Educators as Storytellers

I recently had the opportunity to have lunch with some of our high school students and talk about their educational journey in our school district.  With a focus on instruction, assessment, resources, and technology, we talked about the things that they felt were important to them and their school.

I went into the conversation wondering what the students (juniors and seniors) would say about the last 12 years in our school district.  Would they complain about school lunches or dress code?  Would they talk about their favorite teachers or coaches? Would they question whether we should start school later or add more study halls?

The students definitely shared bits and pieces like these, but there was one critical take-away from the conversation---their connections with teachers.

They lit up when they shared about the relationships that they had with some of their teachers.  They laughed about funny quirks of some teachers and personal anecdotes from others.  One thing rang true--the relationships that were cultivated throughout their high school experience were meaningful and longstanding.

One student shared something particularly important--the idea of educators as storytellers.  The group all agreed, the best teachers were those who told stories, not just personal stories, bridging connections in the classrooms but those who wove stories into their content.  Without realizing it, their teachers hooked them in to the learning with the power of a story.

This made me reflect on my own education and those teachers who crafted stories within their classrooms.  You probably remember some as well--the ones who had you hanging on their every word while (slyly) infusing history or literature content.  You felt like they were just talking to you, but they were really just finding pathways to incorporate core content in meaningful ways.

The high school students shared that they found comfort in those teachers who crafted stories to support their subject areas.  They expressed feeling more engaged, more interested in the topic, and more connected to their teachers.  It didn't matter if it was art, music, math or foreign language, the conversation kept coming back around to the stories that teachers tell.  Isn't that what we want for every student?  Connections to their teachers.  Connections to the content. Personal connections that lead to deeper understanding.

So the challenge is:

Teachers--Reflect this week on your role as a storyteller.  Do you weave examples and stories throughout your content?  How does that make a difference to your students?  Ask them!

School Leaders--As you visit classrooms this week, look for the storytellers.  How are these teachers intentionally using storytelling as an instructional tool?  What do you notice about student responses?

Also think about your role as a decision maker and an instructional leader, where can you use storytelling to compel others to take action or improve their practice?

Please leave a comment on the power of storytelling in your school.  I'd love to hear how these opportunities are impacting teaching and learning.

3 Maker Tools to Try This Year

Maker learning is happening in schools and libraries.  It is an exciting time in education as we have so many tools and materials as our disposal.  Our classrooms and makerspaces are filled with so many options, how do we know what to choose?

When you spend time with students, it is always interesting to see what materials they gravitate towards.  Sometimes its the unexpected item that gets a lot of attention.  Other times, the things that you think are going to be a huge hit are actually a big flop.  Before I introduce materials to my teachers or students, I usually try it out at home with my own little makers.

It's exciting when I bring home a new product to try.  My sons and I love to tinker so we figure out how things work and play around with them.  That's really the heart of making, if you ask me.  It's that informal messing with materials that provide a creative spark or a new idea that pushes kids to think differently about whatever it is they are working with.

Right now my older son is loving Plus Plus.  These interlocking mini blocks can be used to build just about anything.  2-D and 3-D structures, people, or vehicles.  In a short time, my son used the images from the packaging to replicate a robot, flowers, and an airplane.  Pieces fit snugly together and are perfect for small hands. They offer flexible play on the part of the learner but can also be used to follow a set of directions to accomplish a specific end product.  We love the colors and the creative opportunity that Plus Plus offers to create and design whatever you want.

If you haven't heard about Buddha Board yet, you will want to give this a try.  Think relaxation meets maker education.  We all need the opportunity to step away from technology and do something to "de-stress".

Buddha Board is essentially a painting canvas that only requires water and a little imagination.  The brushstrokes are quite calming as students use the water to create sentences, images, or anything they come up with.  The challenge is that it doesn't stay for long. Within a minute or two, the water dries and the image is gone.  It's a great tool for brainstorming or sketching but is especially powerful when it comes to the mental impact.  Now I know that might sound a little far-fetched, but painting on the Buddha Board can really calm you down. It provides this zen-like opportunity for individualized creation that works for every student.

I recently stumbled upon Solarbotics, based on my youngest son's obsession with creating marble runs.  We have a plastic set which he builds and tears down a dozen times coming up with new and improved iterations.  When I found the Gravitrack from Solarbotics this took the idea of the marble run to a whole new level.  Adding battery and solar powered panels, allows the mechanisms to move the marbles at different points in the track.  Other models from the company include carousels and other machines that makers will love building, hacking, and remaking.

