Presenting at a District Conference

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I am signed up to present at my district's annual technology conference. I chose Classcraft as my platform, this year. I'm super exited, and very grateful that there are already a few resources posted. Does anyone have any great advice or format for introducing CC to other teachers? I'll have about 1 hour, and most participants will not have any CC experience.

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Hi Alexis,

It's great that you've chosen Classcraft as your platform!

I'll ask our ambassadors if they have any tips to share with you. 🙂

Hi Alexis,

It can be tricky to present Classcraft in just an hour because you really need to give 2 presentations at once - both what the game is AND how individual teachers can use it in their classroom. 

The way I do it is to create a conference class of fake students and give each attendee (or pairs of attendees if you have a lot of them!) the log in to a character.  Have them play the game as you talk and focus more on TALKING about how to apply the program while you SHOW them through your actions how the game actually works!  So reward them with XP when they suggest ways they could use it in their classrooms for example.  Start with a random event.  If something is checking their phone while you're talking, dock them a little health in a humorous way!  Have them learn a power and buy some gear.

We learn computers best by doing, so I've found that with this approach, you can spend a lot less time discussing mechanics (what's HP, what's AP, how do you learn powers and buy gear) and more on the classroom applications!  

CC also has some great videos you can show like the Typical Day in Classcraft one!

I think you need to organize your time in 20/40 or 10/50 split. 20 minutes of what classcraft is and 40 minutes of playing with the audience. If you just tell people about classcraft some will listen and some will be interested. But if you play with them from the start you will hook all of them for sure. You can give rewards for a single player or a team who gets the most xp. But you have to arrange your class, powers and daily quests before your seminar. Maybe trying a boss battle with the audience may be fun. As Laura said let them buy something with their gold. That should do the trick

I recently gave an hour presentation to my school over Classcraft. I will leave you my notes over how I did mine and you can scavenge what you can use from it. I went in under the pretext that my audience was knowledgeable about the use of Google Classroom and had to provide a brief introduction to the concept of gaming and specific role-playing terminology like hit points and experience. I did this by giving them my background as a gamer and how it led me to my career in education. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask me.

 

  1. Please join the Google Classroom for Classcraft PD using the following code:

 

  1. Once you have joined Google Classroom, check out the announcement which directs you to the classcraft.com website.

 

  1. Sign up for classcraft.com using the link in the upper right hand corner and select your Google account (it should automatically ask for permission, assuming you’re logged in under your irvingisd account).

 

  1. Once you’ve created an account and begin to login, it will ask for you to create a character.
    1. Walk through the character creation process, paying particular attention to the type of character you choose, as they each fill a specific role in team collaboration!
    2. Parents may join in the fun! You may invite your student’s parents to join Classcraft by using their email to send an invitation to create their own account. They will be able to see what their scholar is doing in your class, and even award GP to their own child to help them out.

 

  1. Once all students have created a character, we need to create teams. Find a partner (or two) and decide on a team name!
    1. Typically, you want 5 - 6 per team if you’re able to do so.
    2. Try to match up to have at least one of each class type for your team.

 

  1. All Classcraft features are fully customizable.
    1. Everything that happens in Classcraft can be changed according to your needs. Accessing the settings options allows you to change everything from students, teams, parents, powers, behaviors, random events, and everything else!
    2. You can even customize the core mechanics to your needs, changing the level cap, HP and AP amounts and other variables to the core game.

 

  1. Once we are officially ready for class, we will begin class with a daily event to spice things up.
    1. The daily event is a mechanic that adds some fun and spontaneity to your class by choosing from a random assortment of scripted events.
    2. These events come pre-populated, but you may change, delete, or add events as you see fit.

 

  1. Now that the daily event is over, let’s go to the Class Content section (the book icon on the left hand side).
    1. Here you will want to view all the material posted and complete the assignment in The Guild Hall.
    2. The more active you are in reading posts and turning in your assignments on time, the more XP and GP you will receive!

 

  1. Giving rewards and consequences for behavior, even with your mobile device! (yep, there’s an App for that)
    1. You can award XP and GP based on your observations of student behavior in class, they may also be taken away at your discretion.
    2. You may also subtract HP from students for unwanted behavior observed in class.

