Group items tagged

"Think your library needs a renovation? You might be right, but before spending unnecessary money on a major overhaul, you might want to think again. I receive inquiries all of the time from schools whose library's are not used, and thought that renovating their space was going to do the trick. Oftentimes, even with a big referendum that allows for a state-of-the-art renovation, those spaces continue to be unused. The solution to turning a library around is NOT a renovation, it is the culture. Upon my arrival at New Milford High School, I walked into a library that was unused and that was referred to by my principal at the time, Eric Sheninger, as a barren wasteland.  We didn't have the luxury of a big sum of money to renovate our space, so we were forced to think of other ways to make changes in our space.  Those changes focused not on how the space looked, but on transforming the culture of the space. "

"If you've been following Renovated Learning for awhile, you might remember the Catapult Challenge my Stewart Makers Club did last year with Colleen Graves' students at Lamar Middle School.  My students had SO MUCH FUN with that challenge, although I always felt like Catapult Challenge was a bit of a misnomer, since our students' creations included catapults, trebuchets, crossbow, slingshots and more. When I revisited the idea this year, I decided that rebranding it as the Rubber Band Launcher Challenge made more sense.  I offered this as a possibility and surveyed my students on what they wanted to focus on next, and this challenge won hands down. Here's my advice on how you can run a Rubber Band Launcher Challenge with your students. "

"I've led a couple of Twitter chats on makerspaces, and one of my favorite ways to get started is to ask the participants how they define makerspaces. One of my most popular posts on Renovated Learning focuses on how various publications define makerspaces, so it's always great to see what everyone's perspective is. The definitions of March's TLchat varied, but I noticed a lot of common threads throughout the conversation. I took the text of everyone's answers and put them into a word cloud generator, and the final results are pretty striking:"

"Our school libraries are no longer made up of the rows upon rows of stacks and hushed, immovable wooden desks. At least, not if we expect them to support the innovative learning styles of our students. The libraries of today need to be interactive learning environments that support a multitude of learning styles and modalities. While a full scale renovation would be awesome, many of us simply don't have the budgets to completely makeover our spaces all at once. But we can still pursue smaller, less expensive changes that can transform our spaces for our students. Here's five things you can do to change up your space: "

"At the CEMS LLC, we have an incredible Green Screen studio that we added as part of our big renovation. But we have many people who ask: How do I make a Green Screen video?"

"If you are looking to start a makerspace at your school or library, there are a wealth of resources available to help you get started. I would be so lost if it weren't for many of these. They also have a lot of research supporting the maker movement. MakerEd.org Makeit@YourLibrary Remake Learning Makerspace.com In addition, there have been a few key individuals whose blogs I follow religiously.  Renovated Learning - blog of Diana Rendina @DianaLRendina Create, Collaborate, Innovate - blog of Colleen Graves @gravescolleen Worlds of Learning  - blog of Laura Fleming @NMHS_lms These resources have been invaluable to me in determining projects, designing the space, and the many planning and logistics that are involved. They've also helped me anticipate and work through any issues that may arise.  What these resources didn't provide was the voice from my students and teachers. No matter how many reputable sources or blogs I consulted, I wasn't getting the input and feedback that really mattered. "

"When Jennifer Lanier began working as a media specialist at Summit Parkway Middle School in South Carolina's Richland School District Two, the school library looked like one most of us remember from our own school days. "There were large heavy tables and chairs with shelves lining all walls," she says.  "It was a very fixed space."  After a period of intensive research, she was ready to make some major changes. "My library is now split into two main sections," Lanier explains, "with the circulation desk as the dividing point.  I focused on renovating the back half first.  This would become the Creative Commons area.  I removed the shelves from the corner, purchased six tall mobile tables, a few stools, six white boards, and twenty beanbag cubes." The idea, Lanier explains, was not to set up the tables, stools and cubes ahead of time but, rather, to leave the furniture out of the way and let users (both students and staff members) grab it and reconfigure the space to meet their needs.  "The arrangement of the space does not dictate the way collaboration is carried out; instead the collaboration can freely flow in the direction it takes.  Users can gather around on the cubes to discuss an idea.  They can break out to a project table and visualize it on a white board.  The simple act of moving allows the brain to be more creative." "

"When I talk to other librarians and educators about starting a school Makerspace, one of the most common things I hear is: "I'd love to do (insert cool Maker activity) at my school, but we don't have a budget for that".  What many people don't realize is that the idea that you need a lot of money to start a Makerspace is a myth. All you need is to have vision, ingenuity, and resourcefulness. A lack of funds is no longer an excuse for keeping your students from experiencing the empowerment of bringing the Maker Education Movement into your program."

