
Microsoft’s new Code Builder is Scratch for Minecraft lovers
This month, Microsoft introduced a Code Builder for Minecraft: Education Edition that will change the way your students learn to code.
With Code Builder, students can write code in the virtual world of Minecraft. The feature provides familiar tools and tutorials for kids by connecting with other visual-progr
What Super Mario taught me about learning and success
Over the last four years, I have embraced and implemented gamification and game design principles in my U.S. History classroom. When I have presented this idea to colleagues, there is sometimes a fear that this might lead to a loss of rigor or relevance.
The most common misunderstanding is that video games are just easy fun. It is true that games are entertaining, but successful video games must also efficiently teach the skills of the game while engaging the player with meaning and purpose;
DoE’s EdSim Challenge finalists feature the best of VR in education
The U.S. Department of Education has announced the five finalists for its EdSim Challenge for next-generation computer sims—all of which feature virtual reality.
EdSim Challenge encourages developers in the VR, video game, and educational technology communities to design simulations to prepare students for the demanding 21st-centur
5 steps to becoming a Game Master in your classroom
[Editor’s Note: This is a guest post contributed by teacher Matthew Farber. Enter our giveaway to win one of five signed copies of the new, expanded edition of his book, Gamify Your Classroom: A Field Guide to Game-Based Learning — Revised Edition
Giveaway: Win a signed copy of Matthew Farber’s book ‘Gamify Your Classroom’
We're giving away five signed copies of teacher Matthew Farber's newly revised and expanded book, Gamify Your Classroom.
In the book, Gamify Your Classroom: A Field Guide to Game‐Based Learning – Revised edition, Farber interviews more than 70 authorities in education—experts like James Paul Gee, Lee Sheldon, Jordan Shapiro, Mary Flanagan, and Mizuko (Mimi) Ito—as well as dozens of organizations, including
Using iCivics and gamification to teach students about citizenship
Civic education is one of the most important things students will learn in school. Civics is where students gain an understanding of what is required of the citizens of a nation in order to maintain that nation's political structure.
In America, this involves an active and informed participation in the democratic process. Making sure students understand the founding constitutional principles and the rights, liberties, and responsibilities that come with citizenship is vital. In a technologica
McAfee’s new education game teaches kids about cyber security
McAfee has just made an online role-playing game that teaches kids how to stay safe in the digital world.
To celebrate World Password Day, internet security company McAfee teamed up with True Key, an alternative to text passwords that uses facial or fingerprint recognition, to release a game about cyber security.
Th
How to use Padlet and QR codes in the classroom
We are lucky that we live in an age where numerous resources are readily available at our fingertips. The downfall is the lack of time we have to implement and fully discover their possible advantages and disadvantages.
Recently, I experimented with adding the app Padlet to my classroom.
Creating an ‘online resource box’ for students
Initially, I created a Padlet page as an “online resource box” for students to access wh
5 key beginner tips for using 3D printing in the classroom
3D printing is a fast-growing new technology, and it’s making its way into the classroom. So where do teachers and students begin?
Our #ClasscraftChat with @twallerfishing (Tyler Waller, a technology teacher at Dawson-Bryant High School in Coal Grove, Ohio) emphasized the major points you should know before getting started.
What is 3D printing?
PeaceMaker review
About the game:
The player, taking on the role of an Israeli or Palestinian leader, tries to bring peace to the Israeli-Palestinian region before their term in office ends in the game PeaceMaker.
How it works:
Although first released about 10 years ago, the game PeaceMaker (created by Asi Burak) remains relevant today as
Dig-It! introduces Excavate: Mesopotamia archeology game for social studies
Now you can take your students on a tour of ancient Mesopotamia.
Dig-It! Games has released a new educational mobile game for social studies called Excavate: Mesopotamia. Available for iOS and Android (as well as browsers), Excavate: Mesopotamia teaches students in grades 3-7 about the scientific process of excavation by tasking them with un
How games help students become successful readers
Editor's Note: Guest author Ivan Kaltman is the creator of Sydney’s World, a family-friendly role-playing game that helps children improve language and literacy skills.
Visual presentation of text is often overlooked as an instructional method to help students become successful readers. Reluctant readers such as dyslexic students often have inefficient visual tracking and difficulties in serial scanning of print. These studen
Win a copy of ISTE book ‘Gamify Literacy’ by teacher Michele Haiken
The latest book from ISTE can now be yours for free.
Michele Haiken, the author of Gamify Literacy (releasing April 30) and a Classcraft Ambassador, is giving away a signed copy of her new book, published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
Gam
The importance of narrative in the student-centered classroom
On the surface, Luke Skywalker, Katniss Everdeen, and Harry Potter don't have much in common—a farm boy in a backwater galaxy, a teenage girl in a dystopian future, and a kid living under the stairs in a clearly abusive family—and yet they are all YA (young adult) icons.
5 starter tools and activities for teaching kids to code
In addition to math and science, many students are learning a new core discipline: coding.
