First Week

Used Socrative for the first time with mixed results.  The only complaint the students had was that they could not go back and check their work.  I passed that information onto the Socrative folks and they are coming out with a new version on Sept. 3.  The students will be able to go back and check work.
I have decided to make my students sign up for 3DGameLab and start doing my quests.  I thought I could get them to do them on their own and that did not work at all.  I was surprised that most of my students do not play video games and were unfamiliar with the word quest, ranks, XP, leveling up, etc.  I have had to rethink everything  I worked on this past summer.  I am pretty frustrated to say the least.
I have reserved the computer lab for one day this week and I am going to attempt to get them hooked.  I have come to conclusion that doing a combination of traditional school work and quests is not going to work.  It will be either traditional or quests.
I am not giving up!!

We as teachers often talk about that "aha" moment in class.  When a student gets it and the light goes on. This is, in my opinion, what keeps teachers coming back day after day.  I am sure this "aha" moment was just as exciting for Socrates as it is for teachers today.  Now we are in the 21st century and the game has changed dramatically.  I am still looking for the "aha" moments just a different path to them.
Enter quest based learning and a new way of achieving that goal.  I decided to use the Medieval romance definition of quest for my classes - an adventurous expedition undertaken by a knight or knights to secure or achieve something - Dictionary.com  To create an adventure in learning.
I created my ranks using the Medieval guild system.
                  Apprentice students - I-III
                  Journeyman students - I-III
                  Guildsman students - I-III
                  Master student
I wrote the students pledge (acceptable personal device use) again using the knight's theme.  They pledge to only use their sword (personal device) to slay the evils of ignorance and to pursue the good of knowledge when questing in class etc.      
I teach 8th grade American History in a private college preparatory school. Given my teaching environment and that choice is a major part of quest attractiveness I came up with this solution (I hope). I decided that the choice for my students will be they can either complete the quests, complete traditional homework assignments, or a combination of both.  In order for this work, at the beginning of every chapter or unit I will post what they need to know.  They can then choose how they will obtain that information.
I have created 12 quests so far.  I have incorporated videos, games, and research tools for them to explore.  The challenge is to make sure that I include everything they need to know for a given chapter or unit. It will be very interesting to see which they choose.