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"I am very excited to announce the launch of my new makerspace radio show on the BAM Radio Network!  BAM Radio is the largest education radio network in the world offering programming from the nation's top education organizations and thought leaders and reaching a wide audience of people passionately committed to quality education.  The show is called WMKR, Movers & Makers.  Embarking on this journey with me, I am lucky enough to have a fabulous co-host in educator, Travis Lape.   Each episode of our show, will focus upon expanding upon the chapters of my makerspace book, allowing for readers/listeners to be immersed further in each topic. Show topics will include: The Maker Movement Planning Your Makerspace Setting Up Your Makerspace Creating a Maker Culture in Your School Makerspaces and the Standards The 'Expert' Maker Makerspaces and the School Library Makerspace as a Unique Learning Environment Showcasing Student Creations Makerspaces as Catalysts for Future Change School Leaders Role in the Maker Movement/Makerspaces As of today, our first show has launched.  The topic is the Maker Movement and the show is called Helping Students Learn with the Head, the Heart and the Hand.  Our first guest is the gracious, Sylvia Martinez."

"Today, MakerBot has unveiled their guide aimed at teachers and students alike, titled, 'MakerBot in the Classroom: An Introduction to 3D Printing and Design', with hopes of bringing 3D printing into more classrooms around the world. The guide is broken down into three chapters which focus on all the important and vital aspects of 3D printing."

"BROOKLYN, N.Y., -Thousands of educators throughout the U.S. are embracing 3D printing as a new way to teach 21st century skills and prepare students for the jobs of the future[1]. Taking the first steps to introduce students to 3D printing, however, can be challenging. MakerBot, a global leader in the desktop 3D printing industry, conducted in-depth research this spring to better understand how to help educators incorporate 3D printing in classrooms[2]. The research shows that acquiring 3D design skills is a major hurdle for educators and there is no single resource to address this need. To fill that gap, MakerBot today published a handbook designed to provide educators with a wide variety of ideas, activities and projects to get started with 3D printing. Titled MakerBot in the Classroom: An Introduction to 3D Printing and Design, the handbook includes an introduction to 3D printing and a range of hands-on 3D design lesson plans. MakerBot in the Classroom is available as a free digital download for registered MakerBot customers and a sample project chapter is available free to anyone who registers on MakerBot.com. Additionally, MakerBot launched a new MakerBot Education Resource Center with further ideas and resources to support the integration of 3D printing in the classroom, such as real-world MakerBot stories, videos, challenges for teachers and students, and more."

Tony Stead is an Australian educator who has taught in elementary schools and lectured at the University of Melbourne. He is the past president of the Melbourne Chapter of the Australian Reading Association and the author of many publications. His latest include Is That a Fact?: Teaching Nonfiction Writing and the video series Time For Nonfiction. which highlights his recent work with several teachers at the Manhattan New School.

Enjoy an interactive learning experience as you see thousands of hand-selected and relevant links to pictures, artifacts, manuscripts, documents and other primary sources, IN CONTEXT, within each story. The first eight chapters of every story are available to all.

Free download of chapters 1 - 3

"It's been more than three years since Caine Monroy's elaborate cardboard arcade in front of his dad's used auto parts shop was catapulted to fame by Nirvan Mullick's short film. But last summer, after two years and tens-of-thousands of customers, Cain "retired" on his eleventh birthday and closed Caine's Arcade to the public. The last day was probably a first step for Caine, though. The film has been seen 8 million times and counting, and it has spun into a movement that's spawned numerous think pieces, a scholarship fund, and a TEDx talk. Most notably, it spurred the creation of the Imagination Foundation, which aims to find, foster, and fund creativity in kids through programs such as the Global Cardboard Challenge and pop-up learning spaces called Imagination Chapters."

"Back in April, my 10 year old daughter (Rachel) shared a Google Document with me which was her fourth completed book, and her longest finished chapter book to date. She titled it, "Mature Little Me." Inspired by Chris Simon, the STEM teacher at Independence Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, from 2011-2013, it's a fourth grade adventure story with some invention/maker flavor. Back in April I didn't set aside the time needed to help with some edits and get it published online for Rachel, both as an eBook and a print-on-demand book via Lulu.com. This evening I spent about 3 hours editing and publishing her book, and learned a BUNCH as a result. I'll attempt to document much of that learning in this post."

"To help us work towards our school goal of purposefully implementing the Universal Design for Learning approach to our formal planning (sometimes referred to as "Backwards by Design", "Understanding by Design", or "Planning With The End in Mind), my principal has provided our staff with a copy of Dr. Jennifer Katz's book, Teaching to Diversity: The Three-Block Model of Universal Design for Learning. As I make my way through the book, I will be summarizing my learning as a means of organizing my thoughts and getting clarification on particular ideas."

"Enhanced Podcasting in Garage Band Introduction Enhanced podcasts allow you to include images, chapter titles, and URL links with an audio podcast. You can easily create Enhanced Podcasts using Garageband 3.0 or higher."

