Umm… working in an elementary school it’s interesting how you can keep track of the fads going around. Usually anything that you hear a school banning must mean it is really popular, popular enough to “disrupt the educational environment.” Huh? So let me get this straight. If kids are really into something, we forbid it at school? Wouldn’t it be better to ride the wave and use it to get kids hooked on learning? I’ll admit, I never understood the appeal of Pokemon, but I didn’t tell my students that they couldn’t bring in cards and I even tried to figure it out. Go Magikarp! When Beanie Babies were all the rage, my class conducted a census at the school to determine how many there actually were. then how long of a line they would make, how much of a classroom would they fill, you get the idea. The students were engaged and learning math concepts! Other fads have come and gone, right now it’s Minecraft, (banned or at least blocked at most schools) educators are finally figuring out how to jump on the bandwagon and hopefully help kids see that what they are learning ties back into something they love. Oh, and when I went to an education session at a recent conference, the presenter was still talking about Pokemon as a hook, guess I better hunt down my old deck and my Gameboy.
