Sometimes buzzwords actually obfuscate how easy and intuitive a pedagogical strategy can be. Gamification can be a big tech infused classroom redesign (and that is awesome) but it can also be small tweaks to your current system. It is a natural part of active learning, meshes well with IB and PBL and is super motivating. more at http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/gamification 

Check out these 2 examples from seventh and eighth grade social studies classes this week:

Mr. Egnot, Ms. Thornburg, and Mr. George have come up with a brilliant way to gamify supplies: The SuperStore!  Try it the next time your students create in-class projects. 

What the seventh grade teachers do is give each team a budget of $50,000 and they have to create their industrial revolution invention from supplies.

They also make it real using these realistic scenarios as well

I used art supplies regularly in my class and would have benefitted from a gamified system - one day in particular a student had managed to bedeck the bookshelves with blue painters tape and I hadn't even noticed until the room emptied out after class!)  
Reasons I love this hack:

1. I've never seen or heard it before in my 25 years of teaching
2. It is a great way to let students create but not penalize children who don't have supplies, time or help at home on their projects.
3. It teachers financial responsibility, budgeting, and economics.
4. It creates an immediate sense of respect for supplies that would  not otherwise be there if teachers just made them available for free.
5. It's a win-win. Cuts down on waste, makes the teacher's job easier AND teaches students real-life skills in the process.

Using Mr. Joyce's ingenious design, Mr. Reddig, Ms. Benfield, and Ms. Hon's students fought the civil war today in the media center. The difference was the weapon was knowledge. Confederate and Union "soldiers" (distinguished by armbands) square off in battle. If the enemy can't answer the question, they must surrender their ration card. Generals (distinguished by their civil war caps) then gather their troops between battle to adjust rations and plan strategy.  Certain questions spread like wildfire when soldiers who lose their rations try to help others on their side not lose points. Mr. Reddig calls that "going viral" and even though the students are caught up in "winning" the game, they don't even realize what they are really doing is learning about the war. 
Here is video footage from last year's battle:

Gamification is nothing new and is a great way to motivate your students and teach them real life skills as they learn content and grow their social and thinking skills!

My daughter's third grade teacher gamifies her whole classroom: students pay rent for their desks, earn Dalesandro Dollars for their work, run shops and learn trade, have community jobs such as librarian, police officer, and homework archivist for absent students. Students need responsibility and a sense of ownership in school and this is a great way to do it. 

In honor of Ms. Davis retiring today, I'd like to write a few words about love:

 One thing I love about Ms. Davis when I walk in her room is how she fusses at the kids when they don't listen but also has so much love for them. Her love for students is a strong and protecting one. They trust her, they know she cares for them and it is touching to see how they see her as a mother figure and respect her. Of course we'll all miss Ms. Davis fashion inspiration. She is the most put-together faculty member every day! Who can take her place? But her real gift is the strength of her love as a teacher.

Speaking of retiring, Ms. Marshall dropped by at lunch to surprise the kids and you would not believe the reception she got. There could not have been more screaming than if a movie star had walked it!  

Seeing the love and hugs between student and teacher with Ms. Marshall in the cafeteria and Ms. Davis at her goodbye parties today makes me sad for students who never see teachers as part of their family (and mad a teachers who only see students as problems,). 

Ms. Delaney says it best here in this student contest video submitted today to the Cam Newton contest:  

How is it that I have gone a whole month without updating the Celebrating Piedmont Blog? I guess it was all the work toward the 1:1 rollout- but today was the kind of day to make me realize I get back in the game of tooting Piedmont's horn. You guyyyss...do you even realize how amazing we are? Let me show you just the snippets of this one day and see if you get an idea...

...And that's not all! Here are a few more photos of events this week...