Another week of classes completed, and another step closer to having to make big decisions, which is scary. But I'm not going to talk about that right now. Instead, I am going to talk about the presentation given to us by John Finch. John is a consultant for Manitoba Education, but his main focus is maintaining a certain website, MAPLE FOREM. Maple is great resource that all educators should be connected with. It stands for Manitoba Professional Learning Environment, and helps teachers from Manitoba to stay connected with other educators, as well as to stay connected with current information and topics that relate to them. Getting the refresher on how the website operates, and being shown some new aspects of the site was really good since I hadn't gone back to the website after the initial presentation on it last year. I will try to be more mindful of checking back in on it moving forward.
One of the newer features of the site which John put emphasis on during his presentation was about the Maker Spaces page. I made sure to follow the page, since the Wiki's and Blog posts that John shares each week are curated collections of neat ideas and stories related to this growing movement. I think that the entire concept of Maker Spaces is great, and is a way that classrooms can be more learner focused rather than teacher focused. Providing the students the opportunity to explore and practice what they are learning helps create a more authentic and enjoyable experience for everyone involved, and creates the potential for great things to occur. Or maybe it is just the child in me getting excited to being able to do fun play based activities in my classroom with my students.
Last year, our Science Methods class was able to take a field trip to a real Maker Space at St. Augustine School and it was a really great experience to see it in action. There were also students present to show our class some of what they would work with while in the Maker Space, ranging from Lego they could build with, to Sphero Robots that they could program, to conductive lead pencils that can make circuits and keys on paper, to more crafty projects. Usually there would be a challenge for the students to participate in, or they could have the opportunity to pursue something else that interested them more. When we came to visit, it was really evident that the students were proud of what they had already created and learned about, and they were eager to share that knowledge with us. This isn't something that is always present in the traditional classroom, but is something that will benefit all learners.
The presentation about Maker Spaces also made me think back to a video which was shared with us in one of our first year classes. I searched out the video, which was challenging since I couldn't remember what it was even called, but I found it and rewatched it. I included a copy below for anyone who hasn't seen it or who wishes to rewatch it as well. The video is about project-based learning that a Californian private school uses, but I think many of the main concepts about why this is such a powerful model also relate to the Maker Space movement.
-B
I agree, I really enjoyed John Evans presentation. It was a much needed refresher on Maple and a great introduction to Makerspace. I haven't looked into Makerspace prior to John's presentation, although it reminded me a lot of STEM which is common in early years classrooms. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In my experience having students build using the STEM objectives has been nothing but successful. It really has brought the class together and even those who aren't near the top of the class can find their strengths and have a big part in their groups STEM excelling. This newer concept is so rewarding as both a teacher and from a students point of view. I'm really looking forward to looking into Makerspaces. You had a great opportunity last year going to St. Augustine School!
ReplyDeleteI am certainly not the authority on maker spaces, but I wonder exactly how much better it is from the way modern classrooms run right now. The picture that John's presentation painted made it feel as though students starting projects was a way to get the curriculum to them in a meaningful way. I wonder how much of the curriculum could be addressed with this method. I feel like maker space style programming lends itself to creating specialists, as opposed to generalists. Is it dangerous to have kids deciding on a specialty to soon? Finding a new love for trigonometry is great, but how good is that when sentences students can't structure properly even? just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI was skeptical of the Maker Space movement when we first heard about it in our middle years science methods class but really enjoyed being able to see one in action. Those kids were so excited to share it with us and I couldn't believe what they were able to do, and how excited they were about it. Although, I do wonder how feasible it is for schools to become equipped to run a Maker Space with cutbacks and whatnot. It will be interesting to observe the future of this movement.
ReplyDeleteI agree it was a nice to have a refresher on Maple. Having Physical Education as a teachable I was conserned that it wouldn't really apply to me. After looking deeper I found excellent resources for health and phys-ed report card writing :)
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