Guest post contributed by Jessica Anderson

Want to write a guest post on Classcraft or another topic in education? Email stephanie@classcraft.com.

If you were standing in the hallway outside of my classroom, you’d see a motivational poster on the door, a white board with new tech tools to try, and a sign that says “#YouMatter.”

However, as you step through the door, you enter Isle of Nosredna. What’s Isle of Nosredna, you might be thinking? It’s a theme that encompasses our earth science curriculum and our classroom goals of mastery and self-directed learning. It’s a game that was created to help keep students motivated while moving self-paced through the earth science content. I created it after gamifying for two years without a storyline. After research and interactions with several gamifiers, I was inspired to add a storyline to drive my classroom game.

There are five zones in my classroom: the shelter (futons), the beach (carpeted area), the lookout (stools by window), the jungle (table area), and the crash site (my desk).

Students sitting in Isle of Nosredna. We are 1:1 with iPads. 

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I am a fifth grader at the JP Manning Elementary School, and Classcraft has helped me to become a better student. 

When using Classcraft, the kids in my class seem to participate more. Earning experience for answering a question correctly or getting gold and experience for extra credit has encouraged me to do more extra credit or try harder on formulating my answers in class. 

Being able to have the Wheel Of Destiny to choose kids to answer questions instead of the teacher just calling on kids is even better, because that way the assumption that people are playing favorites will not be made. Classcraft has changed my school day and learning experience.

Want to write a guest post on Classcraft or another topic in education? Email stephanie@classcraft.com.

Republished with permission from Emily Huff

Classcraft by definition is “a free online, educational role-playing game that teachers and students play together in the classroom.” However, I do not believe that the definition I just told you quite captures what Classcraft really is.

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Want to share your insights on education with us? Email stephanie@classcraft.com to get started!

Sam Schneider is a middle school music teacher in Central New Jersey, where he instructs General Music, Guitar, Piano, and Music Technology. He attended Vanderbilt University, where he earned his Bachelor’s in Musical Arts (Blair School of Music) and Master’s in Secondary Education (Peabody College of Education).

Thanks for talking with us today, Sam! To start, tell us a little about yourself as an educator.

I knew that I was going to go into education since high school, and I picked music because it seemed like a unique and fun way to share my passions and reach students.

One thing that I feel is important is the changing culture of learning. Students are constantly being introduced to new technologies. They’re expected to have better research skills. Even outside of the classroom, students have greater access to information than ever before. I’ve always felt it’s important to stay on top of these changes in technology. I try to keep up with it all, and that’s actually how I stumbled across Classcraft.

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In this new series, we’ll be exploring different insights into education with Classcraft co-founder and physics teacher Shawn Young. Today’s topic: How does motivation affect the way students learn, and what can teachers do to set them on the right track?

Why is motivation important for student learning?

Shawn Young: Motivation is the key to learning. No one learns anything unless they want to. That’s true for everybody. One of the main challenges for educators is getting their students to want to learn. How do you get somebody to want to learn something if they’re not naturally curious or don’t naturally like your subject matter?

The answer to that question comes from understanding how motivation works and the different aspects that drive it. There are two types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is motivation to do something that comes from the outside. For example, you’ll want to clean your room because your parents will ground you if you don’t. That has its limits. If someone decides that the consequence isn’t big enough, they’ll stop being motivated.

What’s more powerful than that is to be motivated from within oneself. So the idea here is that you want to learn because you’re curious about the subject, or you go to work because you love your job and you don’t care what you get paid. The problem is that that really powerful motivation is the hardest for teachers to utilize. A lot of the motivation for learning in a typical educational setting is getting a good grade. That’s a very long-term goal. It’s very far from what the child is living in their real life, and it’s extrinsic. Basically, a grade is society saying you’re good. It’s not yourself feeling good about yourself.

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Want to write a guest post on Classcraft or another topic in education? Pitch to stephanie@classcraft.com.

Republished with permission from Jeroen Heremans

Lots of things have been said about gamification in education already. People with degrees in all kinds of professions have discussed and expressed their own opinions on the subject. Some agree, some disagree — that’s how life works. You see, I’m not a specialist on the subject … and maybe that’s a good thing.

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