Makerspaces Lead to School and Community Successes. While the Maker Movement continues to grow, it hasn't yet gained its greatest traction, which currently sits untapped in the minds of the students in front of us.
Through forming partnerships with community makerspaces or building a school makerspace, educators and decision makers everywhere have the rare chance to help bring this truly all-inclusive learning experience into their schools, districts, and communities in order to help all students. How Curiosity Enhances Learning - InformED. Design Thinking in Education: Empathy, Challenge, Discovery, and Sharing. Beginner’s Guide to Maker-ize An Elementary Classroom – HonorsGradU. When most penny-pinching, time-crunched, and exhausted teachers hear about lofty ideas like the MakerSpace movement in education, they are likely to dismiss it as another passing and impractical fad.
However, the more we investigate, the more convinced we are that there are practical–and profoundly meaningful–ways for teachers to implement its ideals, even in an elementary school classroom. Benefits of Maker Spaces “Makerspaces come in all shapes and sizes, but they all serve as a gathering point for tools, projects, mentors and expertise. A collection of tools does not define a Makerspace. Make time for… curiosity. This posts is the second in a series about making time in your classroom, even when you don’t feel like you have any!
Here is the first: Make time for… relationships What’ll happen if I put my head in here? Provoking curiosity… – What Ed Said. It takes a while before the children think of putting paper into this old typewriter to make it do something… They wonder if the flat disks beside it are the films for the old camera!
They’re exploring a mini museum of historical artefacts on display in the library. In another room, students use Google images to discover and examine ancient maps of the world and compare them with current ones. Next door, there are all kinds of images from the past and present as a stimulus for discussion. Students as innovators… – What Ed Said. Guest post by Claire, one of our Grade 5 teachers, discovering the power of letting go.
The headings are my commentary… Opportunities for creativity and innovation… Over the last week, my team of Year 5 teachers, together with Edna, have been planning a unit of inquiry into energy. Do schools kill creativity? 30 Ideas To Promote Creativity In Learning. 30 Ideas To Promote Creativity In Learning.
The Seeds of Growth: Why Creativity is Important in Education. Following on from @dwyerteacher’s recent post about the Principles of Creative Leadership, I thought I would post a recent article that I submitted for our school newsletter.
Its heavily referenced from Ken Robinson’s work and I encourage all educators to read Out of Our Minds if you haven’t already. For me, it’s probably had the most impact on my education practice than any other book I’ve read. The Seeds of Growth: Why creativity is essential in education. We live in a world that is changing faster than ever before and facing challenges that are unprecedented. These sorts of challenges require innovative ideas and approaches. Want To See Their Best? Let Them Play. Want To See Their Best?
Let Them Play by Terry Heick It’s almost 2016, and highly-structured, formal learning environments may have run their course. If nothing else, they have a pronounced limp and awkward speech patterns that students are increasingly finding, well, academic. In many ways, the internet was the catalyst for this. And this change has been neither minor nor gradual. The best example of this might be the video game community, where many software developers have found success not so much with games, but equipping users with the tools to create their own games. Little Big Planet and Minecraft have excelled here by simply doing less. On creativity… – What Ed Said. This week’s #edchat discussion focused on what we are doing to encourage creativity in schools.
It was one of those topics that makes me wish I didn’t live in Australia! Opportunities for creativity… – What Ed Said. How can we provide better opportunities for learning to be expressed creatively?
Do students have choice or does everyone have to do the same thing in the same way? What possibilities are there for students to explore different media for creative expression? How is creativity encouraged and developed? During our Year 6 PYP exhibition unit next term, students will explore how ‘Social inequities create a need for action in the world’. Within this broad conceptual understanding, students will follow their areas of interest and decide on their own individual and small group inquiries.
Instead of their usual weekly art and music classes, this year for the first time, students will further explore the central idea through a choice of art, drama, music, film, poetry or technology. I was really excited by the possibilities of this when the idea was first conceived in collaboration with Elena and Dani, our art and music teachers. The Ultimate Playlist: 50 Reasons to Believe in the Power of Play. Embed this image on your site: <a href=" src=" alt="The Ultimate Playlist: 50 Reasons to Believe in the Power of Play - PlaygroundEquipment.org - Infographic" title="The Ultimate Playlist: 50 Reasons to Believe in the Power of Play - PlaygroundEquipment.org - Infographic"></a><br><a href=" alt="PlaygroundEquipment.org" title="PlaygroundEquipment.org">PlaygroundEquipment.org</a> Do you believe in the power of play?
When it comes to a child's physical, emotional, and cognitive growth, nothing is more enriching and empowering than playtime. The Future Belongs to the Curious: How Are We Bringing Curiosity Into School? What is curiosity? The word is associated with the irregular form of the Latin verb cura, which can mean worry or care about or cure. The word closest in meaning is inquisitive, which also has a Latin root: quaere, to search into, to seek. How To Kill Learner Curiosity In 12 Easy Steps. How To Kill Learner Curiosity In 12 Easy Steps by Terry Heick Ed note: This has been updated from a 2012 post that you may or may not have already read. So, there’s that. Killing a learner’s natural curiosity doesn’t happen overnight. It can take as long as 12 years, and in some rare cases even that isn’t long enough.
Learning environments focused on standards, assessment, and compliance allow for the implementation of research-based strategies in pursuit of streams of data to prove that learning is happening. Playing=Discovery. Over the last few days, I’ve learned a lot from my students. I always say I learn a lot from my students, but now I think I’m listening more. Playing with gravity Here’s what I’ve seen and heard over just the last few days: Yesterday, we went on a field trip to a science museum. Learning & Play: Ten ways to interact with children in play Originally posted at teachingparadox.com. Do we have the confidence to allow students to be playful learners? This post originally appeared on my own site.