How Homework Should Really Look
(If we can’t get rid of it let’s change it!)
When I had the 5 dice game to the point of beta testing, my first app that I created. To see how user friendly my new app was, I had to find a somewhat technologically illiterate guinea pig so I asked my father to play the game.
Once he got the hang of how to play the game, I decided to connect another device using Bluetooth/Wifi and performed some one on one testing by having my 8 year old play the game against my dad.
It was, as I watched that I noticed my beta testing was becoming a revelation, for in front of me I saw the future of homework.
In front of my eyes, my son was probably having the most fun he has ever had “practising”, I mean “playing” math.
I still do not know if my father was letting my son win or if he was legitimately winning some of those games. But, when my son won a game, everyone in the house knew he had won! At that point I knew that my idea of a game that challenged and excited a child’s sense of competition, while at the same time keeping them practising math, would work!
Can you Imagine if all homework was that exciting?!
Now we all know that math can be a very interesting and rewarding field of study or we wouldn’t be teachers. But, can you imagine the excitement that I felt from watching that little beta test experiment.
Questions:
- What are your thoughts on the “Homework” issue?
- Do you think playing on an iPad as a legitimate thing to do (replacement) instead of traditional homework?
- How do you get parents involved in your students learning (homework)?
- How would you get parents on board to start “playing” with their kids as a legitimate way of practising math?
- Anyone want to be my next “guinea pig”?
Comment below and let me know what you think.
5 Dice: Order of Operations Game is a free app so check it out and share it with all your friends.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/5-dice-order-operations-game/id572774867?ls=1&mt=8