Beginning with Minecraft Education Edition

Beginning with Minecraft Education Edition

Feeling overwhelmed at the mere thought of trying to use Minecraft Education Edition with your students?  I’m guessing that this is because your students know so much more about how to play it than you do?  Never fear – just strap on a growth mindset, be prepared to learn from your students, and dive straight in!

Minecraft Education Edition is a new adventure for me.  I’m currently heading up a team at my school where we are taking part in a Catholic Ed SA project for using Minecraft Education Edition through a religious lens, with the aim of teaching sustainability. But, before we could get to a religious perspective, we had to up the Minecraft skills of our students, and get them used to the idea that this was learning, not just play!

Needless to say, they were beside themselves with excitement.  I’ve been teaching the same group of learners for a couple of years now, and they have an excellent growth mindset (particularly when it comes to digitech!) and love to be my guinea pigs.  To begin with, we got all students participating in the project (all Year 3, 4 and 5 learners – around 100 students) together and we established our agreed practices.  The teaching team felt that this was important, to separate learning from playing, right from the beginning.  Here is a copy of what we came up with.

The agreed practices has been invaluable – there has been absolutely no confusion about which worlds students need to reserve for learning, and which ones they can use during inside play (for example due to bad weather).

Side note: the Big 5 is a school-wide code of conduct, and consists of:

  • Be Christlike
  • Be Brave
  • Be Supportive
  • Be Respectful
  • Be Safe

So anyway, to keep the learners focused on the fact that we were undertaking learning tasks, I did what I do best – I created a lesson in Class OneNote and distributed it to my Year 4-5 learners.  There’s nothing like clear Learning Intentions to remind students that we are learning, not just playing!

The first hurdle I had to overcome was – how do I teach 66 learners all at once?  Turns out that I didn’t have to – I had a significant number of Minecraft Experts on my hands!  I had all of the learners self-nominate their level of expertise, and then put themselves into groups of the following;

  • 1 Minecraft Expert
  • 1-2 Minecraft Middle-Roaders
  • 1-2 Minecraft Beginners.

One of my favourite aspects of this – is that the children that were Minecraft Experts, are not necessarily the usual leaders in my Village – giving a whole new level of respect to students who don’t always get to shine.

We strongly discourage (read don’t allow) learners to download anything off the internet.  So, in order for learners to have access to the Minecraft worlds that I want them to use, I created a shared folder in OneDrive.  Only one student from each group needs to download the world, and then the other members of that group can join up.  I went through the instructions step-by-step, but also included a screenshot and instructions in OneNote so that learners could remember how it’s done.

The groups of students then worked together to build expertise and get through all of the levels.  There was a huge buzz in the room, and seeing such diverse groupings of learners encouraging and supporting each other warmed my teacher heart.

All of the worlds that I’m using come straight off the Minecraft Education Edition website – a fantastic resource for Educators like me – willing, but not necessarily brilliant at using Minecraft.  All of the work is done for you!

What did I take away from this lesson?  That my learners continually surprise me and that they have more patience and persistence than I sometimes give them credit for.  I learned that I don’t have to be an expert at a technology in order to use it with students, I just have to set clear Learning Intentions, and the learners will do the rest.

Oh, and I also learned that my students love it when I bumble around with them – they really enjoy teaching me tips and tricks!  Go on – give it a go!

Independence with OneNote

Independence with OneNote

We have a mix of several ongoing projects/ extended learning activities in our Village as well as shorter term activities.  We also, like any class, have learners who finish the shorter activities quickly.  There’s always something to do, but sometimes our learners get confused about what priority they should place on activities, or they just want to have a bit of agency over their learning and choose what they do and when.

So, we came up with the Independence List.  We have tried several designs over the last two years, but this is our current working model.

As you can see, the activities are down the left hand side.  Any that MUST be completed by Friday afternoon of that week are highlighted in green.

Student names run across the top.  You’ll notice that Harrison’s name is green – this means that he has currently completed everything, and he can have free time to work on a project of his choice.  (Most learners have been choosing Hour of Code activities lately).

Independence List Codes

  • Green – activity is complete and checked by an educator.
  • Yellow – student has been working on an activity, but not yet complete.
  • Red – activity has not been begun.
  • M – activity is marked by an educator, and feedback is available (usually in their OneNote page).
  • A – student was absent and does not have to do this activity.

