All the certifications

In all the hubbub of a new school year, I found myself fixating on something small, fun, and with badges. I needed a bit of a win. So, I decided to get ALL OF THE CERTIFICATIONS from tech tools that I could. The first one I did was Kahoot, which actually did result in my purchase of their premium. I use Kahoot at least once a week in my reading and language arts classroom. 

I pursued this openly, even posting the badges to our school library's social media and displaying a paper copy with my students...and it got me thinking...

If I enjoy this so much, how effective would "certifications" (aka gamification or badges) be with my students? 

I haven't implemented this yet, but I am now making a plan to create badges starting with my fifth graders to share via Google Classroom as they master certain concepts. I have a few badges, so I'll share them below. I decided to go with bronze, silver, and gold levels to correspond with the scales I plan on creating in the future for these skills. I don't have these yet either, but I will one day. You're with me on the beginning of this journey, friends. Feel free to steal, add on, etc.

---

Our catalog is Alexandria. When the catalog is cleaned up and ready for patrons to dig into, I'll be spending time with my kiddos to make sure they can search and use it like a pro.

This badge is intended as a reward for being able to detect fact and fiction online.

Database skills will be rewarded with these handy badges.

This badge is one of my personal soapboxes - inquiry skills. I want my students to come away knowing how to ask effective questions and digging for the answers.