Learning About History Through Minecraft
by Michael Reynolds
Minecraft is a game that millions across the world play every single day. Being the world’s biggest videogame, it’s proven to be a source of entertainment for many people of many ages. The game lets you create anything you desire, in your own unique world. This opens up the opportunity to use Minecraft for educational purposes. An amazing idea that teacher Stephane Cloatre thought of was to implement minecraft into creating historical sites nearby her school. This created an interactive and fun learning experience for all her students.
Minecraft is an excellent way to learn and engage with history. Like Cloatre’s class, recreating structures from history is a brilliant way to engage with history. By not only learning about historical structures, but recreating them yourself in Minecraft, it’s a fun way to keep students interested in history. This also can help students be more creative, as they work to design and recreate the historical structure in Minecraft, which isn’t too easy, requiring planning and possible blueprinting. It’s a tool that could help refresh students in the classroom and let them have fun while learning.
Minecraft in historical education is not only a refreshing way for students to learn in the classroom, but it’s something that could creatively expand students’ knowledge of their history, whether it’s local or world history. The limits are endless, and a game like Minecraft shows that with the outstanding efforts millions put into creating their own worlds, or recreating our world, in a virtual environment.
Communication
Chapter Two of Sail the & C’s textbook focused on communication. We do not think we would learn anything about it because we communicate with people daily through social media and in-person conversations. One thing I learned in chapter two is that sometimes teachers think they are over-communicating with parents to ensure everyone is on the same page. As a long-term substitute this school year, I did not know I was over-communicating with parents; I thought I was not communicating enough. I did not realize there would be a thing as over-communicating for teachers, as their goal is to keep parents informed.
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A Ticket Around The World
This book is a children’s book about a young boy who travels around the globe, visiting friends in 13 different countries spanning all six populated continents. Along the way, he introduces us to each friend’s environment and customs, and shares interesting facts about each country’s culture, language, food, geography, wildlife, landmarks and more.
It is important to have children’s books that explain different cultures rather then touching on them because kids will learn about what cultures there are and why there are different cultures. The goal is to have students read books like A Ticket Around The World and understand that everyone is different and everyone believes different things, so we can accept everyone for who they are and where they come from. We are all human and we just are trying to pave the path of life.
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What Is Real?
It’s getting harder and harder recognize Truth and reality from fake encounter fit.
Every time we learn to spot the fakes And lies online, Technology gets that much better to hide it.
There are some universal things that we can do including the six R’s however the safest thing to do is not move too quickly or invest too much.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Fake_News_Image.jpg
Collaboration in Education:
A school empowered over one thousand students with a partnership with Robotex to help children explore their STEAM passions while impacting their world.
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Learning For Justice: Progressive Tools for Teachers
Author: Chase Iaconelli
Date: 6/20/24
Learning That Facilitates Awareness, Inclusion, Activism & Change
Across the expansive and ever-changing landscape of contemporary education, there is a growing embrace of teaching methods and practices rooted in progressivism’s enlightened principles. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Learning for Justice’ has led the charge in such teaching modalities by crafting classroom resources and teacher professional development. The aim of the site and the initiative is not only to dismantle the effects of white supremacy within Southern education but also to bolster awareness around intersectionality and the advancement of human rights for all people. Steeped within the Learning for Justice initiative is a multi-dimensional approach that works with educators to best orient themselves around culture and climate, curriculum and instruction, leadership, family, and community engagement. The initiative deploys tools that include articles, guides, lessons, films, webinars, and comprehensive frameworks for teachers to structure their content.
It seems warranted to investigate one of these tools to see what value they serve for teachers and students in order to better understand the anatomy of learning for Justice.
Collage of Concerns: Do Something K-12
One tool that seems to pronounce itself when navigating through the website is the Collage of Concerns: Do Something learning plan. In this activity, the teacher will have their students create a collage incorporating pictures that express the issues surrounding social Justice and diversity. The theme or direction of the project will be related to the content the students have been learning, such as the central text or characters of a book. The project will take place over a week. The value of the lesson will be to develop literary skills and effectiveness in communication; their engagement with the contents of the lesson’s book will allow the students better to understand the issue of social Justice and diversity while also allowing them to express their ideas and feelings on the matter.
First, the teacher will instruct the students to hunt for newspapers, magazines, and catalogs to share their recycled images with other classmates and define the direction of their collage. Then, the students will draft a template consisting of visual checklists consistent with the rubric provided by the teacher. The “Do Something Planning Guide” will be their map as they move through the project’s objectives. The teacher will add instruction throughout the week so that the students clearly understand the expectations of the rubric and assignment. For the sake of clarity, let’s say that the book being reviewed is about a girl who belongs to the LGBTQ+ community and faces hardship and hatred as she strives to become a professional tennis player; the students will brainstorm talking points relevant to the story and begin to combine their images so to express a chosen theme about her story effectively. Students can draw their illustrations and be encouraged to find words associated with social Justice, anti-bias, or LGTBQ+ pride. Once students develop a coherent direction for the project, they can begin the creative process of collaging.
