Minecraft Day 5 - 27 June

Session 5 already! Students got to work quickly today, after just a few minutes to chat in teams about what they would work on, while the computers were organised and the server started. I also took the opportunity to remind students to focus on Kiwiana-related building, and to concentrate on the main building as they would add food stalls etc into the common area between each teams' allotments soon. The vacant allotments will be turned into park areas with trees etc. I also mentioned that they didn't need to glass in their areas to prevent customers flying in and not paying for tickets, because we would imagine ordinary tourists visiting and not being able to fly as we can in Creative mode.

We had the pleasure of a team parent visiting us today, looking at what the students were doing, chatting to them, and looking at some of my background research and process for getting started with MinecraftEDU. I'm really appreciative of the amazing parents who have given their children the permission to 'play' Minecraft at school. Not to mention the fabulous teachers who lend me their students, too! I enjoy seeing some of them popping in to see what their students are up to.

It was almost impossible to drag students away from their work, to chat to me about what their team had achieved today - they were completely focused on their screens. Hence the very brief summaries dictated to me by each team! Using Minecraft to promote written language isn't featuring directly for me in the current situation. However, one of our lovely teachers (@kiwiallana ) has some of her boys who are reluctant writers, beginning to write more at last, after being at our Minecraft sessions. It's great to see them publishing their Minecraft stories and poems on their class or personal blogs.

We did have one situation arise today (with a democratic outcome that applied previously agreed consequences). One student got tired of building and went flying around and scattering objects (diamonds) in the way of other students and generally irritating everyone. It had been agreed that students needed to stay in their own area and build, build, build. There would be time at the end to take a careful look at what others were doing. Jg1025 needed to be helping his team with building. As soon as the indignant voices started being raised, I quickly used the MinecraftEDU settings to freeze all students where they were, and of course the student was caught where he was. I said I'd stand back and let them decide what would happen because this was the student's second breach of the Charter. There was no mucking around, all students were clear and vocal in their belief that the Charter agreement should be implemented, and this student should miss the next session. They barely lifted their heads from their screens - a vote was quick and unanimous, even from those who were his team mates and friends. An embarrassed and distressed student left immediately. I made it clear that he would be able to come back the following week, which will also be the last session for this term. I found myself thinking that this experience, with punishment agreed by all in advance and then applied by his peers, would be more effective than anything a teacher could decide, or could be applied from a regular classroom. It did seem harsh, but it was what the Charter stated and all students clearly understood that.

Next week Minecraft will have to be on Friday afternoon, instead of Thursday, because of other things happening at school. We don't have long until the end of the term, so need to take time where we can.

It remains to be decided who will be involved next term, and what the project will be. Some students are asking for the opportunity to play as teams in Survival mode, and to have challenges in that way. I'm also keen to see what happens when students try the MinecraftEDU tutorial.

Finally, I had the pleasure of attending EducampChch last weekend, and there was a lot of interest from other teachers in how to get started with Minecraft, and particularly MinecraftEDU. I found myself sharing my newbie status and how easy it was to start up the server on the school network. Nevertheless, it was interesting that it would NOT start for me on the Network of the high school that the Educamp was held at.

I'm looking forward to having more Christchurch and other New Zealand teachers joining me in this journey, and sharing and learning together. There are others joining the Minecraft Teachers area of the Virtual Learning Network, and I'm seeing more Kiwi Minecraft teachers talking on Twitter, too. Of course, looking further afield, I gain enormously from the sharing on the Google+ Groups for Minecraft teachers. Fun times ahead!