School Teachers Who Play Pokemon - Share Your Experiences

[hueglin]

I run a small Pokemon club (not league) at my school. It's mostly grade 4-6 students who attend. I find it a great way to have fun with them and to have them (secretly) practicing Reading, Math and higher order thinking skills.

I'm curious about how many other Pokemon players are also teachers, who share this passion with their students. I know this can't be a poll, so sharing ideas of how you organize your activities with students would be beneficial to others.

I recenly read about another teacher who actually organized a trip to States for some of his students (sactioned by the school) - what an amazing idea!

 

[Lawman]

I know of a few teachers that are also PTOs. David Tuskey (totoro) in VA and Clay Mitchell (prof Clay) in Memphis.

Keith

 

[SD PokeMom]

not a teacher...but the game's 'painless' math and reading drill is a point i emphasize to my new league parents with young-elementary school age children.

since the parents oftentimes have no idea what's involved with the game, i'll point out the HP - damage calculations necessary, or show them a card with the 'flip two coins, for each heads do X damage' type of attack.

and i also share the 'league is a great incentive' hint with the parents, as well: "remember, if you want to go to league this week you need to..(do your homework, complete your X minutes of reading, do your chores, whatever...) first"...as it works

'mom

 

[totoro]

Yup, Clay and I are both chemistry / biology / anatomy (how's that workin' out, Clay?:biggrin who both are PTOs. After school on Fridays we do have casual play in my classroom. It's well known around school that I'm "the Pokemon guy". I do get teasing from some students, but quite a few will tell me "confidentially" that they really enjoyed the card game when they were younger. I do my best to get them back into the fold..
BTW, the nostalgia for gold/silver couldn't have come at a better time for these teens. I've heard them talking about the vg release for weeks!!

 

[meganium45]

I think Clay is doing fine with his new diversified subject matter. (I avoided EVERY joke I could go for there Clay, I was good.)

What the heck, is he also going to teach animal training next year.

I really wanted to put the word husbandry there, and thought it would be a bit too much for this board!

Vince

 

[silverst31n]

lol Kentucky pto Bernie Deville is a teacher as well.

 

[The Gorn]

Where's Jake Burt (Dendrobatida)?

 

[kwisdumb]

WA/PNW PTO David Nelson is a Math Professor.

I'm not a teacher but I've worked with under-served youth for a few years (not currently, unfortunately) and it's good times. Awesome to see people growing the game and working with kids at the same time.

 

[Ruiner]

I'm not "technically" a teacher as I never completed my student teaching, although I did put in 2 months of it, and have gotten my degree in Education. I really do feel that the skill sets this game develops both cognitively and socially are extremely beneficial for students of all ages, and I know that it really helped me out in the long run as well.

 

[my58vw]

Chemistry teacher... incorporate pokemon in quite a few parts of my class (today was pikachu energy transfer ). Pokemon guy too, and the wall of "swaggering shinx" (My last name is swager) does not help.

 

[Heatherdu]

I do not teach for a living unless you count 'mommying' my boys but I have taught Pokemon as an extra-curricular activity at my son's elementary school many times. It is always a hit because the kids love the chance to learn and play, the parents like it being at school (safe location and no extra travel required), and the best part is the realization that the parents get that these silly cards can really be an effective learning tool for kids on so many levels - reading, math, socializing, gamesmanship, logic, etc. Everyone at school knows me as the PokeMom and we always donate Pokemon gift baskets, etc. for any fundraiser that the school has to continue to keep the game out there.

I offered two different sections - one for beginners where I charged a little more but provided everyone with a theme deck of the most current set. This helped me because I knew everyone had a legal deck with a helpful playmat and I could focus my instruction on a limited set of cards. It helped the students because everyone was pretty much on the same level and everyone had the chance to win a match. I recruited my sons and some of their friends that know how to play as assistants so we had lots of knowledge, help, and judging in the room. I held on to the decks so they didn't get lost or edited or forgotten until the last meeting when I gave them their decks plus a pack or two of current sets to update their deck along with league information and Pokegym links. After I had offered this section once, I began to offer a second 'advanced' section which was basically a club for the more experienced players. I would save all of our extra cards and create a prize box similar to what they do at Nationals and Worlds in league play - each player picks a card and the winner gets to decide which card s/he wants. Some of the cards had prizes written on them such as ball, toy, binder, etc. and the player would get that prize.

My husband and I would love to offer a similar beginners class to parents (or parent/student team) who would like to learn more about the cards and how to play with their child. I just have not been able to get it to work out yet.

