Essential Question: What are the rules for your makerspace?Here are the rules I have come up with. However, I would guess these rules would evolve after testing this with a group of students. I have tried many projects and some things need to be spelled out for students. I tried to create as few rules as possible while still covering what I feel to be the essentials. I modified and took ideas from all of the sources assigned this week.
Sources
Hlubinka, M. (2013, September 02). Safety in School Makerspaces | Make:. Retrieved July 01, 2016, from http://makezine.com/2013/09/02/safety-in-school-makerspaces/ Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom [Kindle]. Rules and Policies. (2016, June 26). Retrieved July 01, 2016, from https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Rules_and_Policies SLO MakerSpace Rules and General Safety. (2013, December 26). Retrieved July 1, 2016, from www.slomakerspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/SLOMakerSpaceRulesandGeneralSafety.pdf
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This week my post was late. Unfortunately with travel and getting over the jet leg it took me longer to get through the material and write up my post. I also was curious as to what I had missed in class so I watched the video recordings before getting into this weeks material. I am eager to get back to working on the projects. I finished the first 2 before I left on vacation.
I read Josie's blog and was glad to hear that her thoughts were similar to mine. I felt like I need to include high end things because it is just a list, but I really wanted mine to be realistic. My budget was $300 and hers was $250 so this made me feel even better. Starting out small seems like a better route for me so that I can just get my feet wet and see how things go. I don't want to order a bunch of something that the students never touch. I feel like starting out they will ask for things and then I can add that to a list. Maybe I will even put a request list in the classroom and order every so often. Teresa had a very extensive list with tons of tech. I was too apprehensive to go that far right now. I can't take a lot of new stuff all at once. I loved her ideas on organization with color coding. This is my favorite thing to do with my classes. I'm thinking I could keep the categories I used for my list and then attach a list to the front of a container, put a colored piece of duck tape on the container, and use that duck tape on non consumable items. Then I would have a different class in charge of clean up each week. I was also thinking maybe a sheet of item requests would we helpful as well. Teresa also included many sources for funding. Because my amount is so small I don't think I would need as many as her, but she definitely gave good ideas for the future. DonorsChoose has worked wonders for my small projects. I even got new tables that cost about $2500 through them. Essential Question: What stuff will you stock your making space with, what’s the cost, and how will you fund it? This is definitely a hard question to answer and even harder when I can't just go and inventory my classroom. I have so much stuff that I rarely order things until I need them. There just is no place to put extra stuff. I have a lot of cabinet and storage space that just needs to be reorganized. Much of the stuff that could be used for making is locked up and other materials that aren't so good for making are readily available (plastic containers, old projects, extra school supplies, etc.). So a major reorganization is a must when I get back to school. I just never have time. I have been so overwhelmed with just cleaning and organizating in the 4 years I have been in Toksook Bay. I think I have thrown out at least 2 truckloads of just junk or old unusable kits and books. Below I came up with a list of things that might be useful for a makerspace if I ever get the chance to set it up. I probably forgot a lot of things. I feel like I never know what I need until I need it. But making is all about trial and error anyway. In "Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom" by Martinez and Stager (2013), they suggest to build basic stocks in the following areas areas: Electronic parts and tools, computers, cameras, software, craft and art supplies, building materials and traditional tools, junk for recycling into new products, and a library. I used all of the categories except library because our library is almost nonexistent and materials are very out of date. I think an initial budget of about $300 would be a good start. I did not pick any high end devices because Hublinka (2013) suggest to "get simple and affordable tools ahead of advanced and expensive ones." I would like to start out simple and see where that takes students. If they request things they find online I would certainly try to find a way to get it. My budget is about $200 but I added additional for maintenance and other items that I may have left off as Hublinka suggests. To get funding I would try to use local organizations like CVRF or donors choose. According to" The Beginner's Guide to Makerspaces", Barker (2016) suggests that "you do not need to look far to find potential donors." Many of the organizations she lists are not available in bush Alaska. CVRF has helped fund projects for our Yup'ik class and has talked with the school about funding opportunities. Another good source for funding is donors choose. She lists this site just below the local funding. I have used donors choose and great success with receiving funding for all 4 projects I have posted. Sources
Barker, A. (2016, February 14). The Beginner's Guide to Makerspaces. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from http://libraryschool.libguidescms.com/content.php?pid=669125 Hlubinka, M. (2013, August 21). Stocking up School Makerspaces | Make:. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from http://makezine.com/2013/08/21/stocking-up-school-makerspaces/ Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom [Kindle]. Unfortunately I had to miss our first class. I was in Bali on a surf and yoga retreat! I tried to get to writing this reflection, but honestly ran out of time. There was just so much fun stuff going on.
