Family Friendly Minecraft Servers: A Safer Minecraft Experience for Gifted Kids

Although Minecraft can be an exceptional option for gifted kids, being that it develops creativity, technology skills, and social development through peer interaction. The society which develops within the server can, at times, become inappropriate in language and bullying.

See an article on Minecraft and Kid's internet Safety here and CommnSenseMedia's take on the safety aspects of Minecraft for kids here.

To address these issues, a few companies, including myself, have created family-friendly, kid-friendly, servers that are either moderated, or which block offensive content.

I, a technology teacher, and writer for this blog, have started a Minecraft server that blocks swearing, and is reviewed for appropriateness. Membership is 120/yr for access which includes op enabling for players and multiple creative worlds. Parents must skype ahead of time to prove identity of themselves and their child in order to block adult access (except parents who are welcome). Additionally, conversations can be held on Teamspeak, an audio-communication tool (free) where parents can monitor communications. click here to sign up for more info: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1k-j2BJsiwYZheXGsGcFVpp3S8YfPm8VUc9QnFS5oKtc/viewform 

Another option is Intercraften:

"INTERCRAFTEN is a safe, family-friendly server for kids, parents, and the young-at-heart.

Established in September 2011, we've welcomed over 4,000 members.We receive over 100 requests to join every week. We've been completely donation-supported for 9 months and counting. Look no further - you've found your safe place to play Minecraft online. We'd love to see you join us." They have multiple levels for donation but creative mode costs $100.

Yet another is SandLot Minecraft: PVP

"Our main goal is to maintain a safe place for kids to play Minecraft. We are "semi-vanilla," meaning we try to keep things as close as possible to the way Mojang intended the game to be.

We are a "legit" PvE survival server, meaning everything you see in our world was mined, grown, smelted, crafted, built, and/or created by a player. Nothing has been nor will be spawned into the game by illegitimate means. Players also do not have to worry about being attacked or killed by other players.

Our chat is censored for language and attempts to bypass it are met with swift action and removal from the server. Players can very easily lock their chests and protect their own builds from griefers and thieves.

We offer three worlds to play on, one of each difficulty (easy, normal, and hard). Everyone begins with access to the easy and normal worlds, and can gain access to the hard world after some time on our server."

Another option: MC Scouts: Boy and Girl Scout Framework Server:

It is currently open to the public. Run around, mine, craft, sell. Explore the city center and the biomes (which are not protected at all). This is a survival server. You can die and there are baddies on the outside of the city walls (difficultly medium). The server address is: play.mcscouts.com
The city center and games area (Hunger Games roof)  is non-PVP. The Biomes  and outside the city are all PVP enabled Anything you build outside of a plot you buy is not protected unless it is in a faction. Chests are protected, the rest is not. It isn’t “griefed” if someone moves in and re-decorates it with a pickaxe. I won’t fix it. I won’t kick someone out of your area in the wilderness. If you want protected areas factions are an easy way to do that until you can afford a permanent city plot.
If you want a protected area, buy a plot or start/join a faction.
You earn money and experience mining, building and killing mobs. Most every block can earn you money so have fun.
There are many chest shops for you to buy and sell things you have, mine or want. Shops are in the tower. Take the stairs. You can sell the diamonds which you can earn every day for voting.
There are signs and portals everywhere on what you can do, especially when you get out of spawn. Read them!
Actual Cub, Girl and Boy Scouts get entry into the Scout only room at spawn. They also get special commands, shown in the room.
Rules are:
Rule 1: No griefing, hacking or flying. (really we have jail and ways to check)
Rule 2: Now whining or asking for stuff. (that includes mod, rights, gifts, etc.)
Rule 3: No PVP in city except PVP areas. (It should be protected but if we see you anyway…)
Rule 4: No Swearing.
Rule 5: Have fun

A Family Friendly, Kid-safe Minecraft Server for PVP:

The MineSquish server is a family-friendly survival Minecraft server. We have strict rules on language and behaviour to guarantee that the server is always a fun and relaxed place to hang out and play Minecraft – especially for young children and families. We are a whitelisted server; this means that you can’t connect to the server unless your name is on our whitelist (the application form is linked below). Our whitelist requirements are light enough to give everyone the ability to join, while also ensuring that the only people who join are active and friendly members of the IndieSquish community who respect our rules.