 

  1. Time to level up!
    1. By now, you should’ve been given enough experience to level up once or twice. You will want to choose new power sets by click on your player icon on the left.

 

  1. Now that you have upgraded your powers, time to look at the Equipment tab (it looks like a chest plate).
    1. Students may purchase visual upgrades to their characters using GP that they’ve earned in class. This gives them a distinct look that they can become proud of.
    2. Players may also purchase pets, which will bring them even further rewards in the game!

 

  1. Premium vs Free Content - You do not have to purchase a premium account in order to utilize and enjoy Classcraft! Premium simply makes it easier and faster to manage certain aspects of the game, and gives you access to additional resources and help that can be incredibly beneficial. https://www.classcraft.com/pricing/
    1. While the premium account makes things easier on you, it’s not necessary in order to utilize Classcraft as an effective classroom management system.
    2. The primary differences to note between the free and premium accounts are:
      1. The ability to directly award GP to students (GP allows for customization of a student’s avatar, but it is not required for the game to be effective)
      2. The ability for students to possess pets
      3. Access to the gradebook and class content system (while this is a convenient and useful feature, Google Classroom can accomplish the same thing as the class content feature)
      4. Limitation of 1 Boss Battle, without access to the stopwatch and timer (it may be tedious, but you can save boss battle information in a Google Doc when you want to create or switch to a new Boss Battle, or use them in different class sections)
      5. Access to the Behavior Analytics system (Analytics are useful, but not necessary at all to use Classcraft, as I personally have never used it)

 

  1. Since we are set, it’s time to experience the thrill of adventure in our very own Boss Battle!
    1. Boss Battles work similar to a kahoot, in that it acts as an interactive quiz of your own design.
    2. The threat of a boss battle lies in damaging a player’s HP if they get a question wrong, which could lead to a potential consequence.
    3. If the students are victorious, they will be rewarded with a set amount of XP and GP of your choosing.

 

  1. Falling in Battle, when a student falls to 0 HP, they are considered to be fallen and trigger a series of events.
    1. Fallen students automatically damage their team mates, giving their partners an incentive to not have their team member fall.
    2. The Book of Laments - Consequences for a player losing all of their HP are randomly pulled from a list of pre-defined events. You can create your own to suit your needs.

 

  1. Other useful tools include a built in stopwatch, timer, and randomizer to help you during your instructional time.
    1. There’s also a built in messenger system that allows for contact between you and your students, as well as you and your student’s parents!

 

  1. Go to Google Classroom and respond to the question “Share the Booty!”
    1. Once grades have been assigned observe how easy it is to import rewards to Classcraft from Google Classroom using the gradebook feature!


 

Hello Alexis, you have received a lot of advice already. I'll add only one thing. Every time I have presented Classcraft to other teachers, the main point for them has been the "avatar effect" : the pupils are not students anymore but players. If they answer to the teachers questions, they are not crawlers (? Not sure of the term...) but great players. That's why students, event the "worst" one (OK it's a bad term too!) participate and accept to be involved to the classroom activities.

Christopher, 

 

    Thanks for the notes, I will be presenting this week to the teachers in my district.   I started using Classcraft with a pilot team, and this year, I used it every day in class.   What I love is that the students totally buy into the game.     

Pattie Lamontagne

Pelham, New Hampshire 

I am doing a whole-day PD for our provincial PD day on gamification. (If anyone in Manitoba would like to attend, it is listed under the ManACE sessions: Gamification Synargies.)

My plan is to use classcraft for the organizer of the day and actually have participants play it as we learn about all different aspects of gamification.

What would be good powers to set up for the participants?  Should I make them work for their morning coffee? ;)

I will have a lot of what we will cover set up in the legacy online content... or maybe the quest engine, although that would require a lot of checking off of content for people I don't know...

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

I was hoping to showcase how Classcraft has impacted my classroom this year when I teach a summer class to colleagues. Are we permitted to do this without being official Classcraft ambassadors?

Absolutely Erin! I will email you with some more information :)

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