Classroom Competition Sucks!??

Is classroom competition okay, or is it ruining the classroom?  What works best?

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Transcript

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What does competition mean to you? Does it mean win at all cost? Does it mean everybody gets a participation trophy? Or is it somewhere in between? Let's get ready to rumble. My oh my how times have changed. We're going to talk today about competition in the classroom, maybe branch out a little bit into competition. In other venues. We'll especially concentrate on how it affects the substitute teacher. And I think the teacher will get some ideas from this to down memory lane a little bit. I remember back when I was in school, this let's just take Middle School. We call it a junior high back then. But the area I'm teaching in right now, I remember that most when you thought about competition, it was mainly on the basketball court or mainly in the football field or on the baseball diamond. There wasn't a whole lot of competition in the classroom. You know, maybe there were academic teams. I don't think it was at the level that you see them in schools today. But that's competition. I remember when there were youth leagues back then. I don't remember everybody getting a participation trophy. Now, Flash forward a few years. My sons are 31. I remember coaching them back when they were preteens I guess six year old all the way up to preteen. And yes, you had first and second trophies, but everybody got a participation trophy. And I didn't ask them before this. But I really feel like that even though they put those participation trophies on their shelf, I think they're more proud of when they've finished first place in a ping pong tournament at church camp one year, and got a plaque and a trophy for that. So it's interesting how competition can change our mindset. So today, let's talk about what we can do about that. As a reminder, I started as a baseball umpire, I branched out into softball, which is mainly girls in our area. And now I'm doing more volleyball than anything, which is also mainly girls in our area. But there are some league starting out for boys. I will say I'm thankful that there's a lot more opportunities for the girls out there now than there were back in my day. So thank goodness for that. And there is definitely a competitive nature when you get out in that arena. So you know, come on, is it really going to be that different in the classroom, even though when I was in middle school, there wasn't that many organized competition activities in the classroom. There was still competition, I wanted to have a better GPA than the person steady sitting next to me, I wanted to do better on the test. I wanted to do it on my own. Not all kids are like that the majority of the kids are they want to do it on their own. There's always been some form of competitive environment. Even if you go back to some of the old episodes of Andy Griffith or The Waltons, where they will occasionally show inside the classroom. You can little see little hints of competition among all those kids. It's much more formalized now. And I'll be honest with you, you know, the title was competition sucks. And I think some teachers feel that way. I think some teachers wouldn't add competition to the classroom. If somebody paid them to do it. That's okay, guys, if you're one of those, I'm not talking at you. I'm acknowledging how. There's a flip side to that. I think the majority of the people use the flip side where they use some kind of competition. You know, some people might even call it bribery. When I'm a substitute teacher, especially if I'm there for more than one day. I'll usually go out and buy some candy. And you can call it a bribe if you want to. I'm going to call it motivation. Because as soon as that candy hits the classroom, I don't care how much been on it. I just spent, I think $7 on something like 150 pieces of candy. Now, that ain't going to be very good candy. But it's amazing how if you just mentioned that you're giving candy out today, that adds a competitive element to it. And the kids, even the ones that don't often try that hard or don't want to speak up that often. All of a sudden, they've got an incentive to participate in class. And I really think it helps the learning process. So yes. as a substitute teacher, I am in favor of competition. Let's talk about some different things we can do. And yes, we'll talk about you know, maybe there's some camp competitive things that we do that. And maybe it's just a little bit too much. Sometimes I don't want to say cross the line, because that sounds overly negative. But if you just formulate thoughts in your mind, right now, you might be able to think of some competition that might have gotten a little bit carried away. So let's talk about it. Some of you are already thinking, yep, Mr. Collins is going to talk about Kahoot. Again, and I am that's my favorite competitive thing to do. I'm going to share some positive things. But I'm also going to share a few negative things that I've picked up on has nothing to do with Kahoot itself. But some repercussions that I've picked up on as I use Kahoot. I will use it in each classroom at least once a week. That sounds like a lot. If I told the teachers are worked with that in a meeting, they will you know, some of them, maybe most of them will say Well, Mr. Collins isn't really