Server IP: mc.indiesquish.com
Server Maps: http://minesquish.indiesquish.com/maps/
Server Rules: http://minesquish.indiesquish.com/minesquish-server-rules/

Jupitercraft: An Australian Minecraft server banning swearing, griefing and other bad conduct can be found here:

And lastly: Fire for Christ Family Gaming

Seems family-friendly, but with a definite christian framework. Seems safe.

So, happy gaming. Be safe.

Matt Kelley

www.cpsmagnet.com

www.giftedparent.org

What is Twice Exceptional and How can I help my 2e Child?

What is Twice Exceptional?

2e, Twice Exceptional and Twice Gifted are terms that, thankfully, are beginning to get more attention, and in turn, so are the children that fall under this "label". However, much is unclear in the definition of Giftedness, let alone Twice Exceptional, this, it seems important to attempt to first define Twice Exceptional students, or at least share what other, more expert, advisers believe.

For example, Colorado law gives the definition of Twice Exceptional Students as those who :

"...are identified as gifted and talented in one or more areas of exceptionality (specific academics, general intellectual ability, creativity, leadership, visual, or performing arts); {and} ...{and have a } disability defined by Federal/State eligibility criteria: specific learning disability, significant identifiable emotional disability, physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, autism, or ADHD." (Colorado Dept. of Education 2009)

But is this definition particularly helpful? It is a legal definition created for the response to ADA mandates on fair and equal education.

The Council on Exceptional Children's definition seems to do a much better job, but is a bit more lengthy, stating,

"Gifted students with disabling conditions remain a major group of underserved and understimulated youth (Cline, 1999). The focus on accommodations for their disabilities may preclude the recognition and development of their cognitive abilities. It is not unexpected, then, to find a significant discrepancy between the measured academic potential of these students and their actual performance in the classroom (Whitmore & Maker, 1985). In order for these children to reach their potential, it is imperative that their intellectual strengths be recognized and nurtured, at the same time as their disability is accommodated appropriately.

Identification of giftedness in students who are disabled is problematic. The customary identification methods-standardized tests and observational checklists-are inadequate, without major modification. Standard lists of characteristics of gifted students may be inadequate for unmasking hidden potential in children who have disabilities. Children whose hearing is impaired, for example, cannot respond to oral directions, and they may also lack the vocabulary which reflects the complexity of their thoughts. Children whose speech or language is impaired cannot respond to tests requiring verbal responses. Children whose vision is impaired may be unable to respond to certain performance measures, and although their vocabulary may be quite advanced, they may not understand the full meaning of the words they use (e.g., color words). Children with learning disabilities may use high-level vocabulary in speaking but be unable to express themselves in writing, or vice versa. In addition, limited life experiences due to impaired mobility may artificially lower scores (Whitmore & Maker, 1985). Since the population of gifted/disabled students is difficult to locate, they seldom are included in standardized test norming groups, adding to the problems of comparison.

In addition, gifted children with disabilities often use their intelligence to try to circumvent the disability. This may cause both exceptionalities to appear less extreme: the disability may appear less severe because the child is using the intellect to cope, while the efforts expended in that area may hinder other expressions of giftedness." (Council on Exceptional Children, 2012) .

The best definition comes from Susan Baum, the Mother of Twice Exceptional, and an expert in all things 2e who states, "These bright children, discovered within the population of students who are identified as learning disabled, are often failing miserably in school.They are first noticed because of what they cannot do, rather than because of the talent they are demonstrating. This group of students is most at risk because of the implicit message that accompanies the LD categorization that there is something wrong with the student that must be fixed before anything else can happen. Parents and teachers alike become totally focused on the problem. Little attention, if any, is paid to the student's strengths and interests, other than to use them to remediate weaknesses.
Interestingly, these children often have high-level interests at home.

