I did not spend my day in our physical makerspace, but I did spend my day living out key elements of my makerspace philosophy. Today I collaborated with teachers across the school to both facilitate creativity in making and tap into the knowledge of experts.
I spent the first and second blocks of the day letting students explore coding resources for a project in Physics. The teacher wanted to give the students an alternative tool for their presentations on electro-magnetic radiation. We have collaborated with each other and others from the ITAMS department to determine parameters and expectations. From these conversations, I put together a list of options with links to tutorials here.
This morning, I presented these options to the students. We reviewed block coding options from Scratch, the app Pyonkee, and the app Hopscotch. We also looked at how to make an app on Code.org. Students in any class could use these to tell a story to present their content or create a game about the content.
We also talked about ways to make slides or present basic information through HTML, CSS, and JS. Students were shown how to remix code on Code Pen and Thimble by Mozilla. Both sites allow users to remix the code written by someone else. They have some great presentation options, and are fairly easy to use.
Tomorrow I will help students access these resources as they begin to code in the media center. By the end, we hope to have student expamplars for teachers and students across the school.
That would be enough to fill one day, but I was not done. During third block, I ran back and forth a few times between the 1st floor (for coding in Physics) and the 3rd floor for a Skype in a creative writing class. Fortunately both teachers were very flexible and allowed me to slip in and out of their classes as needed.
The creative writing class Skyped with young adult author Holly Schindler. She has graciously talked with different students twice this year about the craft of writing. While not traditionally a part of a makerspace, writing is a creative passion that requires critical thinking and innovation. And as with any such endeavor, a connection with an expert is powerful. Schindler spoke about the craft of writing, revision, sources of inspiration, publishing tips, and more. Most of all however, the students met someone who did it. Who wrote a book, and who got published. Its an inspirational experience for the young writers. They see that their dream is possible and what it takes to get there.
Experts are important in a maker community. At the very least, they can answer questions, but beyond that, experts empower. Find experts through social media, internet searches, or better yet, within the community around the school. Find them and bring them in. It is powerful.
I spent the first and second blocks of the day letting students explore coding resources for a project in Physics. The teacher wanted to give the students an alternative tool for their presentations on electro-magnetic radiation. We have collaborated with each other and others from the ITAMS department to determine parameters and expectations. From these conversations, I put together a list of options with links to tutorials here.
This morning, I presented these options to the students. We reviewed block coding options from Scratch, the app Pyonkee, and the app Hopscotch. We also looked at how to make an app on Code.org. Students in any class could use these to tell a story to present their content or create a game about the content.
We also talked about ways to make slides or present basic information through HTML, CSS, and JS. Students were shown how to remix code on Code Pen and Thimble by Mozilla. Both sites allow users to remix the code written by someone else. They have some great presentation options, and are fairly easy to use.
Tomorrow I will help students access these resources as they begin to code in the media center. By the end, we hope to have student expamplars for teachers and students across the school.
That would be enough to fill one day, but I was not done. During third block, I ran back and forth a few times between the 1st floor (for coding in Physics) and the 3rd floor for a Skype in a creative writing class. Fortunately both teachers were very flexible and allowed me to slip in and out of their classes as needed.
The creative writing class Skyped with young adult author Holly Schindler. She has graciously talked with different students twice this year about the craft of writing. While not traditionally a part of a makerspace, writing is a creative passion that requires critical thinking and innovation. And as with any such endeavor, a connection with an expert is powerful. Schindler spoke about the craft of writing, revision, sources of inspiration, publishing tips, and more. Most of all however, the students met someone who did it. Who wrote a book, and who got published. Its an inspirational experience for the young writers. They see that their dream is possible and what it takes to get there.
Experts are important in a maker community. At the very least, they can answer questions, but beyond that, experts empower. Find experts through social media, internet searches, or better yet, within the community around the school. Find them and bring them in. It is powerful.