What we love about this current model is that we’ve put it into the Content Library in the Class OneNote.  This means that learners can view the Independence List whenever and wherever they are (including at home with their parents).  But, because we’ve placed it into the Content Library, only educators can edit the list (no sneaky checking off activities that aren’t really up to standard!)

We’ve created a Section called Independence, and we create a new page for every week.  This way, when we get to assessment time, and we need to check boxes in report cards about items such as ‘organisation’, ‘manages time well’ etc, we have instant documented evidence.

We have also built in designated ‘Independence Blocks’ into our weekly planning.  This gives everyone a chance to work on their activities.  I did an informal survey of students a while ago, and they all agreed that Independence is great, and they used their time in a variety of ways.  Here are some of them below.

  • Start at the top, and work on a task until complete before moving onto the next one.
  • Do what I’m feeling the most excited about first, but keep watch on what has to be finished by Friday.
  • Do what I don’t enjoy as much first so I get it over with.
  • Set myself 15 minutes on an activity and then switch to something else so I don’t get bored.
  • Get everything done to what I think is a pass, then go back and try and improve.

Our learners with additional needs thrive off the Independence List.  It is clear, easy to read, and the colour codes are simple to understand.  Planning difficulties can be managed by reminding these learners to focus on the highlighted tasks.

The Independence List in the Content Library of Class OneNote has been a game-changer for us, because we don’t have learners constantly asking us, “What do I do now?”  They can always find out for themselves as it is always available to them!  Also, a simple question from an educator of, “How’s your Independence List looking?” is guaranteed to get a chatty child right back on task!

Link to my OneNote containing an Independence List that you can edit for your own students can be found here. 

 

Tinkercad Explorations

Tinkercad Explorations

Recently, I was lucky enough to borrow a 3D printer from Catholic Education SA for a few weeks, and explore the big, wide world of 3D design and printing.  I used the Tinkercad free online website – https://www.tinkercad.com/

It’s easy to use and kid-friendly.  I did a few lessons in my own time, and then my learners signed up, and we got creating.  One thing about kids and technology – they have no fear.  Within a couple of lessons, they were creating weird and wonderful designs, and wanting me to print them all!

We agreed on a project, and the printer started printing.  Then, I got a little over-excited, and expanded the program to include the rest of the school!  That’s right, all 186 students had a go on the Tinkercad software, and at least half ended up with a small printing to take home.

What was the verdict?  It was fantastic!  The printer – slow as it was – became an instant drawcard during recess and lunch eating times. Students would take it in turns to sit in the chairs in front of the printer (not stepping a toe over the masking tape line on the floor!) and watching layer after layer print out.

The printings – while small – were a source of pride and a wonder to behold.  We learnt so much about 3D shapes, measurement, ICT and manipulations.  I can definitely recommend it, and a 3D printer has been added to my school technology wish-list!

Green Screen Magic

Green Screen Magic

 

We got to play (I mean do serious curriculum) with a green screen! For four whole weeks, we borrowed a green screen kit from the wonderful Learning and Technologies Team at Catholic Ed.

So. Much. Fun. 

As soon as it was set up, I got goosebumps.  Oh, the places we’ll go!

In my usual over-ambitious way, I scheduled time for ALL of the students to have a go (in small groups, in 15 minute allotments!) Each of the three Villages was responsible for designing and planning their own green-screen activity, and then our Year 4/5s, my co-teacher and I facilitated the production of iMovies.

The Year 4/5s have finished theirs already, and they’ve done a pretty amazing job, considering that we were all green screen-newbies.  I simply downloaded the iMovie green screen help sheet and inserted it into the Content Library of the Class OneNotes, and let them loose.  We were doing procedure writing at the same time, so I figured this gave them some extra experience at following a procedure!  Over the next few weeks, the Year 4/5s will work with small groups of younger students to help them produce their own videos.  We’ll upload them onto Stream for everyone in the school to view.

These are the projects that the Villages worked on…

4/5 Village – created a child-friendly news program (based on Behind the News)

  • Report/ script writing
  • Drama (role plays)
  • Quizzes (usually created and distributed on Forms)
  • Media

2/3 Village – created a cooking show

  • Procedure writing/ script writing
  • Drama
  • Media

R/1 Village – created a Space facts video

  • science
  • drama
  • script writing

Now, I’m off to petition our dedicated Parents and Friends Committee for our very own green screen kit.  Wish me luck!

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