Cricket

Welcome to the greatest game of all - Cricket. This site will help explain to an absolute beginner some of the basic rules of cricket.

Although there are many more rules in cricket than in many other sports, it is well worth your time learning them as it is a most rewarding sport.

Whether you are looking to play in the backyard with a mate or join a club Cricket-Rules will help you learn the basics and begin to enjoy one of the most popular sports in the world.

Cricket is a game played with a bat and ball on a large field, known as a ground, between two teams of 11 players each. The object of the game is to score runs when at bat and to put out, or dismiss, the opposing batsmen when in the field.

The cricket rules displayed on this page here are for the traditional form of cricket which is called "Test Cricket".

However there are other formats of the game eg. 50 over matches, Twenty20 Cricket etc where the rules differ slightly.

Player: Official Cricket Rules

Cricket is a game played between two teams made up of eleven players each. There is also a reserve player called a "twelfth man" who is used should a player be injured during play.

The twelfth man is not allowed to bowl, bat, wicket keep or captain the team. His sole duty is to act as a substiture fielder. The original player is free to return to the game as soon as they have recovered from their injury.

To apply the law and make sure the cricket rules are upheld throughout the game there are two umpires in place during games. Umpires are responsible for making decisions and notifying the scorers of these decisions.

Two umpires are in place on the playing field while there is also a third umpire off the field who is in charge of video decisions. This is where the call is too close for the on field umpires and they refer it to the third umpire who reviews slow motion video replays to make a decision.

Game Structure

Test cricket is a game that spans over two innings. This means that one team needs to bowl the other team out twice and score more runs then them to win the match. Another key difference between test cricket and other forms of cricket is the length of the innings. In test cricket there is no limit to the innings length. Whereas in one day cricket & Twenty20 cricket there are a certain amount of overs per innings. The only limits in test cricket is a 5 day length. Before the game begins an official will toss a coin. The captain who guesses the correct side of the coin will then choose if they want to bat or field first. One team will then bat while the other will bowl & field. The aim of the batting team is to score runs while the aim of the fielding team is to bowl ten people out and close the batting teams' innings. Although there are eleven people in each team only ten people need to be bowled out as you cannot have one person batting alone. Batting is done in pairs.

Once the first team has been bowled out the second team would then go into bat. Once the second team is then bowled out it would normally return to the first team batting again. However there is an exception to this in the cricket rules, it is called the follow-on. The follow-on is when the first team makes at least 200 runs more than the second team made (in a 5 day test match). This then gives the first team the option to make the second team bat again. This is particularly useful if the game is progressing slowly or affected by bad weather and there might not be enough time for both teams to play a full innings. Should this be the case the batting team's captain also has the right to forfeit their innings at any time. This is called a declaration. Some may wonder why a captain would forfeit the opportunity for his team to bat. However if the game is coming close to a close and it looks like they will not be able to bowl the other team out again this could be an option. If one team is not bowled out twice and a winner determined in the five days of play the game is declared a draw. Therefore it may be worth declaring an innings to creat the possibility of a win rather than a draw.

Ways to score runs

The aim of the batsmen is to score runs. One of the main cricket rules is that for batsment to score runs they must run to each other's end of the pitch (from one end to the other). In doing this one run is scored. Cricket rules state they may run multiple runs per shot. As well as running they can also score runs by hitting boundaries. A boundary scores the batsmen either 4 or 6 runs. A four is scored by hitting the ball past the boundary after hitting the groud while a six is scored by hitting the ball past the boundary on the full (before it hits the ground). Cricket rules also state that once a 4 or 6 has been scored any runs physically ran by the batsman are null & void. They will only obtain the 4 or 6 runs.

Other ways runs can be scored according to the cricket rules include no balls, wide balls, byes & leg byes. Cricket rules state that all runs scored by these methods are awarded to the batting team but not the individual batters.

A "No Ball" can be declared for many reasons: If the bowler bowls the ball from the wrong place, the ball is declared dangerous (often happens when bowled at the batsmen's body on the full), bounces more than twice or rolls before reaching the batsman or if fielders are standing in illegal positions. The batsman can hit a no ball and score runs off it but cannot be out from a no ball except if they are ran out, hit the ball twice, handle the ball or obstruct the field. The batsman gains any runs scored off the no ball for his shot while the team also gains one run for the no ball itself.

