One more thing...

I love my gaming club kiddos. They are fantastically brilliant.

One of my kids comes to me today and says, "I've been thinking about the health system and I have an idea.... You could get a black piece of paper, and put 'Players Online' on it and put it up by the sink (near the door) and then you could get everyone's name laminated and put velcro on the back and when they come in the room, they could put their name in the 'Players Online'."

Fantastically. Brilliant.

It does my attendance for me. Plus I could have the health bars, lives, and gold on the individual name laminates. Plus it is in an easy to get to, easy to locate spot. Plus it is a routine that students can become easily familiar with as part of their entrance procedures. Plus it would give students instant feedback about how much gold they have. Plus students could take their names down as part of clean-up procedures and switch out the classes for me so I don't have to remember to do it every period. Plus it takes a little bit of the burden off of me and makes them more responsible.

Waaaay better than what I have now. Did I mention that I love my gamers? :)

Open House

Open house went great! I was amazed by the reaction from parents about the system. They reported that they were initially very shocked (as I expected) to see their child's grades so low, but then they said their child was excited and engaged and that they loved my class. It was more than I could have hoped. I did field a lot of questions from parents who were unclear, or hadn't received the letter sent home at the beginning of the year, so next quarter I will have to have a sign-off on the letter to be sure parents have read it.

So far, the buy-in has been great with the boys - anything with the word "game" in it and they are all over it. The girls are still figuring it out, but the keen ones are seeing the underlying system and are starting to take initiative to complete quests on their own. Just as I planned! I think it is because the girls are less versed in the language and rules of games that they have gotten off to a more tentative start. Perhaps in the future there needs to be a more "tutorial" like quest arc taking the class from levels 1-6 so they are more used to it. Or perhaps demo a different quest each day - although that already is kind of happening. Ultimately I think its just that the format of the class needs to come more in line with the way I envision it - a little more creative freedom for the students and just total emphasis on the creative process itself and less emphasis on the product.