TED talk: Ali Carr- Chellman's Gaming to Re-engage boys in learning

Ali Carr-Chellman made some very good points in her TED talk.  Classrooms seem to be a female- oriented environment lately.  There are less male teachers, and more times than not, a female teacher's attitude towards boys and their "little action figures and video games" is negative.  Ali also talked about some astonishing statistics with the "100 girls" test.  Some of the findings were: For every 100 girls that are expelled from school, there are 335 boys expelled from school.  For every 100 girls with an emotional disturbance, there are 324 boys with an emotional disturbance.  Boys are also four times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD.  I think that this is a result of not letting boys get dirty, rough house a little bit, and basically just get all of their excess energy out.  I agree with Ali when she said we need to put a little more time and money into designing better games for the classrooms.  The games we have now are just "glorified drill and practice."  I also agree with re-evaluating the 'No Tolerance' policies that schools have.  Boys should be allowed to write about what they are interested in as long as it cannot be considered a real threat to the school or an individual.  For example, if a boy wanted to write about war, or a murder mystery, or devastation with natural disasters he should be able to.  It crosses the line when he writes about bringing a gun to school or killing someone in particular.  I have always liked video games and I consider them to be a big part of my life, so when I become a teacher, I will do my best to accommodate boys in my classroom.  I understand their wants and needs to play games and get dirty, and I won't deny them of that.