Exploring begins...

 Before any lessons, there must be a plan.

They say there are many different types of intelligence. Nine to be exact. Naturalist, Musical, Logical, Existential, Interpersonal, Kinaesthetic, Linguistic, Intra-personal and Spatial.
I'd like to think I have a totally different one than what's on this list. I'm a "Connector". I can take two different concepts or ideas or people, and find a way for them to work together.

This connection? All me. Before this we rubbed on the paste with fingers. The brush was for army punishments. I swear.

Lets go from the start: you need to know about me. I am Conor Bredin, an American born, Irish reared teacher. This is my second year out of college and in the real world. I adore reading, gaming and all things technological. The Internet is my second home. I browse and I stumble, and there are few things I like to look for more than new teaching ideas. When I was in college I kept saying "Oh I can wait to try this when I have my own class!" But those were always OTHER people's ideas. Finally, I have my own! (I think!)

It all started when I came across a video on TED.com. For those who don't know, TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The TED organisation is devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading" and have specialised lectures all over the world by all kinds of people. These lectures (ranging from 5 minutes up to an hour) are filmed and put up on their site for your free viewing. One minute you are watching an American banjo player talking about her experiences in China, and the next you could be watching Jamie Oliver dumping a wheelbarrow of sugar across the stage.
 
The video I discovered was entitled "Teaching with the World Peace Game" and I recommend all teachers to check it out. In this video John Hunter speaks about a realistic fantasy world, where children rule their own countries and must manage, finance and better their country. It's all played through discussion and a large 3D map. It is a fascinating video. As I said earlier, "Oh I can't wait to try that out" was my reaction straight away.

So now I must introduce Kickstarter. Again, another fantastic website. (A great place to find truly unique gifts!) On Kickstarter you can "fund and follow creativity" such as music albums, books, business ideas and products. Here I came across Ben Bertolli, a young teacher like myself. Ben's Kickstarter project was the idea of Class Realm, an online classroom management based on video games. Children create their own characters, or profiles and behaviour/effort in class earns them experience points. Unfortunately Ben's Kickstarter didn't get funded in time, but he has developed a paper version which is on his website. Once again, I said to myself "Wow, I'm so going to do this with my class!


So now, this is where the connections are made. I have a class now for the remainder of the school year. They have really taken to Class Realm, as have I. I have decided to combine John Hunter's World Peace game and Ben Bertolli's ClassRealm to make our own world. Starting tomorrow, a full hour of a drama a week will be spent exploring fantasy worlds from films, books, and games to get an idea of what our whole new world will be!

A whole new world! huh... what do ya mean that's taken?

Gradually the children will design, map and live in their own fantasy realm, where I will throw situations at their characters to survive and endure. This world will be as real as our own, I hope.

Tomorrow morning is the beginning of it all!