Classcraft - Using Games to Redefine the Learning Experience
This is the meeting for the week of May 29, 2017 through June 4, 2017
This Meeting at a Glance:Program: Classcraft - Using Games to Redefine the Learning ExperienceProgram Description: Why are students willing to spend hours doing rote tasks in video games but not their math homework? We'll explore how video games fulfill specific psychological needs and how we can leverage Classcraft to foster a positive classroom culture and strong student engagement and collaboration.Speaker: Shawn Young, Co-Founder and CEO of Classcraft
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page. Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time.Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you; read it while on public transit, waiting in line for coffee, or even at the park! Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Message from President Mitty
Happy Memorial Day, Visiting Aussies, & Upcoming RI Convention.
New to our meetings? Then I want to welcome you to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley's online meeting! Every week we curate inspiring and educational content in an online format like the one you're seeing here. As you continue reading, watching, and scrolling, our hope is that you'll leave feeling a little bit more inspired. As an online Rotary club, we have these asynchronous meetings online, but we also meet in-person in the Silicon Valley / San Francisco bay area for service projects and for social events. Keep reading on, and feel free to also join us for one of our in-person events if you can make it!I learned long ago as a Rotaractor an Australian chant called "Aussie Aussie Aussie" and the crowd would reply back with "Oi oi oi!" That's been ingrained into me for years now, just as my appreciation for Australia and Australians. I mention this now because of our Australia-based eClub members, Brett Sham and Angela Hoang! They both arrived in San Francisco this past weekend and have been visiting the area as part of their travel prior to the Rotary International Convention starting in just one week in Atlanta. Yvonne and I had the chance to greet them at the airport and show them around, San Francisco. It's always a treat to be able to hang out with our fellow eClub members, but it's also amazing to have the opportunity to show around some of our international eClub members who visit; it's kind of like seeing a family member you haven't seen in years.I'm also very excited that we will have over half a dozen of our eClub members at the Rotary International Convention in Atlanta! We're looking forward to taking some group photos to share with all of you. For those of you reading but not able to make it out to Atlanta this year, I hope you'll start thinking about the Rotary International Convention in June 2018 next year. It'll be in Toronto, Canada -- close to one of our eClub members, Chris Cochrane!Regardless of your convention travel plans for this year or future years, I hope each of you who reside outside of the Silicon Valley will get a chance to visit us in the near future, and to let us know in advance so we can plan out some events! I think our brew social goes to show that the best time to visit is on a weekend, and when the sun is out!I want to switch gears a bit and give out some thank yous. Over the past two weeks, our happy dollars have been designated to go to the Big West Rotaract Institute, where Rotaract club leaders are being trained. For those of you who are new to Rotary, Rotaract is one of Rotary's youth programs -- specifically designed to help young professionals and students from ages 18 through 30 to become better leaders while doing service. Big West Rotaract is the regional Rotaract training organization for the west coast of the USA -- 100% volunteer driven. I'm so proud to say that over the past couple of weeks we've raised a combined total of $390 for Big West Rotaract, thanks to the generosity of our donors and to our club's matching funds. Special thanks goes out to everyone who contributed happy dollars the past couple of weeks: Thank you to Rory Olsen, Catherine A, Brian Liddicoat, Jermaine Ee, Roger Plested, Yvonne Kwan, Megan Breyer, Rushton Hurley, and Heather Shaw! You are all amazing! While happy dollars that goes to the club is always appreciated and really does make a difference for our club projects and initiatives, we're really happy to be able to support our young leaders whenever we can.As you're reading on, you'll find this week's program to be particularly exciting if you like games or education! Shawn from Classcraft is part of a team that is really doing some amazing and innovative work when it comes to changing the learning experience for students. Enjoy the program!
Yours in service,
Mitty Chang,
PresidentRotary eClub of Silicon Valley
president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
Weekly Inspiration: Paper Innovations of an Origami Master
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change. This week we are featuring a video from Great Big Story about incredible origami.
Twenty five years ago, physicist Robert Lang worked at NASA, where he researched lasers. He has also garnered 46 patents on optoelectronics and even wrote a Ph.D. thesis called "Semiconductor Lasers: New Geometries and Spectral Properties." But in 2001, Lang left his job in order to pursue a passion he's had since childhood: origami. In the origami world, Lang is now a legend, and it's not just his eye-catching, intricate designs that have taken the craft by storm. Some of his work has helped pioneer new ways of applying origami principles to complex real-world engineering problems.
Pretty amazing! Imagining origami inspiring and affecting how metals and technology folds is pretty wild!
Laughing Out Loud (L.O.L.) with our Lady of LOLs
We believe that laughing a little every day keeps you healthier. Every week we try to share with you something that will make you smile! This section is curated by Rotarian Yvonne Kwan, our club’s “Lady of LOLs.”
