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Diving into BreakoutEDU: Test #1

I can't remember where I first heard about BreakoutEDU boxes, but it's the kind of idea that I love to latch on because the people and teachers heading up projects like these are my kind of people. If you aren't familiar with BreakoutEDU, I suggest watching this. Basically, it's a way to gamify learning, but in a way that engages kids to interact with each other and content. To me, it's just one more tool to add to my teaching toolbox.

I received a generous grant from the Blaine County Education Foundation to try out this teaching tool. I originally wanted to purchase the official BreakoutEDU box, but after talking to a fellow teacher, I got the information and confidence I needed to "build" my own set.

I'll admit that the initial confusion I had about which materials to buy and setting up my first breakout session was overwhelming. I ordered the materials and ran into some snags with defective locks. When I looked at the directions for one of the breakout games my eyes glazed over the combinations, printable materials, and the gigantic list of setup directions. Quite frankly, I wondered what I'd gotten myself into.

What I needed to do, I finally decided, was just sit down with the directions and materials in front of me and go step-by-step. Once I did that and figured out how to reset five different locks, I was golden.

I started by using my Genius Hour class as my guinea pigs to test out my first game, a game from the BreakoutEDU website called Spyder Heist.





It was difficult to not give students clues as I watched them struggle. One of the BreakoutEDU founders, James Sanders says, "As educators, we often intervene too quickly when a student is struggling." Even though I told my students they had two hints, I still kept trying to use the hints for them. I was worried they wouldn't get it, or finish in time, or get frustrated and give up. I think observing it helped me recognize that I might be giving too many 'hints' to my students when I'm teaching. I might be too quick to give the answer, or too quick to remind them where to look. It's difficult knowing where the line between productive struggle and helpless frustration is sometimes. In the end, they figured it out.

When I prepared the box I forgot to get a 'prize', so I just put a rock in the box. The best part of this was seeing their faces when they saw that their work resulted in discovering a rock. Next time, I would spend more time discussing and reflecting on that feeling of working for what we think is nothing. The disappointment that sometimes comes when we expect a big reward at the end. How can we reframe our minds to think differently about thinking and learning as rewarding? Is the 'work' (even when it's fun and engaging) not enough? Do we always need a reward? Those might be interesting questions to let students think about. 

The next step is to take the Breakout Box outside my class. More on that in the next entry.
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