Can we play a game? What are we doing today?

"Can we play a game?" "What are we doing today?" "Did we have homework last night?"
I hear these questions all of the time in my classroom and my responses are usually: "No, we don't have fun in Spanish." "Absolutely nothing." "Yes, a twelve page paper on why Mrs. Dunham is the best teacher you ever have or will have."
The game question is the most common because I like to have students participate in "education activities", or as some call them games, as much as possible. I have never used video games or computer games in my instruction and this week I looked at many options in the world of gamification.
The game that I chose to play was Third World Farmer. Now, I must tell you that I grew up on a farm that was established in 1854 and married another farmer whose farm was established around the same time. I know A LOT about farming and how mother nature works. I also know that many people in the United States have no idea what farming entails. Some people think that farmers where flannel shirts and cowboy boots and are just plain dirt poor. None of these are 100% true. My dad never wears flannel and he is a farmer, and doesn't own a pair of cowboy boots, and works extremely hard for every penny that he has in his pocket. Our two farm families own/rent over 6,000 acres in our surrounding areas. It's definitely something to be proud of, and really, we play the "game" of farming every day. Mother Nature is awfully unpredictable and mean sometimes. On the other hand, she might give you a close to 80 degree day in October to begin harvest.
As I played my game on the computer, I started to reflect on how lucky I am to live here, in the United States, on soil that my husband's family has worked for over 100 years. We are very different from the game, but I think both sides are important to understand. I only played the game twice, (I didn't last long the first time, but got the hang of it the second time) but I felt that I had a good understanding of where I could incorporate this in my own classroom.
At the beginning of this school year I started a level five Spanish class that doesn't focus on grammar, but culture. We talked about our own culture for the first five days of school. What is culture? What does our culture look like? How might we be similar or different to other cultures? What is the biggest part of our culture? What do others see when they look at our culture? Are you ever thankful for your own culture?
My students spent a lot of time reflecting on all of these ideas, and I think next year I would have them play this game at home. I would tell them that their goals/objectives would be to learn how another family in another culture functions. Compare and contrast the game that you play with the life that you lead. Does your family buy a chicken, or does your family eat the chicken stir fry that your dad made that evening?
For me, this could serve to purposes. First, I want to help everyone understand farming because people really don't appreciate the food that sits on our tables, or in our lunch rooms. Every thing comes from a farmer. Even Lay's potato ships come from potatoes that a farmer grew on his farm. Every single time you pour yourself a bowl of cereal, you should be thankful for a farmer that grew the wheat to make your cereal. It doesn't come out of thin air. Every time you complain about the prices at the grocery store, think about the farmers who had to pay for the $500,000 machine that had to harvest that corn. And every time you complain about your school lunch, think about the students that barely get one meal a day in a third world country. Think about their culture and their lives. What does their culture look like? What do they value? What do they worry about/
Before we understand other cultures, we need to understand our own. We need to appreciate our own, and I think this game would help get the point across in my classroom. I would have my students write and essay or create a powerpoint, or perhaps write a blog post in Spanish about our culture compared to the third world cultures to assess their knowledge on this topic. What are the similarities? What are the differences? I would grade these essays and discuss them as a group to check for understanding.
So, we could answer my first three questions again. "Can we play a game?" My response, "Yes, you can"! "What are we doing today?" My response, "Playing computer games and learning about other cultures".
"Did we have homework last night?" My response, "You had two things to do. First, write a 12 page paper on why Mrs. Dunham is the best teacher you have or ever will have, and second a small essay, powerpoint, or blog post on the cultures that we discussed."

This is a picture of the soybeans that we are harvesting right now and the beautiful sunset. Again, a photo from my very talented sister.
Hasta luego,
Alissa