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John Greer is a 5th grade teacher at Aldeane Comito Ries Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has presented at the Annual Nevada State Conference on the implementation of technology in the classroom and has done over 35 workshops and professional developments on the subject for Clark County School District. With all of the technology he uses, he still thinks Classcraft is his favorite program. .. and his students would agree!
Hi, John! Thanks for talking with us today. Can you tell us a little about yourself as an educator and what grades and subjects you teach?
I’ve taught fifth grade for four years. Usually fifth grade teaches all subjects, but at our school we’ve differentiated to get them better prepared for middle school. So I teach science, social studies, and math, and my co-teacher teaches reading and writing.
I’ve also taught high school geometry. I’ve always been the math person. Math’s my jam; I love math.
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What has your experience with using Classcraft been like?
Ever-changing. I have to say it has really evolved from something that I used specifically just for my class and once in a while to full integration, not just in my class but the entire grade level. It’s something I want to try to implement across the school.
My experience has been nothing but amazing. I’ve noticed such a huge buy-in to the class, especially when we start with the Hero Pact first day of school, and I say, “If you’re going to play this, you’re going to play this for real, and there’s no going back.” Once I have that, it’s amazing how much these kids [get into the game]. Everything revolves around it. I’ve made a [real-life] treasure chest, and my physical reward system is set up so that once you get to a certain point, you get to go into the treasure chest. They’re all QR codes that are in-game rewards for Classcraft, such as Gold Pieces (GP) or Experience (XP). It’s just amazing how much it’s been integrated into the classroom itself.
My classroom’s a little different because every student has a Chromebook, and that’s helped with implementation. A lot of the time we’ll give kids the last 10 minutes of Friday to go online and check their characters or use their powers. I love the customization [available with the mindset] that each classroom is different. When I start implementing it with the other teachers, I do training for them. After the initial setup, once each teacher saw the impact, it just changed everything. It has been such a game-changing program.
What do your students think of Classcraft?
The response has been insane. We’re in an age where students are very technologically savvy, and they’re growing up with programs and applications and games. So I had to figure out a way to gamify the classroom. I’ve had four parent conferences today that talked specifically about Classcraft because of the buy-in that their child had that they didn’t have the year before. And it was simply because the students have tapped into their virtual self in Classcraft.
It’s a disservice as a teacher when you don’t teach to the “now” generation. And the now generation is using online applications and programs, so to incorporate a virtual system like Classcraft, it’s just made the classroom tenfold better. And the kids just have positive responses.
What are some of the different ways you’ve customized the game?
I’ve added the physical rewards, as I mentioned, which tie back to the game. I have about 240 daily events, so every morning when we get in, it’s well-known that the first thing we do is the random event. It’s just set in the schedule almost like the bell schedule or recess.
We do Double Daily Fridays, where we do two random events. And the powers themselves I’ve fully customized. I have a bathroom issue because it takes about five minutes when they have to go to the bathroom. So the “Invisibility” lets them leave the class for five minutes, which ties in well with the restroom, but I did that for each character class so everyone can use it. The powers are all fully customized to my classroom itself.
I arranged my teams with four to five students. I don’t know how other teachers do it, and I’ve tried bigger and smaller groups, but I’ve noticed that teams of four to five students each have great camaraderie. They’re responsible for each other, and it’s not too big of a group where they get lost in the crowd.
Do you have any tips for other elementary school teachers looking to give Classcraft a try?
I think my biggest tip is to just give it a chance. Give it some time to buy-in. Teachers are so different, and the amount of time they have and how good they are with technology differs so much. The biggest thing is just to be patient and customize it to your advantage.
Classcraft has revolutionized my classroom, as well as my grade level, and I’ve heard nothing but such positive, amazing things from all the teachers I’ve helped get set up. Don’t feel like it’s just another program you have to learn. Once your realize this will make your life and your class’s behavior so much easier, and fun, and exciting, and just so many other things—it will absolutely change the way you do things.
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