Week 2 Reflection

           This week we were asked to create a comic strip for our blog. After reading other colleagues’ blogs, I now understand that I must have misread the guidelines. A lot of the comic strips I read were short and explaining their thought or experience while playing Minecraft. For this week, I took  “create a comic strip” in replace of your written blog. No wonder it was difficult fitting all of the information into the comment bubbles! Well, I differentiated my blog this week. Instead of writing, which in return would have been a lot easier, I created a comic strip and sited my references. This is one way we could have students differentiate for writing. Enough with my mishap and differentiation from this week. Back to Minecraft differentiation. 

This week we were in Minecraft completing challenges. There are three of us in the class that have already completed these challenges from a different course and have mastered Minecraft after creating Givercraft. Instead of us repeating the same challenge, we differentiated and were put on as admins “teachers” “support Minecrafters” for the other learners. We were able to help others who didn’t know the basic tools, how to move, dig, make items…etc Thomas explains in his blog, it’s extremely “important for teachers to know the basic tools of the game.” Giving support this week, I found more rewarding than doing the same challenge over again. I use this example to outline what differentiation is. It’s not a program or one thing you make other students do. It’s an individual assignment created towards the students to make them successful.  If I were to have been asked to complete all the challenges, I would have been bored and thought this was a waste of my time. With helping my colleagues, I was given an opportunity to experience virtual teaching.

            This week I found many ways to differentiate in Minecraft. I wanted to find ways to differentiate using Minecraft for all subjects. With reading, students can read a book, like we did for Givercraft, create chests and books in Minecraft citing the text. They can build and cite from the text. For math, I found a video that explains how you can use multiplication in Minecraft. Students build the multiplication table basically and move around while multiplying the blocks together. For science, it was a stretch. I found that the teacher could enter Minecraft and create a brain, if studying the cells. The students could build the brain using the different kinds of blocks for the areas in a brain. Social Studies, students could understand what items they need to survive, while building tools and houses…etc

There are many ways to differentiate with Minecraft. The instructors that enjoy the game and also believe in the game for an educational tool, will use it. There are many educators, parents, IT personal that still need to be convinced, Minecraft is not just a “game” it is an educational tool. I would love to see a Professional Development Day on how to use Minecraft in the classroom. This would be the turning point for education. I don’t think we’re there yet, but hopefully in the next few years there will be a change.

Students are engaged in Minecraft, I know they would be engaged in MinecraftEdu, I have seen it with Givercraft. I have also seen students who are not, but that falls back on the teacher’s prep for the assignment and classroom management. If the teacher doesn’t know how to use the tool, the students will be in a “free for all.” With differentiation, engagement and instruction it is all based on concrete classroom management. Teachers can’t differentiate with students, if there’s no classroom management. As a society, we need to look at Minecraft as not “a game “ instead as an online educational tool.