They may build fantastic structures with plastic bricks or start a local campaign to save the whales. The creative abilities, intellectual strength and passion they bring to their hobbies are clear indicators of their potential for giftedness (Renzulli, 1978). Because these students are bright and sensitive, they are more acutely aware of their difficulty in learning.Furthermore, they tend to generalize their feelings of academic failure to an overall sense of inadequacy. Over time, these pessimistic feelings over-shadow any positive feelings connected with what they accomplish on their own at home. Research has shown that this group of students is often rated by teachers as most disruptive at school. They are frequently found to be off task; they may act out, daydream, or complain of headaches and stomachaches; and they are easily frustrated and use their creative abilities to avoid tasks (Baum and Owen, 1988; Whitmore, 1980). Since school does not offer these bright youngsters much opportunity to polish and use their gifts, such results are not surprising. (Baum, 1990)





Twice exceptional children, in my belief are blocked students. They underachieve to their potential due to extraneous and internal factors that blur their true ability and cause them great stress. They are runners missing a shoe, painters with a brush missing a handle, and musicians with a hearing impairment, they do their best, but not what they could accomplish without these hurdles. Unlike the aforementioned examples, they unfortunately try to hide their deficits because they believe it is an embarrassment and stigma, which it sometimes can be. Unlike the painter who can go buy a new brush, they try hard as they can, but often fail, without having the tools or resources to truly know what they need, or the current emotional strength to advocate for it, this is our job and must be our commitment to do for them.

Matt Kelley
Chicago Gifted Services
www.cpsmagnet.com

Gifted Kids and Susceptibility to Child Sexual Abuse

I am doing a talk that talks about gifted kids online. My instinct says that due to a sensitive nature, interest in talking with adults, and other factors, that gifted kids are possibly more susceptible to internet, and other forms, of predation by adults. Is there any research to back this up?

This is a stretch, but seems to make sense with the factors of the internet and a low set of street smarts, that some gifted kids seem to have at times.

Any comments greatly appreciated. Links to research are even more helpful.

Matt Kelley
www.cpsmagnet.com

Twice Exceptional Coaching Services- Mentoring and Consulting Services

Matt Kelley, of Chicago Gifted Services, and the writer of the Gifted Parent blog, is starting a company offering services to the parents of twice-exceptional children.

The main services offered will consist of coaching, mentoring and tutoring, with a strong focus on the social-emotional needs of this group and how they closely effect the academic outcomes. Although it will not directly offer testing, or professional interventions, all such resources will be made available to parents through the network and existing relationships the company has in the field.

In face-to-face meetings, phone support, and online collaboration, the goal of the services will be to empower children and parents to find their creativity, internal spark, and through both find academic and social success. Although based in Chicago, services are offered nationwide through the aforementioned avenues.

A specialty of the service will be in integrating technology into the gifted and twice exceptional curriculum, for both homeschooled and other students.

For more info, please click the link here: http://www.cpsmagnet.com/#!contact-info-form

For Info on Mr. Kelley please visit his linkedin profile here

Guru of Minecraft and Educational Tech Innovator Doing Minecraft Day Camp in MA

Dad, and IT professional, Matt Baya, is running his first year of Minecraft Camp this summer in Williamstown, MA.

The camp will focus on providing skills and lessons to youth including:

• Minecraft Basics – Learn how to craft basic items, build your house, mine for gold & diamonds and survive in a world filled with zombies, creepers and giant spiders.
• Creative Mode – Fly into space, dive to the bottom of the ocean, build a roller coaster or a skyscraper or anything else you can think of.
• Advanced Crafting – Advanced Crafting including potions & enchantments
• Redstone Engineering – Learn the basics of digital logic while building moving doors, traps and anything else you can think of.
• WorldEdit – Build anything you want using common geometric shapes. Giant pyramids, spheres of Lava, walls of ice can be created with simple commands.
• “Modding” Minecraft – How to get ‘under the hood’ of your Minecraft® installation and install mods that add on to the game.
• Making a Minecraft Video – Learn how to record a video of you playing Minecraft and how to share it with friends or on YouTube.
• Other Topics – Participants may ask for other topics related to Minecraft, game making and computer programming and we’ll do our best adjust plans to meet their needs.

