When I first started my makerspace at Stewart, I had no idea what I was doing. I just had three bins of K’nex and a vision for what our makerspace could be. Shortly after we got our supplies, we began 6th grade clubs that met during school. I started the K’nex club. The next year … Read more
I don’t normally review fiction on my blog, but Click’d ties in beautifully with makerspaces and would be a fantastic addition to your library. Here’s why: Read this Book: Click’d (Post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using them, I get a small commission that helps support running this blog) Allie Navarro loves to … Read more
I love all forms of making. Coding robots, building circuits, soldering things to make stuff light up. Knitting, sewing, crafting, tinkering, taking what looks like a pile of junk and turning it into something amazing. But sadly, many in education see a distinction between these two types of making. In Defense of Craft, Play and … Read more
The Four C’s are big in education right now: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Collaboration and Communication. We talk constantly about how we need to be teaching our students these skills. I’m not always a big fan of buzzwords – even though I’ve only been in education for less than a decade, I realize that they come … Read more
I’ve written lots of posts about the various Maker Fairs (also called Maker Fests) that I did at Stewart over the years I was there, going all the way back to our first one in 2014. But somehow, I never got around to writing a post about the logistics, the details of how we went … Read more
One thing my new school didn’t have when I started was a makerspace. We did have a newly created Virtual Reality Lab (with a 3D printer) in the library, but there had not been any maker culture in the library before. It’s been a traditional study hall environment, so I knew it would take some … Read more
It can be so easy to get caught up in the rat race of life and find ourselves constantly busy. Especially for educators. Even more so for school librarians who have a billion-and-one things on our plates on any given day. The end of the year is rough. More than likely you’re dealing with standardized testing, … Read more
(Post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using them, I get a small commission that helps support running this blog) Just create something. Everyday. I love to read books about creativity and the artist’s process. It’s fascinating to learn the stories of authors, artists and other creatives and learn about their how they create … Read more
I believe that everyone has a Maker Story. A tale of how they came to be a maker. Maybe it was drawing classes in elementary school. Or a blinky soldering kit in middle school. Maybe you don’t consider yourself a maker, but there are those memories from when you were a kid of making things … Read more
Many educators falsely believe that you can’t start a makerspace without a huge budget. But some of the best makerspace supplies are free! As part of our new Maker Mondays program, I recently tried out a new activity with my students that went off great. I only spent around $50 on supplies, most of which … Read more