Back in the day, gamification in the classroom probably meant playing Heads Up, Seven Up or Four Corners on a day when the weather prevented kids from going outside for recess. These days it's everywhere, from punch cards at restaurants to checking in at a location on your cell phone. But what exactly does it mean, and how do you get this rolling in your TXGU classroom? In this blog post, you can see that the spirit of gamification is really all about engagement, retention, and incentivizing your kids to do more. All of these are huge wins for any learning methodology.

There are some great strategies shared in the article, like the teacher who has done away with letter grades in favor of “experience points.” Some schools are creating digital badges that can be earned by students throughout the year. Others educators are integrating video games into their lesson plans and embracing the competition that gaming creates. So the big takeaway here is not to toss out your lesson plans, but to see how gaming elements can take your college-prep instruction to the next level.