Perhaps it was a perfect date to mark the day that marked a complete transformation to what our "normal" looked like. Friday the 13th was the day when we were all working happily with our students and heard whisperings throughout the day that we would not be returning due to Quarantine restrictions. At that point, none of us would ever predict it would be through the summer months. It. Was. Surreal! The next few months of distance learning were stressful, insanely busy, and absolutely unprecedented. I was not only working to help all teachers district-wide try to navigate distance learning, I was continuing desperately try to keep innovation happening for all students, and also help my own daughters deal with this online learning. Here are some highlights that I look forward to looking back on during better education times and reflecting on how we all were forced to be design thinkers, innovators, and engineers in this changing world!
I love EVERYthing about this Makerspace experience from start to finish! As the Innovation Coordinator for our TK-8 school, I have the great privilege to be able to work with all grades and all content areas, both students and teachers.
My goal is to bring in the innovation to their content areas (design thinking, STEAM, technology, coding robotics, engineering, etc) to prove how learning can be hands-on, innovative, & incorporate the 4Cs. It's TRULY my jam! SO....2 weeks ago, knowing 7th History was slotted to be in our Makerspace, I met with the 7th History teachers and we started brainstorming what Makerspace experience students could have to go with their learning of Medieval Japan. The History teachers started thinking of STEM activities (build the tallest pagoda, make their own paper, etc) They started to get overwhelmed and so I guided them to shift the focus on what the TEACHER would create for students to make, to what the STUDENT would make to show their learning of the content. I asked for a list of topics (12 total ranging from origami, paper lanterns, puppet theater, sumo wrestling, Samurai, sushi and more) ð These topics got me ALL excited! What if we could have design teams pick the topics they are interested in, research more deeply, then create an exhibit to teach others in an engaging, interactive way?? Fastforward, the entire week in our Makerspace blew us away and made my innovation teacher heart SO big! Most importantly, I guarantee they'll retain a lot of this history content because they had so much fun, were engaged and 100% ALL in!
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