PD Theme Parks…Your Ticket to a Richer Teaching Experience
One of the challenges of creating an online gaming curriculum is also creating a means for teachers to experience the game while understanding how to support its content. Going through the Mesa Verde Unit as a student, for example, will give you a great idea of how to support students procedurally — that is to say, how to complete the tasks, where the characters are located, etc. But, an important part of the QA teaching experience is also pushing on our students’ understanding of the content so they truly understand what it means to use what they’ve learned in a meaningful way. While the Unit Plan offers many suggestions for teachers, wouldn’t it be great if you could both experience the Unit AND learn about new ways to support your students conceptual understanding of the material at the same time?
The theme park in Taiga provides both content and game support to teachers.
Well, now you can! We’ve recently introduced our PD theme parks, areas in Teacherville to help teachers experience an abridged version of the Unit while learning how to best support their students’ use of the curriculum. Each theme park will allow teachers to try out a special Mission based on the Unit where they can learn about the narrative, the most consequential student moments, as well as gain insights into how to best support students in their understanding of the material. Teachers can try the Unit on for size, literally, as they put on a Native American outfit in Mesa Verde or try on the campaign hat in the statistics Unit. How fun would it be to join your students in the 3D space wearing a Native American outfit as a teaser? Seeing your teacher wearing a news reporter hat or a squash blossom necklace might be just the ticket to generating a little more excitement about an upcoming QA Unit.
Teachers can submit exemplary Quests to share with others
More importantly, teachers get a full understanding of the Unit in a VERY short time! These new PD missions take only 20-30 minutes to experience, but are chock full of teacher tidbits, videos and content. In the theme park itself, we’ve even added additional supports, such as teacher forums where teachers can share insights from their use of the curriculum, examples of exemplary Quests and other background materials to fully prepare you for teaching the Unit. We encourage teachers to post on the forums or submit these example Quests — either Quests that were wonderful from the start, or Quests that became wonderful after feedback. This is one way teachers can share their successes with others in the QA community, as well as develop an idea of what kind of work can result from these Units.
