Make Them Believe! 

Hey everyone!

Seems like I’m always apologizing about delays – doh! Just marked over 500 quests so I’ve been burning the midnight oil over here. Totally fine though the results are incredibly worth it!

Anyway, I’ll post a separate blog later regarding how you can use scratch ticket paper, based on my previous blog, effectively in your classroom. I recently presented at the 21CTLS Conference in Ponoka, Alberta and a question I always seem to get is – what is one of, if not the most important thing I should be doing in my Gamification. My answer every time, while not agreed upon by all, is …

To make them believe it!

Let me explain… this is a big one!

When I decided to gamify my class and go through with this full bore I knew that it could be an uphill battle if my students did not think it was “cool” enough for them to participate in it. In the eyes of students, if it does not float their boat they could sink it. I knew that if I was trying to convince 12-14 year old kids to become medieval characters in a desolate land, ravaged by a fear mongering warlord (the Minotaur King) I would need to sell it to them and they would have to bite into it hook, line and sinker.

My first approach was to look at all the elements of my land I wanted to come to life. Do this by simply listing them out. I knew at the onset of my game I was going to be …

• Selling cards of varying types
• Expecting the class to be medieval themed
• They (the students) were mercenaries I brought in to help me
• I want a place to do battle with kids (submit certain types of work)
• I wanted mystery/puzzles
• A communal space for cross classroom communication

 
Here is how I attacked these known elements in my classroom.

• Selling Cards

I’m fortunate that my classroom contains some old display cases with locks. They stand out and are great for storage but do not take up any usable classroom space – perfect! I ripped everything out of them and decided if it was medieval it would be brick and wood. So I printed high quality photos of brick and wood and created a backdrop of red brick and a wood panel floor (I even staggered the wood to simulate flooring – nerd alert!). It did not look right to me so I printed off a poster style old school store and attached it to the middle. Was still missing something. Shelves! So I printed strips of wood and created make shift shelves. The tacks stood out too much so I printed metal,  ancient nail heads and glued them over the tacks to hid them. Finally, a general, disgruntled shop keeper was printed and heck ya I had a shop!

​Here is how it turned out! 

My General Store

I quickly realized that I had too much cards to sell so I used the second portion of the display case and followed the same steps above to create a blacksmith shop which would sell my crafting cards! For added effect I found an old steel girder (looks like a makeshift anvil) and put some crushed rock, wood splinters and various other scraps in the case to simulate it being messy and containing real supplies.

​Here is how that turned out! 

My Blacksmith Shop

Then I needed a way to rotate in the cards for sale (never sell all cards at once – a solid tip with shops is to rotate cards in and out so that students have to plan and react when certain cards are available). This was an easy solution, laminated standard paper with dry erase marker and my shop had some signage.

Not being super artsy I was really pleased with how this turned out! The final touch was an old, cracked and broken 2x4 I found at a construction site, stained with dirt and I added some old, frail ropes. Some paint and hooks and my “Shops” area was complete!

Oh – I also had student paint the exterior of the display cases brown by dabbing them with an old, semi-ruined paint brush to simulate wood grain and it really sold the effect!
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The final product! 

My 'Shops' Area

• .Medieval Theme 

I needed the class to feel medieval so I started by covering the walls, poorly I might add, with blue paper on the walls by the windows to simulate a sky. I then added some clouds and various décor on the sky but it was lacking so I printed off images of old buildings, forests, trails, caves and the like. It put them around the room (these also doubled as my trigger images for certain quests!). This coupled with my stores were starting to get the effect I was looking for. I then had a student ask me if I wanted some green, outdoor mat/fake grass. I said sure expecting a small amount but they arrived with an entire 12ft wide roll! I went to town with that roll covering almost all of the ledges in my classroom so that the sky now met grass. Bonus! The grass though needed something so I threw it out there to message boards asking for old board game pieces, medieval items and the like. To my surprise someone donated over $300.00 worth of war hammer/dungeon and dragon characters to my classroom. We painted them out, threw some red paint around to simulate battles and the classroom was really beginning to take shape! I even had a colleague build and design broken down structures and buildings out of balsa wood sticks which totally added to the desired effect. Something like this …   

Left Ledge in my Classroom

Right side of my Classroom

Then, because I’m a little too dedicated I began looking for old things that could pass as medieval or ancient. Some old musical theatre props, old chains, a horse skull (you read that correctly), some more red and brown paint, some scratches here and there and I was in business.

​Seriously, how cool is that skull! 

