A Day with Hafiz at the Archives

Happy Family Day to those who celebrate. It was a full week leading up to Family Day, with Valentine's Day, Ash Wednesday, 100s Day, and Parent-Teacher interviews all filling the calendar. I want to share what I did on Friday, February 16, 2024. Usually, half the time for elementary teachers is designated for completing interviews, and then the other half is a lieu day in exchange for staying late on Thursday night. As the teacher-librarian in charge of social studies and drama, who shepherds the translators during this time, my presence is not crucial on Friday. Months earlier, while listening to one of my guest speakers at my York University Teacher Librarian AQ course, I was captivated enough by his talk to sign up for a workshop he was running. This is how I ended up at the Archives of Ontario on a chilly Friday to explore more about Games Based Learning with Hafiz Printer, Senior Coordinator of Education Programming and Exhibitions.

On the Archives of Ontario website, this is how the GBL workshop was described:

Interested in incorporating game-based learning into your teaching?  In this full day workshop, we will explore the difference between gamification and game-based learning and how these can contribute to meaningful learning experiences.  Teachers will get the chance to try different kinds of games before going through the process of creating their own board game.

Workshop Highlights:

1. Learn 3 Approaches to Incorporating Games:  Explore the different degrees of incorporating games into your teaching, from using existing games, modifying existing games, and creating your own game.

2. Board Game Creation:  Take part in a collaborative game jam where you will work alongside fellow educators to design and prototype your own board game. 

Even though I was the only elementary teacher in the workshop, I really enjoyed listening to the presentation and working with like-minded educators. Hafiz made some great connections to learning and playing games.

He addressed game-based learning vs gamification, which I really appreciated. (Few educators acknowledge that a difference exists.) He showed us about using games exactly as they are with the example of Timeline. (I played Timeline with my Grade 5-6 students in 2020-21 and it's inspired me to try a version with my current social studies students.) Hafiz mentioned some cool games I'd love to buy for myself. (That's the purpose of the photo below - to remember which games he named.)

He demonstrated how to modify existing games by playing Taboo with the group in attendance using cards he tailor-made for the target audience (educators). 

The last half of the workshop actually had us in small groups designing our own games for use in the classroom. I won't go over all the steps Hafiz took us through, but it was really amazing that after the explanations and the time to work, most of the four groups actually had a working prototype by the end of the session.

The group I collaborated with created a game for Grade 10 History about the Great Depression. I generated the potential names for the game and the group chose the one they liked the best. Our game was called "Poor Us: Managing the Great Depression [in Toronto]".

An extra thrill was seeing not one, but two former York U TL AQ alumni in the workshop. Thankfully, they didn't flee or try to dodge me when they saw me. Great to reconnect again, Jimmy and Aaron!

It wasn't just the content of the workshop that made it enjoyable. Hafiz Printer is an accomplished facilitator. He's been a teacher (and an award-winning one at that, receiving one of  the Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence in the past), and worked for the Aga Khan Museum prior to his current stint at the Archives of Ontario. I've seen him do a workshop as part of the Toronto Heritage Fair and he did a great job engaging middle-school students after a long day. The other cool thing about Hafiz is that he is a "hobbyist game designer" and co-founded Printer Ink Games with his twin brother. His enthusiasm for teaching, learning, and gaming is contagious. I look forward to having him present again at the York U TL AQ in the spring.

Spending time discussing games made me nostalgic for my times with the members of the GamingEdus. This is the second time this school year that my mind has strayed back to Liam, Denise, Andy and Jen. The GamingEdus website still exists (see https://gamingedus.org/) thanks to the archiving abilities of Andy, even though we haven't posted there in a while. That ship might have sailed, but I can keep playing, thinking, and writing about games here on this blog or on the AML website (https://aml.ca/). More importantly, it can spur me to return to integrating more games and games-based learning into my social studies teaching.

PS Hafiz, here is a photo of my husband and I playing the analog version of Tetris. Borrow it from me whenever you like so you can try it out. I might be using it for my Board Game Club which will be held on Friday mornings after March Break, but you can call dibs.

PPS - Hafiz, have you heard of the Serious Play Conference? I've been getting email notifications about it (https://seriousplayconf.com/). Maybe you should apply for an award, or at least be a speaker.