A "Wide Ball" will be declared if the umpire thinks the batsman did not have a reasonable opportunity to score off the delivery. However if the delivery is bowled over the batsmen's head it will not be declared a wide but a no ball. Umpires are much stricter on wide deliveries in the shorter format of the game while being much more relaxed in test cricket. A wide delivery will add one run to the batting team and any runs scored by the batsman. The batsman is not able to get out off a wide delivery except if they are stumped, run out, handle the ball, hit their wicket or obstruct the field.

A "Bye" is where a ball that isn't a no ball or wide passes the striking batsman and runs are scored without the batsman hitting the ball.

A "Leg Bye" is where runs are scored by hitting the batsman, but not the bat and the ball is not a no ball or wide. However no runs can be scored if the striking batsman didn't attempt to play a shot or if he was avoiding the ball.

Ways Batsmen can be given out according to cricket rules

There are a number of different ways a batsman can be given out in the game of cricket. When a bowler gets a batsman out it is said that the bowler gets a "wicket". Following are the different ways a batsman can be given out according to the rules of cricket:

Bowled - Cricket rules state that if the ball is bowled and hits the striking batsman's wickets the batsman is given out (as long as at least one bail is removed by the ball). It does not matter whether the ball has touched the batsman's bat, gloves, body or any other part of the batsman. However the ball is not allowed to have touched another player or umpire before hitting the wickets.

Caught - Cricket rules state that if a batsman hits the ball or touches the ball at all with his bat or hand/glove holding the bat then the batsman can be caught out. This is done by the fielders, wicket keeper or bowler catching the ball on the full (before it bounces). If this is done then cricket rules state the batsman is out.

Leg Before Wicket (LBW) - If the ball is bowled and it hits the batsman first without the bat hitting it then an LBW decision is possible. However for the umpire to give this out he must first look at some of the factors stated in the cricket rules. The first thing the umpire need to decide is would the ball have hit the wickets if the batsman was not there. If his answer to this is yes and the ball was not pitched on the leg side of the wicket he can safely give the batsman out. However if the ball hits the batsman outside the line of off stump while he was attempting to play a stroke then he is not out.

Stumped - A batsman can be given out according to cricket rules when the wicketkeeper puts down his wicket while he is out of his crease and not attempting a run (if he is attempting a run it would be a runout).

Run Out - Cricket rules state that a batsman is out if no part of his bat or body is grounded behind the popping crease while the ball is in play and the wicket is fairly put down by the fielding side.

Hit Wicket - Cricket rules specify that if a batsman hits his wicket down with his bat or body after the bowler has entered his delivery stried and the ball is in play then he is out. The striking batsman is also out if he hits his wicket down while setting off for his first run.

Handled The Ball - Cricket rules allow the batsman to be given out if he willingly handles the ball with the hand that is not touching the bat without the consent of the opposition.

Timed Out - An incoming batsman must be ready to face a ball or be at the non strikers end with his partner within three minutes of the outgoing batsman being dismissed. If this is not done the incoming batsman can be given out.

Hit The Ball Twice - Cricket rules state that if a batsman hits a ball twice other than for the purpose of protecting his wicket or with consent from the opposition he is out.

Obstructing The Field - A batsman is out if he willingly obstructs the opposition by word or action

There are many other cricket rules. However these are most of the basics and will get you well on your way to playing the game. Many of the more advanced rules & laws can be learned along the way and are not vital to general play.

Mobiles And Systems

Today, technology can zip your restaurant order to the kitchen in an instant, allow you pay your taxi fare by credit card, and let you scan your groceries as you place them in your cart. Welcome to the world of mobile point-of-sale systems. Wireless connections are in the process of altering the way we shop. And the trend continues to grow.

Point of sale (POS) is business lingo for the spot where a retail transaction takes place -- where money changes hands. Though today many people pay for things with credit or debit cards, most payments used to be made by cash or check, and merchants stored the money in a cash drawer or box. Then along came the cash register. Invented in the 1870s, it was a mechanical way to keep track of revenues and was the first POS system [source: RetailSystems.com].

