School libraries are starting makerspaces all over the world. It’s an exciting time in education as we rediscover the power of creativity. But many schools rush to start makerspaces so quickly that they neglect building the maker culture. Developing a maker culture is a lot like developing a love of reading, it takes time and persistence and it’s totally worth it. Here’s a few ways that you can work to cultivate a love of making and creativity in your students.
In my latest AASL Knowledge Quest post, I dig into a topic that’s a particular passion of mine: maker culture. I see far too many schools that invest tons of time and money in acquiring maker stuff without investing in creating a maker culture in their students and teachers. You can have all the awesome stuff in the maker world, but if there isn’t a culture of creativity in your school and library, not much will happen.
How to Build a Maker Culture in Your Library
In my post, I talk about four different ways you can cultivate a culture of creativity in your library. Click over to the post to learn how you can:
- Create interactive learning environments
- Develop creativity stations
- Display student projects
- Host maker lunches
And if you want to learn EVEN MORE about developing a maker culture in your library, you should pre-order the book I co-wrote with Colleen Graves and Aaron Graves, Challenge-Based Learning the School Library Makerspace. My AASL post is based off of one of the chapters.