Playing God through gaming and online accessibility

What might it say about me (or anyone really) when we play games like the one pictured below?

I used to play the other Sims games with people – controlling their looks, likes, dislikes and who they befriended, dated, etc.

It only confirmed how much of a control freak I am. With this game, I can build (and destroy) a city. Oh I know there are worse games out there with shooting and reckless driving and such. I’ve toned it down a bit.

I used to play fighting games like:

I just don’t have the time anymore. As I get older my “down” time consists of binging on Netflix. I’m updated with my crime-drama shows, and I’ve gone through most of the BBC shows on there. (They’re quite amusing, and I’m a huge Anglophile).

On an academic note, a research study as to the correlation between behavior and gaming would be very interesting. The educator mindset in me has always been interested in gamification as a motivational factor for student learning. But this isn’t the blog for its exploration.

I blog here for my moods, thinking and such and I have a teacher blog specifically for my students but no one but them can read it because my school is playing God with accessibility.

Educators promoting technology in schools usually work with an open domain, teaching kids to be responsible digital citizens, and rightly so. They’ve put other monitoring layers in place but my school doesn’t trust (or is too paranoid, too overprotective) of the access in my particular school. So the teacher-student domain is “blocked” to the public.

How can I encourage my students to become contributing global citizens with 21st century skills when other educators control the accesibilty? We’re supposed to teach them in school so that they can function properly in society.

Then students go home to their unfiltered lifestyle online with the unmonitored habits on social media (without proper monitoring)? Some parents don’t know how to do that, or have the time or the care to watch over it that closely, especially in the type of community where I work.

A teacher’s brain is never off. (Well, a good teacher is always thinking of how and what to apply in the classroom). There might be some “bad” teachers out there, but chances are they’re more tired than incompetent.

Are you a control-freak about anything?

Not looking back in anger

I’m not doing anything much in particular today but reading and blogging. I’m reading through WordPress and browsing blogs when I realize that a very old post of mine keeps getting hits. This article is old, so I reread it. And it stirred up some old emotions. Then I thought I should probably update the scenario.

The post was entitled, “When my son said they make me feel stupid” and my decision to want to try homeschooling. Well, my homeschooling-charter-school-blended learning-education thing for my son didn’t work.

Don’t look back in anger. Oh well…so Sally can wait.

As an educator, I thought I was doing what was best for my son at the time. As a single parent, my Christian values, wanted to do right for him. And my ego was bent out of shape.

The first year I tried a technology school, he suffered. The teacher tried her best but the system was awful. My son’s academics still suffered. And I was tired. The second year, he all but failed two courses with a newbie teacher, who wasn’t quite on top of things. I was angry at the school, mad at his teacher, and mad at myself.

I finally asked him what he wanted, and he asked to go back to public school.

I moved out of district and he attended a pretty good school. (I work at a middle school and I refused to bring him to the school where I worked.

• One – he was the same age as the students I taught at the time.
• Two – how unfair would it be for him to be known as that teacher’s son.
• Three – I didn’t trust any of my co-workers who would be assigned his teachers.
• Four – my principal said I could place him whomever’s classrooms at my choosing.
• Five – those teachers weren’t teaching his grade level at the time).

Nonetheless, he flourished at his new school. His grades improved. He made lots of new friends and his reading improved to grade level. He was happy. That’s all I ever really wanted.

Now that my Man-Child is doing much better academically, socially and emotionally, I have a new set of challenges to worry about where he is concerned. Adolescence. Oh boy….

How do I transition into single-parenting a teen now?