There are tons of great maker tools out there.  This post represents just a few fun options for the little makers in your life. They support both structured and unstructured play for students.  While you can't beat free materials like cardboard and some duct tape, these are all fairly inexpensive ranging from $15-$40.  Don't have the funds? You can always create a Donor's Choose post to add these maker tools to your space this year.  

Do you have a favorite maker tool that we should try in 2019?  Please post a comment below.  

Keep on Making!

#OneWord2019

I have thought a lot about my one word for 2019, as I am sure that many of you have.  It's tough to pick just one word, isn't it?  I mean, there are lots of words that can provide inspiration and guidance, but choosing just one word to focus on all year, that requires some special consideration.  I wanted to choose a word that was original, but that's hard too, as there are so many great posts this week with people sharing their chosen word.

I wanted a word that could prompt inspiration in both my personal and professional life.  I wanted a word that would push me to be better.  I wanted a word that would bring to the surface what was most important.

Last year, I chose curiosity.  It was a bit selfish, I must admit.  I wanted to chase my own curiosities and try new things.  I didn't want anything to stand in my way.  I was determined to pursue whatever it was that piqued my interest.

Travel to new places
Learn new things
Write til my heart was content
Meet new people
Let loose and have some fun once in a while
Wherever the curiosity took me

My year was filled with excitement and opportunity.  While I don't want to lose the inspiration that I gained in 2018, I feel the need to reground myself and find some balance, so that is the word I have chosen.

After juggling a lot in 2018, (including writing three books and expanding my presentations to an international audience) I need to regain my balance among the different aspects of my life.  As a mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend, an educator, and an author, my work/life balance has been a bit out of whack.  I need to attend to all of the pieces of my life and ensure that my energy is spent devoting quality time to what is important.

It is easy to get overwhelmed with responsibilities and requirements working in a school district. Balancing my school life with my family life can be a challenge at times.  Add to that, my work life (what I do "on the side") the work of writing, speaking, and consulting with educators. All of those things combine for a pretty full plate at times.

Over the course of the last month, I was also reminded that friends and laughter are critical to my personal well-being.  I don't always take time to let down my guard and fully enjoy the time with those special people. so in addition to my work/life balance, I need remember add my friends to that balance, as well. Sometimes "play time" with friends and colleagues is just as important to our mental health as getting enough rest and eating right.  Which takes me to the next piece of this balancing act.

I spent the latter part of 2018 finding balance in my personal health.  No longer a slave to carbohydrates, I will continue to balance my food choices in a way that fuels my body and my mind and equips me to be my very best self.  (With 37 lbs. down and many more to go) I am committed to maintaining my health balance in 2019, because part of the balance means I need to leave some room to focus just on myself.

Throughout the year, no doubt I will be challenged with things that will attempt to knock me off balance.  When faced with a choice, I will ask myself, does this create an unbalance in my world?  Will this path provide balanced perspective?  Balance means making choices and prioritizing.  As I explore the delicate balance of life, I wish you a Happy New Year and best wishes for an amazing 2019!

I Think We May Have It All Wrong

This week I had the pleasure of listening to Tony Wagner keynote at a state conference.  He shared lots of great ideas with the crowd but one particular point really stayed with me.  As part of his book Creating Innovators, he has researched schools across the globe looking for common threads throughout educational systems and found three things make a difference in schools:

Play, Passion, and Purpose

When it comes to innovation, do we pay enough attention to these three things?  Think about your own school or district.  I bet you can say with confidence that you know your purpose.  It is likely communicated and shared through a vision that rings throughout your buildings. That purpose is what we are all about, what we wake up everyday to do.  We want to provide the best educational opportunities for our students.  Our purpose is the kids and that is the heart of our daily work.

My guess is, that most schools probably do a decent job when it comes to passion.  We create learning strands that meet the needs of our students, providing them with innovative educational programs and opportunities to explore their passions in the classrooms through the curriculum that we implement and the way that our teachers skillfully craft engaging lessons.  We may focus on developing passions through our career and technical schools, our after school enrichment programs, or by implementing Genius Hour projects within our classrooms, but I think we probably fall a little short on the last P.

Is play evident in your school?  I don't mean just in the kindergarten classrooms, but in every classroom.  Not physical play in recess or gym class, but the kind of play that sparks curiosity and invokes passion in our learners.  Are there opportunities for students to explore, tinker, and wonder in every classroom, every day?  If not, how will we go about changing that?

