Who knew playing Minecraft would be a good thing?? 🙂
I had someone reach out to me, remembering that I am a “Minecraft player”. First off, how the heck did they know? blame my daughters. When I got hooked a while back, they thought it was the coolest thing ever that their dad was someone who played Minecraft.
#nerd
You could say that. But I’m not geeking out, building a model of the Eiffel Tower or Hogwarts. I’m no where near that creative nor am I that talented! No, I play more to create survive to fight another day.
Now, for those of you who don’t know about Minecraft, it has two types of play features. One is a survival mode, where you basically are dropped into a biome (there are 5 main groups with 75 total sub-groups), and you have to survive, period. You create tools, create a place to live, create fire, then light, oh and find food too. You are doing all this before the sun goes down because that’s when the zombies and spiders come out.
#eeekkkspiders
I enjoy survival mode because it forces you to make choices that are “life and death”.
The other mode is a creative mode where you cannot die and can create whole worlds, block by block. I’ve see Hogwarts, the Eiffel Tower, the Titanic, and many other places. You can even fly (which is pretty awesome in itself).
Anyway, this is one place where my inner nerd can come out and play. It’s been fun to talk Minecraft with my students because I have those kids in class who don’t “fit”. They aren’t the athletes, they aren’t the book worms, they aren’t Fortnite players or Grand Theft Auto players either. They just want to either create or survive. I can talk that with kids because, why not? I’m not the athlete (I’m almost 50, no need to pull something or break a hip), I’m not a book worm (attention span of a goldfish), and I’m not a Fortnight/GTA player as I have no gaming system).
#geek
But I can talk Minecraft. What I’ve built, how long I’ve been alive, if I’ve been to the Nether and seen or defeated the Nether Dragon (which I have not). I can talk mine diamonds, red stone, and killing zombies.
I’d love to create a Minecraft club, but never seem to be organized enough to make this happen AND you need the money to make it happen too. Server space and licenses are the two big things that hold this type of thing back. Time is also a big deal. We have a couple of clubs that happen after school, but it’s after school. I coach middle school girls basketball, and with our retirements, will be asked more committees I’m sure.
So, Minecraft guy, I’ll take it. More committees? Someone else can take those gems for sure! I hope that next year, I get more of these gamers in my room because they are pretty chill, yet, can talk you ears off!
And I’m all for it!
And if anyone wants to play, just let me know! 🙂
March 25, 2021 at 10:58 pm
Hi Darin, it is awesome that you can connect to your students via Minecraft. It is a powerful platform.
Does your district have a site license with Microsoft for Office 365? If so, it includes Minecraft Education. (Many staff in my district don’t realize this)
Maybe one day we can be Minecraft buddies 🙂 I am a newbie and am learning as much as I can.
March 25, 2021 at 11:03 pm
If I were to guess, I’d say no, but that’s something to check into! The kids see my Minecraft program on my computer those first days and the whispers start: “Did you see that?” “Was that Minecraft?” “You ask him!” It’s so much fun!
March 25, 2021 at 11:57 pm
I think my son would love being in your class! His biggest change for the pandemic was that we lifted his “30 minutes for Minecraft per day, and only if your teachers say that you had a good day and got all your work done” rule. He can play with his friends and have some communication with the outside world, so we are loathe to cut him off. My son is definitely a creative guy, not a survival guy, and I am always impressed with what he builds, and the fact that he talks my ear off about it gives me some basic knowledge so I can hold up my end of the conversation with my 8th grade Minecrafters. Me, though? I’m a LEGO girl, through and through.
March 28, 2021 at 7:51 pm
I loved Legos! So many different things to build! My oldest is an engineer and she frequently tells us we were “bad parents” for not getting more Legos in the house! 🙂