Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with criticism. I was told (not to my face) by a visitor to our school that our library makerspace is not a “real makerspace”. This same person stated that our woodshop is a “real makerspace” because it has power tools. She suggested that I “do some research” on … Read more
I was beyond excited when I heard that Laura Fleming was writing a book on makerspaces. And I was even more excited (and honored) when she asked me to write a section on the beginnings of our makerspace at Stewart. So I made sure to order several copies as soon as it became available on … Read more
We entered the Follett Challenge this year with a video telling the story of how we started the Stewart Makerspace and the impact that it has had on our library and our school. Unfortunately, we weren’t among the winners this time around. Still, I’m so proud of how this video has come together, and I … Read more
I don’t remember exactly when the first conversation happened, but somewhere through chatting on Twitter and the interwebs, Colleen Graves and I decided that it would be awesome to connect our Maker kids. I have an afterschool group that meets on Mondays at the same time as her group, even though we’re in different time … Read more
One year ago today, I took a leap that one change my life. One year ago, I took three bins of K’nex out of our storage closet, dusted them off, and put them out on our library tables. I didn’t have an action plan. I wasn’t sure how my students would react. I didn’t know … Read more
The Makerspace Resource Library I’ve been a Maker in one form or another for a long time, way before that word was even common. I learned how to sew from my mom in high school. In college, I learned how to knit and crochet from my best friend. I frequently dabbled in other crafty enterprises … Read more
This past week, we celebrated Hour of Code week at Stewart. It was pretty low-key overall, but we had some fun activities going on to get our students into coding. One of the activities we had was inspired by Laura Fleming‘s digital breadcrumbs. I put up a few different coding sites on our interactive whiteboard … Read more
*Build of the Week is a regularly occurring segment on Renovated Learning where I share some of the awesome stuff my students have been making over the past week.* This build isn’t actually from this week, but is instead something my students made last month. I finally got all the videos and photos together this week. … Read more
When I talk to other librarians and educators about starting a school Makerspace, one of the most common things I hear is: “I’d love to do (insert cool Maker activity) at my school, but we don’t have a budget for that”. What many people don’t realize is that the idea that you need a … Read more
I covered Arts and Crafts in my Makerspace Wishlist series back in April. Since then, I’ve had a lot more arts and crafts activities in my library, and I realized that I needed to revisit this and update it. I’m covering some of my favorite craft activities here, as well as some general craft suggestions. … Read more