Minecraft Global Mentors Honored
John Miller receives Fulbright Distinguished Award
John Miller, who teaches in King City, California, is one of 35 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad through the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program. He will teach in Singapore in 2018-2019. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement and demonstrated leadership potential.
“I’m honored with this recognition and see it as validating what I try to do in the classroom,” said John. “I explore, design, reflect and revisit every lesson every school year. My students change each year and I owe it to them to seek out best practices and stay up to date.
“I’ve greatly enjoyed exploring how games (video games and board games) are being used in education and experiencing them with my students. My own professional development is important to me and has too often been a solitary experience, but learning and developing game ideas with kids and interested colleagues and designing history lessons that include game mechanics is wonderfully exciting.”
Benjamin Kelly honored as a New Brunswick Innovator
The NB Innovators website highlights innovators both past and present in New Brunswick, Canada. Ben Kelly was honored for using Open Data in creating lessons and accurate worlds for students based on locations on Earth.
“Two things make me proud of the work I did to receive this recognition,” said Ben. “Firstly, anyone could have done this work and I just happened to be able to bring together my prior knowledge and experiences to showcase Minecraft Education Edition’s power sooner than later. The ingredients were all sitting there but I took up the mission and after some struggles, it worked. Secondly, having my 7-year-old son see his dad as an Innovator in his province with Minecraft involved is super special.”
Congratulations to John and Ben for this exciting recognition! Find a Minecraft Mentor near you for support, feedback or inspiration on using Minecraft: Education Edition in your classroom.