Not much changed until the 1970s when the next POS innovation -- the barcode -- became available. Beginning in 1974, Universal Product Codes began to appear on items. Merchants were able to use scanners to read these codes and process sales more quickly and accurately [source: National Barcode]. In the past 20 years, retailers have added a few more gadgets to speed checkout lines, including card swipe devices for accepting credit and debit cards, as well as signature pads and personal identification number (PIN) pads.

During the 1990s, wireless computer networks -- which send radio waves through the air to transmit data -- became available, allowing POS systems to go mobile. Restaurants were among the first to adopt this new technology. They accelerated the payment process by letting staff process credit cards at customers' tables. Other businesses followed suit. Car rental companies, for example, added mobile POS to allow curb-side handling of car returns. Hotels sent servers poolside to take guests' drink orders on mobile devices.

Some retailers are now replacing centralized checkouts and letting clerks use portable computers to complete transactions. Many Apple stores, for example, which sell Apple computers and other hard- and software, have gotten rid of cash registers. Representatives answer customers' questions, check stock and finalize sales with hand-held devices [source: First Data].

Mobile POS can be especially useful in the field. For example, the Hampton Jitney bus service, which carries New Yorkers to Long Island beach communities, uses an onboard system that allows attendants to check reservations, take payments and print out receipts [source: Zebra.com]. Today, there are also systems that allow small-scale merchants like flea market vendors and bake sale operators to accept credit cards and process transactions using an ordinary mobile phone [source: Extended Retail Solutions].

Though some have concerns about the security of wireless transactions, both consumers and merchants may benefit from the availability of mobile POS. Retailers and service companies can make employees more productive and lower labor costs. A restaurant server, for example, can save considerable legwork with fewer trips to the kitchen or cash register. Also, accuracy is increased by eliminating written orders. Customers may receive speedier service and error-free, detailed receipts on the spot.

Electronics retailers are revamping their aisles to focus on hand-held gadgets this holiday season to excite consumers who have grown weary of their traditional big-sellers: televisions and personal computers.

Shoppers this Christmas can expect to see more smartphones, electronic readers and touch-screen computers in the most prominent store displays, underscoring a dramatic shift to powerful portable devices that is fast changing the face of consumer electronics retailing.

The new priorities are plainly evident in the changing strategy of Best Buy Co., the nation's largest electronics retailer by revenue, which is now morphing into a mobile gadget specialist after decades of promoting the latest in big-screen televisions, desktop computers and high-fidelity stereos.

Best Buy, which reported a 61% jump in second quarter profit Tuesday despite flat sales at stores open at least 14 months, said it will showcase devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer and Amazon.com Inc's Kindle e-reader this holiday season. It also plans to turn the middle of its stores into a playground for motion-sensing videogame accessories from Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

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The Richfield, Minn., retailer already has radically pared back its formerly expansive selections of movie and music discs as consumers gravitate to digital entertainment purchases. What remains will be further reduced to make way for the electronic fashions of the moment, it said. On Tuesday, Best Buy said it will expand iPad distribution to all of its 1,093 U.S. stores Sept. 26.

"People are willing to disproportionately spend for these devices because they are becoming so important to their lives," Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn said in an interview. "We are really positioning the company to be the place where people can come and see the best of the connected world."

The chain's emphasis on gadgets and games is fine with customers such as Anthony Thomas, 36, a manager for a Texas software company. "Five years ago, I mainly came here for appliances and kitchen stuff," Mr. Thomas said after buying the videogame "Halo: Reach."

Best Buy is not the only large retailer looking to grab a bigger share of the gadget action: Staples Inc., best known for selling office supplies, also plans to start selling the Kindle this fall.

"I don't want to be a consumer electronics company and start selling big-screen TVs, but we are looking broadly," Staples Chief Executive Ronald Sargent said. "Most of our customers are small business owners and the Kindle is something they can enjoy while traveling."

Best Buy's strong results for the three months ended Aug. 28 were due to tight expense controls, increased sales of cellphones and services such as connecting televisions with home networks, and a stock repurchase program that reduced total shares outstanding.The earnings also underscored the trends buffeting consumer electronics retailers heading into Christmas. Best Buy said smartphone sales continued to rise compared with a year ago, as did portable computer totals, buoyed by the iPad.

