Schoolteacher/Gamer multi-class

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

I'm just finishing my bachelor's and getting ready to start a credentialling program, and I thought I'd ask who else out there is in education.

I was pondering today just how immensely useful ENWorld is to me as a gamer and it occurred to me that this is exactly the kind of resource that teachers need to confer with one-another about all the issues that come up in teaching: "Pedagogy World: the premier International Online community for educators."

Short of an entire news and forum website, perhaps just one thread will do for the time being.

The first issue that I'd like to bring up is the similarities between writing an adventure and writing a lesson plan. You need one or more hooks to interest your audience. You need objectives. You employ standards. And, you might well use the same one more than once.

 

[Kashell]

I completely agree. My DM is also a teacher (English/Drama) who I would have actually had this year if I went to the school he teaches at. I'm sure you'll find more similarities between teaching and DMing as thing go on.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Shameless bump for career enhancement.

 

[EricNoah]

School media specialist here!

You know, I wrote an article (never published) for Dragon back in the day about using goals/objectives in writing adventures. I think I was pointing out the obvious: you can set character goals, player goals, story goals, game/rule goals, etc. and build specific encounters to meet them. A player goal might be "Sandy will roleplay in character more." A character goal might be "Sandy's character will get a chance to use her Appraise skill." Sample story goal: "PCs will overhear a conversation about an assassination plot." Game/rule goal: "The party will get some practice using the grappling rules." Etc.

Edit: Another benefit of being a school teacher: snow days!! (You'd think in Wisconsin we could deal with 6" of snow, but apparently not...)

 

[Menexenus]

That's funny, Eric, I got today off from school, too. But I didn't get a snow day; I got a flood day. Explanation: The roads leading to my school are flooded. Since the buses can't get through, they gave us the day off. Hey, I'll take a free day any way I can get one! (Of course, this does ruin what I had planned for Friday, but I suppose I can deal with it.)

P.S. I'm a high school math teacher.

 

[Umbran]

I was pondering today just how immensely useful ENWorld is to me as a gamer and it occurred to me that this is exactly the kind of resource that teachers need to confer with one-another about all the issues that come up in teaching: "Pedagogy World: the premier International Online community for educators."

EN World works because it is relatively small, and highly focused. The teaching populace isn't terribly small, nor is it particularly focused. I think you'd need to work hard to find a structure for such forums that would work well.

 

[Orblivia]

High school social studies teacher here.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

EN World works because it is relatively small, and highly focused. The teaching populace isn't terribly small, nor is it particularly focused. I think you'd need to work hard to find a structure for such forums that would work well.

Agreed. With what little IT knowledge I possess, I'd need the help of someone more experienced than I, like, for instance, a school media specialist.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I'm slowly working my way towards High School History teacher... but, undergrad is taking longer than planned (for good reasons like my wedding, though! )

 

[EricNoah]

Had a flash of insight recently: Some of the techniques used to get students thinking and interacting with ideas would be great when used in an RPG. I'm thinking of questioning techniques and methods of stimulating higher-order thinking. Very often the "role-playing" portion of my games is factual -- "where is the blacksmith?" for example. If I can get some good, thought-provoking questions to come out of my NPCs mouths, I might spark a more in-depth response from the players. Things like, "How is life different here than it was where you came from?" or "What made you decide to become a wizard?" or something along those lines could spark a conversation rather than a simple response that doesn't take much thought. I might need to add a line to my NPC statblocks: "Intriguing Question" or something like that.