Meet Jeremy McIver!
As a Grade 8 Health and Physical Education teacher, Jeremy has been an avid user of GooseChase for a number of years. Jeremy is into his 17th year of teaching and is currently at Valley View Middle School in Snohomish, Washington. Throughout Jeremy’s career he has attended a number of conferences, two of which he was given the opportunity to participate in a GooseChase game. As a result, Jeremy has since started using GooseChase in his own classroom! We recently talked with Jeremy to hear his thoughts about GooseChase! Keep reading below to see what he had to say!
How have you used GooseChase?
I have used GooseChase in a number of different situations in my classes. I have used it as a way for my students to get to know the rules at the beginning of the semester. For example a mission might say “Find and take a picture, of your team, where you turn in your class work”. I have used it to allow students to show their knowledge of our subject matter. I teach middle school health and physical education. One mission that I use is “take a video of your teammates demonstrating an exercise to improve your muscular endurance”. I also give them opportunities to be creative. For example this is one of my favorite missions, “Take a picture that is an optical illusion. Maybe it looks like someone is holding a car or sitting on a building, etc.”.
I also teach a summer school class called The Amazing Race: Snohomish Edition. In this class students get clues and run all over our town performing different tasks and challenges. Two years ago I started using GooseChase as one of my challenges. The missions have questions like “take a picture of your team at a place where you might take your pet” or “take a picture of your team in front of a bank”. This is helping the students know more of their town. It is giving them the opportunity to notice things they might not otherwise.
This year I was asked by our new principal to plan a GooseChase at a local pumpkin farm as our staff retreat at the beginning of the year. So our staff got the chance to use use GooseChase and loved it.
When do you think you’ll use GooseChase next?
I’m thinking of doing something with my nutrition unit. I would open up the game for 24-48 hours. This would be an individual game. I think I will ask the students about specific parts of nutrition and have them take pictures with the foods they feel meet the criteria. Then we can analyze what the students shared. I think it would be valuable because the students would get to analyze the foods they have at home, the things they actually eat.
What do you think makes GooseChase special?
The thing to me that makes GooseChase special is that there are so many options for how you can use it. This can be used for important information such as reviewing for a test or help students learn information in a fun way. It can be used a simple fun bonding experience such as in my staff retreat. You can ask knowledge question for them to text answers or show their knowledge by pictures or videos. The information you can ask is almost limitless.
Then getting the chance to see the pictures and videos that are submitted is almost priceless.
What tip(s) do you have for educators just getting started with GooseChase?
I suggest having students download the app on a different day than you will do the GooseChase. Sometimes students are held up because they are having a difficult time downloading the app or getting into it. So if the students can get all that figured out prior to doing the Chase that helps make things go smoother once it is time for the event.
Big thank you to Jeremy for taking some time to give his insight into using GooseChase! If you want to follow along with Jeremy and see the ways in which he uses GooseChase in his classroom, give him a follow on Twitter, @jkmciver!