However, television sales fell despite the rollout of new 3D models, with both average prices and total volumes notching "low-double digit" declines compared with last year. Mr. Dunn also said internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs, especially netbooks, by as much as 50%.

"It's a very different environment now," said Stephen Baker, the chief electronics analyst for market researcher NPD Group Inc. "The real cool stuff now will be the tablets, e-readers and probably the higher-end digital cameras."

Still, Best Buy projects annual revenues of $52 billion, up about 5% from last fiscal year. Executives said Best Buy is well positioned to benefit from the changes in electronics, noting that the company offers the largest e-reader assortment in the industry and is heavily focused on its Best Buy Mobile business, which offers smartphones from multiple carriers under one roof, similar to the way such phones are marketed in Europe.

Its mediocre television sales mirror recent statements by retailers such as Costco Wholesale Corp. that U.S. television sales are slowing, and come as leading manufacturers warned shipments fell substantially in recent months, a trend that may pressure their profits.

Panasonic Corp. TV executive Yoshiiku Miyata said in an interview with the Journal last month that "there is definitely a slowdown in U.S. sales, while Sony's TV head Yoshihisa Ishida said last month he saw signs of "rapid deterioration" in the American economy and no longer expected to make U.S. sales targets.

Slack TV demand has led to a inventory buildup that is spurring price cuts to spark sales, said analyst Riddhi Patel at researcher iSuppli Corp. She predicted that by Black Friday (the big shopping day after Thanksgiving), lower-tier brands of 32-inch HDTVs will sell for as little as $199, with other name brands advertised below $500.

"It has become largely a replacement market," Ms. Patel said. "New features are not driving sales in a significant way.People are saying, 'I could buy a television or something totally new like an iPad that I don't already own.'"

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Bloomberg News

Retailers hoped new technologies such as 3DTV and internet-enabled televisions bundled with popular applications such as Twitter would help slow the downward trend in average television prices, which have been falling 20% to 25% a year in recent years.

However, 3DTV sales are off to a slow start, as programming for the expensive sets continues to be scarce and the requirement to buy additional viewing glasses for around $100 apiece is turning off potential buyers.

For consumers, the situation likely means more lavish television promotions this Christmas season, with lower prices on fancier models and bundling deals that throw in free 3DTV glasses as well as Blu-ray movie players.

"You are going to see better and better deals on 3DTVs," said Richard Leeds, chief executive of Systemax Inc., which operates the TigerDirect website and has begun opening stores after purchasing the brand names of fallen retailers CompUSA and Circuit City. "That is going to make adoption speedier."

Bat Man Movie

In a few weeks, we will all get to see a six minute prologue of the much-anticipated The Dark Knight Rises, which will be attached to the less-anticipated Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Several months after that, we will get to see the final installment in Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy. However, I can already tell you what will (or should) happen in the film ...

SPOILER AND OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE ALERT: Batman goddamn dies.

Of course, that probably won't be the only thing that happens, but it will be what everyone is trying to not talk about in front of people who haven't seen it yet. As an expert in Advanced Batman Theory (and with a cursory knowledge of Quantum Batman Theory), I can tell you without seeing a single minute of the movie that this is how it has to go down. Nolan has said time and time again that he will not return to the Batman franchise. He is telling his own Batman story and when Rises hits theaters, that's the end of it. Christian Bale has made similar claims. But that's only a small fraction of why I think -- nay, why I know -- that the Dark Knight must die. Here's why ...

Before we start, it's important that you know two things: 1) I might be insane, and 2) I really hope Christopher Nolan is a genius. Here is proof of both.

After making Batman Begins (part 1 in The Dark Knight Trilogy), Nolan made The Prestige, a film about magicians and David Bowie. In it, Nolan gave us the three steps to performing an illusion: The Pledge, The Turn and The Prestige. The Pledge is the setup. It presents to you something ordinary that is most likely not ordinary at all. The Turn takes that ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Something unexpected. And then there's The Prestige, which basically just blows your fucking mind. It takes the unexpected something from The Turn and turns it on its head, making you believe in magic.

