Christmas Season

Hello fellow gamers, teachers and people who randomly stumbled to my blog!

I just wanted to take a minute to post a quick thank you for reading. I have had record numbers of views this year despite the fact that I am not publishing very regularly. It appears that each post receives more views that the last, so thank you. I also want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy (collection of ) holidays to you. You know who you are, Chanukah, Kwanzaa and whatever else there is.

My hope for the new year is that I will be able to post more regularly. I also intend on purchasing Dan Amrich's book Critical Path: How to Review Videogames for a Living to maybe enliven this blog with some actual, useful information.

Again, enjoy your holidays, spend some time with loved ones, play some games and plan some lessons. See you all again in the new year!

Games Your Students Will Be Playing This Fall ver.2012

Hello all, and welcome back to another exciting edition of Games Your Students Will Be Playing This Fall, or for the acronymbic, GYSWBPTF.

    This year feels a lot like we are on repeat due to the fact most game publishers are milking major series before the new consoles come out. There is a bright spot (depending on how you feel about playing more.and more.and more. Mario games.) however with the Nintendo Wii U. The Wii U marks Nintendo's first foray into hi-def graphics for a home console and introduces a revolutionary new controller called the Gamepad. While it has the same ol' same ol' analog sticks and array of buttons that "hardcore" gamers have become accustomed to with the 360 and PS3, the Gamepad stands out with its integrated 6.2" touch screen. Very cool, and I personally can't wait to play on one, though I doubt very much I will be purchasing the Wii U for myself in the future.

    The Wii U marks the only new hardware for the year, with several "new" software titles being released. New is a very, very loose term in this post.

    First up and probably the game that will receive the most hype, discussion and play this year will be Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The perennial fan favorite returns again.  Where this game differs from previous Call of Duty installments is that it is the first game in the series to move to a near-future setting. It is produced by the same guys and gals that made the first BlOps (that's what the cool kids call it anyway. Oh, just me? Previous statement stands.) Bets are on if this will be the last CoD game we see for the current console generation. Considering that it is expected this game will be ported to Wii U (the first next gen console), all signs point to yes. Let's see if this generation will go out with a bang.

Rating: Like you would even need to ask, this one is signed up for Mature.

    Next is my favorite game of the fall, Assassin's Creed III, simply because I'm an American History teacher. Also, I am really excited about jumping back into the Assassin's Creed universe. The reason I say "jumping back in" is because I refused to buy another Assassin's Creed game after Assassin's Creed II because of the fact they didn't change the main character for two more games. The main character, Ezio, appeared in ACII, AC: Brotherhood and AC: Revelations.

In AC:III, players take control of  a half-English and half-Native American, Connor Kenway during the American Revolution. The ultimate plot remains the same, trying to defeat the Templars, BUT, an exciting new setting, an exciting new character and...did I mention its the Revolution? Can.not.wait.

Rating: Expect this one to run a M. But, a very, very cool M. 

  The last game I would like to talk about marks the return of our favorite green armored super soldier, Master Chief. In Halo 4, players regain control of Master Chief who's been cryogenically napping in space with only Cortana to creepily watch him sleep. Strange relationship these two have. 

Anyway, this marks the first Halo game to be designed and developed completely outside of the control of Halo creators and originators, Bungie Studios. Microsoft's studio 343 Industries is taking the reigns on Halo 4 after sinking their teeth in by overseeing the re-production of Halo 1 in the Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary, handling the servers and multiplayer aspect of Halo: Reach after Bungie stepped away and the development of the Halo Waypoint application on XBox Live (Source). 

Rating: Another M worthy game due to fantasy violence and a weird relationship between AI and Spartan. 

PS, world history teachers, to earn brownie points with your students, tell them the Master Chief's story is lifted from that of the Greek City-State of Sparta. Hence him being called a "Spartan". They'll geek out. 

Well, just like last year, this isn't the be-all, end-all of the games that are being released this year, but you can expect them to take up the majority of air time due to major advertising and you can expect your students to lose much sleep on school nights because of these. 

Hope everyone's year is going great, and you will definitely hear from me again. 

Teachers are a lot like Video Game Developers

It has been some time since I posted to this blog, but I have been busy. Transitioning to married life, getting settled in as a Special Education teacher, having to take classes to become certified to teach Special Education. It has been a whirlwind of a year, and yes, I am actually happy it is ending.