Matt was my inspiration for looking into how to make Minecraft safer for gifted kids and how to teach tech skills. He is amazingly able to identify necessary computing skills and teach them through youth-relevant design. He may not know it, but he is doing the flipped classroom. A dad, a pioneer, and an educator. Spaces are filling up, don't miss out. He knows his stuff, and he's doing it all to help his own kids. Who could really ask for more.

Read his article on the IT administration aspects taught in Minecraft here:

http://matt.baya.net/everything-my-son-needs-to-know-about-system-adminstration-he-learned-from-minecraft/

More info on the camp here: http://gamingweek.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/gamingweek-brochure-v1.pdf

Registration here: https://gamingweek.info/registration/

Matt Kelley
www.giftedparent.org

TED Video lessons for Kids.

Great Lessons on everything from technology to arts, to.. well everything. Here's one on Nanotech I used with 2nd graers. Awesome free learning stuff for gifted kids.

http://ed.ted.com/on/1F1B2LsH

Finding One's Home: The Path Less Traveled By the Twice Exceptional Adult

So, I feel I'm being a bit selfish here. I wonder as I write this whether it's even appropriate, as it tells the story of one person looking for help, and may connect with nobody at all. But I need ideas, so, please excuse me for being a bit self-centered.

Who I was as a kid: Typical gifted I think. I remember in third grade the teacher said whomever got a grade level above in reading on the standardized test would get 5 dollars. When test scores came out she proudly announced to the whole class that my reading level was un-scoreable, or above 8th grade, and told me and everyone in the class she was giving me 20 dollars. I was living in a shelter at the time, was the only Caucasian student in a school of over 700, built for 400, and everyone else was just as poor. Bad call on the teacher's part.

I was always the kid who got called for awards, sometimes having to get up and sit down several times in one assembly because I kept getting different honors.

In fifth grade I decided being dumb was a smart choice. I stopped doing homework, stopped answering questions, stopped everything. I failed fifth grade. Two years previous I had been offered the opportunity to skip 2 grades, but was scared to death I'd be beaten up even more than I was. Actually that's untrue, because I was just threatened to be beaten up, every day, every year. When I repeated fifth grade I tried to hide. I buried my nose in books and stayed quiet. The teacher called on me one day, I was reading and was thrown off. She threw a text book across the room at me and stated "pay attention honkey".

I stopped going to school. I didn't say why.

I remember waking up with a truant officer in my bedroom. At that age my biggest concern is that I was only wearing underwear. She was a truant officer for Chicago Public Schools, but somehow, and I don't know why, she got the point. I was transitioned to a very small alternative school.

It was a big shocker in many ways. I actually wasn't afraid anymore, some of the kids even liked me. I didn't have any social skills however, and was REALLY behind in math and writing as I really never paid attention in class and passed because of high test scores. Lots of ability, little knowledge.

I graduated 8th grade after being suspended 3 times for everything from writing an underground newspaper, to stealing a hood ornament from the principal's car. (I did it because I was dared too and didn't want to lose a friend. I cried when I got home because I broke her trust, not because I was afraid of the consequences).

Then came high school. Because of my test scores, and other factors I don't really understand, I was entered into a gifted program at the neighborhood school, which at the time, was know for being VERY dangerous. Good intentions, bad planning. I was enrolled in all honors classes, (algebra, english, etc) yet had just finished  getting fractions under my belt by using blocks, and didn't know all my math facts (still don't by the way).

I was scared. I understood nothing, was scared to death of the environment, and didn't know how to ask for help. I arrived one day to see a bunch of police at the school. I'm sure I thought it was a murder at the time, and some news stories do state there was a shooting in '93, but I can't be sure.