From Yvonne: "
Shoutout to super cool Chris Cochrane for sending me an entire list of jokes! Here are a few of my favorites.
"
My wife told me I had to stop acting like a flamingo.
So I had to put my foot down.
What's the difference between a hippo and a zippo?
One is really heavy, and the other is a little lighter.
What's orange and sounds like a parrot?
A carrot.
June 2nd is also National Donut Day!
Past Event Recap
In addition to our online meetings and hangouts, we also host in-person events in the San Francisco bay area every month. This segment is for sharing how our past events went.
This past weekend on Saturday, May 27, we were thrilled to be joined with several members of our club and some guests at Faction Brewery in Alameda, California for one of our May social events!In addition to local eClub members who came out (Rushton, Yvonne, Monique, Mitty, Shags), we were also joined by our Australian-based eClub members who were visiting (Brett and Angela), and also a few guests (Maxi, Jordan, Vi, John Z)!Here are some photos to share:Thanks to everyone who came out!Our awesome chef and member Shags was the one who chaired the event and helped spearhead it. Great work, Shags! We'll have an update next week about how our sailing FellowShip social event went!We hope you all will join us for one of our future socials or service projects!
New Member Welcome: Catherine A!
We love our members. Without them, this club wouldn’t exist. This section is a segment is dedicated to introducing our newest additions to our club!
“President Mitty here. So excited that we've been able to welcome a few new members as our Rotary year is coming to a close! It is with distinct pleasure that I am able to welcome our newest member, Catherine A! Members are the lifeblood of every club and of Rotary. It is because of the selfless service, dedication, resources, contributions, and time of our members that Rotary is able to do the life-saving work it does in our local communities and in the world.This week we are celebrating the official member induction of Catherine A. Catherine is a retired librarian based in the Silicon Valley, and spent many years as a Rotarian in the San Francisco bay area. She recently decided to transfer her Rotary membership to our club. As per our club’s tradition, we have asked Catherine to share with us a short video self-introduction. We will be sharing that video or presentation with everyone in one of our future meetings!"
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley, Catherine!
“President Mitty here again.Catherine, by becoming a member of our club, you each are re-joining the global family of Rotary as fellow Rotarians. You each now share this title with over 1.2 million leaders, activists, professionals, and miracle workers. It is because of the work of Rotarians that those without shelters have shelters, those without food have food, those with illness are cured, those without education receive it, and so much more. Whether it is the impact you will each make in your local community or in the global community, we know you each will live and think by the Rotarian creed of The Four Way Test: “First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, does it build goodwill and better friendships? And fourth, is it beneficial to all concerned?”It is my distinct honor to officially welcome you both as the world’s newest Rotarians, and the newest members of our club’s global family.Catherine, it is my distinct honor to officially welcome you both as the world’s newest Rotarians, and the newest members of our club’s global family.Members and guests, please join me in welcoming Catherine to our club!”
For Members Only: Updates
This segment of the meeting is dedicated to our club members. This section includes announcements and new initiatives. Guests, you are welcome to read this section or just skip it.
Dues are Due
Member Dues for July 1 to December 31, 2017 are due by June 15. All members should check their email inboxes for an email from treasurer-elect Heather Shaw regarding your membership dues. We are moving members over to automatic billing instead of manual billing.
Past Member Announcements:
May website updates: The /join page has been updated, New secure https:// SSL connection, new Our Members Page
Club Fundraiser on August 6 "A Taste of Good with Rotary" in Livermore, CA: Looking for help, donations, gift prizes, etc! Email Andrew Taw
Message from Treasurer-elect Heather on Automatic Dues: Make sure to check your emails! We are switching our system over to automatic dues rather than manual payment. Treasurer-elect Heather has more info for you!
TRF Challenge coins: Members who donate the following amounts will receive the following coins: $1000 - Gold, $500 - Silver, $200 - Bronze. Go ahead and request your Challenge Coin via the online form here then!
Service Blotter Submissions: Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
Our Events & Projects
We hold our meetings online, but we hold regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley every month! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of our events and service projects listed here.
Also be sure to join our Meetup Group for automatic calendar updates and to RSVP for our events! These are open to all guests as well!
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleyrotary/
Upcoming Events:
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com
FellowShip: Sailing with Rotary - Mon. May 29, 2017 from 9:30am-2:30pm at the Tradewinds Sailing Club in Richmond, California
https://www.meetup.com/siliconvalleyrotary/events/239994733/
Network: Rotary International Convention - June 10-14, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Join over 35,000 Rotarians from around the world at the annual Rotary convention! This year's convention will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and features the centennial celebration of The Rotary Foundation! The Rotary International Convention is the largest regular gathering of Rotarians, and is also one of the best networking opportunities anyone can ever experience. Our Rotary eClub will have member events and experiences in Atlanta! Come join us in Atlanta! Members, be sure to let President Mitty know the dates you will be there!
