Fall Whirlwind Wow! What a whirlwind the past few months have been! I started drafting a post a couple of months ago on the Adobe Spark apps I utilize most (which I will finish and share) and haven't had a chance to even sit down and start typing or editing a post since! Quarter 2 has been hectic and chaotic but also full of great opportunities and new adventures! I've worked on several projects including running a book fair, hosting an author visit, continuing to work on getting our makerspace set, and being one of the leaders for our first one school one book experience while simultaneously tying that into the Global Read Aloud. GRA with my whole school was an amazing experience I can't wait to write about. I need to work on finding a routine time to blog, but that's tough with my two unpredictable and small kiddos. I will definitely backtrack as I can to talk about some of those things, but in the meantime... time to try out the makerspace! On and off the last two weeks and continued into part of next week, I've been bringing ELA and Humanities classes into the makerspace during their last library visits before winter break. As I've probably mentioned before, I like to be prepared, and I like to feel like at least a partial expert before I try to teach a lesson. But with the makerspace, I have to throw that out the window! As we've discussed before, you have to be willing to go out of your comfort zone, learn along side the students, be okay with not knowing all of the answers, and jump in! You have to be willing to go out of your comfort zone, learn along side the students, be okay with not knowing all of the answers, and jump in! However, the night before that first group came in, I felt so nervous. Was I prepared? What questions would they ask? Should I have challenge/task cards? I had to tell myself I was overthinking it, as to knock it off. Honestly, that first group was still a bit uncomfortable for me. But part of my spiel included my leveling with them that I was still learning too and wouldn't have all the answers. I also chatted about how we'll all become experts in different areas and can collaborate and teach each other. After seeing kids' eyes light up, wheels turn, questions be asked that I did and didn't know the answer to, and students falling in love with the makerspace in that first class, it was then that I truly came to grips with being comfortable with being uncomfortable. After seeing kids' eyes light up, wheels turn, questions be asked that I did and didn't know the answer to, and students falling in love with the makerspace in that first class, it was then that I truly came to grips with being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Okay, enough of my chit chat, let me get to the logistics for you of what I've been talking to students about during their initial visit and what I had set up for them. I start with an introduction that I try to keep brief. I talk to them about opportunities for using the makerspace second semester (open times I'll start having and will post more about after I get my system figured out, teachers reserving the space, teachers being able to check out some items, etc.), briefly go over my basic makerspace rules, and then tell them their options for the period with a super simplistic one sentence explanation for the options I know they might not have heard of before. I also had the options listed on a white board along with login info for TinkerCad and Osmo. Their options were -
Out in the main part of the library right outside of the makerspace on tables:
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