I rode my bike to school, saw whatever was going on and turned around, never to return.

At the time, and for probably ten years I told myself I left for fear of violence. But it wasn't that. I was afraid of being seen as what I really thought I might be, dumb.

I took two years off, two very wasted years. Then I started biking up to the suburbs, trying to do something worthwhile. Somehow, I saw an ad for the North Shore Country Day School.

It was, and still is, a very prestigious place of learning, and in the suburbs, and very costly.

To make a very long story short, i biked there almost daily and begged the admissions dept to let me in. Why they even bothered to talk to a poor, somewhat-smelly, awkward teenage dropout is WAYYYY beyond my understanding. But they did. They offered admission and a $500 per year scholarship. I think tuition was around 18,000/yr at the time, and my mom made about 20,000 a year.

So, also amazingly, a person who was a friend of a minister who mentored me as a kid, decides to pay for the tuition. But there is a somewhat difficult part too. I had to finish in three years. Even though I never had a freshman year, I'd start as a sophmore. So, a HS dropout from a CPS school, with a spotty educational background, un-diagnosed learning disabilities, needing to take a bus, train, then another bus each way. Never should have worked. Nobody should have admitted me, paid for my education, or taken the time to mentor me as the science teacher did. It should have never worked out. but it did. By the way, at a reunion I asked someone what they thought the reason was I had to do it in three years instead of four. Their answer ""You would have been a 21-year-old senior in high school, trust me, you wouldn't have wanted that..." I had never thought of that.

So another shortened story, got in, and barely got through, a decent liberal arts college, diagnosed with attention deficit, and a bunch of other learning problems I can't remember (ironically). Graduated in 2001. Yes, looking for a job in September 2001 didn't work out so well. I should have applied in June when I graduated, but was given the once in a lifetime opportunity to work at Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut. Yes, I did meet him, he actually stuck his thumb out for a ride in the cart  I was driving. A cart which later in the summer almost killed me when I parked it uphill while walking downhill, and forgetting to engage the brake....Ahh, the joys of twice exceptional. The camp, if you haven't heard of it, caters to children with serious medical conditions. I was told there were 1200 applications for 30 positions. I got it, I took it, and it was perhaps the most powerful experience of my life. Imagine being surrounded by some of the best people working with kids having the best time, in one of the most purely good places in the world. It was like Disneyland on steroids, absence the commercialism.

But it was a 24/7 job for the most part. Up at night with kids in the infirmary, living in the cabins with no phone service... Not a great way to look for a job. Plus I really didn't know what job to look for. Looked a lot, but I guess not the right way. Thus, I never really had a full time job until 2008.

I had worked as after school director, on the side tutoring, classroom aides, etc, etc. I tried, in 2007, to start a tutoring business that I loved because what I realized I was doing was not actually tutoring kids, but helping kids, parents and teachers come together and identify their kid's strengths so that they would feel okay and not be scared of failing, which is the magic of any education when it occurs. Anyone can learn anything, as long as they aren't afraid of failing at it.

So, I had never run a business. I did stupid things like donating a $5000 gold bar to a school's auction gala where I had gotten many of my clients from. They accepted the gift, but without my knowledge were telling parents I was not to be used for tutoring. The reason I later found out, was that people were leaving the internal tutoring dept of the school (which charged big $$) in favor of my services, which actually gave results. So the business dried up in relatively short time, as most of the clients were from that one school, and I didn't really market, and didn't know how. I had been there for four years as an aide in the classroom (the first time they had ever done that) and had gotten all my other clients by word of mouth, and more likely they knew I knew the curriculum darn well as I sat through every class, every day for four years with the child. Drop out in fifth grade and sit in the classroom with a student taking notes and helping him with homework from grades 5th-8th. Yeah, I believe in Karma ;)

So after he graduates I decide, well, I have no credentials, and my client pool is going to shoot downhill very fast, and the families who I am working with (multi-millionaires) are telling me that something bad is coming economically and that I probably should go get some credentials.

