It was like "Ba-Bomb"!

I am an introvert by nature; when given the option, I prefer to be by myself and mind my own business. For this reason, I am always surprised when kids and babies choose me as the source of their entertainment.

I was sitting in the allergist’s waiting room this afternoon, adhering to the obligatory twenty minutes of idling, waiting for signs of an adverse reaction that never come. Settled in the farthest, most isolated corner of the room, I opened my laptop and started responding to my collection of emails. Suddenly, a small plastic bomb invaded the space between me and my screen. This was immediately followed by a rather loud, small voice launching a barrage of questions about Super Mario Brothers. I looked up to see a pre-school-aged boy with short, dirty-blonde hair who happened to be clad in red sweatpants, a red Spider-Man T-shirt, and some rockin’ galoshes. His brown eyes sparkled as he began to describe a version of the game that involves Mario, Luigi, Toad, and the Princess. His side of our entire conversation was at an extremely loud volume level (much to the entertainment or annoyance of the rest of the waiting room) and at an extremely fast pace; I wasn’t able to answer many of his questions, and I'm not sure he breathed much. 

The conversation moved to an explanation of why I couldn’t choose the princess as a character when playing (because she had been kidnapped by bad guys in a cake, of course). He briefly switched to the topics of Mario Kart and Mario Dance Party before returning to Super Mario. Next, he described some of the “bad guys,” then suddenly cut to world 7 and the perils that can be found there. 

I am amazed by the amount of detail and description this four-year-old could relay in each of the levels within each world. Granted, there were some sound effects and arm motions that went along with his communication, but I was able to recognize and subsequently visualize each of the scenes to which he referred. As a disclaimer, I have played the game before, so that played a role in my understanding of his descriptions. After my "eighty" minutes were up (that's how long he told me I had to wait) and I walked to the car, I really started processing what had just happened between us.

Here was a little guy who had an obvious passion that he wanted to share with a strange woman in a waiting room. The excitement was clear based on his facial expressions, body language, rapid speech, and dynamic sound effects. He stood, paced, swayed, and spun in circles as he talked; at the most, he sat down for ten seconds at a time. I got the impression that this is not a boy who will do well sitting at a desk completing worksheets once he starts school.  My English-teacher wheels started turning, and I thought, "How is this kid going to make it in a classroom? How will he stay engaged?"  

Since technology in education and student engagement are frequently somewhere in my brain, that's where my thoughts turned. Video games are technology, right?  The kid was actually pretty descriptive for a four-year-old. Since my teaching background is at the secondary level, my brainstorms frequently produce ideas for older kids; this pre-K kiddo made it click. I used to have students write "snapshots," which are extremely detailed narratives of a very short moment in time. I know of some students who spend a great deal of free time playing video games. Why not let them practice using imagery and writing narratives using experiences from their virtual worlds? It would also be a great way to practice getting thoughts from their heads into written language. Could one activity be for the kids to write their own snippet of an original video game design that they could give to software developers? Assessment could be based on whether the software developers could visualize what the students "want" based on the written description! Could this be adapted for students in the primary grades? This little fellow could definitely articulate what he was seeing in his mind.

I'm certain I'm not the first person to have the idea of using video games as a topic for writing; however, that doesn't make it any less exciting for me. I just keep seeing this little guy's facial expressions and hand gestures as he shows me his little plastic toy and tells me about how the "Ba-Bomb" has invisible smoke that goes "this far" after an explosion in the game.  

Today I was honored to be "interrupted" by a boy who unintentionally blew my mind.