I Would Rather Just Be Both Lucky and Good

On my last day at HSC, one of my students suggested a game of Monopoly. I of course encouraged this idea, because I love Monopoly. I ended up playing with two students, whom I’ll call Karen and David, who are a couple. Karen hadn’t played Monopoly in a long time, if ever, so she needed a reminder of how the game was played. I figured this wouldn’t be much of a game, but maybe I could teach them some strategies.Read More »

Final Ultimate Werewolf

Last week was my last week with my 8th graders at Worthington Hooker School. We finished all of our work for the class and they took the final on Tuesday, leaving us three days before their graduation. The principal was awesome enough to agree to let us keep meeting those days to play games together, something they can never seem to get enough of. In particular, they love Ultimate Werewolf. So that was what we played.Read More »

Following the Leader

I taught a couple of my coworkers, Mary and Kelly (Baker), how to play Settlers of Catan at the bar down the street from my apartment this afternoon. I front-loaded the explanation of the rules a lot, but otherwise I feel I got through them pretty efficiently, and the game went pretty smoothly.

I was reminded though how frustrating this game can be the first time you play it, when you aren’t sure where to place your first settlements. They make those 6’s and 8’s red for a reason, but if you don’t realize how important the frequencies are, your ship can sink before it leaves the dock.Read More »

Last Hurrah for HSC Game Club

The school year here in New Haven is rapidly coming to a close with the last day of finals today. So this afternoon we had a final meeting of the HSC Game Club. It was a fun affair, with the four student regulars attending along with one of their significant others, a nice fellow from another school that I’m happy to host in my classroom. We also had an HSC alumnus from last year come back to play with us, and one of members of the Future Project team, Zachary Hill. This guy may have my dream career.Read More »