So, I go back to school. (Yes, you probably know how well that went). I was a 4.0 student. Tutoring for 6 years had taught me how to get good grades from a teacher without necessarily learning the content. I always  tried to teach the content too, but because I was being paid to increase grades, I taught motivation, advocacy, and how to find out and give the teacher exactly what they were looking for.

So, 4.0, yes, but had a very militant professor who often said things such as, "you, as middle class white people, don't know what it is like to be homeless, impoverished, and abused". You can imagine what my response was. It turned into a verbal argument almost every class. (In hindsight I should have shut up, taken the A, and left it alone), Instead I just left. Offered a full scholarship to finish a Masters in Social Work, it also necessitated not working, as the internship was during the day and 1200 hours. I tried to navigate around it, but was unable to.

So, I figured, teaching could be good right? Fast forward. Teaching Certificate from Northwestern University. Apply for a job in the first year they ever could not place teachers because of the economy (2008). 'i would show up at  job fair for 30 positions and over 1000 people would be there. Lines at school tables at these fairs could be up to 3 hrs long.

Out of 1200 emails and multiple applications, job fairs, driving to over 100 schools and personally dropping off resumes, I was hired. I loved the teaching but the pressure was horrendous.

Intercom: "Mr. Kelley, you are 2min late for your classes bathroom break". I was ridden like Seabiscuit. Loved the kids, hated the job. Worked there 3 years. They then stated I was unsatisfactory. Probably because I didn't jump through enough hoops and as I was changed to the role of technology coordinator, I didn't put up with teachers who had tantrums if I wasn't able to fix their machines due to priorities given to me by administration that they didn't know of. They just complained I was rude, and didn't help them, when in all reality I was busy doing something else. I wasn't liked, didn't fit in, so regardless of my talents, which included re-doing the network, statring an ipad program in the classroom, integrating chromebooks, presenting to legislators in Illinois on technology in Education, and speaking at a district wide conference on two occasions, I was moved along.

So, this year, I finally thought I had found my dream job. I was hired to a brand new position in a CPS school. I was told, "we are going to have you teach the teachers how to integrate technology in the classroom, bring us to the 21st century, and teach too." Awesome. This is also what they voiced to teachers. So, imagine getting a class schedule where you see and grade over 700 students in grades 1-8 per week. Run the lab, chair the technology committee, and field technology questions in your preparation periods from teachers who think you don't want to help them, all while writing a curriculum, as the one that you chose is not good enough. And then you are seen as a non-team-player and "non-renewed" and you realize that wherever you go that this is probably going to happen all over again. Bait and switch.

You know kids need to learn about digital citizenship, copyrights, and internet safety while you are being told to teach typing and MS word. You know that you are a more visual spatial learner, and teachers are, or seem to be, VERY auditory sequential. You presume you are always going to bump heads with administration even when you are trying REALLY hard not to. So what do you do?

I'm not religious per se, but it seems like god did a heck of a lot of work to allow me to do something in the world that betters it. I know that all the trials I have been through are partly due to my own demeanor and weaknesses, but I don't know what to do about it.

I know when given the chance I am able to make almost any kids find their light, decide upon a goal, realize it as their own, be successful in attaining it, and grow from the knowledge that they were able to acomplish it themselves, without the need of anyone else, or if they needed someone, that it was okay, and still their success to rejoice in. I can teach them how to be, and that being them is ok, and that there is going to be a time for them to be found and then they'll be happy, but only if they just keep trying.

Even though I believe it for each child I work with. I'm having a hard time believing it for myself. I'm tired and just want to do the work I know I can and I don't know how to find that path.

I'm really sorry for the meandering, complaining, and generalizing. If I had the time, I'd point out all the amazing teachers I've met at CPS, the principals who work day and night, the professors at UIC who were amazing, but then the post would be REALLY long.

I would not be here if it weren't for the many amazing people that have crossed paths with my life and I know that. I guess I'm just looking for that next push, that glimpse of hope, encouragement.

Apologies for being too personal, and perhaps too whatever...

Matt