Last year I was approached by Packt Publishing, a publisher of technology books to author a step by step guide to learning the GameMaker Language (GML). GML is a programming language that is used to program games using the GameMaker development environment. GameMaker has a drag n’ drop approach to…

You can’t walk three feet without hearing a kid talking about Minecraft. Educators across the world are talking about the benefits of using Minecraft in the classroom. It all sounds great, but if you are not a ‘gamer’ or don’t have a 6 to 15 year old at home you…

#HourOfCode: #Minecraft meets Code.org Are you ready for the #HourOfCode? December 7–13 marks the 7th annual Computer Science Education week and the 3rd annual #HourOfCode Challenge spearheaded by Code.org. Code.org takes an approach to teaching coding by using iconic characters and the block.ly block based coding language to teach computer…

I received an email from Valvoline with the subject, “Tuesdays just got 20% better!”. Somehow that stuck with me. I had every intention of going to get a 20% off oil change today but that didn’t actually happen. However, today “20%Tuesday” was born! Over the past few years I have…

The other day I wrote an article on homework looking at whether or not homework should be given at all and if so, what purpose should homework serve. Today I’m feeling the sting of grades. Should we give grades at all? What is the purpose of grades and how should…

I am positioning this post as a debate as I would really like to open a forum for debate. Here are a few guiding questions. Feel free to add your own. Should there be homework? Is homework OK? Should we eliminate entirely? What type of work should be assigned as…

It’s that time of year! ISTE is right around the corner. I’m super excited about all of the activities I’ll be involved with. This post should serve two purposes. First off, it will serve as my guide so that I know where I need to be throughout the week. If…

An Updated Look Into My Video Game Design and Development Classroom It often comes as a surprise when I tell people that I teach Video Game Design and Development at a public middle school. Over the past 20 years, I have been teaching game design in some capacity or another…

I was invited to participate with people from Microsoft regarding the use of Minecraft in schools. The focus group is part of the Games for Learning Summit taking place on April 21 at NYU. Representatives from six high profile commercial game companies will be conducting similar focus groups. I see…