I made it through the first 2 Arduino project before I left. With this next week I am hoping I can get caught up and at least complete the 3rd project. I first read Kate's blog and she made a great connection to teaching and learning. "Teaching and learning can happily coexist when teaching meets the needs of the learner!" Her blog focused on the need to let students curiosity drive learning because only when a student connects will they learn. "Learning, therefore, is how our students respond to our teaching. " I have been saying this all semester but I really need to change the structure of my classes. I feel like many things are centered around what I want or the district or state wants. This is not a student centered environment which makes connecting students to what they are learning more difficult if not nearly impossible. Students need to be at the center because if they are then their curiosity will lead them to learn more than we, as teachers, will ever be able to teach them. Next I read Teresa's blog and I believe her second sentence "learning often takes place without being taught" is key. We learn so much on our own because we choose the path that interests us. With direct teaching, teachers want to transfer knowledge, but this is more often than not, not effective. Students need to connect on their own level. She connected what we read to her own learning "I am a better and more engaged teacher when I am open to learning, when I incorporate best practices, and when I sometimes try new things." I think this is true for me as well. Collaboration and working with others helps form connections and makes the learning that much stronger. This is so much more than a lecture that only requires you to look like you are listening. Teaching and learning are so intertwined, but each person's perspective of each can be different. The more I read the more I believe that teaching is about connection and allowing students to explore their own curiosity because this is where learning soars. Essential Question: What is the relationship between teaching and learning?Wow!! this week was a lot of material to take in. Not sure if anyone else feels the same? Here is my best attempt at picking out what I found important. What is the best way to learn and why? "Constructionists believe that learning results from experience and that understanding is constructed inside the head of the student, often in a social context" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). If this is true, and I believe it is, then we as teachers are responsible for creating the experiences that students need to learn. In the opening of Ch. 5 Martinez & Stager point out that learning isn't the result of being taught and that teachers can't just spew out information and expect that students have learned. There is a lot more going on in a students brain than just listening to an information dump. Students "identities (or voices) construct very different individual discourses as they are represented in diverse reactions and negotiations" (Park, 2008). In other words students personality makes up another factor. This is not necessarily a bad thing according to Park. On many occasions the students different personalities allowed the students to cooperate, negotiate, and work alongside each other to achieve the goal. Students have their own personality or identity. "Identity is not a stagnant property, but rather an entity that changes with time, often going through stages, and is continuously modified based on the surrounding environment. It has been described as “being recognized as a certain kind of person in a given context” (Brownell & Tanner, 2012). This identity involves both the teacher and the learner. As a teacher "the development of a professional identity is not unlike the development of a personal identity but is situated in the context of a discipline and thus framed by the 'rules of membership' of that discipline" (Brownell & Tanner, 2012). The biggest reason I can see as an educator for this philosophy is that "research suggests that teachers who use more progressive or project-based learning techniques are more satisfied in their roles than teachers who use traditional instructional techniques" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). Taking all this into consideration how do we create experiences for such a diverse group? How do we implement a constructionist or constructivist philosophy? Instruction is most useful when it will only take a moment to explain or when there is little to no benefit of you doing it yourself. To do this focus on the big ideas, and follow this up with time for students to experience the big idea. This all comes from the idea that "the longer you delay students from getting to the 'making' part of the design cycle, the more students will disengage and the longer it will take to learn the lessons" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). Keep with and iterative design cycle. "Iterative design cycle is about continuous improvement, keeping what works, and dealing with what doesn’t. This is learning, not failure" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). Why wouldn't we implement this philosophy if it can be so beneficial for both the learner and the teacher? In K-12 education, "Studies show that teachers have concerns about their own ability to provide the required scaffolding for students that can’t be found in the back of the textbook" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). At the post secondary level feeling are almost identical. "In terms of training, many faculty have indicated they feel ill-equipped to change the way they teach and thus would