Books

Reading is very important.
It greatly bothers me the number of students who say "I hate to read".
In addition to having a great library with a full time librarian in every school (and I know many that do not), I think books should be all around the school. Book shelves in every classroom. Teachers can have some more content specific items, as well as things that they like/have read. I was lucky to have a Principal that also bought 2 rolling magazine racks for me to put outside my classroom. There are many Science and Maker magazines to share. If it is important, we should also make time for it during the. school day.

Here is a list of #MakerSpace books to check out. Some are projects, some are story books, some are #Maker philosophy...

{ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/195AiQqtUZwlMuTolePU08L8jbr12hjIoHQW1WqjuODM/edit?usp=sharing }

Building a Little Free Library could be another good way to promote reading. 

#MakersGonnaMake

 

What are you making this summer? It doesn’t have to be for school next year.

One of the great things about MakerEd is the vast variety of mediums to explore.

Are you cooking or baking or barbecuing?

Gardening?

Jams & Jellies?

Candles?

Knitting, sewing, crocheting?

Making jewelry?

Painting? 

Redoing shelves or cabinets (or rooms)?

Woodworking of some kind?

Do you have a local Farmers Market to visit?

That is all #MakerMindset. Have fun with it.

Now, many of those could be utilized in school. Math and Science are easy connections. But what about other subjects? History, Geography, Languages, Government...

Schools should have gardens. What can be grown in the country you are studying or what was grown in the time you are studying? Can you do some baking/cooking and talk about countries and their foods, their spices, the Spice Trade, trade in general? Candle making is good for scents and spices that are found in certain areas of the world. What are the clothes in the country or time or book you are studying, how did they make them, what material, where did it come from? So many questions that can be asked. Once you start asking, the students will naturally pick up the questioning. 

Remember, it is about using the artefact as a jumping off point for a variety of discussions. 

(deck chair I made...and I don't have a deck)

Make Education Forum

Make (the people of Make magazine, Maker Faire, Maker Camp...and others) are holding a virtual Education Forum August 3rd - 5th, from 10 am- 2 pm PST. Registration is $175.

(from their website)

Among the how-to sessions:

• Incorporate making into existing learning frameworks and subject matter
• Explore resources and opportunities for educational makerspaces
• Technical making skill tutorials and trainings
• Help students find and scope local problems that they can work on
• Produce a School Maker Faire
• Low-budget, low-tech making
• Incorporating and fostering the maker mindset in your school community
• Expand your libraries engagement with making activities and programs

 

What is included:

• Three half-day summer virtual gathering to explore topics, share ideas, exchange tips and tricks and learn from one another
• One year membership in MAKE: Community/member that includes monthly conversations, access to discussion forums, and a print and digital subscription to Make: magazine
• Make: exclusive promotions and savings

VirtualMathConference

Math is a part of everything, we all know that.
Conferences are a great way to learn from each other.
Conferences are expensive.

Howie Hua is organizing a free Virtual Math Conference, July 10-11.

Here are the sessions that people will be sharing via Zoom. 

Links to presenters Zoom will be shared to those who sign up to "attend"

#VirtualMath21

ProcessOverProduct

 MakerEd / MakerSpace / MakerCenteredLearning is not about the end product as much as it is about the process and the discussions you can have during the process. Let us chat about some “English classroom” ideas. Students could use a vinyl cutter / Cricut / Cameo, iron-on vinyl and a heat press or iron to put their own poetry on a t-shirt. They could use a laser cutter to engrave it on a cutting board or plaque. They could use ____ to make _____… The product is just the entry step. The conversations that you can have while they are doing this are the more important journey.

Font choice? 

Dimensions & measuring? 

Design & layout?  

Word choice so it fits better?

Color scheme? 

Is it the best vehicle for publishing? 

What is a better one? 

How did poets & authors publish in the past? 

What could partner with the poem to help get the meaning or feeling across?

Is there a similar poem from other authors?