Disturbing, terrible magic ...

The Dark Knight Rises

What I'm getting at, and what I suspect about Nolan, is that he is currently on the tail end of finishing two separate trilogies. When he was done with part one of the Dark Knight Trilogy, he made part one of his other trilogy, which was The Prestige. I will call this his Prestige Trilogy, because that was the movie in which he told us exactly what he was going to do to us. In The Prestige, Nolan told us all about The Pledge, Turn and Prestige. We saw journals within journals and stories within stories. In Inception, Nolan gave us The Turn: He took that ordinary idea of stories within stories, and he turned it on its head and made it something extraordinary. Whatever film Nolan makes after The Dark Knight Rises will be The Prestige of that trilogy. Inception was The Turn and The Prestige was The Pledge.

So what does this have to do with Batman? Well, first, I just want to be clear about the kind of storyteller I think we're dealing with: the insane and awesome kind. But it also establishes a pattern. Christopher Nolan tells us what he's going to do to us years before he makes the movie that actually does it. And Nolan has already told us in his previous Batman movies what he's going to do to us with the third. We just need to connect the dots. With Batmath.

Two-Face(s): The Turn(s)

The love interest in the first two films was Rachel Dawes and she's (spoiler alert) fucking dead now. Rachel (Katie Holmes/Maggie Gyllenhaal) was the last connection Bruce had to his former self, before his parents died, before The Batman (BTB). She told him as much at the end of Begins:

"No, *this* is your mask. Your real face is the one that criminals now fear. The man I loved -- the man who vanished -- he never came back at all [from BTB]. But maybe he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe some day, when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I'll see him again."

And she saw him again, briefly, in Dark Knight. She was right, kind of. Except then she (SPOILER ALERT) fucking died, and the last bit of the Bruce she remembered died with her. Now let's Turn the faces, or flip the coin, or at least look at this picture again.

On the other side of the faces we have Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), the White Knight of Gotham. The White Knight that The Joker (AND KIND OF BATMAN A LITTLE) eventually turned into Two-Face (Aaron Eckhart). Oh and then? He fucking died. Rachel and Harvey, sittin' in a tree, b-e-i-n-g d-e-a-d. Their deaths were huge turns for a Batman Trilogy to take. Aside from some Robins every now and then, nobody dies. This meant that anyone could die. The Batman, in all his glorious Batmannery, couldn't save the good guy OR his love interest. Batman may have proven The Joker wrong with the two bombed boats at the end of Dark Knight, but Joker proved Bruce Wayne wrong with Two-Face and Rachel. See, that's the joke.

Ha.

With each death, a piece of Bruce died, and a piece of Nolan's Batman Prestige was being placed. By the end of The Dark Knight, Bruce is metaphorically pretty fucking dead already. Alfred keeps him hanging on a bit with his "so we can pick ourselves back up" talk, but he knows he's not saying it to Bruce anymore. He's saying it to The Goddamn Batman. A Batman that now only has one goal: Hardcore Batmannery. In terms of story within a Batman Trilogy, that's ... well, that's close to the end of the line. All that's left is a bunch of episodes of Batman being Batman, fighting villains as Batman. But that's not what Nolan's in for. He's making a Trilogy. This is the end of the line. So who do we turn to but ...

Bane: The Bat Breaker

If you're a fan of the comic book, you know that Bane is most famous for breaking Batman's back. If you're a fan of the other Batman movies, then you think he's most famous for having neon blood.

Don't be mad, Bane. You'll be cool in a decade or two.

But mostly he's known for breaking the Batman's back. It's the one thing you do when Bane's involved, unless you want to be Bruce Lame about it. But ALSO unless you're Christopher Nolan, because Nolan isn't about recreating moments from Batman comics. He's about reinventing ideas from Batman comics. He's about creating his Batman. And in his Batman, things are grittier. The stakes are higher. Things break harder.

