Minecraft: Education Edition

Today I took part in a tool kit about Minecraft Education Edition led by Otako Kaufusi from Microsoft and Morgan McKeen from Noel Leeming.

Otako spoke about his 'why' for working within the tech industry. He talked about the fact that Maori and Pacifica people make up 25% of the population but make up only 2% of those working within the tech industry. 

Minecraft is a platform to engage ALL students in their learning and encourage more to enter the tech world.

Minecraft: Education Edition is available at no cost to all state and integrated schools under the Microsoft 365 A3 licensing. At this time, it is supported on the newest operating systems for PC, iPad and Mac and is now available on Chromebooks!

A focus of this session is on the unique world of Nga Motu and how it can be used in the classroom to explore te reo Māori, te ao Māori and tikanga whilst at the same time showcasing the educational features of the game such as the in game camera and portfolio to document learning. This is a video shown during the presentation to outline how Nga Motu can be used in the classroom.

You don't have to be an expert in Minecraft to use this in your class. Students will be engaged from the onset and as a teacher your role is being open to offering this platform for learning to your students.

Google World and Microsoft World can work together.

Reflection

I have students who are already very engaged in gaming, especially Minecraft. I have looked into using Minecraft in the past in my classroom but have always found it too hard to do as I felt like I was not an expert and could not validate the learning that is taking place.

As I have become more experienced in using technology to 'turbo charge' my students learning. I know that Minecraft would engage my students but now I understand how  Minecraft can be a learning tool for my students too.  

Term 3 - Inquiry - Taking Action

 What has gone well?

Handful of Clues has been a great tool for the students to independently use their reading strategies to decode unknown words. Using the prompt has been a way to move the students towards more independence.

What has been a challenge? 

Choice has been a challenge for my target students. They continually choose to do the easiest option and if they think that someone is not looking they will move onto something else. Student Agency has been the focus in class but has been a challenge for most of target students.

Let us know about an ‘aha’ moment with your students?

Reading with student 1 during group session, using handful of clues tool, student 1 was able to sound out 3 unknown words independently using the handful of clues. The delight in his voice when he worked out the word ‘children’ was great to hear. He used his vowel sounds  independently and was able to chunk the sounds. He stopped and really thought about the fact that he does guess every time he reads and he doesn’t have to as he has some reading strategies that he can use.

Where to next?

Focused group work, more choice to CREATE and share learning in different ways. BRAINSTORM ways that the students would like to share their literacy learning.

Something to think about ....

Te Hiku - Manaiakalani CREATE Staff Meeting - This meeting gave me lots to think about in terms of what I could be doing to amplify student learning ESPECIALLY for my target students literacy sessions!

Term 3 - Teaching Inquiry - What's happening?

Term 3 - Week 1-3

Self Managing independent learning has been the focus across the class this term. This is something that has not been as much as an option for the target students. In previous times, the students have struggled with what to do, and managing themselves to actually do their learning, there was very little motivation to do the right thing at the right time in the right place.

The term started well with the students enjoying having the opportunity to make choices in their learning in terms of who they sit with, what they are working on. I have called this a trial and the students understand that this is an opportunity for them to have more choice.

I have adjusted my planning to allow more choices in the students writing and reading. Writing has 3 writing choices with a similar theme. The goal for the target students is to write 4-5 quality sentences independently using a planning template as a scaffold. In Week 3 this includes a video, google slide deck with pictures and a paper planning template.

I tried using the students blog for writing, they were happy to do a blog post and were even happier when they realised it was their writing. This was an aha moment as up to that point they have thought of reading and writing as separate subjects. I had thought they knew they were linked but clearly I need to make this link for them. 

They were happy to use their blogs to respond to their reading and were also happy to show that they could take a partial screenshot of an illustration in the book that they wanted to use.

I have been using a ‘Workflow’ spreadsheet in class for the students to manage their learning. Some of the students have enjoyed this, however my target group have found the transition tricky as they require more reassurance. It feels a fine line between them asking for help and and not wanting to persevere. This has been a tricky juggling act.