getting that much done. And that's how we will stereotype that kind of competition sometime. Let me tell you the great stuff. And then let me tell you, the things you have to watch for when you're using Kahoot. Quizzes Quizlet. There's others out there, they're all very similar, they definitely pick up the level of participation, I guess, is the best way to say it. Once kids know that you're doing something competitive, even if it's educational, they all of a sudden participate at a higher level. Now, let's be honest, well, I'm going to say I was going to say how they answer but I'm gonna save that for the negative discussion. Let's do the positive discussion first. What I do now, since we are in a virtual environment, and I know a lot of substitutes are involved with that same virtual environment. In fact, I'll go ahead and tell you, our students are coming back in a hybrid method tomorrow, tomorrow, this that will be February 8 2021, we're coming back hybrid, because we're still under a partial COVID protocol. What that means really is that kids with first names that end with or I'm sorry, last names that end with a through k will come back on Monday, Wednesdays, students whose last name in with L through Z will come back on Tuesday, Thursday, and then we'll stay virtual on Friday. Now that's taken a little bit different, you know, put me in a little bit different position this week, because I have had to quarantine this coming week because of a COVID situation in my household. So what we're going to do, it adds a whole different element here I am a full time substitute teacher for the moment because of the COVID protocol. And I'm actually going to have a substitute in my classroom to watch the kids that come back into the classroom. So it's a unique situation where I'll still be firing up my zoom meeting, every student will have a computer or a device, I should say in their classroom, we'll all be zooming at the same time half in the building. The half that's not in the class will be zooming from their homes, as I will because I'll be teaching it from my home. And my substitute will be filling in at the classroom to watch the students and help the students there. So that is definitely a unique situation. Competition wise what I not only the the Kahoot type elements that we add, but you know we have lots of handouts, especially in past years. You have to, you know make to make sure everything is safe that you handout today, but that's okay. We can Do that. There's plenty of handouts that are competitive in nature. You know, the ones I think about most are the ones that you solve this problem, you get maybe a letter or a number or a color, you place that color on another sheet of paper. And if you solve all your problems by color, you then create an image on the other sheet of paper. Or maybe it's more like a jumble, similar to a jumble in that you saw problems. And when you solve them, it gives you a letter to put down in the code at the bottom. Well, let's face it, all those are creating a game a type of competitive thing to try to better involve the students. That's something I would encourage substitute teachers, if you've got a few of those, again, in your back pocket in your repertoire that you would like to add to your class, when you're, when you're a sub, I would encourage you to have those ready. Have those ready made? I don't know, I'm not sure how available you are, to the resources that you can make copies, but have some things like that ready? Those are competitive elements that add a lot to class. I use Kahoot not only for competition, it's probably 70% of the time it's competitive in nature, in that students will, you know, they get more points, they have to get the question right first, but if they get it correct, the quicker they get it correct, the more points they get. So that's why I use it a lot. It allows the students to participate more, let me tell you something positive I've been doing to aid in that situation. Some of the Cahoots, I do, I'm not really wanting them to finish. First, I'm not really wanting them to be competitive in nature, so to speak, I'm wanting to teach as I go along. Sometimes I'll give a hoot that's on a topic before we start covering the topic, almost like a little pretest substitutes will need to be ready for that type of situation, because I've given plenty of pretest as a sub. And sometimes it uses an element like Kahoot. So what I do, if I find a good Kahoot or if I've got the time to design one my own, I'll pull that up for the topic that we're getting ready to begin, I'll let them answer the first question. And then based on how well they answer it, that's when I'll pause, stop the question, fire up the zoom annotator and write my notes right there on the screen when the question is complete. Now be forewarned, if you use Kahoot, like that a lot of Kahoot you pull up, they haven't cleared a question that they put on an image rather than typed it in. And with Kahoot. If you do that, when the question is over, that image goes away. Oh, it shows you are the results. And your question, it still has the question at the top it might say solve. But if you posted an image, that image is gone. So you might not know what remember what you were solving. But in most cases, I will look at that question and start annotating. Alright guys, here's what you should have done. This is a, here goes my math background again. But here's the distributive property. So