General Decor

• Mercenaries to help me!

 
The cool part here is that I was totaling willing to accept the fact that this might just fail miserably, when you gamify that is totally OK! Some ideas will seem incredible and not work out at all while tiny ideas might explode into memorable moments or events. Let them roll either way! I decided to strip everything from my room, tables, chairs, supplies – I took it all! Why? Well, if I was hiring mercenaries to help me survive in a “warn torn” land full of monsters an bad guys they would arrive with only the materials they could carry. I needed to reflect that in the game so I took it all away, put tape on the group to divide up the territories and explained to them the aforementioned rational. Their reaction? “How do we get stuff?” “Get crafting cards and convince me that they would create something like you know old cloth card + cotton card + rope card would make a pillow” “So if I do that I get a pillow to sit on!?” “Of course!” Now they are hooked! The other cool thing that happened was that kids are always moving so they are always being active in big or small doses. I love this because I hate prolonged periods of sitting! It is actually a huge health concern at the moment!
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Voila! 

Chairs? What Chairs?!

• Battlegrounds

I wanted a space to battle them when they submitted work so I decided why not just build one?! We had an old Lego Robotics table that was about to be junked (about 4x8 or so) so I decided why not take it and fill it with sand (sorry custodial staff!). I then added some rocks, sticks and things to simulate an aerial view of a desert, beat up land. Our incredible art teacher molded some foam bricks into rocks and other shapes and a little silver paint here and there made the concept come to life. It was not what I wanted though, it needed a game element so again on the prowl for old board games! Someone messaged me that they have the old board game Siege! Jackpot! This is a game where you have elastic loaded castles, rocks and various other medieval figures. It also had land masses, paths and trees! I added this to the board and all of a sudden I had a board game! As kids dolled out damage to the monsters on their battle sheets (worksheets) they earned rolls of a dice and the ability to move up the board and fire at my army of bad guys (insert more war hammer figures!) and my castle. They inflict damage and I award them with gold!
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Here is the final product – I’m proud of this one! 

The Battlegrounds

• Mystery!

 
I wanted my game to hold an element of mystery so I began looking for different elements that generated that. First off, I covered certain parts of my classroom with black paper and question marks or placed envelopes with dirt and debris smeared onto them around the room. I created a board in the back of the room that holds treasure hunt clues where I unveil different hints towards items I have hidden in the school. I write things in different languages hoping the students will try and translate it (Latin is the language of Scientia Terra!) and various other things. I even setup things with no explanation hoping the kids will poke around it, explore it and ultimately make hypothesis about it and how it could help/hinder them! Love this aspect and it is a real game changer. Being vague is a good thing as it hooks your students! 

Mystery envelope

Center of the classroom

Mystery unlockable area

• Class to Class Communication

This one was easy enough for me. I have a large cork board in the back of my room so I covered it in blue paper to look like sky then printed out old wooden planks, cut them and placed them in a boarder format to create the outline of a message board. To really sell the effect I effect cut the paper off in the frame revealing the cork board and creating an awesome looking message board! I printed off some old wooden signs and labelled them with sharpie in a broken, shakey style writing and adding them around the board to label the certain zones.

Here is what it looked like!

Message Board System

Here kids, just like a medieval community message board, they could post items for sale, tips and clues, secret meeting or even talk in codes (yes some guilds did this!). It also became my way of communicating important messages such as calling for emergency meetings and things like that but not telling them thereby awarding the observant students in your class! 

From here just think - what would ____ land or situation have! Let your imagination fly!

​ Old cubby space that looks like this … 

Before...

...After

This is where I toss all of the unnamed or unclaimed work! Missing something? Oh no, you’ll have to crawl into the “Cave of the Abandoned!”. Next time put your name on it! 

Took an old TV, I’m going to wrap it with cardboard and create a stone frame on the cardboard and call it “My Tablet of Truth” and periodically it will display messages or clues at random (thank you ChromeCast!). My front lab desk looked ugly so I hired kids to turn it into a castle and my chair a thrown (slip cover + paper mache!) This hasn't been completed yet but it will be soon! The list goes on and on. Go wild!

So what was the point of this post! To sell your Gamification you have to market it to the kids. Make them believe they are in space, in a western adventure or travelling back in time! Sell your concept and you will succeed in the face of any adversity! Your kids will never work harder!

Oh! Involve the kids in the design process. The sense of ownership keeps your classroom clean and well-structured because they hate the idea of ruining something they created!

Until next time!
-Master Heebs!