like access to structured, formal training" (Brownell & Tanner, 2012). But even after post secondary educators are trained and get hyped about a new strategy they are met with resistance from colleagues they work with according to Brownell & Tanner. If that is not enough think about how fast we forget what we learned. If you don't practice it you lose it. According to both Brownell & Tanner and Martinez & Stager, this happens to many, and inevitably, the teacher falls back on what they know or what they experienced. And to make matters worse "research has shown that interactive teaching, as compared with traditional lecturing, typically takes more preparation time: (Brownell & Tanner, 2012). With all of this how are teaching and learning connected? We all, teachers and students, come to class with our own perspective. The role of the teacher is to help the student find ways to learn the material. I believe constructionism and constructivism are ways of helping students process their learning. They make sense of this learning in their own way, which also allows the teacher to learn new things as well. This is such a great philosophy but so hard to implement if you are on your own. Teachers need help in learning how to teach most effectively. Without proper support little change will occur. Sources
Brownell, S. E., & Tanner, K. D. (2012). Barriers to Faculty Pedagogical Change: Lack of Training, Time, Incentives, and…Tensions with Professional Identity? CBE Life Sciences Education, 11(4), 339–346. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3516788/ Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom [Kindle]. Park, H. (2008). “You are confusing!”: Tensions between Teacher’s and Students’ Discourses in the Classroom [Abstract]. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 43(1), 4-13. Retrieved June 13, 2016, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ829005.pdf I read Aleta's blog and she reminded me that “The facilitator/educator does not need to be an expert on everything students come in to work on.” This is huge and something that many teachers, including me, have trouble with. In my education program we were taught to plan and make sure we knew what we were teaching. This is very contradictory to that idea. We must have an idea in mind and match it to a standard, but the rest should be open to interpretation. A big idea was HOTs (Higher-Order Thinking Questions). This is a main premise of the maker movement and project based learning. Creating questions that promote thinking and allowing students to fill in the blank rather than just rushing to help. I also really like her idea of adding a makerspace to the library, even if it is small. So many schools are doing this and our library is small on only used by elementary students. If we had a makerspace, maybe our older students would visit the library more.
I also read Anastasia's post. I love how she is connecting content and culture with the making pedagogy. This is where our students will really thrive. I know this last semester we had a new Yup'ik teacher who focused a lot on hands on making. I noticed a shift in student interest. They were excited to go to class and they have been excited to show others the work they are doing. I had never seen many projects from the Yup'ik class before. Knowing this I believe Anastasia will really reach her students. They will gain practical skills while also learning necessary content for their grade area. This week, and the previous weeks, have really posed a lot of things to think about. I am very interested in incorporating making into my classroom, and it is hard to not want to go full force. I think it will take getting my feet wet for at least one semester, by only trying to implement this in one class. Otherwise I am afraid I will lose steam or be too overwhelmed. There is just so much to take in. It will also require me to change some of my teaching, which will be tough, but I believe will be worth it for both my students and I. Essential Question: What project could help me integrate my content with making?
I struggle the most with my earth science class. Partly because it is not my area of expertise or interest, and also because the students in this class become a mix of new 9th grades and "forever" 9th graders (students who refuse to participate or do work). It is a challenge to get new 9th graders to realize they are not in middle school anymore. For "forever" 9th graders it is hard to get them motivated. They are in the fixed mindset, thinking that they will never make it, so why try? The project I am envisioning would start out with a guided module to explain content. Then I think I would take it one step further and have students create something to explain to their community why it is important to preserve fresh water and what are some steps people in the community could take to preserve fresh water for the future. I want to add the project component because "the best way to construct knowledge or understanding is through the construction of something shareable, outside of a student’s head" (Martinez & Stager, 2013).
Project "The High-Adventure Science Water module has five activities. In this module you will consider the question: will there be enough fresh water? In this guided activity, you will explore the distribution and uses of fresh water on Earth. Explore models of porosity and permeability, run experiments with computational models, and hear from a hydrologist working on the same question. You will not be able to answer the module's framing question at the end of the module, but you will be able to explain how humans can preserve supplies of fresh water for the future."