"My school is a STEM magnet school and unfortunately, that leads to a disproportionate number of male students.  This year the ratio was 65% male, 35% female, which led to many of my female students feeling disenfranchised.  I wanted to do something to help create a safe environment for my girls to explore STEM and to build a community with one another, so this year I partnered with several science teachers to start a STEMgirls club at our school.  At our first meeting, we talked about possibilities of projects and activities that we would like to do.  When I mentioned a workshop I had seen others do where you could sew light up bracelets, my students got really excited.  Thus, our Circuit Bracelet Workshop was born."

"Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with criticism.  I was told (not to my face) by a visitor to our school that our library makerspace is not a "real makerspace".  This same person stated that our woodshop is a "real makerspace" because it has power tools.  She even suggested that I "do some research" on what makerspaces actually are. Feeling personally insulted aside, what bothers me most about this statement is the concept that some makerspaces are more valid than others and that a makerspace is solely defined by the tools it contains.  I do agree that our woodshop is a makerspace, even though we don't call it that. Our woodshop is awesome, and I'm so glad that we have a space where students can learn how to use saws, drills and other tools to build awesome projects as part of their curriculum.  Yes, that is a makerspace. But is my space any less of a makerspace simply because it doesn't have power tools?  Because it doesn't have a 3D printer?  Because my students build with LEGOs, K'nex and cardboard?"

"Yesterday I wrote about everything that led up to us creating our Epic Library LEGO Wall - check out the post here.  Today is going to be more of a how-to.  I've had many, many people ask me how to build a LEGO wall, and while there's tons of great information out there, I'm going to put my own spin on things, so here goes."

""Makerspaces are too complicated for elementary students.  You can only get in depth with middle and high school students" "High schoolers are too jaded for making.  They'll roll their eyes at you if you give them LEGOs" I've heard variations of these criticisms so many times.  Placing some kind of age restriction on when students are capable of/will be interested in making seems to be one of the most popular excuses educators have for not even considering creating a Maker environment in their school. We need to smash these notions and assumptions.  That creativity is tied to a certain age group.  That we outgrow our desire for play.  That young children aren't capable of serious making.  That adults will never have an interest in expressing themselves."

"Our Makerspace has changed, grown and evolved since it was first conceived and started in January 2014.  Follow along with the story of our journey here.  Hopefully it will inspire you to start your own Maker journey "

"During my poster session at ISTE, I must have been asked dozens of times: "When do students use your Makerspace?  How do you organize scheduling?" I am in a magnet middle school on a flexible schedule.  I have an extremely supportive administration and staff and an enthusiastic student body that's eager to learn.  I realize that these circumstances won't apply to everyone and that I'm very lucky to be in the place that I'm in. That being said, here's how and when students at Stewart Middle Magnet use our Makerspace:"

"One year ago today, I put up that last brick and finished building our Epic LEGO Wall at Stewart.  Since then, I've been awed and humbled to see so many other schools build LEGO walls.  In classrooms, in libraries, in hallways, on old mobile whiteboards.  I can't take credit for all of these, but it's nice to know that my posts about our LEGO wall have inspired and helped others to create theirs.  It's so exciting to see such a variety of spaces, and to see so many schools embracing interactive, creative spaces for their students.  A little over a month ago, I put out a call on my blog and on Twitter for pictures of your LEGO walls, and you all did not disappoint.  So here's a delightful sampling of LEGO walls around the world."

"I've compiled some of my best Makerspace resources onto this page.  I've been researching this topic extensively, and I will continue to add resources as I discover them."

"Last week, someone criticized my makerspace as not being a "real" Makerspace because it does't have power tools and suggested that I research what "real makerspaces" are.  Part one of my response to this criticism was my post last week where I looked for definitions from a variety of research and writing on makerspaces.  Today, I'm looking at what the Twitterverse had to say."

"Guidelines and instructions are not the enemy of makerspaces.  Working through guided projects can help students to develop the skills that they need to further explore creatively.  It's true that some students can just figure it out, but most need that gentle push to get them started.  While things like LEGOs and K'nex are intuitive, many other activities are not.  If you just sat me down in front of an Arduino with no guidance, I wouldn't have a clue what to do.  But after following some example projects, I can start to feel more comfortable with branching out on my own. The problem comes when all we ever do are guided projects.  Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager warn against the "20 identical birdhouses" style class projects, where there is zero creativity involved.  It's very easy to fall into the trap of focusing too much on standards, rubrics and guided projects and zapping all the fun and creativity out, turning a makerspace into nothing more than another classroom.  It's tempting for many educators to just print out a list of instructions, sit students down in front of a "maker kit" and check their e-mail while students work through the steps one by one.  This is obviously not what we want in our makerspaces."