Minecraft in the Classroom: California Missions

Chapter 1: Getting Started

My Mission

As I go down the never ending rabbit hole that is Minecraft in the Classroom, I decided it would be best to document my process so that others can benefit from my struggles and be left with a simple tutorial on how to set it um seamlessly.  

You see the idea of having a classroom of students create a government, map out their missions, and then bring them to life in a world with their peers sounds so profoundly beneficial to not only themselves, but to their teacher as well.  

In the past week now since I have begun, have dove so deeply into their lives and what 95% of them love to do, every day after school, and I have brought it into the classroom.  I have given each student a medium that they love to work with, and the time to create a world that is far beyond what they ever imagined.  This sounds like too perfect of a storm for an amazing learning experience.  And because of that, I have chosen to document every step of the way.

The Back Story

A year ago, I attended an Alan November seminar.  If you didn't know, the mans a world genius of incorporating tech into the classroom that has a true authentic purpose.  He showed us a possibility and I proposed it to my class the following day.  

"When we build our missions this year, you will have the opportunity to build it out of cardboard, or create in on Minecraft."  

I had never seen such open eyes drooling with excitement.  A few weeks later and hours spent on the computer, a student brought me not only a mission, but an experience.  You see this was far more than creating, this was his entire presentation.  He spent every second of that video describing what he had built and used vocabulary from class to paint the picture of his Mission.  

The Aftermath

After my Principal saw the level of work and rigor that was displayed, he immediately allowed me to purchase the game for the computer lab and getting the platform for every 4th grader to create one. Now I had to figure out how I was going to do this, you see, I HAVE NEVER actually PLAYED the GAME myself...EVER!

I did a little research, figured out how it would work at our school, and committed to the journey.  My following blogs will be a tutorial for purchasing the game, setting up your world, and weekly reports every Saturday night about facilitating their exploration.