Today we had a creative workshop all about Mindcraft. We had a couple of little Minecraft geniuses from Colquitz Middle School come with their teacher to teach us the basics of the computer game. We learned the different ways teachers use Minecraft as a cross-curriculum platform to teach. They use the creative modes to allow children to express their artistic vision and help children show their creativity in architecture, pictures, and designs. The teachers also use the game as a resource for science, physics, and social studies, using the environmental aspects and resourcefulness mindset of the game. Kids can learn about the ecosystem, conservation, what humans need to have and access to survive and overall can work on their teamwork skills with their classmates.
This was my first hands-on experience with Minecraft. On my Wednesday visits, I have watched my class in their schools MAClab using Minecraft as a fun educational tool where they all share one Minecraft world and create their own spaces. In our Minecraft workshop, we were allowed to experiment with the variety of different modes Minecraft has including the creative world and the survival world. I had no idea what I was doing the whole time so I required the help of the middle school children and Teya to maneuver me around the world of pixellated land.
Below are some screenshots of what I saw and experienced while gaming on Minecraft:
This is the first photo of me in Minecraft, my name is kirbabyteytey (hence the combination of Teya and I’s name)
This is my first super cool house made out of pink wool, the inspiration for my house was to be built around trees and also have a beautiful skylight (not purposeful since I didn’t know how to make a roof). The image on the left you can tell is filled with hundreds of animals, this was not my creative choice, however, it made my home feel more comforting and loving.
The highlight of my gaming today was when Teya made and showed me what “The Nether” is. It is a magical blue glowing portal that takes you into a firey, lava-filled world.
It was at this location where we found our classroom to be located at the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) This school is not like your usual highschool, yes there are teenagers everywhere and teachers, however, the similarities stop at that. When we walked in our first sight was a large open area covered in desks each fitting around five students. On these desks, there were cute little plants each with their own names and sitting around the desks were students from early to late teens working. The working was what surprised me at first, now I know that sounds bad but it is not unusual to see a classroom filled with students distracted and barely working, that was not the case for PSII. These kids were hard at work doing all sorts of different learning from reading, computer programming, sewing, and even crocheting! Seeing all of this was very overwhelming for me, I kept thinking “where are the classes? “where are the teachers? “who is watching these kids? It wasn’t until we had a talk with principal Jeff Hopkins that it all the pieces started to fit together. PSII is an inquiry-based school, this means this school is almost 100% personalized learning whereas the students are able to pick their own interdisciplinary learning pathway that ends up meeting all the same curriculum competencies as the B.C curriculum. This form of learning allows the students the chance to truly learn about what they’re passionate about, allowing children to be more obliged to their learning.
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