Building Community & Connections with High School Esports
Help me give my students 10 weeks of highly competitive esports play in the High School Esports League; paying the league fees allows our kids to compete against other high school students from all over the nation.
I get to work with an AMAZING group of students in grades 9-12 that are part of our district's esports team. As a quick primer, esports is the term used to describe competitive video gameplay, often in a team environment. For more than 70% of our students, esports is the very first time they've participated in a team sport. Additionally, before they joined the esports team, more than 50% of them had never participated in any kind of extracurricular activity.
Esports provides these kids with something they've been missing: an opportunity to build community and connections within their school.
When asked why the love the esports team, one student said, "it's nice to have teammates that support you" and another noted they liked esports because of "the connection with other team members."
In order to participate in esports, students must meet grade and attendance requirements. Esports participation has been highly motivating for team members as they all are working hard to achieve and maintain good academic standing.
My Project
Esports participation is an essential step in helping this group of students become active members of our school learning community. Emerging research shows that students involved in school esports teams show measurable academic gains and improved attendance.
Participating in an esports team provides students with unusual leadership opportunities; unlike traditional athletics, esport players also serve as coaches, identifying ways their teammates can improve performance, and helping their peers develop essential skills for in-game success.
Students involved in esports also learn technology skills that allow them to become entrepreneurs, long before they've earned a degree.
Although my students might not realize it, the esports team also exposes them to important aspects of information and media literacy as we encourage positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online over the course of the ten weeks esports season.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Cesari and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