This is uncharted territory for many teachers. So how can you get started? Our #ClasscraftChat gathered educators who shared their favorite tools, methods, and programs for teaching kids to code. You can find them below.
Our chat host was Rob Lockhart (@bobbylox), the c
5 essential guidelines for using project-based learning
Project-based learning is a powerful way to put students in charge of their learning. But like any new method of teaching, it requires a change in pedagogy and a willingness to experiment.
Our #ClasscraftChat with @Tomskeeeeee (Sharon Tomski, a high school engineering, computer science, and math teacher from Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and
Latest game reviews
Webinar: Teaching ELA with Classcraft
Classcraft is proud to invite all English Language Arts (ELA) teachers to an exclusive webinar event next Wednesday, April 19 at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
Leading the webinar is Classcraft Ambassador Michele Haiken (@TeachingFactor). Haiken is a middle school English teacher in Rye, New York, and an adjunct professor in literacy at Manhattanville College.
Haiken has
How The Oregon Trail shaped education and game-based learning
Back in the seventies, a little computer game called The Oregon Trail changed schools forever.
Don Rawitsch, the co-creator of the original The Oregon Trail, spoke at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017 about how the classic game spread to K-12 schools everywhere and influenced future educational software.
The Oregon Trail is a simulation of the
Using project-based learning to teach lifelong success skills
Should we be teaching students for assessments or for the world outside of school? With project-based learning, educators can do both.
With the combined pressure on students to not only prepare and perform well on standardized tests but to also build on career success skills, schools explore many options to ensure that students flourish in all areas. Project-based learning (PBL) is a growing practice that focuses on both career preparedness and performing with an emphasis on
How to create an educational escape room for your class
As soon as we enter the room, the gamemaster locks the door behind us. There are multiple clues to lead us to salvation, and we have one hour to find them and make our escape.
This kind of entertainment is better than going to a movie. In escape rooms, you and your friends are united in one goal: leaving that ominous place. Talking is not a luxury; it is a must. You have be a team to win.
These are qual
Games motivate students to read beyond their grade level
Kids spend a lot of time playing video games, and it's paying off for their education.
Hannah Gerber, a literacy researcher at Sam Houston State University, observed 10th grade students and found while they only read about 10 minutes a day in English class—they spent 70 minutes reading at home. They're not devouring novels but instead websites and guides devoted to their favorite video games, like Minecraft or World of W
Life Underground review
About the game:
In Life Underground, the player drives a rover / mobile laboratory down a mine to the Earth’s crust and conducts research on microorganisms living in extreme environments.
(See our video interview with developer USC Game Innovation Lab.)
How it works:
Players navigate the mine
Make Learning an Adventure, Gamify your classroom today!
Why teachers need Hip Hop Education in the classroom
Hip Hop Ed has become an ever-growing popular movement today, especially due to its cultural relevance and its tendency to promote—through its connection with students—an increased social and political awareness in an academic setting.
Simply put, Hip Hop Education is the use of hip hop culture, especially rap songs and lyrics, as classroom content—both in the creation of material to learn and in the delivery of existing material.
4 ways games have inspired real teachers (and a geologist)
Kids love games. But it's surprising how many adults love them, too—and how many of those adults grew up to be teachers that use game-based learning (GBL) or gamification in their own classrooms.
We spoke to three teachers and (for fun) a geologist, who all remember how games have shaped them as learners and creative thinkers.
World of Warcraft
Teacher Bobby Song from California says: Whoeve
2 award-winning education apps help Syrian children displaced from school
EduApp4Syria has announced the winners of its educational mobile app competition to help war-affected Syrian children with language literacy.
Feed the Monster (pictured right) and Antura and the Letters are the two winning games designed to help the estimated 2.5 million Syrian children out of school lea
Join our webinar ‘Teaching Science with Classcraft’
Classcraft is proud to invite all science teachers to an exclusive webinar event this Thursday, March 23 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (EDT).
Paul Cancellieri will be hosting the webinar “Teaching Science with Classcraft.” Cancellieri is a middle school science teacher in North Carolina. He’s also a Classcraft Ambassador and co-author of the book
Watch Classcraft design the Psionic Mage (video)
A lot of teamwork goes into creating a really cool character.
In our latest video, lead concept artist and illustrator Jianli Wu takes you through the process of creating a new character in Classcraft—this time, the brand-new Psionic Mage called Fray.
Jianli has worked at major video game companies like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and THQ, so he knows his stuff! The design for Fray (the
Teaching students 21st-century skills with cooperative board games
I’ve been a game nerd since Christmas Eve 1986, when my Nana taught me to play penny-ante poker. Sitting around the dinette table, I remember the frustration of losing to my family members for years until I learned enough to finally win.
It was a “trial by fire” method that certainly worked, but it taught me to be a cutthroat competitor rather than a supportive team member. That’s not exactly the best tactic considering modern workplaces demand collaborative skills, so I give my stude