Let's Go to Disneyland!

As my first grade students left for their holiday break, I told one of the children to have a wonderful vacation. He sadly looked at me and said, "I'm not going on vacation. I am just staying home." I explained to him that by vacation I meant not coming to school. His reaction made me think about how many students never get to travel and experience the joy of visiting popular vacation destinations. It seems, however, that the answer to that problem was sitting in my room waiting to be unwrapped!

I had recently been given a copy of Kinect Disneyland Adventure. I took it home for my grandchildren to play while visiting for Christmas. The game is an authentic trip to the Magic Kingdom. Players enter Main Street USA, collect autographs from Disney characters in an autograph book, and use a map to select the lands to visit in the park. Pirates of the Caribbean, It's A Small World, and all of the other favorite rides from the actual park are part of the game. It is as close as you can come to an actual visit without traveling there.

My teacher mind kicked into high gear and I am planning a unit around the game for my students! As I looked through the common core standards, I found that there are plenty of language arts, math, and geography skills we can work on as the class takes on the task of vacation planning! Working in small groups, the students will use the internet, brochures, and local travel agents to research the many aspects of going on a vacation to Disneyland:

• which park to visit
• transportation options and costs
• time of year considerations
• lodging options and costs
• food expenses
• admissions
• what to pack
• how long to stay
• what to do while they are there

The students will have the opportunity to research, develop a plan, and collaborate with their peers as they learn to read informational text, evaluate information, and make informed decisions.

Geography and map reading skills will grow as they discover that Disney has parks around the world to chose from. In addition, they will need to read the park map as they plan their days and select attractions to experience.

Math and personal financial literacy skills will grow as the kids learn to use calculators to work with large numbers and realize that vacations require long term goal setting and saving.

When all the plans have been made we will take a field trip to the local airport to check out one transportation option first hand. Then our vacation will be underway as we travel virtually, thanks to Kinect, to Disneyland. Of course, there will be time spent waiting for a turn, not unlike the lines at the actual park! The game will give the kids a chance to experience the joy of a vacation as they move their bodies through the engaging activities and attractions. Of course, the learning will continue as they each keep a diary describing the people, places, and events with relevant details, expressing their ideas and feelings clearly :) Using technology they will create postcards to mail to friends at home.

There are many possibilities for learning from such a project. The Kinect game will be the amazing reward for all of the required hard work for which I will be asking. I have no doubt that the students will be motivated, engaged, and learning! I can't wait to get started!

Why Kinect?

Earlier this week I attended a presentation by the Colorado Department of Education supporting the transition to the new Colorado Academic Standards. The presenters outlined working toward "deep change" in education as we gradually achieve transformation, changing teaching and learning. The transformation will require new ways of thinking and acting. I was particularly interested in the definition given for mastery. To truly achieve mastery, students must be able to apply and transfer knowledge to new and different situations. Those are lofty and worthwhile goals for the state and I hope to teach long enough to see that transformation take place for our children. In the meantime I am exploring new ways for young children, in the first and second grade, to build knowledge and demonstrate mastery. One extremely engaging tool I am trying is Xbox 360 Kinect. At first glance it may appear that using the system in a classroom is simply playing games, but if you observe young children closely when playing, it becomes quickly apparent that the games often require children to think critically and use problem solving skills. Gaining mastery over their motor skills while making decisions and following directions is a complicated task for six and seven year olds. The games provide many excellent situations for the application and transfer of knowledge. Check out the lesson ideas at Kinect in Education for ideas and watch for many more activities to be posted soon. Simply learning and feeding back information will not be enough in the years ahead. Students will need to make connections and demonstrate the ability to apply what they learn in the real world. Little kids can venture into virtual worlds easily through the use of Kinect games providing delightful and safe environments to try out their learning and growing thinking skills. Even better, the games allow the children to experience collaboration as they work together to play the games and achieve success. Our world is changing at a rapid pace and keeping up with that change in a classroom is challenging. Kinect is an affordable and easily used tool to transform the learning experiences of children. Why Kinect? Why not?

Kinect Reflections After 30 Days

Tomorrow will be our 30th day of school. My first graders are engaged in learning and growing. One of the highlights so far has been the inclusion of Xbox 360 Kinect games in our lessons. The children loved that from the minute they saw it, but, for me, it has been a learning process for the teacher. Using new technology tools in the classroom involves extra time and thought during implementation. The payoffs, however, can be quite rewarding. That has been the case with using Kinect.

Equipped with the TV, Xbox360, Kinect sensor, and a wide selection of games, I began the year with many ideas and expectations for inspiring learning in my students. Two obstacles presented themselves right away. The first was, and always is in the classroom, time. The second was how to manage 21 students and one gaming system. Loving a challenge, I jumped in and began to experiment.

