Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wes Fryer

Tag: minecraft

  • Minecraft Halloween Challenge: Lessons Learned

    Yesterday Dr. Glen Emerson (@emerson_glen) and I, along with four other teachers and my Minecraft-guru daughter, Rachel, facilitated an evening “Minecraft Halloween Challenge” for students at our school. We had 61 students sign up and 59 participated, in two different sessions from 4 – 6 pm and 7 – 9 pm. The kids had a…

  • Opening Tinkercad 3D Designs in Minecraft

    I’m serving as a “Minecraft Consultant” to our 6th grade Social Studies teacher (Sara Zedlitz) and middle school librarian (Michaela Freeland) who are collaborating for a second year on an awesome 3D design and 3D printing project that is part of a study on ancient Rome and Roman structures. Yesterday I helped students who had designed…

  • More Minecraft Learning: Enchantments and Desert Temples

    Over our last snow day / ice day weekend I setup an older, inherited Mac laptop as a home Minecraft server and resurrected a collaborative survival world Rachel (our 7th grader) and I started a couple of years ago with our younger cousins over the Thanksgiving holidays. My own Minecraft learning curve had flattened out…

  • Student Voice, YouTube, & Digital Citizenship: Rachel Fryer on the TEDx Stage

    TEDxWallerMiddleSchool was one of only 22 TEDxYouth events hosted worldwide in 2016, and the only TEDxYouth event held to date in Oklahoma. This was the second time students and educators at Waller Middle School in Enid have hosted a TEDx event. Last year all the speakers were local, but this year a few outside speakers…

  • How Microsoft is Poised to Destroy MinecraftEDU

    As an elementary STEM teacher turned technology director, I’m extremely enthusiastic about the positive potential for students and teachers to use MinecraftEDU software to create powerful learning experiences. I’m extremely disappointed and sad, however, to learn about the changes and price structure which Microsoft is making to the “MinecraftEDU School Edition” set for official release on…

  • MinecraftEDU House Spanish Labeling Challenge

    Today I co-taught a lesson with one of our middle school Spanish teachers called the “MinecraftEDU House Spanish Labeling Challenge.” Students worked with a partner to build a house in MinecraftEDU, and then labeled items in Spanish using Minecraft signs. To keep the focus on building and labeling items in Spanish, students worked in a pre-configured MinecraftEDU world which…

  • Why Connected Camps ROCKS for Minecraft After School

    Our daughter Rachel is an avid Minecraft player. Last summer we paid to enroll her in the Connected Camps (@connectedcamps) online summer Minecraft camp and it was AWESOME. Even though Connected Camps is based in California and we live in Oklahoma City, the magic of the interwebs meant Rachel could fully participate in this virtual…

  • Our Daughter Plays Minecraft with International YouTubers

    Our youngest daughter, Rachel, has become a pretty amazing Minecraft guru in the past year.  I initially taught her to play, but the HOURS she has invested in playing, watching Minecraft YouTuber videos, and creating her own videos have catapulted her far beyond my own meager Minecraft skills into the digital stratosphere. She’s recorded some…

  • Podcast 434: Discovering Useful New Ideas as a Connected Educator (October 2015)

    This podcast primarily features a recording from the October 22, 2015, OACTE, OEQA, OATE Fall Conference in Edmond, Oklahoma, held at the University of Central Oklahoma. The recorded session was my breakout presentation titled, “Discovering Useful New Ideas as a Connected Educator: Tips for Using Flipboard, Pocket, Twitter and Nuzzel.” Check out the podcast shownotes…

  • How Much Minecraft is Too Much Minecraft?

    Do you have kids at home who love to play Minecraft? Our (now) 12 year daughter definitely fits into that category. This past summer we paid for her to participate in Connected Camps’ “Summer of Minecraft,” and Rachel really enjoyed it. Last night we recorded a 20 minute podcast, in which she reflected on her camp…