 

[hueglin]

I do not teach for a living unless you count 'mommying' my boys but I have taught Pokemon as an extra-curricular activity at my son's elementary school many times. It is always a hit because the kids love the chance to learn and play, the parents like it being at school (safe location and no extra travel required), and the best part is the realization that the parents get that these silly cards can really be an effective learning tool for kids on so many levels - reading, math, socializing, gamesmanship, logic, etc. Everyone at school knows me as the PokeMom and we always donate Pokemon gift baskets, etc. for any fundraiser that the school has to continue to keep the game out there.

Mothers and fathers are the first and most influential teachers. Great post. It's given me some good ideas.

 

[Crazar]

I'm not a teacher.....but those who know me know that I am the mother of 6 wonderful boys. I spend a lot of time working with teachers, as you can imagine. I had one teacher try to tell me that Pokemon was just a silly card game with no educational value. She was also my stepson's teacher. My stepson has a learning disability and was very behind in his reading level, had awful speech problems, and wasn't very social. That was a little over two years ago. The family ended up getting into Pokemon, and we have seen amazing improvement in him. He is now only a partial grade level behind in reading, his speech is perfect, his math skills are above average, and he is the most social butterfly you would ever want to meet! I have a few other children with learning disabilities in my league, and all their parents find it incredible how much their children are improving in school since they started playing this game. My six year old's reading skills are above average as well, since he wanted to learn to play the game. We told him he would have to learn to read the cards, and that motivation has inspired him to work hard at reading. His reading teacher had to start him on first grade sight words, because he knew all the kindergarten ones. It has also helped with his writing skills, as he wants to write about Pokemon as well, and is all to eager to have someone help him spell out words he doesn't know so he can write his teacher stories (three or four sentences about his favorite Pokemon) about it. I commend all those teachers that see the educational potential of Pokemon, and I have meet a few counselors as well that implement it into helping children with social skills, and getting them to open up to them. As a parent, I don't think there is any better game that can grab a child's attention, and make learning as fun as Pokemon.

 

[Medaforcer]

Chemistry teacher... incorporate pokemon in quite a few parts of my class (today was pikachu energy transfer ). Pokemon guy too, and the wall of "swaggering shinx" (My last name is swager) does not help.

I thought your post was sounded familiar at first. I'm the league leader at Empire. Pretty cool incorporating it into your class somehow. Haha

I am not a teacher, from from it even, but it is pretty great watching kids learn from playing the game without even noticing. Reminds me of when I was a young lad and how hard it was to get me to pay attention to normal lessons, but pokemon... Pokemon got me like that.

 

[Trican]

I'm a teacher and just a casual player. I work at a low income school so we don't have many kids that play. However I have in my "treat jar" random commons and uncommons especially since I have several sugar free kids. I know at VA States last weekend I got a LA Theme deck, for the kids that like to play that was an "End of Week" give away for kids who had high behavior that week. Any time freebies are available I snag them and the kids are happy. For some of my kids getting their one common card is the high point of the month or week depending on the give away.

 

[Rogue Archetype]

Rogue_Blissey and Rogue_Archetype are both Public school teachers.

Our family started in David (TOTORO) Tuskey's league in Richmond VA because it was supposed to be "the place to go" if you wanted to get next-level on the Pokemon scene (home of Team Ivy back then). We had to travel 70 miles one way to get there each week.

We were beaten to a pulp on a weekly basis (I'm not sure that's changed ...), but had an invaluable opportunity to see how the cards were SUPPOSED to be combo'd and the complexity of the game's strategy.

Ultimately, we brought the game to our own community and started a league here in Warsaw, VA.

My popularity as an elementary school teacher pulled in curious junior and seniors who had never played the game before. We began with an impressive 34 NEW members on day 1 and the total enrollment went up to 42 by the 3rd month.

Since everyone was brand new, I approached each league day as a lesson - covering various moves or specific cards each week. My teaching experience affords me the perspective to understand how important it is to EXPLAIN and assist kids with strategy and to pull back and just let them play (to learn how to win and lose on their own terms).

I took about 6 students to regionals last year. I figure, by this time next year, I'll be carpooling in about 30 fresh seniors, 10 juniors, 6 pokeparents as playing participants.

At school, kids often run up to me while I'm standing in the hallway and, excitedly, share their latest card-pulls.
This evokes A LOT of curiosity and interest in those kids that have not played the game.

Parents and students still refer to me as "Mr Washington," so discipline simply carries over to league (I don't have any problems with wild children and parents). The community already trusts me to do things in the best interest of their children, so there's no "is this game evil?" anxiety about the game. Well, whenever someone poses the question, it's met with "If Mr. Washington is promoting it, there can't be anything bad about it."

Summary = Being an teacher of elementary school aged students is a huge asset when it comes to growing the Pokemon player base in your area

RA

P.S.
I'd like to send a shout-out to David Tuskey, Johnny Rabus, and everybody down at the McDonalds on 3rd and Crimshaw. "We're doin' it up Big Willie Style Boyyyzzzz." ... lol