Our club's event chair: Mitty Chang
Special: Club Charity Fundraiser "A Taste of Good with Rotary" - Sunday, August 6, 2017 at Retzlaff Vineyard in Livermore, California
Save the date for Sunday, August 6, 2017 for our club's first annual charity fundraiser! This delicious food and wine lunch event will indulge your taste buds while we enjoy amazing company, live music, silent auctions, auctions, and ticket drawings. More info coming soon.
Our club's event chair: Andrew Taw
Happy Dollars: Do Good by Sharing Something Good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it's appropriate!)
Last week's happy dollars went towards the Big West Rotaract MDIO to help fund their upcoming presidents-elect training session for incoming Rotaract Club presidents. Here were the happy dollars donations from last week:
Thank you to member Rory Olsenfor his generous $15 donation to Polio Plus fund! Rory had this to say:"All is well. The rain has stopped. Life is good. Please apply my gift to Polio Plus."
Thank you to member Catherine A for her generous $20 donation! Catherine had this to say:"Celebrating the 2017 Silicon Valley Wine Auction which raised over $1 million last weekend for STEM Leadership Institute programs benefiting San Jose and Santa Clara students."
Thank you to member Brian Liddicoat for his generous $15 donation! Brian had this to say:"Just bein' grateful."
Thank you to guest Jermaine Ee for his generous $50 donation! Jermaine had this to say:"Thank you Rotarians for supporting BWR :)"
Thank you to member Roger Plested for his generous $20 donation! Roger had this to say:"If we want to have active interact clubs, then we have to support them."
Thank you to member Yvonne Kwan for her generous $10 donation! Yvonne had this to say:"I am officially 2/3 of the way done with my credential/master's program! Look out, education world, I'm comin' for ya!"
Thank you all for your donations last week! Because of the generosity of our members and our guests, over the past two weeks we have been able to raise $195 in donations for the Big West Rotaract Institute to help support incoming Rotaract club leaders throughout the region! Because of our club's matching commitment, that $195 is matched dollar for dollar, turning that into a grand total of $390 that'll be donated to Big West Rotaract! Thank you members and guests!
This week's happy dollars donations will be going to help fund our club projects!
Happy dollars is also a great opportunity to share with the group about something good that has happened to you, while giving back to a great cause.
So what are you happy about? Share with us below, and help support one of our future leaders!
Selected Six
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select six comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are six comments selected from last week's meeting about Next Vista for Learning: An Unusual Nonprofit Model
Member Ferheen Abbasi (Osaka, Japan) had this to say:"Welcome to the group, Jaiki! Rushton (Ahh, it's still so hard to call you that!), thank you SO much for your presentation. It's incredible to see how wonderful NV has become since I met you. Ever since we got to work with Next Vista in high school, I always check your website here and there to see what new videos there are. I really need to make a video one day about my lab work - wouldn't that be fun? :)."
Member Maxi Bustos (California, USA) had this to say:"Great meeting! Nice video about the history of tea, many things I didn't know about! Jaiki, congratulations on your membership! Happy to see that the club continues growing.Rushton, thanks for your presentation, really interesting! I liked the 4-way analysis you did for your non-profit. I will take a look at the tech English videos as we discussed on our way to the meetup yesterday :)"
Member Angela Hoang (Sydney, Australia) had this to say:"Rushton that was such a cool presentation! Initially I thought NextVista was about teachers making videos for students but now that I realised anyone can upload videos I can see it's an even more ingenious idea! By giving students the opportunity to make videos for others you're saying that they can contribute to others and their learning but also students can be more open to watching videos by their peers because they're relateable. It's also great to expose students to the process of citation and following copyright protocols because these are lessons we all have to keep in mind and the earlier people are exposed to it the more natural it becomes. Amazing talk and I'm so glad we got to pick your brain yesterday at the brewery, you're the best mentor!!! Also just to mention how great it was to meet everyone at Faction brewery yesterday, so nice to be able to chat properly and I love how everyone seems to come from different walks of life but what unites us is that everyone wants to do good things and help others through Rotarian values - so great! Welcome to the club Jaiki, having just joined myself I can 100% say we've made the right choice with this e-club!"
