XP and Grades: Moving from Subtractive to Additive Grading

In my gamification journey, I’ve learned a lot through trial-and-error. In this blog series, I’m going to outline how I developed my gamified grading system to increase student engagement and focus on learning. To begin, I’ll look at why I changed the way I grade and some initial setup.

The Limitations of Authority

In his book, Gladwell talks about the unrest in Northern Ireland, and how a British officer attempted to quell the unrest by cracking down severely on citizens and instituted a harsh curfew. The idea was that they would instill fear into the citizens and keep them from breaking any laws. The opposite happened.

The Thing about XP and Grades

I’m working on adding a gamification overlay to my class next year, and I’ve been thinking a lot about grading as I’m going through the process. I’ll utilize XP and levels to determine grades each grading period, and students will have the opportunity to earn XP through a variety of methods.

The 8-Bit Instructor: The BIG NEWS from John Meehan (EP030)

This week, John Meehan’s here, and he’s got some BIG NEWS! Listen in for some excellent stuff, and a little bit of wrestling talk. Plus, news from Microsoft and Google.

The Current State of a Classroom Teacher

For anyone out there who cares to know, I’m not doing great. This year has drained me. Going back into the last few weeks of the semester after Thanksgiving Break, I’m usually ready to go. After all, three weeks is nothing leading up to Christmas Break and the end of the semester. It’s usually one of the more chill times of the school year. Except that this year it isn’t.