How will this project encourage making? There are 8 qualities of a good project listed by Martinez & Stager (2013)
First off, "making is any activity where people create something, often with their hands" (Vanderwerff, 2014). Students would create something to share with their community. This would be the making. According to Vanderwerrf (2014) making is important because "we all construct our own meaning of the world around us; Making just gives us a context to construct our understanding in." This allows students to apply their understanding in more than one context. Another way of putting this is that hopefully students will be able to apply their learning to many situations rather than just the classroom. How can I implement more than 1 unit/project? After reading Designing Multidisciplinary Integrated Curriculum Units (2010) I realize I have a lot to do if I want to implement this as a whole classroom philosophy and not just one unit. I have always know this but this guide really gave me a how to and I am excited to try this with my earth science class, to start with. If all goes well I would like to implement this in all classes. Th checklist below will be a major part of my planning process. A lot of planning will have to be done on my end to figure out what topics I am required to teach by the district and then aligning it with the standards. Then I will be able to see where and what type of project I might be able to incorporate.
Sources
Designing Multidisciplinary Integrated Curriculum Units. (2010, February). Retrieved June 9, 2016, from http://www.connectedcalifornia.org/downloads/LL_Designing_Curriculum_Units_2010_v5_web.pdf High School Earth and Space Sciences. (2013, June). Retrieved June 9, 2016, from http://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/HS ESS DCI combined 6.13.13.pdf Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom [Kindle]. Vanderwerff, A. (2014, May 14). Makers in the Classroom: A How To Guide (EdSurge News). Retrieved June 09, 2016, from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2014-05-14-makers-in-the-classroom-a-how-to-guide Will there be enough fresh water? (2015, August 18). Retrieved June 09, 2016, from http://authoring.concord.org/sequences/98?show_index=true A healthy struggle is something a teacher always strives for but I have never thought about it this much. It was just something in the back of my mind. I am always thinking of how to challenge students, as I am sure every teacher does. This issue becomes how do we get students to struggle just the right amount and in a safe environment?
Amy gave a great example of her daughter struggling in younger grades. She kept trying and eventually caught up. She was pushed enough to still be motivated. She is a hard line to find. I know as a kid I always tried my best and it worked out. I was usually a top student. What I realized after getting to college is that being a top student does not always mean you have the skills to be on your own in the real world. I struggled in college but continually tried my best. I learned a lot. Then I moved to a remote part of Alaska and had to learn more than I ever expected. I am definitely doing things I never thought I would need to do. For example, I learned how to replace a hard drive and hard drive cable in my computer last year. I have learned how to cut my own hair. Just last month I learned how to replace and iphone battery. I had to figure these things out for myself. I have learned other things but people taught me. It was different because I struggled less when someone taught me, whereas when I had to learn on my own I struggled a lot. It was trial and error. When you need something or some skill it motivates you to learn. I learn more than I would’ve otherwise because I am engaged and interested. It is something I want to do. In the end I agree with Amy in that struggle is a necessary part of learning. Kate talked about the zone of proximal development. This is the healthy struggle that we as teachers are aiming for. I remember trying a PBL type of project last semester. During this project, I noticed a healthy amount of struggle was easy to reach. Students were engaged and interested and therefore they wanted to learn more. The problem is the project took over a month to mostly complete (I cut out some of the final reflections due to running up til the end of school.). With current curriculum I would hardly fit one project in, and if I get to a project I won’t cover the requirements of my curriculum. So how can we fit the requirements while also challenging our students at their level? How do we reach this zone of proximal development for every student. I wish there was an easy answer to this question. I think PBL or design thinking offer a lot of promise, but many curriculum changes will have to be made to allow for this to happen. In the end struggle is good if it is in a safe environment and the students are motivated. The student must feel they can achieve the goal, so we as teachers need to create a healthy amount of struggle. Essential Question: To what extent should we allow students to figure things out for themselves?I think struggling only makes us stronger. However there is a limit to this. If something is too hard then you risk defeat and giving up. Otherwise, when you have to figure out something for yourself you feel more empowered by the information you find. You