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An example of collages and images relating to the issues of social justice, awareness, and LGBTQ+ matters seen in a school and hospital.
The teacher will instruct the students to write captions that are descriptive of what their theme is and what the overall concern of the collage might be, relating to the protagonist’s journey in the book. Once the collage is finished, the students, who had been assigned or allowed to pick their own groups, will present their finished product to the class. The Do Something learning plan should be posted in a hallway or visible space, and family member, other classes, grades and members of the school are not just encouraged but invited to come and see their work. This fosters a strong sense of community, academic praise and awareness to the topic of LGBTQ+ issues. Onlookers can leave sticky notes and comments on the collage to further promote community participation, dialogue and awareness on the given theme or topic of the project.
The week after the projects are submitted and presented, the teacher will engage in a reflective discussion about the process of creating a collage, the central themes of the text, and the deeper considerations and impact that such issues have on the community and the class as a whole. Students should feel confident in the book’s central purpose and be encouraged to develop uplifting solutions to their concerns relating to the complexities of social and cultural issues within the lesson.
The Learning for Justice website contains lesson plans and guides for teachers to reach their students in new and exciting ways while fostering a basic understanding of diversity, inclusion, Social Justice, and progressive perspectives. The Southern Poverty Law Center understands that these types of lessons can be seen as controversial and at times ill-placed within the classroom, but their goal in offering these types of tools is to change the conversation around taboo and uncomfortable topics by increasing awareness, education, and engagement for the future generations of teachers and students. Rest assured, the Learning for Justice initiative is a comprehensive and well-thought-out resource designed to equip educators with the necessary tools to navigate these complex issues in the classroom.
National Geographic Explorer Classroom
“Using the power of science, exploration, education, and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world.” -National Geographic’s Mission Statement
National Geographic is one of the most well-known science based outlets in the world. It is best known for its environmental contributions and animal based media on their TV channel, magazine, and website. National Geographic has access to some of the best environmental experts in the world and leverages that to inspire educators and youth globally and to help more people learn about, care for, and protect our planet. Using an online style “classroom” they are able to spread the word of the National Geographic Explorers, which are a group of experts who investigate, test hypotheses, innovate, stretch their creativity, and push the boundaries of traditional thinking in ways that fundamentally change our world. They also invest 100% of their donations into their Explorers and global programs. A great example of one of these Explorers is Dr. Jane Goodall, an primatologist, anthropologist, and one of the worlds best Chimpanzee specialists, shown in the picture below.
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Global Kids: Bridging the Gap Between Cultures and Communities
The company Barefoot Books has been providing educational tools for teachers since 1992. One of those tools is the Global Kids set, providing recipes, games, crafts, and other useful activities revolving around different cultures to diversify students’ worldviews.
This tool can be useful to engage students in learning on a more personal level. Students will be able to relate and participate in other traditions and compare those to the ones they participate in. Overall, this can create deeper empathy within students. I would use this with my class frequently, for reading activities and crafts. There could even be a dedicated day used for creating some of the recipes! Barefoot Books strives to create connections worldwide between students and says even more on the matter in their About Me .
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Same, Same But Different
An Inspirational Story that shows how there are no limits to communication across the globe.
The Story Same, Same but Different, by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw, is such an excellent example of welcoming diversity and showing that communication has no limits in our world today.
Elliot from America is pen pals with Kailash in India. The two become good friends, even if they’re across the globe from each other. They talk to each other about their daily lives, how different each of them are from each other, and what each of their cultures, schools, and families are like. Its an excellent example to represent how different everyone is across the world, and is a great read for students who need to understand this concept.
I would recommend this to teachers, or would assign this to my own students one day, to help them understand how diverse the world is. Being from different places in the world doesn’t limit you to being friends with someone. And being in different cultures doesn’t prevent you from knowing someone else. This is a great reading concept for any student who hasn’t expanded much out of their culture or lifestyle, and young readers who are maybe in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grade may benefit from this book greatly.
Helping students learn about others that live differently than themselves can help create an environment that accepts everyone, not only in a classroom, but in whole schools and even towns. It will help create a better future for not only students, but the communities they live in as well.
Written by Michael Reynolds
Sources:
Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. (2015). Same, same but different. Weston Woods.
Discovery: Virtual Field Trips
Discovery is normally known for their shows about animals around the world like Shark Week or the Puppy Bowl, but did you know that they also have virtual field trips that are extremely useful to teachers and students around the world?
These “field trips” are usually 20-30 minute videos that go in depth and give very useful information about a specific topic that usually pertains to something going on in the world today. It also makes it fun for kids to watch because they will show lots of different scenes and images that pair with the topic and even have parts where they show the audience how something works and break it down for them. Keeping the topics modern and up to date is very important so students can properly learn and understand what is going on in the world today.
Overall, Discovery really hit the mark with the virtual field trips by making them filled with useful information and all while making it fun and intriguing for students around the world. It is a great idea and hopefully more channels like Discovery can use this idea and make something as helpful to teachers and students as the virtual field trips are.
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