Slay Ride

Today was Christmas concert day at our school. The day was an abbreviated school day starting at 11:30 AM, with concert at 1 PM, then feast at 2 PM. Because of the schedule, the day ends up being a "reward for good behaviour day", or in other words, a class Christmas party. For the boys in my class, it means bringing XBox systems and numerous controllers, hooking up two TV sets via SystemLink, and then shooting, fighting, maiming and killing bad guys and aliens on distant planets. Four boys gathered around one TV set, four boys the other, the rest all huddled around shouting out instructions and other gamer advice. Strangely enough, the video games ended up tearing down the social hierarchy among the boys. All of them were on the same level, all were equals, laughing, encouraging and working together as a group. I saw video games in a different and positive light today. I realized I need to be less judgemental of what video games "seem" to be doing to kids, and instead focus on how I can use technology in the classroom to engage my students.