Bruce The Batman can be broken until he's dead because Nolan's Batverse is real, or at least it's the realist. Aside from the fact that there are Batmen, Nolan tries really hard to keep his Batverse within the realm of possibility. And death, as he has shown us already, is very possible. Don't feel bad for Bruce, though, because if you turn to page 2 you'll know that above all else, Nolan's

It is almost certain now that the Dark Knight will be rising sooner than expected. As MTV News reported last week, there was a rumor circulating that a six-minute prologue to the upcoming Christopher Nolan Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises," would play before IMAX showings of "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol." The presentation was, in theory, supposed to be similar to the Joker's reveal that played before IMAX screenings of "I Am Legend" in 2008.

The rumor remained just that until theater chain AMC released a statement on their blog that reads: "The six-minute Dark Knight Rises prologue footage will only be shown on the higher resolution 70mm IMAX screens. Not the digital IMAX screens. Locations haven't been confirmed yet, so stay tuned for an update on AMC Theatre locations that will be showing the prologue Dark Knight Rises footage at a 70mm IMAX screen nearest you."

AMC's statement aligned with the original rumor that had been posted on /Film, but news of the clip only showing on the "higher resolution 70mm IMAX screens" was an unexpected bit of information, though not entirely surprising. Nolan is known for his meticulous control over his films, so insisting on the higher res for the preview makes sense.

This detail from the AMC post may spell trouble for some fans. If the report is accurate, the prologue will play on far fewer screens than initially expected. The digital IMAX screens tend to be more common than the 70mm format ones, so some fans may have to travel further than expected for their first glimpse at "The Dark Knight Rises."

The post was the most solid confirmation yet about the footage, but it was soon removed. A new statement was issued by AMC, stating, "The information in this post has been retracted until further notice. Please refer to Warner Bros. for any information about The Dark Knight Rises."

If AMC was confident enough to confirm the rumors, the prologue seems like more or less a certainty. The redaction by Warner Bros. could have to do with how they typically release Batman info. With "The Dark Knight," the "Why So Serious" marketing campaign involved highly complicated tasks that rewarded fans with content, like the Joker prologue. A straight news release for the "Dark Knight Rises" prologue would go against precedent.

Warner Bros. Interactive UK has revealed new information on the Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition.

It launches in the UK on 7th September for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - over three months after the US gets it. No mention was made of the PC version.

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The Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC adds more than two hours of fresh gameplay to the campaign, Warner said. Also included on the disc are all five previously released DLC packs.

Warner said those who already own the game can download the Harley Quinn's Revenge Pack, which will be available in all international markets beginning Wednesday, 30th May from the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Marketplace. Warner's original 30th April announcement was incorrect.

In the DLC you interchange between playing as both Batman and Robin to uncover Harley's plan. You "shut the gates on the urban mega-prison forever". There's a new storyline, new environments and a new gang of thugs.

The list of content for the UK version of the Game of the Year Edition does not mention the Batman Year One animated film, included in the US version.

The content in full:

The DLC included on disc includes the Catwoman Pack, Nightwing Bundle Pack, Robin Bundle Pack, Challenge Map Pack and Arkham City Skins Pack.

Maps: Wayne Manor, Main Hall, Freight Train, Black Mask, The Joker's Carnival, Iceberg Long, and Batcave.

Playable Characters: Catwoman, Robin and Nightwing.

Skins: 1970s Batsuit, Year One Batman, The Dark Knight Returns, Earth One Batman, Batman Beyond Batman, Animated Batman, Sinestro Corps Batman, Long Hallowe'en Catwoman, Animated Catwoman, Animated Robin, Red Robin and Animated Nightwing.

UPDATE 1: You can download the Batman: Arkham City Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC individually as soon as next week, publisher Warner Bros. has now confirmed.

The add-on will be available on 30th April, according to the Batman: Arkham City Twitter. Rocksteady's community manager has further clarified that date refers to the Xbox Live release only, where it will be priced 800 Microsoft Points (£6.80). PSN owners get it a day earlier - on a Sunday - for $9.99 (around £6.20, final UK price TBC).

ORIGINAL STORY: Broody adventure Batman: Arkham City is to receive a DLC-stuffed Game of the Year edition, including the previously-spotted Harley Quinn's Revenge DLC.

The Harley Quinn-focused expansion is described as the "final chapter" of Arkham City's story and looks to be set after the main campaign's climax.

