Engagement, Creativity, and Fun in the Classroom

This week's article summary is I Teach Escape Room Design to Elementary Students and the Class Is a Literal Game Changer.

I was initially drawn to the article by its intriguing title but then found the content an apt reminder of what we at Trinity provide daily for our students that is sadly lacking in most other schools that, as the author describes, are ‘test-centric.’

As most of you know, children become disengaged from school as early as third grade, just as their enthusiasm for learning and innate curiosity begin to wane, skill and content demands in schools escalate, and high-stakes test result become the standard measure of success.

The author, a fifth grade teacher in a Rhode Island charter school, re-engaged her students by challenging them to design and create their own digital escape room game. While she set parameters and guided her students as needed, she gave them the latitude to be imaginative and exploratory. The kids saw the real-life use in what they had previously viewed as boring discipline-specific skills in math, humanities, science, and art. They worked collaboratively, solved problems and disputes among themselves, and worked harder on their escape room than their ‘regular’ school work. They were excited and had fun as they learned, applied, and demonstrated.

Isn’t that the way school should always be?

The author’s plight is that her escape room activity is a one-time, stand-alone rarity in her school because it measures success via standardized tests. And as we all know, high-stakes test preparations is often tedious and boring and they tests don’t measure creativity or engagement.

As I read the article, I took pride that at Trinity escape-room experiences are the daily norm, not the exception.

Our mantra is ‘We cherish childhood as we simultaneously prepare our student for the future.’ Sadly, most schools don’t see the interconnection between cherish and prepare and that by cherishing childhood schools can maintain student interest, excitement, engagement, and motivation, which in turn leads to better learning.  

I know we can all sometimes take for granted the mission, philosophy, culture, and the what and how we teach at Trinity, yet let’s always be thankful for our continuous efforts to make learning meaningful and fun for our kids.

Enjoy the fun-filled weekend: three Braves World Series games, Georgia-Florida football, and Halloween! 

Joe

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“Ms. Burt, I hate school.”

Gianna, a student in my fifth grade history class, confided in me during a lunch break. Her frustration did not surprise me; we were midway through the first full pandemic school year. Our charter school had lurched between online and hybrid formats more times than I could count. And given the combination of stressful COVID safety procedures, endless technical challenges, and limits on social interactions, I knew that many students were fed up.

“Why do you hate school, Gianna?” I asked, expecting her to list the COVID-imposed challenges. To my surprise, her complaint was not about pandemic learning. Here’s what she said: “School is a waste of my time. We are expected to listen to whatever the teacher thinks is important and then spit it back out. I should be writing my novel or working on a new play instead.”

I knew I was supposed to respond with the following: “Even if there are classes you don’t like, these lessons will help you in the future. You are learning foundational skills that will give you the freedom to choose independent projects in high school and beyond.” But I couldn’t bring my mouth to form words I didn’t believe.

Teaching amid a storm of global disasters — a pandemic, an economic recession, a racial reckoning, and an escalating climate emergency — I felt cynical about how I was supposed to teach, test, and talk to students. I feared that the testing-centric curriculum my school enforced caused students like Gianna to disengage and left them unprepared for the global challenges that will shape their lives. So, I told Gianna the truth: She deserved better. “You have more creativity and perception than this school allows,” I said.

When I was asked a few months later to teach a two-week class of my own design, I jumped at the chance to offer students creative opportunities lacking from their core classes. As a COVID hobby, I had taken up designing escape room games. In these multiplayer, collaborative games, participants work through a series of puzzles and riddles to escape a situation they have been trapped in by a fictional villain. I had been itching to help students create their own escape games, but I knew it would be a challenge. As it was hard for me to create engaging, solvable, and connected puzzles, I knew it would be even more difficult for my young students.

The drive and quick learning I saw in the class surpassed my expectations. On the first day of our virtual class, students worked together to navigate an online escape room. The multi-part puzzles encouraged quick cooperation. The time challenge built into the escape game stood in stark relief to other timed assignments that provoked groans of dread. In the context of a game, the timer became a thrilling motivator.

During each successive class, students explored a core aspect of game design — story, mechanics, puzzles, aesthetics, and technology — to craft their own digital escape rooms. We also began each session with a “puzzle of the day.” Students solved the puzzle together and then dissected its structure and efficacy.

Student engagement was off the charts. Even kids who disengaged from core classes showed laser focus on their games, working after school to perfect their final projects. The group cheered on each game designer as they presented their finished project. Several parents told me the class had been a highlight of the year for their kids.

It is not a revelation that students learn better in environments where they feel happy and curious. Yet, the challenge of cultivating these spaces remains elusive at many schools. In schools like mine that fall short on academic benchmarks, student creativity is typically a secondary concern. Teachers are pushed to add practice tests, increase homework assignments, and compete with other teachers to achieve the highest test scores.

In my game design course, students tackled grade-level standards — developing their writing skills as they composed game narratives and embracing logic and math to create puzzles. They also learned the value of experimentation, revision, and collaboration.

A recent Gallup study found that in K-12 classes with frequent creative assignments, students are more likely to engage in problem-solving, demonstrate critical thinking, make connections between subjects, and retain key concepts across units. If schools accept the research that creativity ignites learning, they must center hands-on, student-led projects in classes of all disciplines.

As schools grapple with making up for the so-called “learning losses” of the COVID era, I am disheartened to see teachers pushed away from creative projects. Instead, they are pressured to cram in extra review units, use repetitive teaching tactics, and tighten disciplinary rules.

This is a moment to transform how we teach. Educators must listen to students like Gianna, who know that they deserve better than stringent, rote lessons. We must reimagine the classroom as a space for experimentation, invention, and play. Integrating projects like escape rooms and other design challenges into core classes can boost student engagement and foster deeper learning. Most importantly, by championing creative problem-solving skills in the classroom, we better prepare young people to imagine solutions to the crises they will inherit.