Welcome to my personal blog. I’m currently researching how game mechanics can be used for learning in Singapore.
All views and information presented herein are my own and do not represent the views of the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.
We are both thrilled to see the series continue with a new book written by our friends Adam Clarke and Victoria Bennett, Unofficial Minecraft Life Hacks Lab for Kids.
Before packing my bags for Singapore and my Fulbright experience, I was approached by the wonderful folks at EdSurge about writing a Minecraft post.
As I was preparing for my adventures in Singapore early this past fall, I was contacted by the wonderful folks at Minecraft: Education Edition.
I'm very excited to announce that my summer and fall book project from 2017 has just been published.
After four months of work by 28 students and myself, we have our first world of the new school year to share.
One of the first large-scale projects I attempted with my students was to recreate the Tang Dynasty capital city of Chang'an.
I took a couple of days off this week to to attend the gathering of fellow State Teacher of the Year honorees in Sacramento.
After nearly 3 months and hundreds of student-hours, our collaborative project with Melvina Kurashige's students in Hawaii is finished and ready to share.
The first big new project this year is upon my class. Momotarō, or Peach Boy is a Japanese folktale from the late Middle Ages, or Edo period in Japan.
I had the distinct pleasure of sitting on a panel with three other wonderfully talented people at Minecon. Our session was titled The Building Blocks of Literacy. Enjoy!
After completing units of study on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment periods, with particular emphasis on mercantilism and exploration, students worked together in groups to form trading companies, purchased supplies to outfit an expedition to the new world, and founded a colony that met six criteria.
I'm very happy to announce the publication of my new book, the Unofficial Minecraft Lab for Kids.
After exploring numerous online resources, 14th century Birmingham, England and its residents were faithfully reproduced using Minecraft by my students.
In a previous post and accompanying project I described how my students, with the help of two creative colleagues, used Minecraft to visualize medieval Japanese poetry.
In a previous post I described how I intended to support student writing earlier in the school year by connecting seemingly disparate first semester content objectives by using a time traveling backstory with a steampunk twist.
I am very excited to share a new project idea I am currently exploring and readying for launch on Monday morning.
I'm fortunate this year to have an elective class called Minecraft Academy to end my day.
I've been a teacher for over 20 years and I've never experienced a more successful unit than the one I'm about to describe.
I've had a strong desire to use Minecraft for learning about medieval Japan for quite some time. I've always thought that the environments generated in Minecraft worlds often have a very Japanese familiarity to them.
