Truth & Reconciliation Monuments with Minecraft Education Edition

 I've been working with Miss. Baker's Grade 5 and 6 class this year to integrate Minecraft EDU with their social studies learning.  In our latest activity, students were challenged to build a monument in Minecraft that represents moving forward with Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.  This learning activity was inspired by the Logics Academy activity: Changemakers of Canadian History.

The students worked in teams to brainstorm possible Monuments and discuss the meanings of the symbols/objects they might construct.  Each team decided on one monument to build and then worked collaboratively to create it in Minecraft.  Students added a sign to explain their monument and took screenshots or screen recordings to share their work.  

Some of the groups chose animals from the 7 teachings, which they'd learned about before.  Other groups designed original Monuments.  

Thanks to the Grade 5 and 6 students for sharing their work to be featured here for others to see! Not all groups had permission to share, but there is a great selection here to check out.  

Student Soundwaves: The Park West Podcast

Welcome to Student Soundwaves:The Park West Podcast! I’m Mrs. Leah Obach and I’m proud to launch this podcast to showcase our students’ skills and ideas.  I’ve been a teacher in Park West School Division since 2009.  Currently, I work as the Literacy with ICT Teacher Leader, which basically means I’m a technology teacher.  I work in schools around the division to support students and teachers with using technology.

I believe that technology gives us the power to create and connect.  Through this podcasting project, students have the opportunity to create their own episode to share their ideas, build important skills and use their creativity.  Thanks to technology, we can connect with you to showcase these podcast episodes and give students the chance to share their work with a wider audience.

Our podcast features student-created episodes from the talented learners in Park West School Division.  This podcast was designed to amplify the voices of our extraordinary students.  Each episode is a unique journey, showcasing the skills and creativity of the students who created it. Get ready to be inspired, entertained, and enlightened as you dive into a variety of episodes exploring different topics and themes.  

You can expect a variety of episodes, including different themes and featuring students from different grade levels.  Now, pick an episode and get ready to be inspired, entertained, and enlightened!

Find our podcast on Spotify.

Students sharing their work on this platform have completed divisional permission forms and also given their consent to share their work. Students have done their best to present accurate information on the topics they've chosen and to cite the sources they've consulted when creating a fact-based episode. 

Sketchnoting

I enjoy trying new things in my teaching practice and one of the new things I've been working on recently is using sketchnoting in education.  I've taken a few great workshops about sketchnoting and I finally felt ready to try teaching a sketchnoting workshop for students this fall.  Using what I've learned and some resources from educator Jen Giffen, I offered an Introduction to Sketchnoting workshop for 3 different middle years classes who were taking part in Global Read Aloud.  Sketchnoting offered these students a unique way of capturing their ideas about their Global Read Aloud book.  

Check out some of the sketchnotes students created.  (Students have given permission to share their work.)

Global Read Aloud Connections

I've been participating for many years, but the Global Read Aloud remains one of my favourite learning activites of the year! The idea is that classrooms around the world read the same book on the same schedule and then make connections with partner classes in a different location to learn and share. I believe these connections are the most powerful part of the project!

This year in Park West School Division, a number of classes participated in the Global Read Aloud and made connections in various ways. Our students have sent postcards digitally or on paper, made Padlet posts online to discuss the book, participated in video discussion on Flip and met online via video conferencing to talk about the books and learn about each other.

One class got to experience an extra-special connection this week!

Ms. Courchene’s Grade 5 class had the incredible opportunity connect with their Global Read Aloud partner classes in New York to meet author Jarrett Lerner online for a Q&A session!

The students in both locations read A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner and connected online via Padlet throughout the 6 weeks of the Global Read Aloud to discuss the book. We were so excited when our partners in New York asked if we'd like to join their video call with the author!

The Grade 5s in each location created some great questions to find out more about the author and the process of creating the book.  We had watched some of Jarrett Lerner's Behind the Scenes videos about the book and used that information to revise and improve our questions.  We wanted to ask questions that he hadn't already answered in his videos or on his blog. 

I am super proud of the thoughtful questions that the Grade 5s created!  Students were brave about speaking up to ask the questions they'd planned and it was very interesting for all of us to hear Jarrett's answers.  

To put in perspective what a unique opportunity this is: I’ve been participating in Global Read Aloud since 2014 (with my own class and then with other classes as a tech coach) and this is the first time I’ve ever had the chance to meet a GRA author!  What a special experience!

Exploring Canada's History with Minecraft Education Edition

I’ve been working with teachers & students at different schools in Park West School Division to explore Canada’s history with Minecraft EDU projects designed by The Cobblestone Collective.

We have really enjoyed this creative way of thinking about Canada’s past, learning about history and sharing what we know about our history!

The Canada's History Crate from Cobblestone Collective (available as a free download here) includes suggested activities and video lessons guided by 2 teachers. Our learning activities included:

• Building a settlement in Minecraft
• Building the Canadian Pacific Railway
• Learning about Viola Desmond and her work to promote equity, inclusion and human rights
• Adding an equitable and accessible theatre to our settlements in honour of Viola Desmond
• Creating pixelated portraits to honour important Canadians from our past
• Learning about Truth & Reconciliation in Canada
• constructing a monument to honour the ongoing work of Truth & Reconciliation
• Researching modern changemakers in Canada
• Creating a non-player character to represent a modern changemaker that has made a difference in our country
• Considering what skills and talents we have that could be used to impact Canada and make a difference
• making a final improvement to our settlements that shows what we want to change in our local or global community

Here are some pieces of student work that showcase some elements of this project. All student work is shared with permission.

Take a tour of one group's project here: 

These screenshots show highlights of the settlement:

These portraits were created by the HCI Grade 6 class. Each team built a portrait and a sign to share information about the significant person they chose.

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Miniota Grade 3/4 Minecraft Communities Project

 I was excited when Miss. Emily Hunter invited me to co-plan a Minecraft EDU project for her Grade 3/4 class! She was working with the social studies theme of communities and the science unit focused on structures and materials, so we decided to focus on an interdisciplinary project that would target the outcomes from these units.   Together, we planned a “build challenge” project that allowed her students to showcase their knowledge in both topics.  Students worked individually or with a partner to create a community in Minecraft.  

To show their understanding of curricular outcomes, students made plans for which biome they’d build in and how that environment would affect their community, students identified how their community would ensure residents basic human rights were met and constructed appropriate amenties based on this planning.  Students also came up with laws/rules to be posted in their Minecraft communities and they determined which materials would be most effective for building their community structures (a link to their science outcomes).  The Grade 3 and 4 students also demonstrated social studies skills from their curriculum through effective communication and collaboration, managing information and using critical and creative thinking skills.   

Here is a snapshot of some of the planning students did before beginning their build challenges in Minecraft. 

Once students had a plan, they were given time to build their communities in Minecraft.  Students used the camera and portfolio to take some screenshots of what they had built and they've agreed to share them here so you can see some of what they've created! 

Digital Posters by Grade 3/4

I had the opportunity to help Ms. Ward's Grade 3/4 class design digital posters to showcase their knowledge.  We started by reviewing some exemplars from other students and we co-constructed criteria for our own posters.  We reviewed some key skills like changing page layout, adding text boxes, adding images, changing fonts/colours and changing backgrounds.  Then, students used Google Slides with images from pixabay.com to create a poster that met the criteria.  

To learn more about designing digital posters and see more student samples, visit this blog post. 

Thank you to these students for sharing their work with us!