School is over for the calendar year and this means that my Minecraft Club is on hiatus. Because of all the students interested in joining, I had to run it two nights a week for a limited run of two months per group. As other GamingEdus have already described, in my school club, part of the expectation of membership is that players keep an online journal on the Minecraft Club Hub wiki. Usually, I just checked their posts briefly to ensure that they had the required number of sentences so they could proceed with playing. Now that I have time off, I have the opportunity to read their thoughts in depth. My big takeaway is that this club means the world to them, even when they have their own copy of the game. Here are some quotes and photos to give you an idea of how important Minecraft Club is to the participants [note – I have not edited any of their work for spelling or grammar]:

l can not play minecraf because my did do’t have time.

l cry because l can go to minecraftclubhub.

l cry all away home.l cry in my car. (Thursday Pondergrim)

(I knew he was distraught – I didn’t realize how much.)

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November 4, 2014
     Today i was playing Minecarft PC it is the first time i play PC now i played all the types of Minecraft except Minecraft Xbox 1 and i was in serviaval world. It was so good and fun that i found a cave in my world i got some coal and i tried to find some iron but there where no iron in the cave. I even got started making a house in my new world. I was playing in a single player world and i was in peaceful mode and i found staind clay and i used it to build my house. Today is the best day of my life oh and i forgot to say that Kevin o yang helped me do some mining and i love Minecraft because it is the best game i evered played in my whole life! I do like to play other games like prodigy and Roblox and Pokemon and Lego but i like Minecraft the most because it is the funest game i’ve played and i even like to build because in my Xbox world i build a hotel made out of nether rack ,wood,bricks,qurites and last but not least pillars i even builed a hot tub in my house and it is made out of iron blocks and i like to build and go mining because when i go mining i can find diamonds and use it to make armor and weapons and even hoes to plant food so my health bar can refill its self and to refill your health you have to have full hunger so food is very important and if your hunger bar is empty you will lose health and have 4 hearts left and if you have 0 hearts left you will die and on your screan it will have 2 operations #1 is respawn and #2 is quit game but if i were you i would chose respawn because you can keep playing and i love to play games but make sure you are on peaceful mode because creepers and zombies and skeletons andsilver fish will kill you so be careful about what you chose to be on!Don’t forget to spawn the wither because when you kill the wither it will drop a nether star that  you can use for a beacon and to make a beacon you will need 1 nether star 3 obsidian and 5 glass and that will give you a beacon and you can use the beacon for regaining heath,speed,resistance,haste,jump boost and last but not least strength but you will need iron,gold,emeralds and diamonds to activate it so you better get mining so you can find those ores and remember finding diamonds and emeralds are hard to find so find a cave that is what i did and it worked i found some iron and coal to but i am still looking for diamonds and emeralds so i can get diamond stuff and i already traded a villager 18 wheat for 1 emerald and i have 6 emeralds now and i used 1 emerald for apples so when i find gold i can make golden applesan’t it great because golden apples will give you buffs like fire resistence and regening and more health so better find gold so you can make golden apples! (Tuesday Rhythigrim)

(This is the same student who wrote on December 9, 2014 – “No Minecraft Club – Worst Day Ever!”)

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November 25,2014

Hi guy’s i,m back,

Today we went to the server that the minecraft club members were supposed to be playing and holy cheese it was fun! I mostly was in PvP me and someone else were vs Liragrim Henry won pretty much all the rounds so i quit the PvP. I tamed a horse after that and named it Kevin. If your wondering how to do it I didn’t learn myself, Rythigrim teaches me that you have to put it in a anvil and name it with the name button thingy. Then I heard S.S In PvP And the tables turned the other team had more people but we still won.  We had many rounds we were owning them! Then I crashed out and couldn’t get back in so I played a single player server. (Tuesday Calcagrim)

(I love how they learn from each other – they even put shout-outs to other people’s pages on their own pages, like “be sure to check out Rhythigrim” – with an embedded link!)

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dec.3rd2014

today I went in the pumpkin porle and build a house , inside I build a horse stable then

my other friends came to help me. one build the roof, two put chest and freanes.

me and my other friend bulid a garden we put big and pretty flowers and seeds.

next time I would want to bulid a unground witch base and know one will know.

with potion making thing and I will send them to my friends .that is what I did. (Thursday Sociagrim)

(I love the fluidity of their play – single player, LAN world, multiplayer on GamingEdus server – plus I love how flexible they are with doing things solo and then changing plans based on what’s happening. They also love to plan their next steps.)

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I will miss this group of players but I look forward to working with new groups (and the feeling is mutual, as I’ve had students in the January-February time slot asking since November when we’d begin)!