Guest Leanza Tupfer (California, USA) had this to say:"I enjoyed the History of Tea video - it's so interesting for many Asian/East Asian countries how much tea has influenced cuisine, culture, and way of thinking/way of life, later to how it affected European trade/the Industrial Revolution, and now as boba/milk tea culture mostly on the West Coast. I am also inspired by Rushton Hurley's non-profit, having the privilege of meeting him in person a month ago and learning about his work. Online schooling to me is a great way to "democratize" education so more people can be transformed from higher education and great educators, which are resources that can be limited based on socioeconomic and geographic factors. Keep up the great work, Rusthon!"
Member Nathan Gildart (Tokyo, Japan) had this to say:"Jaiki, welcome! Rushton, thanks for the presentation. One I was bummed to miss! As you know well, I love this and try to promote as much as I can. Spoiler alert - shameless student promotion from Nate - here is a link to 10 Next Vista for Learning videos made by my students over the last couple of years: https://goo.gl/5O7mQh. #proudteacher I can't say enough about NVFL. My students have a real-world opportunity to practice academic honesty, develop/practice proper research and synthesis skills, and have what I crave for student assignments - creativity and an authentic audience! (I can't stand the idea that students do assignments for myself, their parents and their academic record - bring on the audience!) Thank you to the Rotarians that take the time to watch the videos and assess them. I'm thrilled to know that although I'm leaving my school this year, Next Vista for Learning will continue at Seisen. (one of the Catholic schools Rushton mentioned) Yvonne, when you guys get back here we'll traipse around Asagaya. (mind you, it may be some Nagoya exploration!) I'll add one more thing for the teachers out there, and that is TED Ed Clubs. I'm hoping to start one at my next school. http://ed.ted.com/clubs. This comment was inspired by the TED Ed video - I'm one of those boring History geeks that actually has a couple of books on the history of tea and food / drink! Check this book out - A History of the World in 6 Glasses - https://goo.gl/4YXpDw."
Member Jaiki Alves (California, USA) had this to say:"This is the best meeting to me, because I am member right now and my happiness is similiar of the Rotary Internation size: infinite. First, I would like to thank you president, because you gave me support, opportunity and introduced me, I wanna to help this eClub for long time and to met each one. Rushton, nice apresentation, I am from Brazil and I know what you said about São Paulo. This is real and a fact. I would like to thank again and to say that I am able to help this Club, certainly!"
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!Tip: If you participate in the monthly photo contest via the comments, you're much more likely to be featured in the next week's meeting! Guests can participate too! Read our Members segment of our meeting to learn more about the theme for this month.
Program: Classcraft - Using Games to Redefine the Learning Experience
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, education, technology, and humanitarian service. This week our guest this week is Shawn Young, the co-founder and CEO of Classcraft, a platform that gamifies education, from classroom management to curriculum.
Shawn Young is a co-founder and CEO of Classcraft, a platform that gamifies education, from classroom management to curriculum. Since its launch in August 2014, Classcraft has gained incredible traction with educators worldwide, having been used in over 20,000 schools in the U.S. alone. With a unique background in physics, education, gamification and web development, Shawn became interested in how we can create community in the classroom and how games can make learning fun and interactive. At Classcraft, he leads product development, education, and sales.Shawn taught 11th grade physics for 9 years, where he implemented innovative approaches such as flipped classroom, project-based and game-based learning. He holds a bachelor's degree in physics and a master's in education from Universite de Sherbrooke. Shawn is also a seasoned web developer working for clients such as Chanel; The Future of Storytelling Summit; Carnaval de Sherbrooke, Hydro-Quebec; and The Feast Social Innovation Conference, often teaming up with his brother Devin. He is also a world-class speaker, having had speaking engagements across North America and Europe.
Members and guests, please join us in welcoming Shawn Young of Classcraft!
Related Links
Ask a question. Leave a comment!
Have a question for Shawn? Leave a comment or a question in the comments below! Or just tell us how your week has been!
Upcoming Program Schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 to 45 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Upcoming Recordings:
None at the moment!
If you would like to join us for any of the live recordings, please email president@siliconvalleyrotary.com with your request. Requests will be checked up until 5 minutes prior to the recording time. Please note the timezone is all California, USA time.
You’re Almost Done! One last thing: The Attendance Survey...
Thanks for reading and watching this week’s meeting. You have two last things to do before you’re done. First, we have a very short attendance survey below for you to fill out to record your attendance.
Visiting Rotarians, this is how you can get an email receipt to pass along to your club’s secretary as proof that you’ve attended our meeting if you need it for makeups.Non-Rotarian Guests, we would love to see who is dropping by our meetings! This part is optional for you. If you think you may want to join our eClub at some point in the future, we would strongly recommend you fill out the attendance form as it will improve your chances of success for your membership application.More importantly, for all members and guests — we strongly recommend and ask that you leave a comment below in our comments area below. Tell us how you enjoyed the program. Ask this week’s speaker any questions you might have. Or just stop by and say hello and tell us where you’re from!
