Level 10, the Grand Poobah level of
the game, requires teachers to become
leaders in their schools and states. It
asks them to present at a regional or
national conference or write a paper
for publication in a periodical. This
degree of involvement in the IT community is the ultimate goal of this
game. By this point, the teachers have
received instruction in hundreds of
applications, created numerous lessons integrating technology, and collaborated with each other to make our
curriculum better. The only remaining
step is to move outside our building
and spread their knowledge to become leaders in the wider world.
Winning the Game
During the first year of implementa-
tion, we had a lot of success with the
program. After a little less than one
year of operation, the 91 teachers
who participated completed 4,230
missions, an average of 46. 5 missions
per participant. If each mission took
the typical 15 minutes to complete,
that makes for 11. 6 hours of active
professional development per teacher
throughout the year. (See “Follow-
Up Survey” above for the results of a
5-point survey of 43 teachers given a
year after completion of the program.)
We have many challenges still to
face as well as successes to celebrate.
As of the 2012–13 school year, we had
86 teachers still in the game. Some
have retired or left the district, and
others have joined. (See “Leaderboard
Standings” above for a list of where
teachers are sitting.)
We are collecting data on how
teachers use the iPads in their classrooms and analyzing connections
Leaderboard Standings
Levels of Teachers
10
20
33
4 32
5 29
6 14
77
81
Follow-Up Survey
Question Score
What is your overall opinion of Mission Possible? 3.92
Has Mission Possible allowed for your individual needs in technology
professional development?
3.88
Do you feel that Mission Possible has introduced you to new
technologies that you did not know about before?
4. 10
Has this professional development changed how you teach? 3.04
Path to Advancement
Tiers Levels Name Paw Points Rewards
I. Novices 1 Noob 0
2 Novice 10
3 30
II. Users 4 User 60 Google Junkie
5 120 Twenius
6 195 Evernotologist
III. Tech Geeks 7 285
8 425
9 Tech God 565
10 Grand Poobah 745
to digital age standards. It is easy to
deduce that most teachers have a good
opinion of the program, as it meets
their individual needs and introduces
them to new ways to use technology.
It is important to note that some
teachers did make negative comments
in the free response section of the
survey. Most of these centered on the
time given to work through the mis-
sions during inservice trainings. Of
the average 11. 6 hours teachers spent
on Mission Possible this year, our dis-
trict devoted only 4–6 hours of inser-
vice time to the program. Even though
they had little time during the day, the
teachers in our district still found the
time to learn.
For now, I offer this program as a
model of how we implemented professional development for our 1: 1
initiative so that others may find some
inspiration to develop their models. It
began with an idea that several inventive collaborators advanced and blossomed into something innovative for
our district. We have found a level of
engagement with professional development previously unheard of in our
district, and I hope that others can experience similar results.
Christopher Like is a physics
teacher at Bettendorf High
School in Bettendorf, Iowa,
USA. Follow him on Twitter @
christopherlike or read his blog
at teacherswatercooler.
blogspot.com.