you multiply the number outside the bracket by each term inside the bracket. And that's how you get your answers. So that's what works well with Kahoot. Now let's go ahead and talk about the flip side of that a little bit. I sketch it, I think it helps their learning. And then I might give the exact same Kahoot after we finished that topic, or at the end of the day. So if you're a substitute teacher that will come into play there, maybe you'll have extra time at the end of class. And based on your material based on the assignment they've been doing, you're going to find the Kahoot on that topic. So if you've got access to the resources and are savvy, you can finish with a Kahoot. And those kids are going to love you for it. Now here's here's some of the negative side. I sometimes give Kahoot as a test, a quiz. And I've had students and I mean, really good students, students that mostly get A's mostly get 95 to 100%. And what ends up happening is when I turn on that timer, even if it's two minutes, if it's math, sometimes there's problems that you can sit Kahoot it for minutes. Well, that still gets in their their head a little bit. They all of a sudden know that instead of having a test where they've got all the time in the world, they still have a limited time and some students don't like that and all I mentioned that as a negative right off the bat, that some students don't like to be tested that way. The other negative, I'll mention that I've really just noticed recently, when I try to use it as a teaching tool, and I will tell them right from the beginning, I might even tell them, there's no prizes for this, especially if since we've been virtual. I mean, I can't really hand out candy through the computer. So so there's no prizes for this. I don't want you to concentrate on getting it fast. I just want you to concentrate on getting it correct. Because I want to engage How many of you got the answer correct through normal channels through your brain through writing it down on a piece of paper and figuring it out? And if less than half of you get it correct that I'm going to spend more time on that question. But it doesn't matter how often you say that how you preface the Kahoot test, some kids are still going to try to click it as competitive as possible as quickly as possible. Some of them will just randomly guess it answers hoping that they get it right. So you're still going to have that element to it. Now there's nothing Kahoot can do about that. It's still a great tool. But you'll have to deal with that you'll see as you go on with certain students, but it adds a competitive nature to the classroom, I think it raises the level of understanding, even though we're using it for competition. Let's talk about some more hands on things we can do. I remember when I can't remember how many years it's go, it seems like just yesterday to me, but I'm sure my boys could correct me. When Pokemon GO had become popular. It was what all the kids were doing. And you want it to find it before someone else. Now I remember let's let's talk about the old fashioned Pokemon Go. There was no Pokemon I don't think back in the 70s when I was in middle school, but I remember one of my favorite teachers back then he was a history teacher. And he gave us a competitive project. He had some prizes in mind, he was also a basketball coach. So I'm sure that's where his competitive nature came from shout out to he knows who he is, if he's listening to this, I haven't gotten permission to use his name, so I won't do that. But here's what he did. We come from a small county, probably, it's probably hovered between seven and 10,000 my entire life. It's not where I live now. But it's where I grew up and where I graduated from high school from. And I remember that teacher gave us a competitive project that was 10 different things. And to participate. It also got our parents involved where at least our friends, if we had friends who could drive, we would drive around looking for historical markers in our county, sometimes they would be signs posted on the side of the road. Sometimes they would just be something down on the ground. Sometimes I think one of them was actually in a military graveyard site where he wanted us to find a specific stone for a person who was important to the county. And I remember that Monday morning, we had all weekend to work on it that Monday morning, kids were on the sidewalk, were you the teachers part, waiting for that teacher to get there so that they could be the first one to show them that they completed that now they probably were doing it for the prize. And to be honest, I think he gave out several prizes. But they were also doing it because they were proud of what they accomplished. I think that's what we have with competition. It's not just they want to finish first. It's they want to accomplish something they know it's within their grasp. There might be some competitions in the classroom that are a little bit too difficult. If you take into perspective, the whole class. That's one of the things that backfires, because you then have a competition where maybe half the class is real competitive with it. The other half just take the attitude that I know I'm not going to do very well. So I'm not even going to try. That's one of the negative sides of competition. I'm not sure how you overcome that. You know, if you bring the competition down a level so that all kids will have an equal