Breakout EDU - The Coolest Thing Since Escape Rooms

A little over a year ago I discovered Breakout Edu. It takes the escape room concept and brings it into the classroom. Students are introduced to a locked box with a story related to the theme of the game. Together they must work collaboratively to solve puzzles, riddles and other activities. These clues then help them to open locks. With just 45 minutes to complete a game, participants are challenged to problem solve, learn perseverance and work as a team. Breakout games are designed by teachers for use with students from preschool to college, and even adults!

I use the games in my class for both review at the end of a unit and for content. For example, this past year, I used a Breakout game to teach my students about Watergate. I had limited time to cover the topic and found that rather than a lecture or worksheet (which I almost never do in my classroom anyway), I would find an engaging way to help them learn about the scandal.

I typically break students into four groups (I have 4 complete kits) to ensure there is a role for every student. I have an average of 34 students per class. Some games are completely physical games (with all clues in class). Others include online puzzles. I continue to refine and learn what works and doesn't work.

I have found that many of my students who may not do well on tests or on other assignments, excel in Breakout games. I had one student last year who was often in a group that failed to breakout. She was frustrated but refused to give up. Learning as we played each game, she came in the day of the Watergate Breakout and was determined. This time she and her group were not only the first to finish in her class, but out of all of my classes. The pride she and her team had was so cool to see.

I encourage you to give it a try! Your students will love it! Check out Breakout Edu to get started.

My games are centered around an entire unit such as the Gilded Age or a single topic such as Watergate. Students use their content knowledge to help them solve puzzles!

Breakout games promote the 4 Cs: Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creativity!

Every team that completes the game in 45 minutes gets a photo. In the future, I will make a wall of fame with these pictures for the year. Students love to compete to see who has the fastest time!

A Shift in Teaching

I am seriously behind in my blogging and part of the reason for that is a whole new approach to teaching US History that my team has chosen to undertake this year. Since we teach in California, we have been given a year of reprieve from our state testing and are looking ahead to common core and the future. Out went the traditional multiple choice tests and in came essays and unit long focus questions. We have added all kinds of primary sources and are now looking towards projects.

I am quite thrilled that we don't have to teach the minutia anymore and can focus on big questions and big ideas. The first unit was all designed to trace the state's rights vs. federal authority conflict that dates to the founding of our country, and is incredibly relevant today in light of the fight over Obamacare. We suddenly found ourselves teaching content not normally taught in a college prep US history course, and throwing out some things we always had taught because they were probably on the test. How liberating it is to no longer teach to a test!

One other thing I find myself doing is making visual representations for my students of what we are covering. It is on the wall of my classroom and I create it as we go along in the content. This second unit was focused on problems and responses at the turn of the century. Here is the visual I created.

As we approach the 1920s, I am excited to be able to allow the students time to investigate a topic of their interest and to choose a method for showing their learning. I am going to model it after History Day, only on a smaller scale. Sure there is a risk that my students won't know how to respond to this structure and will fall behind and get discouraged. After all most of their education thus far has been so structured and geared towards testing. But as I learned on one of my Twitter chats, FAIL = First Attempt, I'm Learning! So if I fail, well at least I will have learned something.

Mind Mapping in US History

I participated in a Twitter chat tonight and can't believe how much I have been missing out on by not being on Twitter until now. The #sschat topic tonight was on thematic vs. chronological teaching. Many ideas were tossed around and one of them was mind mapping the curriculum so that even if it is taught chronologically, students can see connections. I think I may try this since my US history team has decided to have a singular focus for 1st semester on the conflict between federal authority and state's rights. We will be discussing issues such as the constitution, nullification crisis, slavery, national bank in the first unit so it would be cool to break them into social, political and economic ways the conflict when throughout history. By the end of the year we could even connect it to today. I have taught mind mapping to adults and think that is a skill I will share with my students this year. And then we can create a giant mind map in my classroom which will help students visualize the connecting themes. Thanks @KaelynBullock for the idea!

Here is an update that shows the mind map I created for the unit discussed above. I think it came out pretty cool!