Not only is a Texas education school turning to a computer game to teach classroom management skills, it has also nailed down a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to see if works.

The game, simSchool,is education's foray into the virtual worlds made popular by SimCity and World of Warcraft. The University of North Texas is piloting the simulation, developed by a group of former educators, in its teacher-preparation program.

In simSchool, as the player, or "teacher," presents a lesson, virtual students demonstrate the typical array of real kid behaviors, for example, Mr. Deadbeat snoozing away along the back wall and Miss Goody Two-Shoes in the front row furiously waving her hand. The player has to select appropriate tactics to engage her somnolent students while keeping brown-nosers in check. Graphs displayed at the end of the lesson provide a nice review of a player's skills but no straightforward grades.

The game can even be adjusted for particularly tough teaching gigs where it's easy to lose students' attention. Future teachers in the University of North Texas version of the game get experience in virtual special education and science classrooms.

Is it working? The wannabe teachers think so. They rated their own classroom management skills 30 percent higher than non-players and were 41 percent more confident in their ability to teach any student. We'll reserve judgment on the real effect, after they encounter students registering 98.6 degrees.