Gaming in Schools

I first became a fan of games for academic purposes when my son was very young. I heard about a website called StarFall that would help teach basic phonics, letter naming, and emerging reader skills. I looked into the website, did some research on it, then allowed my son to play it. He loved it right away. He was able to learn letter naming, basic blends, and letter sounds much earlier than I had anticipated. I believe this was because he learned through playing a computer game and not through rote memorization. After this, I became a fan of compter games to increase learning.

I use computer games in my classroom many times a week. I only have 2 student computers, but all students get time on them throughout the week as well as in the computer lab. What I like most about the games is how interactive and fun it can be for the student. Instead of working on a worksheet they are feeling a competivite edge in trying to get the most points, or beat the timer, whatever the case may be for each individual game, but they can only do that if they get the answer or problem correct. I find that students ask to play the games because it intrests them. Students never ask to complete a worksheet.

I use computer games in math and social studies. This past year, after talking about how the early American settlers had to build forts, I found a game that would allow the children to "build" a fort on the computer. This engaged the students in the lesson. They would try and "build" the fort in as little days as possible. None of them could do it as fast as the early American settlers could and this made them have a new appreciation and understanding about the hard work that was put into fort building.

I will continue to use computer games to help my students learn, and I think that all teachers should try and incorporate them into their daily routine. We are teaching a generation that is very technology savvy, so it only makes sense to build on what they know by meeting them where they are.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog. I will tell you more about myself since the discussion introduction was brief. I just began by 5th year teaching 3rd grade at Lynn Fanning Elementary School.  I teach at a school of 700+ students in northern Madison County in Alabama. The school that I teach in is also the school where I attended elementary school. I love that I was able to come back to LFES and work. I graduated from Athens State University with a BS in Early Childhood Education. I am working on my masters in Early Childhood Education at the University of West Alabama.

When I am not doing things that are school or work related I am usually spending time with my family. I have a 7 year old son that is involved in sports (baseball and basketball) so we spend a lot of time at our local rec center, as well as taking him to various birthday parties, friends houses to play, and church events. I have a sweet niece that is 11 months old that I love to keep and spend time with. My family owns a farm and in the fall we typically 60,000 people come visit us. We do field trips and are open for families on weekday afternoons and Saturdays. I sell Willow House home decor items. We do house parties and I usually have a party once or twice a week. All of this keeps my free time limited, but if I do have time for myself I like to visit the lake or eat dinner with friends.