About MetaSchool
MetaSchool was created for learners who need something different. We are a fully online education service that helps students who have struggled in conventional classrooms rebuild their confidence, motivation, and joy in learning. Our programs combine personalized instruction, multisensory learning, executive-functioning support, and the creative possibilities of Minecraft.
Our students are not placed into a generic online course. Lessons and projects are built around each learner’s reading level, interests, strengths, challenges, and goals. We want every student to feel understood, capable, and proud of what they can accomplish.
The People Behind MetaSchool
Founder and Director, Orton-Gillingham Therapist
Nicholas Schroeder
Nicholas is formally trained with in the Orton-Gillingham approach with a certificate of completion and has completed more than 21,000 hours of multisensory literacy instruction, including more than 6,000 hours teaching through Minecraft.
He develops MetaSchool’s literacy instruction and oversees its educational programming. His work combines his formal Orton-Gillingham training, extensive experience teaching multisensory literacy, and thousands of hours working directly with students inside Minecraft.
His goal is not simply to help students complete more schoolwork. It is to help learners understand how they think, experience meaningful success, and regain the spark that can disappear after years of struggling in school.
Minecraft Executive Functioning Coach, Executive Coordinator & Program Developer
Kristen Kodama
Kristen is an experienced and certified Minecraft executive functioning coach and mentor, who has more than 10 years of experience and a background spanning game design and therapy. She leads MetaSchool’s Minecraft mentorship programming and is responsible for much of the building, visual design, and technical development behind MetaSchool’s educational worlds.
She works with students to turn ambitious ideas into achievable projects while supporting planning, organization, communication, flexibility, persistence, and confidence. Her ability to understand both the technical possibilities of Minecraft and the individual needs of each learner has been essential to MetaSchool’s development.
How MetaSchool Began
MetaSchool was founded by Nicholas Schroeder, an educator who understands what it is like to struggle in school and feel as though the way you learn does not fit the classroom around you.
Those experiences inspired Nicholas to create the kind of learning environment he wished had existed when he was younger: one where different ways of thinking are respected, students are not made to feel ashamed of what they find difficult, and learning can still include imagination, humour, creativity, and fun.
In 2018, Nicholas and his wife, Sydney Hill, opened a small teaching studio on Vancouver Island. Students learned through hands-on, multisensory activities designed to make literacy instruction more engaging and accessible.
Then, in early 2020, MetaSchool went through a metamorphosis.
Our Minecraft Metamorphosis
When MetaSchool’s physical studio had to close, Nicholas knew that simply moving worksheets onto Zoom would not be enough. His students needed an online environment that felt engaging, familiar, and worth returning to.
So, in April 2020, Nicholas played Minecraft with his students for the first time. He challenged them to build a playground. Before long, the students began recreating their own schoolyard games inside Minecraft. They were communicating, negotiating, solving problems, exchanging ideas, and reconnecting with one another. Students who often found it difficult to participate in traditional settings became active and dynamic members of the group. This experience changed the direction of MetaSchool.
Nicholas began experimenting with Minecraft signs, custom text, video cameras, and iPad touchscreens to practice spelling, handwriting, reading, and phonics. What began as a creative response to an unexpected shutdown gradually developed into a complete online learning eco-system.
In 2021, Kristen Kodama joined the team to help reimagine MetaSchool’s traditional curriculum into a virtual format by designing custom educational Minecraft maps and materials that have made our special education the most engaging, enjoyable, and fun-filled as possible. Since then, we have developed more than 100 custom Minecraft classrooms, with each classroom focusing on a different literacy concept.
Nicholas is formally trained with in the Orton-Gillingham approach with a certificate of completion and has completed more than 21,000 hours of multisensory literacy instruction, including more than 6,000 hours teaching through Minecraft.
MetaSchool’s Minecraft Orton-Gillingham program is not ordinary tutoring with Minecraft simply added as a reward. The learning takes place inside an extensive, purpose-built educational world. Nicholas and Kristen Kodama have created more than 100 custom Minecraft classrooms, with each classroom focusing on a different literacy concept. Nicholas developed the instructional activities and adapted multisensory phonics teaching for Minecraft. Kristen led the Minecraft construction, visual design, and technical development that brought those ideas to life.
Minecraft Orton-Gillingham Literacy
The world includes:
Large, customizable in-game flashcards
Thousands of programmed command blocks
Interactive word-building and spelling activities
Printing and cursive exercises
Tracing activities completed in Minecraft and on iPad touchscreens
In-game word searches, reading challenges, and practice rooms
Lessons that can be adjusted to the needs of each student
This program is designed for school-aged learners and teenagers working at approximately a Kindergarten to Grade 7 reading level. This makes it especially valuable for older students who need foundational literacy instruction but do not want to work with materials that feel childish. Many MetaSchool learners are autistic, dyslexic, have PDA profiles, dysgraphia, or other learning and processing differences. However, a diagnosis is not what determines whether the program is a good fit. The most important factor is the student’s special interest in Minecraft and needs a more engaging, individualized way to learn.
I Think, I Know, I Can: Minecraft Executive Functioning and Mentorship
Some students have incredible ideas but struggle to decide where to begin. Others find it difficult to organize a project, continue when something becomes challenging, ask for help, adapt their plans, or recognize what they are capable of accomplishing.
The I Think, I Know, I Can program uses meaningful Minecraft projects to practice these skills in a supportive, low-pressure environment. Students work alongside Kristen Kodama, an experienced and certified Minecraft executive functioning coach and mentor, who has more than 10 years of experience and a background spanning game design and therapy. Rather than turning Minecraft into another traditional classroom, Kristen helps each student choose projects connected to their own interests. Together, they set goals, create plans, divide larger ideas into manageable steps, work through unexpected problems, and complete projects the student is proud to share.
Activities may be structured or student-led, depending on the learner’s needs. Progress notes document growth in areas such as executive functioning, communication, persistence, confidence, and social development.
The program can support:
Planning and organization
Task initiation and persistence
Creative problem-solving
Flexible thinking
Communication and collaboration
Asking for help and self-advocacy
Responding to feedback
Managing mistakes and frustration
Confidence and self-esteem
Following projects through to completion
MetaSchool Today
MetaSchool is now completely online. This allows us to provide highly individualized programming to learners across Canada and as far away as New Zealand.
MetaSchool has gone through more than one metamorphosis since we first opened our studio in 2018. We changed from a physical teaching studio into a fully online program. We changed Minecraft from a social space into a complete literacy classroom. We continued changing as our students showed us what they needed.
MetaSchool is for learners who need more than another worksheet or another traditional tutoring program. It is for the child or teenager who needs to feel motivated, understood, and excited about learning again. Get in touch to discover which MetaSchool program may be the right fit for your child.
