Transformative Principal Using Video Games as Text with Zachary Hartzman Transformative Principal 314
Zachary Hartzman is a high school Economics & English teacher in New York City.
- Taught many different social studies classes.
- International and transfer school. 100% immigrant & ELL students.
- Passionate about videos games.
- Getting kids to interact with games
- Florence - great app for relationships.
- Using games to deal with discussing heavy issues.
- Whenever I teach one of these lessons, I write a post showing how it went.
- It’s been really hard to find engaging content that
- 3 days a week, I teach an ELA course using video games as the main text.
- Gone Home
- What Remains of Edith Finch?
- One student playing while everyone else is talking about the gameplay.
- Regents exam required for graduation - read a text and identify the central idea, so we use the videos games to focus on those literary events.
- You have to give them time to learn how to use the controller.
- Positive outcomes: Whenever I teach with a game, there’s never a head down that day.
- Expanding the curriculum, but would love to get more science and math.
- How to be a transformative principal? If a teacher comes to you with a potentially wacky idea, hear them out.
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