I began my summer with the need to create goals so I had a focused beginning to the year. After some research of other media/tech specialist's blogs, sites, and Twitter pages, I was able to formulate a mission for our building's media center.
I knew that I wanted our media center to be more than a place to check out books and learn about the Dewey Decimal system. That is not a life skill that will help my students learn and grow in our world today. The media center is truly a hub of media and tech that can empower learners, build enthusiasm, and provide much more than a two-dimensional education. This belief brought me to research the makerspace movement. There is a lot of information available and I had more than enough to get me started in this new venture.
I have a limited amount of direct time with each grade level on a weekly basis. This created a situation where I had to be flexible and a bit creative with how I accomplish our media/tech goals in our media center. I am able to combine media/tech skills and standards with the creative atmosphere of a makerspace to meet multiple goals in one session. The ISTE standards were a useful guide as well as the experiences of other media/tech specialists on Twitter.
We are only one quarter into the school year and I am receiving a lot of feedback from students, teachers, and parents. I am exhilarated to move forward and build a making program that meets the needs of our school. Some of our favorite projects/experiences thus far have been:
- Lego challenges
- Sphero challenges
- 3D printing (M3D printers)
- Literacy STEAM projects
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| 3D Printing |
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Sphero's and iPads |
In the upcoming months, we will be starting some inquiry and media literacy projects. I am also hoping to create a permanent makerspace area (as of now we set-up and clean-up after each session in our media center) that will be available for open-use by students and classrooms. The next few months should be an exciting opportunity!
Favorite Resources:
Favorite Twitter Peeps:
@BrightLibrarian
@koehnkfisher
@read4life
@gravescolleen
@DianaLRendina
