Game over! You’ve just been spotted by your teacher! Doing what though? Playing games of course. Gaming has taken the world by storm throughout the pandemic, ev

en developing its own competitive scene called e-sports. But with the progressing tech in the modern age, students have been taking advantage of their laptops and gaming… in school!

There are thousands of games throughout the internet, but with so many to choose from, which ones are the students playing? They have come to popular google extensions, such as “Ice Dodo,” and “Boxel Rebound,” which are both platformer genre games. These games have pretty low graphics, which is why the laptops can run them. Other games that aren’t google extensions range from “Head soccer,” to “Flappy Golf.” These are only limited to Macs though, as you need access to the app store to download them. “If I do play games, I usually play Ice Dodo,” says eighth grader Han Tang.

Ok, so students are playing in class, but why would they do this instead of learning? Well, lots of students say that the classes are boring, or simply that they have nothing to do. These are the two most common reasons and some of the games that were not mentioned before can actually be played with or against other students, who, of course, have the game. “If I play, I would usually play because I am finding the class boring,” said eighth grader James Tepper.

Even if students aren’t gaming in class, they are still still distracted! This is because of one simple word: texting. With Macs, if a student has someone else’s number, he or she can text that person as long as there is a wifi connection. You can send funny pics or memes, funny phrases, anything!

With all that being said, how would the teachers feel? Since humans evolve, the students have learned how to hide their screens with the back of their computers from the teacher’s vision. Their feelings on gaming vary depending on the situation . “If they have

 any school work to do while they are gaming, then I think that it is a problem, but if they finished all their work, I don’t see the problem with gaming,” says STEM coordinator Matthew Oster.

The students aren’t the only ones who can adapt though. A possible way that teachers can help the students is by including games in their curriculum! Games like Blooket, and Kahoot are widely loved by the students and are always a blast for the class to play. Other games can range from including the class physically as well. “I love to include games such as Kahoot into my class as it bonds the students further,” says STEM coordinator Matthew Oster.

Students and teachers alike are adapting to the modern times. Only time will tell when we’ll get enough experience to level up to the next generation of technology.