I've been doing this project for almost ten years now and the kids get a kick out of playing each others games. They started planning out their games before the holiday break and had eight full periods to work on them with their groups, so I don't feel guilty about assigning this project. That being said, you could see the stress on some of their faces as the days passed by.
Hopefully by the time this post is published... the majority of the groups have turned in their projects, so I'm not forced to hand out any late penalties. In the spirit of their projects, I figured I'd share a pair of cards that were part of games from back in the day...
1970 Milton Bradley #NNO
1984 Topps Milton Bradley Championship Baseball #NNO
The students aren't the only ones dealing with stress. Tomorrow my principal will be observing me for my formal evaluation. Normally, I don't have any issues with my administrators strolling through my classroom checking out my instruction and student participation. But there's something about the formal evaluation process where they carry a clipboard and take notes that gives me anxiety.
It's part of the job description though, so I just need to go with it. After tomorrow, I can breathe easy knowing that I won't have another one until 2022.
Teachers and students aren't the only ones who are constantly being evaluated. Sports cards are too. Here's my Nolan Arenado rookie card that received high grades from PSA:
2013 Topps Chrome #78
Just like the card grades handed out by PSA, BGS, SGC, and other grading companies... my evaluation will be subjective. It's a good thing I'm on my principal's good side. Well... at least I hope I am.
Well that's all I have for you today. It's your turn to talk...
What's your favorite board or card game?
Happy Thursday and sayonara!
17 comments:
I love board games, pretty much all of them. Must be the competitiveness of my nature. (I like to win). LOL. Best wishes for tomorrow!
My favorite board/card game is Strat-o-matic baseball.
Good luck on your eval. I had mine earlier this fall and I'm still waiting for my admin to finish up the process and give me a formal write-up. Like you, it shouldn't bother me, but I still get worked up about the whole thing. I guess it's because we care!
What a great idea for a project!
My favorites are candyland and Sorry.
I used to have a bunch of favorite games... Trivial Pursuit, Mastermind, Backgammon, Uno... but now I only occasionally play Statis-Pro Baseball against myself.
I would have loved to design a board game back then...
Japanese menko have to be my favorite by far! Good luck with your evaluation!
Since I last made my board game list, I'd add Welcome To as another favorite game of mine.
Maybe not exactly a board game, but I bought Rebound at a yard sale a few years ago. One of my favorites from childhood. I also liked Pro Draft but I haven't picked one up since it gets pricey due to the football cards.
Evaluations - ugh. When we are observed they write word-for-word what I said and what every kid in class says. Good luck.
Strat-O-Matic was my game of choice beginning back in the mid-60s. Through the next couple of decades I played more customized replay seasons than I can count. I played while I was at college and right up to about 1990 or so when fatherhood took a toll on my spare time. A few years ago I took up computer-based Diamond Mind and enjoyed it. I recently bout two other computer BB games which I haven't even messed with.
I did a blog post on my board game habits back in 2015. Here is the link.
I meant to talk about teacher observations. I never stressed over mine as a coach/PE teacher. Our year-end coaching eval tho wasn't fun. The AD would want to grill us over everything that went wrong all year. Some years that was a lot. My favorite teacher eval story concerns a first year teacher who took advantage of the principal entering the room to excuse herself to head to the restroom and left the principal there for 15 minutes. In one of my first years in elementary school I had a kiddo fall asleep on the gym floor during one of my eval lessons.
MLB Showdown is and will always be my favorite board game.
I remember observation days as a student, and while I now understand how much pressure it probably puts on the teacher, even then it seemed awkward for us kids having our principal or some other high-ranking person in the room the whole day.
I loved CADACO All Star baseball.My older brother hated baseball but he loved this game and It was one of the few times we got to spend some quality time together.Even though he used to beat me all the friggin' time!
Good luck with your evaluation! I love board games, and lately have been favoring cooperative games like Forbidden Island. My daughter and I have been playing a lot of Tsuro and Go Nuts For Donuts lately too.
Nothing beats Monopoly for me
thank you for the well wishes. i'm pleased to announce that my evaluation went smoothly (i think). i was happy with how things went. meeting with my principal this upcoming week to hear her thoughts... although she seemed to like what she saw based on her initial reactions.
johnnys trading spot - although i don't play them much in my personal life, i do enjoy a good board game with my students. my two teacher buddies and i run our school's board game club.
p-town tom - wow. you still haven't received the written writeup? your principal seems super chill. i'm pretty sure mine will have everything ready to go by the time we meet. she's pretty on top of those things.
the lost collector - thanks. it's a really cool culminating activity for my class. i think the majority of the kids enjoy it, but they kind of get stressed out the last few days as the deadline approaches
shlabtonik report - loved playing trivial pursuit with my family when i was younger. mastermind was a cool game too.
base card hero - me too. that's why i designed this project. it's really cool seeing what the kids come up with. a lot of them are based on common games like monopoly or chutes and ladders. but sometimes they come up with some really crazy rules.
sumomenkoman - lol. menko, really? never would have guess. ;) thanks buddy!
nachos grande - i'll definitely search up "welcome to" on youtube after finishing my comments
runforekelloggs - before i got a new principal, i was on or district's five year plan... and my last evaluation was one of those "word for word" ones. my ap was very thorough and included photos and student feedback. this time around my actual principal observed me... and if i had to guess, i'd say her write up will be very similar.
commishbob - you have quite the collection of board games and strat-o-matic seems like a popular game among bloggers. i don't think i've actually ever played it before, but i have picked up a few copies at the flea market before. oh man... the bathroom story is awesome. my colleagues and i always joke about writing a book about our favorite classroom stories. i might have to suggest a special chapter on teacher evaluations and ask you to be a guest author ;)
nick - i own some of the cards, but never played the game. as for the observation... i'm glad she didn't stick around the entire day. she just hung out during 4th period. but i kinda think the formal evaluation process is silly. i've always told my administrators that if they want to see what kind of teacher i am, just do random drop ins periodically... and ask my students for their feedback. otherwise teachers just put on a special 50 minute show for their evaluators
big tone - another game that i've owned copies of, but have never played. maybe one day i'll have the opportunity to sit down and check it out
matt - i've watched a few board game videos featuring the whole cooperative thing. i like it. i'll definitely go check out forbidden island, tsuro, and go nuts for donuts today
sport card collectors - yeah, i still enjoy playing that too. it's a classic
That Nolan is a beauty!
My girlfriend and I love board games! We've been enjoying Azul and Ticket to Ride recently, and just tried out Exploding Kittens.
I watched a YT video on Ticket to Ride. It seemed really interesting. And I think it was my last year's group that was all about Exploding Kittens. It's such a simple yet entertaining game.
Post a Comment