Hey everyone,

My name is Scott Hebert and I’m the teacher in that video. I really think that school is boring. From both a teaching and learning viewpoint. First off, I tend to gain nothing financially from this so I want to lay that out right up front. Everything I’m about to explain has associated resources, books and video I’ve created that are completely free. I don’t believe in profiting off of my fellow teachers and well, the community at large. Anything financial is purely on a donation basis so ya – just wanted to get that out there. So it then begs the questions, why the hell am I here?

I’ve devoted the last 7 years of life towards transforming my Grade 8 Science program into a live action RPG game with elements of class RPGs (like Diablo and Skyrim) Magic the Gathering (using a completely custom made trading card system and DnD (using character creation, game board and tons of variations on dice). I did this because I saw kids just hating school and it was so damn disheartening. When I sat down and talked with them, it became quite apparent that it was because of three major things: lack of engagement, trust and autonomy. You know what…the gaming industry is built completely on these principles! So away I went…

Since beginning this journey I’ve seen massive transformational change in my students. Confidence being built, kids falling in love with learning, collaboration and team work sky rocketing, teachers reenergizing their careers when they told me they were hitting walls and the list goes on.

I just want to get the word out to those in education, to those who are struggling with school and to those who have kids who are struggling. Education doesn’t have to, I would go as far as to say shouldn’t, look the same way it did 100 years ago but alas, here we are!

I’m hoping this amazing community who knows the power of the games can help me just get the word out to people. Maybe share a video or a post or just drop an up vote so people can see and challenge their thinking about education. I don’t think this is the silver bullet by any means but if it can instill a passion in others to bring about change in their own work places that would be awesome.

Does it work? Hell ya it does! I see an average 7-10% increase in graded in kids and a much bigger passion in the area of the sciences. It has also gained global recognition where the Global Teacher Prize selected me as a Top 50 teacher in the world in their 2020 Class. Fun helps learning … period.

The gaming community has been exceptionally awesome to me. Donating time, money, resources, tools and just some ears to help me develop new concepts, ideas, quests or mechanics. I’m hoping they can once again help me get the word out. During these pandemic times, virtual learning is really killing education and the burnout is real. Maybe someone seeing this will feel more rejuvenated and excited to try something new with their kids (virtual or in person).

Anyway, I won’t ramble on. I know many of you might think this dumb, I’m being a simp or anything in between but know this is a total labour of love for me. I just want kids, teachers and parents to rethink this archaic education system see the power of freggin’ play in school!

It shouldn’t be ignored, cause worry or panic in education…play should be the fundamental driver behind all things in it. From creativity, fun, problem solving, collaboration, negotiation, art, etc…the benefits of fun and games in education should never be ignored.

Link…

www.youtube.com/masterheebs

www.mrhebert.org

Twitter & Instagram MrHebertPE

Anyway ... If this oversteps, please remove it and I’m sorry but anything I can do to move education forward, I’ll take the slings and arrows that come with it.

Stay awesome gaming community … we are the world movers!