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I asked Jonathan Winkler, a seventh-grade history teacher in Newton, Massachusetts to test out a new Me First Buzzer System. At my request, he gave it to me straight and shared his Game Buzzers experience—successes and challenges.
To set the scene, understand that he introduced this snazzy new buzzer system during the last week of school, when (understandably) kids have a bit of summer fever, are looking forward to graduation, and are ready to play! Thanks to Mr. Winkler, though, for not giving up after his first class went haywire with the buzzers, slamming them before questions were even asked. Using them with several groups, here’s what he found to work best.
This was a way too exciting for his group. The first time Winkler introduced the buzzers to the class, players got a “slap happy,” pressing buzzers prematurely, before hearing a question or reviewing a slide. The experience became frustrating for everyone—the teachers, as well as the kids who were either slower to buzz-in or were playing by the rules and waiting for the question.
TAKEAWAYS:
Given the students’ excitement, this too was a challenge. It was a bit less chaotic, but still yielded lots of early buzzing-in.
TAKEAWAYS:
In his third attempt, Mr. Winkler divided the students into two teams and had each team form a line. The students at the front of each line would pair up in front of the buzzers and compete to win a point for their team. Students and facilitators both found this to be most effective, and allowed the group to focus on the content, not the buzzers.
In spite of his early frustrations facilitating the reinforcement games, Mr. Winkler did find the buzzers to add fun and excitement to his end-of-year review. If he were to do it again, Winkler said he’d likely stick with a 4-player system because it worked best in his classroom. He also mentioned being impressed with the buzzers’ functionality:
As always, it’s best to know your group and have some alternative ideas in your back pocket, in case “plan A” doesn’t go as expected.
Facilitating Jeopardy-like Games
I purchased the Me First buzzers a while back and made a rookie trainer mistake. I didn’t take the time to fully understand them or test different ways to use them prior to their first use. This is a great article. I think it would be helpful to include this with any new purchases of this item. Thanks for posting.
Best regards,
Valerie