Books by Brian Aspinall

How do you engage learners in the Digital Age?Engaged students are more likely to internalize learning and apply it to situations beyond the classroom. So how can you get your learners to engage? In Block Breaker, educator Brian Aspinall explains that the wildly popular game Minecraft may be just the right tool for the job. Sharing his own and other educators' success with Minecraft (and other programming applications) in the classroom, Brian reveals how these adaptable tools can be leveraged to engage learners and empower them to find success. Why Minecraft? It offers immediate feedback on a personalized learning platform. Inquiry tasks encourage students to collaborate, problem solve, and explore multiple approaches to finding a solution. And it's a fun way to practice critical thinking and spatial reasoning! Complete with lesson ideas and learning strategies, Block Breaker will help you tear down barriers and build powerful connections for learning. "Brian has yet again challenged us to rethink best practices with regards to pedagogy and twenty-first-century learning. This is a great read for all educators!" -Alice Keeler, educator, author, and edtech blogger "If you read Block Breaker, there's a good chance that you'll be stirred to rethink how you see STEM's role in schools. There's a great chance you'll be motivated to strive to be the best teacher possible through Brian Aspinall's deft storytelling skills. But there's a superb chance both will happen." -Matt Miller, blogger, speaker, author of Ditch That Textbook "This book is sure to bring joyful learning and teaching experiences to many students and educators across all subject areas." -Cynthia Gozzard, educator, Minecraft global mentor, edtech enthusiast

Crack the code for your students’ success! Future-ready students need to be creative. They need to know how to communicate their ideas and how to collaborate as problem solvers. And to master these and other twenty-first-century requirements, they will need to be critical thinkers. In Code Breaker, educator Brian Aspinall shares his insights on how to turn curriculum expectations into skills. Students identify problems, develop solutions, and use coding and computational thinking to apply and demonstrate their learning. From Aspinall’s collection of real-life examples and practical lesson ideas, you’ll discover how to...Use computational thinking and coding across all subjects and grade levelsEncourage students to let their skills and passions shineTeach learners to take risks so they can grow from failure and feedbackMake assessment meaningful—and fun—for you and your studentsYou don’t have to be a “computer geek” to empower your students with these essential skills. Code Breaker equips you to use computational thinking and coding in your classroom—regardless of your computer skill level—to increase creativity, remix assessment, and develop a class of coder ninjas!—— “Brian Aspinall puts a very human face on coding and helps the reader understand it can be implemented for all grade levels in meaningful ways.”—George Couros, author of The Innovator’s Mindset “This book is for everyone who has ever asked, ‘Why should I care about coding?’ By the end of the story of the pooping baby, you will know why!” —Matthew Oldridge, speaker, writer, and mathematics educator “Brian Aspinall makes the case for how all educators can use the concepts of computational thinking to shape their pedagogy and instructional practices to increase student learning.”—Laura Fleming, library media specialist and author of Worlds of Making