How to Use Games in the Classroom

Are you a teacher hoping to bring a bit of life back into your classroom? Do your students lack motivation or interest in the subject you teach? The solution could be to turn your lecture into a game. Despite some people’s misgivings about the idea, research has shown time and again the positive effects of games in the classroom. Framing a lecture in a fun way that also encourages your students to be competitive with each other will help them remember and recall the things they learn.

But if you plan on introducing a game to your classroom, it’s crucial that you do it properly. A game that doesn’t encourage students to learn while playing will just be a timesink. Here are a few guidelines to follow when trying to use games in the classroom.

• Understand why you’re introducing games to your classroom

It’s important for you to be able to articulate how a game can help your students learn. Without being able to do this, not only will the benefits of your game seem questionable to your school’s administrators, but to parents as well. Why are you introducing a game to your classroom in the first place? Is it to help a student or a group of students who are struggling to understand the core material? Is it so students will have an opportunity to use what they’ve learned in practice? Or is it simply to reinforce your students’ understanding of the material? These are essential questions to which you should have the answers to before you try to implement your idea.

• Think of which games to use

There are a variety of games that you can adapt for use in your classroom. These include memory games of various kinds, hangman or even popular quiz shows, like Jeopardy. Which games you choose will mostly depend on the age range of your students and the material you’re teaching them.

Classroom games and contests can also encourage students to use their creativity in a constructive way. Caption competitions are a great example of a game that does this. Word association is another example. Whichever games you choose, what matters most is that your students have fun and learn at the same time.

• Don’t forget to explain the material the old-fashioned way

Games in the classroom are a lot of fun and can be a refreshing break, for both you and your students. However, you shouldn’t forget what the purpose of games in the classroom is. If a student isn’t good at a game because they don’t understand the material, you must help them grasp it. For example, if you’ve organized a group-based game, don’t just tally the points at the end and move on. Help students on the losing side grasp why they lost and how they could have won. While a little friendly competition is key to certain classroom games, at the end of the day, all of your students should benefit from it.

• Use group-based games to make your students work together

Getting your students to work together isn’t always easy. Some students aren’t fond of each other. There are also students who aren’t as quick to grasp certain concepts as their peers. This can be frustrating in group-based games, where your students rely on one another. However, group-based games can also be a great opportunity to teach your students patience and valuable social skills. Working with other people is one of the most important skills students can learn in school.

However, group-based games can also be a great opportunity to teach your students patience and valuable social skills. Working with other people is one of the most important skills students can learn in school. Group-based games can help immensely with this, but you may have to step in and further encourage your students from time to time. It’s important to create an atmosphere of low-stakes, friendly competition whenever group-based classroom games are played. No student should feel left out of the fun, or the learning experience.

• Mix things up

As fun and refreshing as classroom games may be at first, they’re bound to lose their lustre over time. Students won’t be as excited to play, and so they will naturally be less motivated to learn. This is especially true for younger students. That’s why it’s important that you mix things up every so often. But you don’t have to throw whichever game you’re playing out and find a new one. What you should try to do is change the rules a bit, or the objective. Make it more challenging or incorporate other material your students could be learning. At the end of the day, it’s also important that you don’t overuse games in the classroom. Classroom games can be a fun, refreshing change for you and your students, but not if you rely on them too much. It’s up to your own judgment where doing things the old-fashioned way is best.

Being a teacher can be a stressful job. It’s important you don’t forget to relax every now and again. One of the best ways you can do that is by playing some Wild Wins slot games, where you can get the best casino bonus by far. And for more games to play in your own time, find the right casino for you at casinoreviews.net.nz.

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