...she asks herself as she agrees to run one.
The first few weeks of my position have come and gone. They were filled with orientations, training's, paper work, navigating new office dynamics, and LOTS of networking.
My focus right now is to get myself plugged in and teaching after school programs here in Valley County. Unlike many of my PCEI counter parts in other parts of the state I must search out and find community partners that need an educator. That so far has proven to be my most challenging task. I have knowledge and now I need a space to share it!
In my desperation to find a space to teach (aka do my job) I agreed to take on two separate makerspace programs in the community of Cascade. One as a partner with the Cascade After-school Program, and the other in partnership with the Cascade Cultural Arts Center.
What is a makerspace? GREAT question. I had only the slightest idea when I agreed to take on these roles. The general idea is that a maker space provides opportunity for students to be creative and make things while building skills in all sorts of arenas from coding to cooking. These spaces are generally tech heavy, think circuits, soldering, and robots OH MY! Freedom is a big part of makerspace as well. My role is to facilitate student driven learning and creativity. This space is the opposite of following step by step instructions. Failure is also a big part of maker space, learning how to fail and be OK with it is an important skill for young people to obtain and they are allowed to do so in a safe supportive environment within a makerspace.
These are the big themes of maker space. What one actually looks like? I’ve only just gotten my feet wet. I facilitated my very first makerspace with a K-6 after school program yesterday. I started off explaining what makerspace is and setting some group norms. I decided to allow them free choice to build, make, play, and experiment with different things. I had everything, from play dough and pipe cleaners, to Ozobots and circuit kits. I think it went really well! The students were engaged the entire time many of them wanting to show off their successes to me as they created things.
Each time I meet with them I am planning to incorporate some aspect of the natural world into what they are creating. I am an environmental educator after all!
I am looking forward to diving into deeper aspects of maker space with an older group of kids next week!
Here are some links that helped me wrap my brain around the idea of makerspace as well as tools to get the ball rolling.
http://renovatedlearning.com/makerspace-resources/
https://makered.org/