Teachers and administrators at Roslyn High School have just completed a series of professional development workshops presented by the Institute of Play. During these interactive sessions, faculty members have been creating games with practical applications in the classroom.
The institute creates learning experiences, rooted in the principles of game design that simulate real world problems and require dynamic, well-rounded solutions. Their mission is making learning relevant to the technologies that shape kids’ lives and meet the demands of the changing world. Many experts believe that success in the 21st century depends on education that emphasizes higher order skills, like the ability to think, solve complex problems, collaborate and interact critically through language and media. Games naturally support this form of education, create a compelling need to know, a need to ask, examine, assimilate and master certain skills and content areas.
Teachers who have participated in these sessions will present the information they have learned to other members of the faculty during additional training sessions, which will be aimed, in part, at subject-specific applications of these inventive teaching strategies.
This initiative was organized by the high school’s Curriculum Development Council, which is chaired by Assistant Principal Carol Murphy. It is just one of many professional development programs in which teachers in all of our schools participate throughout the year in order to stay abreast of educational and technological innovations that enhance student learning.
