Affinity Spaces: My Initial Observation

As some of you surely know by now, I work in an afterschool Program at McMeen Elementary. My 12 kiddos come from varied backgrounds, speak multiple languages and differ wildly in afterschool interests. It has sometimes been a struggle to interest my burgeoning soccer star in Visual Arts, or my dance master/DJ in Veterinary Science. Yet one thing seems to tie them all together. When they saw the Minecraft shortcut on my desktop, they lost their tiny little heads.

"Ms Jen! That's Minecraft!"

"Look it's Minecraft!"

"I want to play!"

"Ms. Jen, YOU play Minecraft?"

(Yes, and I don't appreciate that tone, either, you turkey.)

In a matter of seconds, my entire class was clamoring for the opportunity to play Minecraft. Now we didn’t get to it that day, (and haven’t since) but my kiddos would never forgive me if I didn’t make some attempt to guide them forward in the world of 3-Dimensional blocks. And so, my Affinity Space seemed to choose itself.

My initial observations of my Affinity Space actually came from @PBJellyGames, who promoted my first play journal on Minecraft. If you want to read that sucker, you can find it here. Unbeknownst to me at the time, PBJellyGames (aka, Garrett Zimmer) is actually one of the creators of the weekly Twitter Chat #MinecraftEDU. Along with being a creator, listener, educator and generally upstanding citizen, Zimmer has helped create an affinity space for those new and old to the Minecraft Edu world, and does so with ease. The Minecraft Edu community also has a weekly blog you can find here, that has everything from lessons plans (creating brutalist architecture, anyone?) to the new Weekly Mentor program, which engages with educators from all over to see just what Minecraft Edu has done for them and their classrooms. My initial examination of this affinity space is one of comfort, exploration, and support. I was amazed to see the accessibility of the creators and community members, and it just goes to show what an open, inviting and gameful learning space this will prove to be.

As I move forward exploring this space, I hope I can grow my relationships with other educators, pick up on new and engaging means to playful learning, and help build a better community within my own learning and teaching spaces at school. If my kiddos are on board, than I am too. And by on board I do mean 3 blocks across and 2 up.

#ILT5320 #Minecraft