The time issue dissolved as I moved past the need to use the games just because they were there. When any technology tool becomes a natural part of the learning process (no different than using a pencil and paper), it becomes powerful and incorporated where it will do the most good. Rather than planning times for Kinect, I am now considering the wide variety of possibilities (check out the growing list of ideas from Kinect in Education) to enhance our lessons. As with all learning tools, you start with the learning objective, then select the methods, tools, and materials that best achieve the desired results. Used in that way, Xbox 360 Kinect, or any video gaming system can become a part of learning without creating a time problem.

Management is another common issue in the classroom. Engagement has never been a problem as my students are mesmerized by the Kinect games. I could tell right away that if I could direct their enthusiasm, we were sitting on a gold mine of learning possibilities. The difficulty was that only one student could actually "play" the game at a time. The other students were cheering and enjoying the process, but there was not enough active learning participation to suit me. The game Body and Brain Connections helped me solve the problem. That particular game is full of activities that reinforce math concepts I teach. We are working on addition to 10 and learning a variety of ways to make each number. One game is called Perfect Tens (facts for 10 are an important skill to master). The player has to use his or her hands to mark two numbers with a sum of 10 before the timer runs out. We discovered that the Kinect sensor focuses in on a narrow enough area, that while one student was actually controlling the game, all the other students could participate from behind and beside the player. The results were delightful and obviously productive:

I added to the lesson, recording sheets for each child to keep track of his or her score. The children can see their own growth and are motivated to improve their score as in any video game setting. They are learning the facts for 10 more quickly than I could have imagined and they think they are playing!! (The scores will soon become another lesson as we use arrow cards to learn about place value and how to read big numbers.)

Of course, learning the facts for 10 is just one of the many skills we will inspire with our gaming system. The possibilities are endless. Patience is the key. Rather than forcing the games into lessons, I will find the natural applications as they arise. Group participation is the next key as managing the use of the tool becomes no different than passing out paper for spelling practice.

The final advantage and payoff for using Kinect in the classroom is the addition of activity to stimulate both the body and the brain! The first brain rule (Brain Rules by John Medina) is that exercise boosts brain power. Children naturally want to move so why not channel that movement into the learning process! Everyone wins!

After just 30 days of learning with Xbox 360 Kinect, I am convinced that it holds tremendous potential for education. A little time spent working out the bugs and exploring the possibilities will reap great benefits for children!

Making Kinect-tions in the Classroom

I awoke to the most marvelous message on Facebook this morning. Two of my friends, one in Beirut, Lebanon, and the other in Kandy, Sri Lanka, (it is actually incredible that I even have friends in those faraway places) had connected as a result of a project I had invited each of them to join. Friendships are formed so easily and quickly thanks to social networking. The world is an amazingly different place than it was when I was a child, and I am determined to make sure my classroom is an amazingly different place than the classroom of my childhood.

A new addition to the tools in my first grade room this year is an Xbox 360 Kinect gaming system. That, in and of itself, is pretty remarkable as I would have argued not too long ago that kids spend way too much time playing video games and that they have no place in education. An open mind, however, and exploring shared links on Twitter, have resulted in a complete "360" degree change in my thinking. I can't wait to put the ideas to the test with my young students.

The first game we will use is called Kinectimals. The delightful virtual pet game will undoubtedly be engaging for children, but it can be so much more than that when incorporated into a classroom. We will use the game as a basis for exploring a wide variety of Colorado State Standards for first grade. The characters in the game include various feline cubs such as lions, tigers, leopards, and panthers. Those cubs will be the basis for first grade research and reasoning as the students use a variety of resources to locate information about each type of cat. As they research, they will explore first grade science standards including learning that offspring have characteristics that are similar to their parents' and that living things have physical characteristics to help them survive. Locating the geographical homes of each cub will be an engaging way to satisfy the social studies standard exploring maps and globes as they represent places. The game itself will present a number of opportunities for the kids to write as they describe the cubs and write about the experience. Deeper connections can be made if we explore the type of cat that would be included in the game for our geographical home and create new elements for the game based on their discoveries. Students can compare and contrast the habitats of the cubs in the game to the habitat of our local wild cats. Mathematics skills are easily reinforced using the game. First graders learn about the whole number system and place value relationships to 100 as well as how to solve addition and subtraction problems. The game offers frequent opportunities for students to play games that result in scores. The scores can be compared and graphed. While watching one student play, the rest of the class can reinforce the counting back strategy of subtraction while they count along with the countdown timer! The "kinect-tions" are endless and I am certain the engagement will be high.

I am just beginning my own learning in this area and I'm so excited to see where this takes the children in the coming year. There are many resources online to explore the possibilities. Check out this one: KinectEDucation. Of course, there are many ways to teach, but connecting the standards with physical movement and highly engaging fun seems to me to be a kinect-tion for made for success!