Makerspace in Elementary Schools

We are very excited about our previous computer lab being transformed into a Makerspace. The new space will benefit students’ learning and creativity including content/learning outcomes, an opportunity to be creative and solve problems as well as being able to articulate ones thoughts. 

Makerspace is space for students to be creative in solving a problem. Students use a variety of objects, tools, and technology to create a solution.  Mrs. Trowell's first quarter School News Elective has created a wish list:  items needed for Makerspace start up. Problems come in many forms and we are wanting with our students with their use critical thinking in a problem solving. Students will be planning, designing and creating their solutions. 

Some Examples near us and additional information.

Hunt Library, NC State

The Forge

Success

What is success?

I was asked recently what I felt success looks like for our students. Success to me is when a student is confident in their ability to work through a problem with others and prepared for challenges that may come in the act of solving that problem. This doesn’t always look the same in every subject or grade but the characteristics and skills are similar. Success isn’t a student’s ability to break the test code or how fast they can read a grade level problem, rather it is using grit to work through a challenging situation, seek out assistance from experts when they have questions and the perseverance to figure out the solution or answer to the problem.

True success is the ability to persevere, articulate ideas and solutions, collaborate and reflect on the learning that is taking place and hopefully learning from mistakes. This is the success that I am working towards for all our students and teachers. This type of learning outcome is something that we will continue to strive for daily! We are continuously preparing our students to be problem solvers, building their grit and learning to work hard until the best solution is figured out.

We are at that time of the year where we start making financial and human resource decisions and changes to the school’s appearance. We are in the process of making changes to our learning spaces and classrooms. Often our discussions are focused on what the educator wants to do to make it easier or safer for them as the leaders of the learning and not always focused on how to support the child and their learning, but if they are not the focus then who is it benefiting? We need to continue to focus on what's best for our students and their future.

  

How do you learn and grow as an educator?

We are continuously trying to improve our teaching and to increase our students’ learning for various reasons, which include increasing test scores, improving our evaluation standards and most importantly to prepare our students for their ever changing world.  But what is the best way for educators to learn?  For many years it has been a speaker or company coming to the schools or trainings and going through a presentation (Death by PowerPoint) to all of the educators in the room.  This goes against everything that we preach is effective teaching and shouldn’t professional development be a learning opportunity?

I remember one of my first professional development opportunities that I had where I felt like a traditional student and less like an educator. I was in my second year teaching and I was attending a county supported running record workshop.  As I sat in the training the presenter spoke about the how to’s and what to look for.  The problem was that I had the responsibility of completing 75 running records the year before. Was this a benefit for my learning, maybe, but it would have benefited me more to talk to my peers about what they do after the running records to talk about mistakes that I may have made, because my first year teaching I made LOTS of mistakes.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend #NCTies15 to listen to speakers and talk with peers about their learning and how they were growing their craft. I hope that #edcamps continues to take off and we move away from the traditional sit and get workshop that is a one sided discussions. What I liked about the NCTIES workshops is that many of them moved away from the power point and one-sided discussions and incorporated back channeling (a way to ask questions and discussion without taking away from the presentation). There were discussion boards, resources to try out with others, and more network connecting to build off of the two-day workshop.  Many times when we leave a PD training or workshop we don’t continue to reflect and evaluate what we heard or worked on in the training. We usually just go back to our comfort zone. We as educators need to continue to surround ourselves with people that will ask questions, challenge our thinking and support us in our continuous growth.