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.