chance even those that don't always get the best grades in the class. Well, then you know your topic. Kids are probably still going to finish first, at least the the others will finish. But at the same time, it doesn't provide a lot of motivation for the kids that want just a little bit more. So all that you have to take into consideration. So I'll say this competition does not suck in the classroom. If you don't want to use it, don't use it substitutes, I would encourage all of you to have something ready to share with them competitively. I'm telling you guys, they're gonna love you for it, especially for a substitute teacher, I mean, come on, yes, you want those kids to learn. But substitute teachers, it's kind of nice to close out the day with something competitive, something those kids will remember you by. That doesn't mean just throw up a competition about movies, or about TV shows or about music, or something like that, find a legitimate competitive game that can be played at the end of class where they will both enjoy it. And let's face it, when they enjoy it, they're going to tell the teacher that they really liked this substitute. And once the teacher sees that, you did a good job of keeping them on task, I think they'll appreciate you for adding that competitive element. Now, the part that you have to be careful of don't just go in there planning to have fun at all cost. If you do that, and it's obvious that the only reason that the students want you to come back is when that sub is there, he lets us goof off and just play games. Well, that's not what I want to hear. I love to play games part. But I love the he let us play games. And I actually learned it better after those games than the handout that the teacher had left. For me. That's what I'm striving for. So competition, definitely, in my opinion has a place in the classroom. Guys, there's all kinds of stuff out there. I've already mentioned some, not all of you. In fact, I'll even say not even the majority are going to do something Kahoot wise or Quizlet wise, or quizzes wise or something to that effect. But you can come up with all kinds of things. Get yourself with the way with Google Classroom. Go back and listen to the episode of this podcast where we talked about breakout rooms, where we talked about doing things like escape rooms where you answer your question, you have to get it correct to get to the next room. Next question. So there is all kinds of creative things out there you can use. But if you're not sophisticated use all that. Just, you're probably sophisticated enough to go to Google and find your topic and find some competitive, even trivia games. I still like on occasion to do it the old fashioned way, where we just send kids up to the board who answers the problem more quickly, wins a point for that team. I like to do competitions, where when students get one correct, they can just then ask another student on their team to answer the next question. Or maybe they get one pass? If they don't know the answer to this one, they'll ask somebody else to answer it, and then I'll come back to them. There is all kinds of fun stuff you can do. I remember, even remember back when I was in school, we had teachers that did things like baseball all the time where you would go up to the board or you would even sit at your chair and they'd ask you Do you want a single, double, triple or homerun question? And based on how you felt your knowledge of the question would be that's the kind of question you've got, if you've got a homerun question you've got to run if you got a double question, you ended up on second base, those types of games. There's plenty of trivia games out there. You can be so creative with this. If I was being honest, I think some of the games that I've just made up for my own experience that both lets them know something about Mr. Collins, and at the same time, learn something about what they're studying. I think those games go over well, too. So at minimum, if you're not big on doing the computer stuff, as far as competition goes, Well, at least send a kid up to the board, see how fast they can get an answer. To start out with something slow first that's not timed. And then kind of build on that. You know, at times I will do things where you'll have scavenger hunts and you'll hang problems on the on the walls and they can go they solve one problem and if they do it correctly, it takes them they have to look for a letter and that letter is on a sheet that has Another problem on that. All that kind of stuff is fun, guys. So maybe when you think about competition at first, you're saying well, too many things are competitive now. Well, you know, break it down, make it a smaller level of competition. It will go great in your class. Should everybody get a participation trophy? I'm going to go ahead and say the controversial thing that I don't think they should I don't think my kids think they should. I don't mind them when they're really young to get a participation trophy. But after that, I just think it's kind of silly but add a competitive element to your classroom. I don't care how simple it is. I don't care how sophisticated is share them on our Substitute Teachers Lounge Facebook page, you're going to have a lot better class I guarantee you all right, competition does not suck it is actually the way to go. Alright guys see you in the classroom. This is it for Substitute Teachers Lounge uses provided by