Batman: Arkham City's Game of the Year edition will bundle the new Harley Quinn content with the pre-existing Catwoman, Robin and Nightwing DLC add-ons, plus the Arkham City Skin Challenge Map Pack.

You'll even get a download of the well-received Batman: Year One animated movie.

A new trailer for the new edition lists a 29th May US release date. It's likely that Europe will therefore see the game launch the following Friday, 1st June.

Education

The education articles on this website are selected for suitability by a real teacher and writer. Only articles on K-12 education topics relevant to parents, teachers, or other educators are selected for inclusion.

Teachers can benefit from reading and writing education articles as a professional development activity. You might also impress your principal by becoming a published author of education articles on this website. 

After teaching for 12 years, the first thing that I must admit is that I never had much success with grouping students for math. Whenever I attempted this in my early years, chaos would erupt, and I ended up with a room full of racket and off task students.

However, in our school district, the constant pressure of individualized accommodations for students not achieving grade level material spurred me to make groups effective in my classroom no matter what.

I felt that through the use of groups, I would be able to create a smaller setting where students could work with others who are achieving at about the same proficiency level. This way the activity I assigned for that group would be within their ability range and they would not feel much pressure being faced with a task that was out of their grasp.

Keys to Success with Groups

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The most important step is to make sure you teach the students your expectations for group work time. Teach them exactly how they are supposed to transition into their groups, how they are expected to begin the activity, the volume level they should maintain, and how they will transition out of groups at the end of the work period.

Planning is very important to have success with groups. Planning which students will be in each group, the total number of groups to have in your classroom, and what activities each group will complete. These are all important topics to address with careful consideration. Without an effective plan, you will soon find the stability of each group crumble, and the noise level rise all around you.

Keep in mind also that group time isn't an opportunity for students to struggle learning new material, unless you the teacher are working with that group to instruct them.

Generally groups provide the opportunity for students to review specific standards/concepts that they've learned and have already had practice time to digest the material.

To make groups more effective and enjoyable, the activity should ideally be engaging and somewhat entertaining. Granted once in awhile you will need to give the standard review worksheet, but for the most part if you plan an activity that engages the whole group to work together, the experience will be much more meaningful.

For example, say you are working with adding and subtracting decimals. Instead of assigning the group to complete a page of problems from their math book, you can give the group a menu of food items and ask them to calculate how much a meal, drink and dessert would cost for one person, two, and a family of four. Advanced leveled groups can even calculate sales tax and gratuity amount.

Taking it a step further, groups can design their own menu of food, drinks, and dessert items, name their restaurant, and create a list of questions to then exchange with other groups.

As you can probably imagine, activities like these will get students much more actively engaged and that is one of the most important goals for students in groups during math time.

In summary, keep these three important points in mind:

1) Plan your groups carefully and make them flexible depending on their achievement level.

2) Teach students exactly how group procedure works and your behavior expectations. Don't assume they know this already.

3) Engaging Activities will be more meaningful and students will be more actively involved in the learning and get more out of it.

It is amazing the difference in effort you will get from worksheet to worksheet. Granted the amount of effort may vary immensely from year to year depending on the group of students you have. However for the most part, when a worksheet is needed to help drill down a procedure, standard, or lesson, its effectiveness can and will vary.

Therefore it is our job as the teacher to make sure that when we need to utilize a worksheet, we provide the students with one that is as inspiring as can be.

Times are different these days. Kids are growing up in a world of microwaves, fast food chains, Nintendo, Wifi, ipads, along with a ton of other technical marvels.

When I was growing up we didn't have home computers let alone Playstation to entertain ourselves. Handheld camcorders were barely coming to the retail market by the time I was in 8th grade, but still a long ways away from the YouTube and Facebook arena we now see today. Times were extremely different back then and so was school.

From a teacher's perspective our competition is tough. Passing out a handout of 30 problems that are all in a format of 534x25= is not as stimulating in the students' eyes as playing games such as Grand Theft Auto and Resident Evil.

Granted, that will always be a tough uphill battle for math to win out over most video games, but the point is, students today are much more immersed in technology than ever before. So even if you need to pass out a math worksheet to review concepts and formulas, it will greatly benefit your cause if you design the worksheet to be as stimulating as possible.