By posing these questions/discussions, seemingly unrelated to content, learners feel that they can ask any type of question. I think that often students don’t know what questions to ask or what questions that they can ask in content areas. “I dont know enough to ask a question without looking foolish.” Questions are what drive learning. It is then up to the “expert” to weave the content ideas in with the answers or show the connections. Those “experts” can be young or old. That is a great happenstance of MakerEd, distributed teaching and learning - everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner. Sometimes questions have no relation to the topics at hand. And that is okay.

This works with any maker centered project in any subject area. It also helps to break down the silos of those areas. And think of all the “life skills” that are being practiced.

Some other English ideas :

- Design, make, build something to represent the theme of a novel/story

- Create an object from a novel and explain its significance to the story. Like the Capulets crest. Be the Prop Department for a movie

- hack a poem with makey-makey (make it come to life with sounds and lights and motion)

- design an obstacle course/maze with plot points as key locations. Code robot (the character) to go through it

- design a theme park based on story

- make a mobile based on things in the story

- green screen video a short piece of the story

- create a miniature version of a “set” for part of the story, by drawing, painting, cardboard construction…

- create a “tik tok feed” for a main character

Again, with all of these, it is the conversations that you can have around them, the explanations that the learners give, the questions that they ask and answer, that are most important. 

{ idea help from Emily Burk @tech_edu_burk ; Elizabeth Lloyd @lloydcrew ; Nicole F @mzfawstah ; Sandy Roberts @KaleidoscopeSci ; Dr. Kelly Jurkowski @kellyjurkowski ; and others}

MakerEdTheWhy

There are a myriad of reasons to implement
                    Maker Centered Learning - MakerEd - MakerSpaces.
Different reasons speak to different people.
Here are some...though I might need a part 2.

It is not a new thing that you are going to add to what you are currently doing. It is a shift in how you are doing things. It is an approach to learning, with making at the focus and lots of discussions around it. These discussions allow the student to come at it from their perspective, so it is naturally student centered. It allows them opportunities for voice & choice, since there are so many materials and tools that can be utilized and integrated. Making and the discussions around it help us get to know each other better, our passions and talents and wishes.

It also easily lends itself to PBL and being trans-curricular, a mashing up of the disciplines so you dont know where one starts and the other leaves off (we need to get rid of silos). It very easily weaves ideas together in real life context. Measurement never really means much until you have to build something that has to go/stay together or fit somewhere. When they master something, they want to share that new found skill. In a Maker Centered environment, everyone is a learner and everyone is a teacher. Kids love creating things to help others and make the world better. 

MakerEd is a mashup of ideas from some education icons :
-Montessori : Child-centered, Individualized learning, Integrated curriculum, Hands on learning, Multi age groupings
-Dewey : classroom democracy, learning relevant to lives , learning by doing, practical life skills
-Vygotsky : collaborative nature of learning, social interaction
-Papert : using computers (technology/tools) as instruments for learning and for enhancing creativity and innovation , constructionist theories
-Piaget : children build their own knowledge, mistakes are used by children to discover errors and self correct

And skills that we want kids to have to thrive in life...Maker Centered Learning helps those :

Curiosity

Critical thinking

Collaboration

Communication

Creativity

Community

Innovation

Entrepreneurship

Persistence in problem solving

Personal Agency

Flexibility & Adaptability

Productivity & Accountability

We are all born makers.

MakerLearningEcosystemCohort

Digital Promise wants to help K12's and community organizations form a tighter Maker Learning Ecosystem. They are starting a 6-month collaborative learning and regional development experience in order to create and support opportunities for maker educators and learners 

https://digitalpromise.org/initiative/maker-learning/establishing-maker-learning-ecosystems-cohort/ 

Application deadline is June 30th.

Virtual Information Session is Wednesday June 16 form 7-8 pm EDT. 

FabPlay21

FabPlay is back in person for 2021. 
https://sites.google.com/view/fab-play-institute 

FabPlay is a Northeast Ohio Maker Educator workshop/conference/networking opportunity.
It is 4 days of expanding ideas about Maker Centered Learning and FabLabs/MakerSpaces.
There will be many opportunities for hands on making with the whole gamut of tools and materials.
There will be lots of networking and social time.
And food, there will be food

It will be held at Hawken Schools in Gates Mills from August 3rd through the 6th.

The cost is $400.