I got to visit one of the Nordonia MakerSpaces the other day and talk with Dr. Joe Clark and Matt Gauger about some of the things they are doing across the District. I met them at Northfield Elementary and we talked in the MakerSpace that they have created in conjunction with Camp Invention. They are piloting some curriculum from Camp Invention as well as utilizing the buying power of the camp when they need consumables. In addition to integrating maker in to the curriculum, teachers have created maker challenge cards to extend the learning for the students. The PTA has donated a Lego wall in this space. The flexible seating that they put into this room made many teachers in all of the buildings consider flexible seating. The District has been able to put some flexible seating in every classroom that wanted it. I did not get to tour other buildings, but Maker is happening at all of them. Some buildings have robotics going on. The District has 2 augmented reality sandboxes and are looking to make more, especially since they have a local company that wants to donate the technology and District people who want to build the boxes. One of the buildings has a small room, but because of some double wide hallways, they are able to bring maker materials out into the halls. The MakerSpaces are different in each of the buildings, but most importantly it got people thinking not only about the curriculum but also the learning spaces.
They are talking to local vendors and industries to make connections for their students, whether that be internships or just tours to see how things work. They really feel that each building is unique in the community relationships it can have and are trying to foster them for student learning. They do not want to always be asking for money, rather they want partnerships in the students education. Keep up the good work. MAKE the world better
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It was an energetic and excited bunch that showed up on August 4th for the inaugural #EdcampNEOmaker at Strongsville High School. The event was planned by Michael Feldman, Connie Fasig, Vicki Turner, Mrs. Geeky and myself. All the attendees did a great job of contributing session ideas and participating in the sessions. Edcamps can be difficult at first because they are not presentations, they are conversations. But people got into that flow quickly. There we great discussions going on. People talked about sewing , music, computers k-5, various ways to start a MakerSpace, time management of learning tools, using the space to empower students with different abilities, Fablab in ELA & SS, what’s after Lego’s, community engagement, inside gardening, and greenscreening. That is one thing I like about Maker Education, it is so broad in its applications and implications. That is also the difficult part of Maker, it is a wide field with almost too many possibilities. We only did a morning set of sessions because we did not feel we could provide breakfast AND lunch. We had some things set out for a sandbox (paper circuits, flipgrid, green screen), but there was no real time to play with these. We need a playground session, or maybe a lunch and playground time if we find more sponsors. The Strongsville HS library is an awesome facility. It is large and has open spaces, but is also big enough to have divided spaces. High tables, low tables, tall seats, comfy seats. It was easy to spread out our groups. They also have some small rooms with glass walls for Maker equipment for sewing, greenscreening, 3D printing. Feedback was good from our participants. All enjoyed the morning and learned from it. Lisa said “This was excellent! I thoroughly enjoyed the sharing! Thank you again!” Christine said “Great pd and opportunity to collaborate and communicate with like missioned people. “ Molly said “Thank you for doing this. I loved making the connections with like minded educators. “ Connie mentioned “I would love more content specific session or how to tie into content areas “ I think larger numbers in the future will help get a wider variety of sessions. We can always do more with “advertising” the event.
The first weekend in August might not be the best time for the event. Back to school shopping, last weekend or two before school starts, community football days, sun & beach… But it is hard to find/pick the “right” time for any event. The majority of attendees replied that “before the school year July-September” is best, followed by “during the school year September - December”. We had 35 people sign up on Eventbrite, but only 17 showed up. I knew everyone would not come, but the turnout was lower than I expected. More promo and maybe a better date for 2019. We will see.
Until “next year” - MAKE the world a better place |
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