My students need new thought-provoking games for lunchtime to build critical thinking skills and new relationships with students from different backgrounds.
Students at my school come from a wide variety of backgrounds. There are two high schools in our county and our school is generally seen as the little brother to the other high school. Over 60% of our student population is on free or reduced lunch plans.
I was told during a new teacher orientation a few years ago that our school’s zoning covered 70% of the land in our county, while it only contained 30% of the wealth.
Even with these numbers, last year, our students were able to have the highest Graduation rate in the county and the best Geometry End-of-Course test scores. Last year, our 9th and 10th grade Geometry students had the highest growth rate of test scores from their previous math class out of EVERY school in the state. One of the reasons for that is the relationship that teachers and students have at our school. A lot of our students come from homes where neither parent graduated or even attempted to attend college. A lot of our students want to pursue college, and our teachers and counselors are the only ones that are pushing them towards that goal.
My Project
Over the past few years, our media center has been the home of a study hall session during 2 lunch periods. Students who want extra help on assignments or who are missing assignments due to absences go to the media center to meet with teachers to make up those assignments. This school year, we have moved this study hall to another location, but a lot of our students got used to going to the media center when they finished their lunch.
My media specialist has started working to create what she refers to as a Brain Game Group, and these students play a variety of strategy games that allow them to have fun while stretching their minds.
The games have gone through normal wear and tear because she only has a limited number of each game and students are constantly using the games. These games will allow students who do not have these types of games at home to have fun, learn, and strategize with their peers all in a positive learning environment. The media center has become a place where students that come from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds can compete and learn with these games at the same table.
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