Othello

What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the name "Othello?" If you asked my sister, she would most likely peg Othello as one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. She would also be able to tell you several of his greatest histories and comedies. Not me. If you asked me what pops into my head when I hear the name "Othello," I'll tell you a math game!

Othello is also known by the name Reversi. It's an interesting strategy game where players try to outflank their opponents and then capture those pieces by flipping them to the opposite color. Visit the Pressman Toy site for directions and strategies. I was not interested in this game as a youth so I did not play it in school or at home. However, my research on math games, constructivism, and classrooms has made me rethink several games.

I found a my copy of Othello (the game board looks just the the one in the picture to your top right and was made by the company Gabriel) at an antique store for $2.00 on Friday. What a steal. And none of the pieces were missing. Amazon has the game (now by Mattel) for about $12.00, with newer, sleeker styling (Not!). Okay, I admit, the little square groves might help out when the cat decides to try and help. There are currently about 22 Othello games (board, travel, and electronic) available at eBay starting at $2.50. Don't forget to throw in shipping!

This weekend Orion and I gave Othello a trial run. He actually asked to play it again! I think we like it! I have found several online or electronic versions of Othello. Check them out below.

Online Othello: The Othello playing engine used here was originally written by Roemer B. Lievaart for the 1987 International Obfuscated C Code Contest. It's a pretty good engine for only 1024 bytes of C code! (I had to add that blurb because typing "Obfuscated C Code Contest" made me sigh!)

Fly or Die: At Fly or Die you can play Internet Reversi with other folks.

Freeware Home: Lists several Othello-like games to download.

Not sure you want to invest $12.00 for a new game and cannot seem to find a used game at the local Salvation Army? Visit the Galactic Apple and find a version of Kamii's Sandwich Game using a grid and pennies (heads or tails).

I recently figured out how to play Minesweeper (perhaps it was a patience issue, or lack there of). With Othello under my belt, so to speak, I am wondering if I can learn Go. How is it like Othello? How is it different? Can you teach an old Kat new games?

24 Game

My friend Sal introduced 24 Game Double Digits to me the other night and I just finished sharing it with Orion. It is an incredibly simple yet completely sophisticated game. The best part is that it can played on many different levels. In fact, there are two different games that can be played from the small box of cards. To play Double Digits you must be the first player to make 24 with all four numbers on the card. You can add, subtract, multiply, or divide. The cards are leveled into medium, hard, and harder as indicated by dots in the corner. 24 Game Double Digits is appropriate for ages ten and up. There are other versions of this game that use single digits for younger folks. To find out more about Suntex and the many games they offer visit their website. 24 Game retails for about $22. You may also purchase a membership to play on line (schools and individuals!). Check it out. Let me know what you think.

Homeworkopoly

While visiting a fourth grade classroom in Knob Noster earlier this semester I discovered the most amazing bulletin board! I did not want to interrupt the teacher to ask where she found this amazing idea, but I really wanted to know how she made it! So I asked the intern placed with her, one of my seniors at the University, to get the story.

Homeworkopoly is brought to us by the fine folks at Teachnet.com There you can download a game board, a blank game board so that you can place the street names of your hometown on the board, as well as chance cards! It's as easy as that! A delightful way to take the drudgery out of homework. Thanks to Ms. S. for having this in her classroom and thanks to my mysterious intern for ferreting out the information for us!

As for my thoughts on the horrors of homework, I'll make that another post!

Teacher Personality Quiz...

Readers,

One of my PDS students this semester sent me a link to a Teacher Personality Quiz! You know my curiosity got the best of me and I had to take it.

According to the Teacher Personality Quiz I have the Fair and Balanced personality. To read about my teaching personality and to take the quiz for your self, visit the site by clicking on any of the hypertext links in this post.

I would love to hear from you, what is YOUR Teacher Personality! Leave a comment and let me know!

del.icio.us

Updated: June 12, 2019:  Del.icio.us is no more.  See this article for more information or this one for alternatives to Del.icio.us!  Happy Bookmarking!

Educational technology has been more of an avocation for me over the past few years, than a vocation. But I have recently been asked to teach a technology class at the university. We are several weeks into the semester and I have been both enjoying my students and enjoying playing with the technology that is available to us.

This brings me to the Social Bookmarking site, del.icio.us. Here you can bookmark and tag websites, blogs, and more. You can mark them to share them with friends or keep them private. It's great for its social benefits, but even more wonderful for its research benefits. While bookmarking and tagging a website about misconceptions in earth science, I noted that six other people had bookmarked the same page. I hopped on over to their bookmarks, sorted by misconceptions and viola! I found several more useful sites on misconceptions that I might not have found on my own using Google (just due to the sheer number of hits Google generates).

Of course, I think about how this tool would have been useful to me as a third grade teacher. Had I shared my bookmarks with my team members and vice versa, we'd have had an amazing amount of resources at our fingertips. Of course, when I was teaching third grade the Internet was still in diapers and we didn't even have Internet access in our classrooms, let alone computers!

If you're curious about del.icio.us, visit their site. You can access my bookmarks here or by simply typing http://del.icio.us/katleslie into your browser. If you begin using or have used social bookmarking sites in the past, feel free to comment here about your experiences.

Yahtzee!

A card game with dice? What’s up with that? I loved this game as a kid. Orion has not quite got the hang of playing independently, so we fill out our score cards together. While this game is less than $10 at your local Wal-Mart, (Did I just make a plug for Wal-Mart?) you can easily create an entire classroom set with orphan dice(or buy them for cheap the Dollar Tree), a couple of Dixie cups, and score cards available for print here.

Science Beliefs Quiz

Gentle Readers,

As many of you know, I have spent several years researching misconceptions in earth science. I one day hope to actually put this information into dissertation form, but I digress. The other day I was reading an article about the Science Beliefs Quiz available online. I had to check it out! The Science Beliefs Quiz is a 44 question, true-false quiz over a variety of science topics from biology to earth science. If you have about 45 minutes to spend I strongly suggest visiting the Science Beliefs Quiz. Use it to evaluate your understandings and beliefs about various topics. Use it to find areas you need to improve in. Use it to find areas that interest or excite you. But please don't use it to beat yourself up.

I'd love to hear how you do on the Science Beliefs Quiz. So drop me a line via the comments and share! Yes, you can remain anonymous!

Happy testing! And remember Science Rules!