Computer repair is a common chapter, though not of the common interest. You could have experienced computer problems - hardware or software related. Sometimes, easy to fix with just a restart, while at other occasions seeking expert's hand might have become essential. Lucky in case, system was in-warranty, otherwise, computer repair charges might have given a jolt. Techvedic, your friendly online computer support vendor, narrates 5 simple tips to save or reduce computer repair bill.

Digital audiobooks can be purchased online including Audible, eMusic, and iTunes. iTunes keeps audiobooks separate from your music library so as to make them easier to find. Also, it allows you to adjust the playback speed of the file as well as resume from the previously played chapter where it left. Just by tuning few settings, you can ready your iTunes and iPod to recognize any audio file or group of audio files as an audiobook.

"The excerpt below is from the book "Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom," by Patricia A. Jennings. This section is from the chapter entitled "Orchestrating Classroom Dynamics.""

"While on the flight to AASL in Columbus, OH, I read Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative in its entirety.  Like Show Your Work, which I read over the summer, Steal Like an Artist offers fantastic advice on being creative, promoting your work, sharing with others and following your passion.  While Kleon's target audience is artists and creatives, I think that there is so much in here that can apply to educators and our students.  I could go on about this book forever, but instead I'll focus on a few of my favorite chapters."

"When we ask kids to read Chapter 3, we're telling them what to know. When we fill our boards with objectives that say "You will learn ____," we're explaining to them the very basis for the lesson we are delivering. When we give out a packet of worksheets that have fill in the blank answers, multiple choice, and matching, we're telling kids to choose answers from our choices. When we ask kids to spend days and weeks in silent classrooms answering test questions, we're telling them that knowing stuff is more important than their voice. But when we ask kids to design?"

"Nobody said that raising an adolescent was easy, and schooling one is even more of a challenge! Parents are taking on a lot of school responsibility, and let's face it -- things are different than they used to be. How are parents supposed to know how to handle the homework load without some guidance? Take studying, for example. If you are a parent of a struggling or resistant learner, you've probably heard more than one person suggest, "She just needs to study more." Most kids think this means filling in a study guide or rereading a chapter. But many don't learn by writing or reading. Their strengths lie in the visual, kinesthetic, musical, or social realm. How, then, are we to help our children develop their studying skills? The task does not have to be daunting. In fact, it can actually be simple and effective!"

"Back in the early 1900s, John Dewey promoted the "learning by doing" approach to education, which would later become the foundation of project-based learning (PBL). This framework allows for students to use knowledge from all areas of study to complete a project or task, a process that prepares them for the challenges that they may have to overcome in a future career. Having a job may seem a lifetime away for a child. But by exposing them to different career paths, we can get them thinking about their life after high school before it's too late. As teachers, administrators, or parents, we know how important the future is for our students, and we want to give them an idea of what to expect when the next chapter of their lives begin. But how can we better prepare them for their lives after graduation?"

"Storytelling may be as old as the hills but it remains one of the most effective tools for teaching and learning. A good story can make a child (or adult) prick up their ears and settle back into their seat to listen and learn. But despite the power a great story can have, storytelling has an endangered status in the classroom - partly due to a huge emphasis on "active learning" in education. This is the idea that pupils learn best when they are doing something - or often, "seen to be doing" something. Any lesson in which a teacher talks for 15 or more uninterrupted minutes would be regarded today as placing pupils in too passive a role. Indeed, even in English lessons teachers now very rarely read a whole poem or book chapter to pupils, something which now worries even OFSTED. "

"I work part-time with elementary learners - with gifted learners during the school year and teaching maker education camps during the summer. The one thing almost all of them have in common is yelling out, "I can't do this" when the tasks aren't completed upon first attempts or get a little too difficult for them. I partially blame this on the way most school curriculum is structured. Too much school curriculum is based on paper for quick and one shot learning experiences (or the comparable online worksheets). Students are asked to do worksheets on paper, answer end-of-chapter questions on paper, write essays on paper, do math problems on paper, fill in the blanks on paper, and pick the correct answer out of a multiple choice set of answers on paper. These tasks are then graded as to the percentage correct and then the teacher moves onto the next task. So it is no wonder that when learners are given hands-on tasks such as those common to maker education, STEM, and STEAM, they sometimes struggle with their completion. Struggles are good. Struggles with authentic tasks mimics real life so much more than completing those types of tasks and assessments done at most schools. Problems like yelling out, "I can't do this" arise when the tasks get a little too difficult, but ultimately are manageable. I used to work with delinquent kids within Outward Bound-type programs. Most at-risk kids have some self-defeating behaviors including those that result in personal failure. The model for these types of programs is that helping participants push past their self-perceived limitations results in the beginnings of a success rather than a failure orientation. This leads into a success building upon success behavioral cycle."