Recently I put into action a plan I had been thinking about for a long time. Something so radical, yet so obvious. Something controversial, yet simple. Something that raises a few eyebrows, yet makes so much sense. I put a Nintendo Wii in my classroom.
The idea came to me as I was desperately trying to think up some creative activities for my students "center time," a 1 hour block of time in which the students are split into skill levels and rotate around to different stations. There's the Listening station, where they listen to a story on a good old fashioned cassette tape (in which I've already had to manually rewind using a pencil because the friggen tape got stuck in the machine) and then talk about it. There's the Dice center, where students will play various math games involving dice. There's the Writing center, Board Game center, and Typing center which are pretty self explanatory as well. I needed to add something more...something to jazz up the experience for the kids.
"I have this idea..." I started out a bit nervous as I sat down with the principal to see what she thought. "I don't know how you are going to react to it..." I looked around nervously. "I want to add in a center where my students get to play the Wii."
"Cool!" Was the response I got. Thank goodness she is so willing to let me do my technology thing! I drove to Gamestop and picked up a few educational games. After play testing a few I found that "Big Brain Academy:Wii Degree" was by far the best one to start off with. I have a small library corner in my classroom where I shoved a tiny TV. The Wii fit snugly beside it. It was the perfect spot!
When the day came to tell the students what the new center was I knew I had to outline a few rules. This is what I told them:
Rule 1: This is my stuff. This is expensive stuff. If you DARE misuse this equipment you will be disrespecting me and will go straight to TIME-OUT.
Rule 2: You will not be playing Mario Kart, creating your own Mii's, or doing anything other than playing the specific activity I have outlined for you. If I catch you doing something you shouldn't on the Wii, you will go straight to TIME-OUT.
Rule 3: Everyone will get a chance to play. If I catch you over in the corner being distracted by those playing, not only will you not get a chance to use the Wii but you will go straight to TIME-OUT.
As you can see they had a pretty good understanding of what was expected from them before we began. It was tough at first, they were so completely excited that their teacher was letting them play the Wii in class that they had a hard time controlling themselves. However, after these first few days I am incredibly pleased with what this system and video game have brought to my classroom. The students are motivated, they are competing against each other, and most important of all they are learning things too. It's all about engaging them in ways they are used to.
Every student plays video games, and the more teachers use these to our advantage, the more these kids will be motivated to learn.
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