Not only am I getting my first year of teaching under my belt, but I will also be given some time to reflect on my successes and failures from this past year and work on making myself better for my students and for me.

I come back to this blog with a very specific topic to write about. As some of you who read this blog may know, there has been recent legislation pushed through the Louisiana State legislative houses at the behest of our Governor Bobby Jindal. I will make no political commentary, as I am not a politician or a political junky. If you would like to read up on the bills, here is a link.

Not long after the hullabaloo regarding Governor Jindal's education plans, there was an election held in my district for use of bonds. Three separate pieces of legislation actually. One to allocate funds to renovate and build new schools in the district, one to upgrade the technology of our district and one for a 5% teacher raise. The only of the three to pass was the first which is to be used to help our schools. I will not complain about not getting a raise, but I do wish the technology issue had passed.

Well, the reason I am writing this post is, because as I am sure you can imagine, there was a lot of heated discussion among people who lived in the district about whether this is an appropriate use of funding. One comment in particular on a friends Facebook is what struck me through this entire ordeal. The friend posted an eloquent rebuttal to the fact we did not receive our raises, stating that we as teachers will continue to provide for your students who do not have. We will continue to use our own money and resources to ensure that your students' needs are met while they are at school. To this, someone replied (in not so few words): No one asked you to.

It was this comment that struck me. No one asked you to. Our students tell this to us as well. If for instance, we prepare a arduously detailed review for an upcoming test and a particularly rowdy student is trying to win attention, we would say something like, "I worked on this for you to make sure you are ready to pass the test." and the student would simply reply, "No one asked you to."

I see this often with regard to game publishers and designers. There will be a hype train about some new feature that designers have plugged into a known franchise (or for my example, the routine of classroom activity) and then when the product is released, people will downplay it, saying it isn't anything special. They will criticize it, and encourage others not to worry with it. The designers or publishers may then become disheartened and defensive. They wills say things like, "Well, we believed that by adding this feature, it increased the enjoyability and replayability of the game. We spent several months perfecting it to get it out there to all of YOU!"

I'm sure you know where I am going with this. The public that the developers worked so hard to please, will then say, "No one asked you to." And on the flip side, say the developers and public alike believed a certain franchise is becoming stale, but still believe they have a winning formula (or in the case I'm trying to make, test results don't necessarily increase, but they also don't decrease), the developers will do nothing. And then comes the tidal wave of disgruntled public who are tired of the same old- same old and want something new or revitalizing to liven up said franchise. We come back to the previous example.

There's no way to win. There's no right or wrong, but only a delicate balance that if it teeters too far either way, you end up with dissatisfied people.  And what good is that, from either a business or educational point of view? Aren't we trying to invigorate our students to strive to learn? To work better? And isn't the point of every business model to make more money?

The Importance of Being a n00b

Hello all!

I suppose this post should have come about a week or so ago, but I am just getting around to writing it, so....there. I hope you are all having a wonderful time in school as most of us have only been back now a week. I realized the other day that I have officially been in the classroom one full year (with the exception of our holidays).  Some of you are beginning your adventure as a teacher  and I wanted to share some thoughts I had on being a new teacher, or what's called a n00b or newb or newbie in the gaming world.

The term, "n00b" is one that has been around for a few years, but has really come into the lexicon of youth here lately because of more prominent avenues and accessibility of multiplayer gaming.You may have heard this term and associated a negative connotation to it, but I refuse to see it that way. Is it partly because I've been called a n00b more than once? Maybe. But I don't think that is the only reason I look at it with a positive light.

How I came to the conclusion that being a n00b is in no way a bad thing:  Very simply, I understand that everything that lies ahead for the n00b is opportunity. You are at the very beginning of your next quest. You've worked for years to develop skills that will lend themselves to your occupation whether intentionally or unintentionally, and now you get to use those skills exactly how you choose to. As I look down the road at what lies ahead of me, all I can see is the time I can work on my craft and build myself into the educator I've always known I can be. There's not only time which I can practice what I know inside of the classroom, there is also time outside of the classroom where I can sit and reflect on everything that I've done.  To err is human, and I will err quite a lot. And I'm okay with that.

I've got nothin' but time.