I can't believe that I've got everyone on board and we are going ahead with plans for a mini-MakerSpace! One year ago this would not even have been a fleeting thought. Six months ago it would have seemed like a pipe dream. But now we are moving forward, even if it is with a low tech, elementary version of a MakerSpace.
If you are interested, you can check out the back story on how I got to this exciting and unknown place. (I cannot link enough to the Caine's Arcade video that truly changed my focus and teaching. Anyone who hasn't seen this owes it to themselves to click through.)
As I read books, blogs, project ideas - anything I could get my hands on - and attended PD workshops in person and virtually, the overwhelming advice was that there was not one perfect way to develop a MakerSpace. Every space, every school is different depending on your environment and what you are trying to accomplish.
In my K-4 school what I've seen is students gradually lose the interest and ability to think independently as they are furnished with step-by-step approaches, checklists and rubrics for assignments. 'Participation' medals have led to a school full (or generation?) of kids who don't know how to fail, make mistakes, and try again. They aren't learning where their own strengths and weaknesses are, and that they can apply themselves if they want to explore something new.
I hope to give students a chance to be creative, inventive, direct and follow their own learning, even if only for 1/2 hour during recess.
For an extensive list of resources I recommend
Diana Rendina's Makerspace Resources as well as the rest of her fabulous Renovated Learning site.
If you are interested, you can check out the back story on how I got to this exciting and unknown place. (I cannot link enough to the Caine's Arcade video that truly changed my focus and teaching. Anyone who hasn't seen this owes it to themselves to click through.)
As I read books, blogs, project ideas - anything I could get my hands on - and attended PD workshops in person and virtually, the overwhelming advice was that there was not one perfect way to develop a MakerSpace. Every space, every school is different depending on your environment and what you are trying to accomplish.
In my K-4 school what I've seen is students gradually lose the interest and ability to think independently as they are furnished with step-by-step approaches, checklists and rubrics for assignments. 'Participation' medals have led to a school full (or generation?) of kids who don't know how to fail, make mistakes, and try again. They aren't learning where their own strengths and weaknesses are, and that they can apply themselves if they want to explore something new.
I hope to give students a chance to be creative, inventive, direct and follow their own learning, even if only for 1/2 hour during recess.
For an extensive list of resources I recommend
Diana Rendina's Makerspace Resources as well as the rest of her fabulous Renovated Learning site.