Pacing

Hello.

High school is a busy place - and I am still dealing with the idea of never having 'lunch' like I used to before I became a teacher - but ARGs take a lot of time to manage. Even for the 40 or students in my ARG, it takes a lot to monitor and provide feedback individually on a regular basis.

The other issue is that the school itself has a lot going on; swimming carnivals, excursions and (next week) a visit by 23 students from Nagasaki. In terms of my ARG it has really affected the pacing of the story/missions because the kids have a lot on their plate, as do I.

Many students are at least one mission behind the pace and it is not because they haven't cracked the code. The kids who have fallen behind either haven't prioritised the ARG as high as other work, or, worse, forgotten about work. It is a problem.

On the one hand the G in ARG is important but at the end of it we all know there is an assessable product. There is a great deal of tension between these two factors and I am not sure, at this moment I know how to untangle it.

So, I need to come up with a new mission for the coming week that involves our Japanese visitors which, though probably confusing, will force my students to communicate in a new and strange way!