Therefore creativity is a must for worksheets to be successful.

Regardless if you are trying to review math, science, reading, writing, health, or social studies, your goal should always be to try and create something that will generate desire in the students to actually want to do it. If you can do this, the battle is practically over already.

For example, since I want to make sure my students get accustomed to reviewing the various math concepts and standards we've learned all year, I have them practice regularly. I want them to get to a point where they are so familiar with grade level math content, that solving these types of problems becomes automatic.

However, caution must be taken into account when review is repeatedly covered in your classroom. You do not want your students to become bored or frustrated with the repetition.

Another important point I keep in mind is that I never want this regular math review time to take up and hour of class time. I want it to be quick but effective. This is not instructional time, but time for the students to review material they have already learned.

In my 5th grade classroom, we use a math review series called 10 Quickies. In essence they are simply halfpage handouts with ten standards based math problems woven into a special picture or exciting scene. Remember, I want to keep the math review time quick, but effective.

My students are engaged in the activity because they are always eager to find out what the next scene will be, and how the math problems will be nestled within. They also like how within each handout I inscribe the words "10 Quickies" generally in a way that fits with the theme of that particular scene. And since this review activity only takes about fifteen minutes of class time, it is quick yet extremely beneficial.

Point is, whatever it takes to get students actively involved with the reviewing process where they are not bored and effectively reviewing grade level material in order to prepare them for state or quarterly assessments.

Hopefully this has inspired you to develop exciting and engaging review worksheets for your class when needed and your students achieve as much as they can when it comes time to test.

If you've had difficulty getting your students actively engaged in reviewing math, here are seven ideas you can immediately put to use in your classroom to inspire success.

1. Partner Up. One way to get students energized to review math is to create math partners that work together to solve what you have assigned them. Careful consideration of behaviors and compatibility must be taken into account so that partners interact effectively. It's also important to teach how partners should interact with one another, and what they should do if they disagree or come up with different answers.

2. Center Activity. If you have centers in your room, you can make a "Math Review" center where students go and review specific math problems, concepts, or anything else you want them to focus on. Again, make sure students know the procedure of how the center works, and what to do when/if they finish the activity early.

3. Bag of Stuff. Students find a bag of item intriguing. A variety of activities can be developed and placed in a "bag". You can make it simple using a paper or plastic bag, or get fancy and make/decorate your own. Depending on what standard you are working on, or want to review, can guide your bag activity. For example if you are working with multiplication, you can have colored note cards, one color with the problem, another color with the answer. Students would then have to match each card with the correct answer by solving the problems on paper. Therefore inside this bag you could have small decorative paper, colorful pencils, the note cards, a timer if you want them to work for a specific amount of time, and anything else you think would be relevant or helpful.

4. Create-Your-Own Problems. Have students create their own problems for their partners or tablemates to solve. For instance, if you are working on two digit multiplication, each student would create five/ten problems, then exchange with their neighbor to take turns solving the problem. You can then have them check each others answers. Make it a game too. Whoever gets 5 or 10 right wins.

5. Complete the Problem. You start a problem off and the student completes and solves it. For example -4+___=? or 345X__=? Again, if the student can trade with someone afterwards to check for accuracy then it will focus them even more to work carefully because they will want to get the correct answer.

6. Online Games. If your students have access to computers, laptops, or tablets (ie: ipads), you can literally find thousands of free educational math games that can review any math standard you want. Doing a quick Internet search will list a whole bunch of options. For example, typing "online multiplication games" in Google returns a nice variety of fun, entertaining flash card and alien blasting games that can really get your students excited about reviewing math.

7. Board Games. There are a variety of board games or printed paper games that review any math standard you want. Sometimes your grade level chair/colleagues already have math board games they will probably loan you if you ask (and promise to take care of and return). You can also check with your school's Title 1 coordinator or the one responsible for ordering/maintaining school supplies/books/equipment.

Hopefully these ideas got your wheels turning about the possibilities for you and your students. Having activities like these breaks the monotony of the traditional teaching method and lets the students have some fun while at the same time review math material. Just don't forget the importance of explicitly teaching the students how they are to use/play with a certain activity first so there is no confusion for the students.