Entry 5: Using Games To Study

Summertime is great because it gives me a chance to do some traveling and recharge my batteries. I actually just got back a few days ago from visiting my relatives in Iowa and it was great. I also did some work with my brother where we tore up a woman's whole front yard and then laid new sod down. Lets just say that after that I am glad that I became a teacher. My brother also came back with me and we had the chance to see my beloved Royals trounce the Cardinals 8-1 last night. It was great.

Well let me get down to business. A few years ago I noticed that my students were turning in all of their homework, but they were just completely bombing their tests. I began asking them what was going on and I came to find out that they either weren't studying because they thought it was boring or they weren't studying the right information. A few months later I stumbled on some amazing review games that I decided to start trying with the students. There were two game I started with: Jeopardy and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. These are both powerpoint templates and literally all you have to do is type in the question and the correct answer. The jeopardy game can hold 20 questions and the millionaire game can hold 15 questions. What I started doing is getting a copy of a test that was coming up about a week ahead of time, see what material was going to be important for them to remember, and make a review game from there. I then email any special services student taking that test a copy of the review game and I also email it to their parents (if they have email). I began finding the students were doing better on the tests because the games were visually appealing making them want to study and it also showed them what they needed to study. Some parents even got into the act and made their own review games for their child and some students have even asked for copies of the template to make games. The best part about this whole concept is that the games are all free!!! That's right you pay no money at all.

At the current time I have the Jeopardy, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Home Run Derby, Hollywood Squares, and Deal Or No Deal template games. If you would like a copy of any of these please email me at jayweekly@gmail.com and I will be happy to email you any of these. You can also see what the games look like by clicking on my website below and then clicking on review games.

Next week I am going to do an inservice on using Google Earth in your classroom and will be going to NECC the week after. So keep looking back for more updates.

Direct Link To Review Games