This week, at first, was a little overwhelming as I read the essential question and had no clue what I was going to do, much less even understood what I was supposed to be doing. Thankfully we had our Google Hangout meetings and Thomas and Dr. Graham were able to alleviate that overwhelming feeling of failure which I was experiencing. As we discussed throughout the evening, things became clearer and clearer and I was able to start connecting dots of what I could do and what we are supposed to do.
The thought of having my students play Minecraft would be overwhelming because I don’t understand the game so I have been thinking this week if all the teachers who signed their classes up for this experience actually know how to play the game. I don’t know if I would have that much confidence in my students to be doing what they were actually supposed to be doing if I didn’t know exactly what they should be doing based on what they were doing in the game.
I have also spent time talking with various students at my school if they would be motivated to do more if they were playing Minecraft to learn different concepts in school. It was like 50/50 with who would be and who would rather just do traditional school work. I know for me, before starting this experience, I thought a game would have everyone’s attention. Now that I have been in this class for six weeks and have talked to students I have realized that this may not be the case. Since I have come to this conclusion in combination with my lack of knowledge of Minecraft, I decided to focus on those students who might not have much experience in the game. These students still need to be able to get badges so they can feel successful, but they don’t actually have to be within the realm of the game.
Students can get a badge through doing something related to the game but not with the need of Minecraft knowledge. This is why I’m focusing on the summaries students are doing and giving the “Grammar Boss Badge” based on having at least a twelve sentence summary with no grammatical/spelling errors. I’m thinking now that maybe the length should be increased depending on the grade level, but I can put that in the rubric. At first I was a little overwhelmed thinking 250 students and Thomas suggested working with an individual class. Then on Thursday morning I was thinking, I’m not grading these summaries, so the first error that I stumble upon, I can just skip the summary and go to the next, so maybe 250 kids isn’t going to be all that difficult, plus not all of them will try and get the “Grammar Boss Badge.”
So this week turned from an overwhelming confusion mess of my brain to a more clear understanding of what I can do that makes sense to me.
The thought of having my students play Minecraft would be overwhelming because I don’t understand the game so I have been thinking this week if all the teachers who signed their classes up for this experience actually know how to play the game. I don’t know if I would have that much confidence in my students to be doing what they were actually supposed to be doing if I didn’t know exactly what they should be doing based on what they were doing in the game.
I have also spent time talking with various students at my school if they would be motivated to do more if they were playing Minecraft to learn different concepts in school. It was like 50/50 with who would be and who would rather just do traditional school work. I know for me, before starting this experience, I thought a game would have everyone’s attention. Now that I have been in this class for six weeks and have talked to students I have realized that this may not be the case. Since I have come to this conclusion in combination with my lack of knowledge of Minecraft, I decided to focus on those students who might not have much experience in the game. These students still need to be able to get badges so they can feel successful, but they don’t actually have to be within the realm of the game.
Students can get a badge through doing something related to the game but not with the need of Minecraft knowledge. This is why I’m focusing on the summaries students are doing and giving the “Grammar Boss Badge” based on having at least a twelve sentence summary with no grammatical/spelling errors. I’m thinking now that maybe the length should be increased depending on the grade level, but I can put that in the rubric. At first I was a little overwhelmed thinking 250 students and Thomas suggested working with an individual class. Then on Thursday morning I was thinking, I’m not grading these summaries, so the first error that I stumble upon, I can just skip the summary and go to the next, so maybe 250 kids isn’t going to be all that difficult, plus not all of them will try and get the “Grammar Boss Badge.”
So this week turned from an overwhelming confusion mess of my brain to a more clear understanding of what I can do that makes sense to me.