In my inaugural "3 Quick Things" post, I explore some game-changers for me in recent weeks. If you haven't already, try a few out--you'll be glad you did!
- Breakout Games: With escape rooms gaining popularity in mainstream culture, it makes sense that breakout games would find a natural home in education. Breakout games take gamifying learning to a whole new level, allowing the teacher to set up sometimes elaborate puzzles, clues, and tasks where students apply their content knowledge to solve problems. The goal is to answer all the questions and then, as the name implies, to "break out" by unlocking a physical or digital lock. Websites likes BreakoutEdu offer games for purchase that come with ready-made clues related to a number of content areas, and Pinterest offers tons of tips, tricks, and plans that teachers can use to set up the perfect game. Google Forms is also a great place to turn (this video shows you how you can pretty simply use data validation to make a Google Form "lock" that can only be opened with a correct response). I recently co-created my first Breakout room to review valid and reliable sources with juniors the day before Virginia's writing Standards of Learning test (you can see my form here); I have never seen a group of students so invested in not getting duped by fake news!
- Jason Reynolds & All-American Boys: I have had All-American Boys in my collection for a couple of years now, but other books kept jumping in the way. I have to say, I am so sorry that I waited so long! At once realistic and timely, All-American Boys delved into the subject of police brutality with nuance and emotion. My high school is located in a pretty homogeneous area of central Virginia, so many of my students don't have the experiences that Reynolds describes (heck, we don't have an ROTC, and our student body is so small that chances are slim to none that one student wouldn't know everyone else in their class by name); one of the things that I loved is that this book has the power to make a news item real for students, even if they are pretty far removed from the events themselves.
- Destiny Collections: If you're like me, you have probably been searching for a way to spotlight your library's resources alongside teacher materials and internet resources. Enter: Destiny Collections. I have found these to be enormously helpful in collaborating with teachers, especially those in science and history who want students to do small inquiry projects but also want their students to have a jumping-off point for finding sources. Here's an example of a collection I created for my AP World History teacher's project on Gunpowder Empires. Collections are also powerful tools in organizing and sharing professional resources with other teachers; the best part is, teachers access Collections through Destiny, so it's a great passive promotion of your library resources as well. If you are a librarian looking to extend your reach past the library doors, Follett's new feature is exactly what you are looking for!
I hope you enjoyed this first 3 Quick Things post!
Love,
The Library
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