It's OK That You Don't Feel OK #EdChat

Right now, there are many teachers out there that are not feeling OK with the way things are right now and I want you to know that I am with you and it is OK to not feel OK right now.

Teachers do not want to be at home looking at their students through a computer all day. We want to interact. We want them to socialize. We want to see their smiles in person and laugh when the class needs a good laugh.

Do not let these moments fade from your memory. Life will take time to get back to a better place where we can be in class with students. We need to let ourselves be ok with not being ok right now if we want to get better. Acceptance of the situation is not easy, but we need to accept where we are, how much we have to give, and the quality that is going to be given.

Be OK with trying and failing as you explore education through a new medium. Take your time and embrace where you are with all of this. Practice self care whenever you can and make time to connect with others as much as possible. I have only been able to make it through this nightmare because of my connections with my friends.

We will persevere and come out on the other end ready to connect, teacher, and make a difference lije we did before. It's OK to not feel OK. We will get better.  

Sorry @zbyronwolf, @PlayCraftLean is an Educational Tool #MakerEd

I was reading an article on CNN today that was about schools and their role in "opening the economy" today. There was a part of the piece, that is overall well written, that annoyed me.

Zachary B. Wolf wrote,

"Education Week has maintained an interactive map of school closures since the beginning of this thing, and that map suggests that nearly every American school kid is not currently in school. It charts around 124,000 school closings affecting more than 55 million American kids.
What are all those kids doing? They're supposedly distance-learning or homeschooling, taking screen lessons or self-teaching. (Let's get real. A lot of them are playing Minecraft or making TikToks.) (Emphasis mine) Just like the American education system on any given day, the coronavirus closure is a massive patchwork." 

What this shows is a basic misunderstanding of what Minecraft is and can be for students and for teachers. There are problems with these type of flippant remarks. 

1. On a very large platform, it invalidates the value of Minecraft Education Edition. People can look at that and have it inform their opinion on the tool. If it was a critique of the tool, then it would be fair, but that is not what it was. It lumped Minecraft in with TikTok which has a reputation of being a waste of time by older generations. 

2. It makes the job harder for teachers to introduce these tools in the classroom to administrators and teachers because it has a reputation and not being productive and this line adds to that misunderstanding. 

3. To put it bluntly, it's ignorant. Mr. Wolf clearly does not have an understanding of the value of Minecraft in the classroom and was looking for a pithy statement.

On top of it all, it takes away from the hard work students are doing in their homes every day thanks to teachers and parents working hard to provide some semblance of learning in this tough time. I have students that show up to class and are designing and making amazing things. They are teaching themselves or learning from their parents on how to create things they design. It is amazing. Not every students in engaged at the level everyone would hope, but that is problem schools face in person, not just online. 

I hope Mr. Wolf will take the time to either remove that line from the article or take some time to actually talk to teachers engaged in remote learning and that are using a wide variety of tools to support instruction. I'm happy to connect if Mr. Wolf is. 

To all of you teachers out there using Minecraft Education Edition, please share with @zbyronwolf the many different ways you are using it to support our students. Keep being awesome out there and reach out if you have any questions. 

Socially Distant Hugs and High Fives.