Self Directed Learning Version 1 - My Reflection

I have a taken a step out in the wild and unknown this year with part of my Curriculum for Year 9 Social Studies. I have handed over as much control as I could to the students in regard to what they were learning and being assessed on. You can read the beginning story and outline for my Self Directed Learning (SDL) class here. What Would Students Do If They Could Learn Anything.

Developing Citizenship Through Minecraft

I have just finished the second term of Minecraft for developing citizenship with my 3 year 9 Social Studies Classes.  Each class had about 12 eighty minute periods over the two terms engaging with their classes Minecraft world.

Spawn Tower

SeeSaw - Student Portfolio Platform

How I Use It?

I use this in place of a traditional students work book.  It is a place to collate all their work from class as a digital portfolio. Their research, evidence of learning, thinking, reflections, assessments, plans, everything goes up on here.  I organise the different posts according to units using the labels feature.

How Do You Question for Understanding?

Checking for understanding by asking clarifying or testing questions is not effective and does not produce authentic engagement with the class.  The sort of questions I am talking about are single answer where the audience are invited to put their hand up to give it a go.

I was recently sitting in an audience where there was a presentation being given.  It was a very engaging presenter with great content delivered through slideshows and videos.  The presenter was very good at asking clarifying questions to emphasis his point and rewarding the answers for the ones that put their hands up and got it correct with lavish praise.

World Without Order - Minecraft

I have been using Mine Craft as a Community Simulator during Term One in my three year 9 Social Studies Classes.  We have spent about 5-6 hours in each class’s world, interacting with each other, building, collecting resources, and killing each other.  Now before your imagination runs away killing may not be what it seems so it needs some explaining here.  You can deal damage to another player by attacking them and when their health is gone they ‘die’.  They drop any resources they had collected (free to be picked up by the attacker) and the are sent back to the starting/spawn point of the world.  Essentially it is a way to steal from another player.