have this personal connection to it because you worked hard to get it. It has more meaning. Tinkering and making are a good source of healthy struggle. You will be able to figure out something but how far you take it is up to you. Tinkering is more like the way scientists, mathematicians, and engineers complete their work. They have to "follow hunches, iterate, make mistakes, re-think, start over, argue, sleep on it, collaborate, and have a cup of tea." Tinkering engages the learner in making connections and school seems to be so disconnected with step-by-step solutions that seem to be fixed.Tinkering is not neat, but can be worthwhile because the real world is not this clean and easy process. There is no "perfect road map." Students must design and redesign and this in the long run will lead to a better "understanding of requirements, tools, and materials as they make tradeoffs and try to improve their prototype" (Martinez & Stager, 2013). Strauss (2015) discusses essays that teachers wrote about why students should struggle. In all the essays they talk about a common thread of allowing students to make their own meanings and encouraging risk in a safe environment. "We want students to be able to engage with novel material, to be able to tackle new situations with the confidence that they might not know, but they will know." We need to teach students to not give up because they will learn more if they keep trying and continue to struggle. This is evidenced by a study published in the Journal of the Learning Sciences, where Kapur and Bielaczyc, applied the principle of productive failure to mathematical problem solving in three schools in Singapore. They tested 2 classes. Paul (2014) discusses how this study focused on 2 separate groups. One group got intensive instruction with lots of scaffolding and the other group received no instruction and were encouraged to talk with classmates. This group was not able to solve the problem correctly. "When the two groups were tested on what they’d learned, the second group 'significantly outperformed' the first. This is called hidden efficacy." Struggle is all around us. Students need to be exposed to struggle to be able to live in the real world and not just the classroom. Struggle involves making choices. The choices you make determine where you end up. Here is a picture I found on Twitter demonstrating what happens when a student is not motivated enough. The zero net force shows that no learning is going to happen. We need to find the point where students are motivated to learn because if not the students will not grow. Maybe formal tests are not the way to go. Who is motivated for a test? Is this an accurate display of what a student knows? Sources
Martinez, S. L., & Stager, G. (2013). Invent to learn: Making, tinkering, and engineering in the classroom [Kindle]. Paul, A. M. (2014, February 24). The Brilliant Blog. Retrieved June 02, 2016, from http://anniemurphypaul.com/2014/02/when-and-how-to-let-learners-struggle/ Strauss, V. (2015, April 21). What is the value of letting students struggle in class? Teachers answer. Retrieved June 02, 2016, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/04/21/what-is-the-value-of-letting-students-struggle-in-class-teachers-answer/ I read Gerald’s blog first and 2 points really stuck with me. He talked about safety being a limiting factor in tinkering. This is so true! At what point can kids be kids? Not everything is safe and we need to prepare them for the real world. I think this comes back to the educational policy. Can changes be made? I’m not saying we should go crazy and let them do what they want. But with supervision could students be allowed to learn even if a situation is not perfectly safe? The next thing that really stuck out in his post was his comment about awards ceremonies. It always seems like the same students are awarded. This does not promote a growth mindset. What should be done instead becomes a big question. Should we award everyone? Should we eliminate awards ceremonies? I don’t know if there is a right answer.
I also read Aleta’s post. I really like how she reminded me of “not yet.” When I hear this phrase to me it implies I need to work harder. I would be more determined to make changes and try again than if I received a letter grade. It implies you still have room to grow and provides encouragement in itself. I also really like how she talked about not focusing on a predetermined curriculum because it may not be relevant to every student. This really implies the importance of differentiation. If students feel that what they are learning is important then they are more willing to learn more. They will participate and try their best, which in turn will increase the amount of knowledge they have. This week was really motivating for me. It made me contemplate how I could change my classes to incorporate some of what we are learning. I’m really thinking about my lowest level, high school, science class. Earth science has the lowest pass rate. So I think it would be the perfect place to start. I have nothing to lose. I have also been looking at how to incorporate the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) into my practice. These standards hold a lot of promise. Engineering standards are embedded and the tasks are not so specific. It makes the objectives more open and |
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