I knew that there would be classroom management issues in my MinecraftEdu classroom, but I wasn't expecting ocelots running loose in the science lab....
In my robotics classes, I have issues with students not respecting the materials and space. Or maybe, it's just that they have never been taught how to respect shared space.
At my house, we teach the girls how to respect shared space by having them do things like rinsing their dish after dinner, cleaning up their personal stuff from the living room, picking up their laundry from the bathroom and putting it into their hamper. Generally, we want then to be aware how how their actions, or lack of action effect the others living there.
In my robotics class, there are the students who have obviously been taught about respecting shared space. They not only pick up after themselves. but also make sure the classroom is picked up in general. There are also the students who either aren't aware, or don't care that their actions, or lack of actions, make for more work for others. They kick legos under the desk rather then bending down and picking them up, either not aware or not caring that someone else will have to pick the lego up.
In Minecraftedu, the 6th grade students are working on their science experiments. Some groups are getting done, and they are able to free-build. They very much love getting to do this, and honestly, their free-building can often spark an idea for a future project, so I love seeing what they can do. Some students are able to be respectful with their free-building. They pick a spot that doesn't interfere with other student's projects, they share materials, and they don't grief (destroy) what others are doing. Other students, for whatever reason, aren't able to free-build without causing some sort of problem. It can be as small as riding another student's horse without permission, or as drastic as destroying things. Today, we had a student spawn (create) a dozen or so ocelots, and let them loose in the science lab.
In my robotics class, I can see who is doing what, I can see the foot kicking the lego under the table. In MinecraftEdu, I can't. I have started going on spectator mode, a teacher setting that makes me invisible, so that I can watch students, but I can't see the entire class at one time like I can in a physical classroom. I don't want to restrict the entire classroom just because a few students can't make appropriate choices. There are a hand-full of students who I just don't allow on creative mode, and in other worlds I have built border blocks around certain student's work areas to keep them contained.
In the beginning of the class, and then again at the beginning of each unit, and yet again whenever issues come up, I talk a lot about our responsibilities in our shared classroom community. I can say that the number and the seriousness of the issues that happen have dramatically decreased since we started learning together almost 10 weeks ago.
Our next unit is two weeks in survival. In this unit, there will be monsters who are able to kill, and students will need to gather food and resources to survive. I'm expecting that there will be alliances and groups formed as students realize the benefits of working together and sharing resources. I'm predicting that the students who are unable to follow the classroom norms and rules, as set by the students themselves, will find that they are not part of the groups that form. It will be interesting to deconstruct this with the students. Perhaps this will be what they need to experience to finally decide that there is a benefit to being part of a community.
No comments:
Post a Comment