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March Madness

 I'm not a true sports fan, but every year around March I become the most loyal bracket curator around. I used to stick March Madness brackets around my classroom and watch the highlights and red lines fill the space for three glorious and competitive weeks. Casual discussions about the latest upset and fun goading about bracket points carried students into class before the bell. I loved the fun and connection that came with the bracket even through my yearly losing record.

How can we carry the madness of March from the court to the classroom?

The simplest way to bring that energy into the curriculum is with ideas like Brave New Teaching's Poetry March Madness Brackets. The beauty of a bracket is its flexibility. Do you want a bracket about the most valuable element on the periodic table? Do it. Maybe a bracket around a praiseworthy historical figure of the time period you are currently studying? Create it. The learning will be in the criteria for determining what makes something laudable and why a particular spot moves forward in the bracket. Those discussions will transfer learning far faster than lecture or individual work around the topic.

If brackets are not your thing, that doesn't mean you can't gamify your curriculum in creative and innovative ways. The end of the school year is rife with beautiful spring days that have students gazing out the windows and tuning out of class. Apathy tends to run rampant at the end of the year, and we all need some creative classroom spunk to make the last few months inside the building enjoyable and effective.

So, what can we do to carry the magic of the madness into June? Here are a few resources and ideas for using games and innovation to spice up curricular tasks.

1. Get Ridiculous - Ian Byrd is an educator and speaker in California who focuses on getting students thinking creatively. Similar to so many movements to dismiss compliance driven education, his Byrdseed newsletter is full of ideas for fun and creative thinking in the classroom. The blog post and examples to help students get ridiculous about topics they are studying focuses on looking at how to approach any curriculum by asking students to explore the outliers and absurdities of a topic.

2. Debate it - Students love a good argument, so using a debate to gamify education is fairly common. When students are doing the thinking and the talking, they are engaged and learning. I have observed classroom debates in several subject areas, and it rarely falls flat. Create a controversial question around any subject, assign sides and roles, scaffold preparation, and let the students do what teenagers do best.

3. Simulations - iThrive Curriculum is a resource with lesson plans that use simulations and games to stimulate learning. They focus on the social emotional components of learning alongside the curriculum. Each unit has specific resources and webinars to help teachers implement effectively. If that curriculum does not meet your needs, then think about how you can create a simulation for your own classroom while being careful to remain culturally appropriate. Putting students inside the real world of your curriculum by mimicking current jobs or scenarios that use knowledge they are learning is an inviting way to increase engagement.

4. Gamestorming - If you are in search of a set of games to assist with brainstorming and idea creation, look no further than the Gamestorming website. The website is built for businesses to gamify their meetings to get better results, but the ideas can be practiced anywhere. Choose a game format, put your students in the driver's seat, and use the tools to facilitate creative idea based sessions in your classroom.

5. Gamifying Differentiation for Teachers - Sometimes teachers need creativity and fun in their planning, as well. The Digital Promise Learner Variability Navigator is just the tool to add interest and creativity to the most formidable and fundamental part of planning for student success. The Learner Variability Navigator has buttons to explore the critical factors that are impacting learning and makes recommendations for various strategies a teacher can implement. The site is full of riches that teachers can probe to vary classroom instruction and meet multiple needs.

As of right now, my chosen national champion is still in the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball bracket. The rest of my final four is crossed out in red, but the Duke Blue Devils are holding out. While my Duke pick is certainly controversial (you love 'em or you hate 'em, but it's Coach K's last year...), using creative and innovative resources to increase the games and engagement in your own class is not. 

May the madness of March exist in our classrooms all year.

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