EDET679 Gamification Week 7 Blog

Week 7 Gamification Blog

Essential Question: How do you or might you use language to change the way that your students think about learning in the classroom?

            Creating an environment that fosters student learning is very important. This environment includes everything from what seat the students sit in and to what activities the students will do to learn a concept. The words that we use in the classroom also help create an environment to be motivational and even the opposite way, discouraging. Therefore, as teachers, we need to be intentional with all we say and when we mess up that make sure to change our wording. Matera gives teachers ten words to use when working with their students and they are confidence, creativity, enthusiasm, effort, focus, resilience, initiative, curiosity, dependability, and empathy (2015). Giving these words and the concepts behind them to the students provides an opportunity for each student to take a hold of their own education. They get to put a word to what they are doing and support by the class and the teacher behind that word.

            This is a concept that is embraced even to standards being created for teachers to teach kids. In the Alaska State Standards of Mathematics, there are eight main concepts that when used in everyday conversation of math class really changes how the focus of learning is not just the math but really the process. These eight focuses are called Mathematical Practices and they follow: “make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, reason abstractly and quantitatively, construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others, model with mathematics, use appropriate tools strategically, attend to precision, look for and make use of structure, and look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning using other methods.” (2012) The purpose of the mathematical practices is to help support students in not only being successful in mathematics but also create students who applies learned math skills to all parts of their life. Giving the students something to choose from that puts words to what they are learning can be freeing for them because they are able to feel confident in what they are learning by putting a name to it.

Department of Education and Early Development (2012). Alaska mathematics standards. Retrieved from https://education.alaska.gov/akstandards/math/akstandards_math_081312.pdf

Matera, M. (2015). Explore like a pirate. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.