Designing a School Makerspace Makerspaces, STEAM labs and fab labs are popping up in schools across the country. Makerspaces provide hands-on, creative ways to encourage students to design, experiment, build and invent as they deeply engage in science, engineering and tinkering. A makerspace is not solely a science lab, woodshop, computer lab or art room, but it may contain elements found in all of these familiar spaces. Therefore, it must be designed to accommodate a wide range of activities, tools and materials. Diversity and cross-pollination of activities are critical to the design, making and exploration process, and they are what set makerspaces and STEAM labs apart from single-use spaces.
Twenty Tips for Managing Project-Based Learning In honor of Edutopia's 20th anniversary, we're producing a series of Top 20 lists, from the practical to the sublime. 20 Tips for Managing Project-Based Learning 1. Book: ISTE NETS for Coaches NETS Project NETS Project Released in 2011, the NETS for Coaches (NETS•C) join the NETS for Students (NETS•S), Teachers (NETS•T), and Administrators (NETS•A) to describe the essential role that technology coaches play in transforming schools into digital age, global learning environments. Who are technology coaches? (Rethinking) Makerspaces Kids have always made in my library. We encouraged digital and visual and dramatic and rhetorical creativity before, during, and after school. But for a while, I’ve questioned the value of using already heavily used real estate to randomly carve out space for a 3D printer, electronics stations and sewing machines. I had my doubts about the makerspace movement in school libraries.
Agile Learning Center The structure of an Agile Learning Center is designed to nourish a productive, vibrant, and healthy culture – allowing participants to engage authentically in a learning process that cultivates confidence, dynamic skill sets, mental agility, self-awareness, and group skills. Morning Intentions The day kicks off with a Morning Intentions meeting, which operates much like a scrum stand-up meeting would in an Agile Management environment.
Eight Stages in the Teacher Technology Journey This framework is something that I've shared with district technology directors and coaches. If you're curious about having me meet with your team, please fill out the contact form at the bottom of this post. So AJ Juliani and I have started a new Classroom Questions series on rethinking professional development. We have a ton of new episodes that we're going to release all at once this week. One of the things I've been thinking about lately is how professional development should work when districts are doing larger technology rollouts (such as Chromebooks or iPads or, if it's 1996 Palm Pilots). A few years ago, I was a technology coach and I noticed a trend.
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Genius Hour Ideas On Friday my classes made their genius hour topic selections. At the beginning of the class I told them that I was changing the name of our time together from “Passion Projects” to “Genius Hour”. They seemed to appreciate the thought of me thinking they were all geniuses. I pulled up our brainstorming pages from last week and went through them again. Advice to New Technology Coaches Many schools will be receiving new technology in a few weeks, and they'll need a plan for supporting and coaching teachers through the process of using this new technology effectively in their classrooms. This week I received an email from a friend and fellow educator who was seeking ideas for a new technology coach position at her school this fall. Here are three pieces of advice I gave her. 1. Define the Coach's Schedule
Project-Based Learning Through a Maker's Lens The rise of the Maker has been one of the most exciting educational trends of the past few years. A Maker is an individual who communicates, collaborates, tinkers, fixes, breaks, rebuilds, and constructs projects for the world around him or her. A Maker, re-cast into a classroom, has a name that we all love: a learner. A Maker, just like a true learner, values the process of making as much as the product.
The Difference Between Projects And Project-Based Learning The Difference Between Projects And Project-Based Learning by TeachThought Staff Projects in the classroom are as old as the classroom itself. Makerspaces: On Scanning the Road & Gently Easing the Brakes As school librarians, we are driven by our mission and our vision, by our national standards, by the needs and interests of our communities, and to some degree, by our own talents, passions and dispositions. We are all about inspiring learners to think, create, share and grow. We are all about becoming empowered leaders who transform teaching and learning. But, there is NOT just one right way to do library. And there is not one right way to inspire creative culture.