My school district thought we were on the right track.  We have a motto that we call P3.  It stands for purpose, passion, and pride.  We use #P3 in a lot of our communication and social media content.  P3 has been a way for all 5 buildings in our district to share our message with our community.  It ties us together around a common mission.

But I think we may actually have it all wrong!

Instead of focusing first on our purpose as a district and using that as a starting point--what if we started with play?  From play come these amazing opportunities for learning that are personalized and truly student-centered. Without play, our students (and teachers, too) lose that sense of curiosity and the ability to let their imaginations run wild.  That is the true joy in learning and we let it fall by the wayside. Through play our students can bring new ideas to life and engage in creative problem-solving.

We need to disrupt the status quo and focus on the strategies that will create innovators in every classroom.  We need to embrace the importance of play, passion, and purpose in ways that meet the needs of our learners, but also pushes beyond what might possible.  Through a focus on play, passion, and purpose, we are developing the young people who will truly change the world!

Why I Haven't Been Blogging

It has been a long while since I have done any blogging.  It's not that I have been on a technology break or that I gave up on writing.  It's actually quite the opposite.  I have been writing more than ever!  I am currently under contract to write 3 different books.  What?!?  I know that sounds really crazy.  Believe me, I thought it was crazy too, as I contemplated my commitment to each project.  Needless to say, it has been a very busy several months.

About a year and a half ago I started working on a book idea that connected the idea of STEAM and Making (obvious passions of mine if you've read my book STEAM Makers: Fostering Creativity and Innovation in the Elementary Classroom) with literacy.  I was collecting lots of ideas in my notebook.  Yes, I carry around a traditional pen and notebook everywhere I go to jot down new ideas or wonderings.  The book started to come together and I pitched it to a couple publishers with no luck.  I sat on it a little bit longer and continued to re-work some ideas.  I kept on building it until I finally signed with a publisher in the spring.

In the meantime, I was a part of an authors group on Voxer and connected with JaimeDonnelly.  She was sharing the exciting process of publishing her first book with ISTE. Always-encouraging in her interactions, Jaime tells me that she just happened to mention my work with makerspaces to her editor, who expressed an interest in talking to me. We had a virtual meeting and before I knew it, we were talking about writing a book that would connect to the new ISTE Standards for School Leaders.

OK, so if writing two books wasn't wild enough, I received a DM from Mark Barnes from Hack Learning and when Mark reaches out to you, you definitely listen! He suggested that I contact a colleague of his regarding a new book series that they were started.  It was then that I met Chuck Poole---what positive energy! We Skyped and talked about his uNseries.  I immediately knew that I wanted to work with him. We talked about my interest in creativity in the classroom and how educators can unlock this power in the classroom through different strategies.  It was shortly after our initial meeting that I was signing another contract.

I need to be honest right now. I got a C in College Writing.  My track record in writing was not very strong.  I didn't even really like writing a few years ago!  Through my doctoral studies I had the opportunity to work with a great writing teacher (Thank you Dr. Jalongo).  She taught me so much and I even had a few articles published during that timeMakers in Schools.
.  I wrote and defended my dissertation in 2012 and have been hooked on writing ever since, publishing in journals and blogging for several educational organizations. This year I also wrote a chapter for the EduMatch book,

While the thought of writing three books was unimaginable, I had another colleague in the same boat.  Rachelle Poth, fellow Pittsburgher and PLN friend, was also writing multiple books with  different publishers.  Thanks to Voxer, we chatted, shared struggles and offered encouragement along the way.  It's great having a support system throughout the writing process. Rachelle and I will be in FETC in just a few months presenting and connecting with educators at the Meet the Author Booth.  (Thank you Jennifer Womble!)

While I vow to get back to blogging, my writing schedule has been a bit full lately.  This writing journey has certainly been an undertaking and it's not over yet!  I'm still writing one book and working through editing on the other two.

And insanely, I'm already thinking about partnering with an amazing educator to write another one soon . . .

What’s in your makerspace? From A to Z

Makerspace ABC

I've traveled a lot in the last year, talking to educators all over the US and Canada.  The one thing that people always ask me for is a makerspace supply list.  There are plenty of lists out there, so I thought I'd put a twist on it.  Here are makerspaces must-haves from A-Z.

A     aluminum foil, acrylic paint, art supplies

B     beads, brass fasteners, buttons, balloons, beans, battery packs

C     cardboard, card stock, cotton balls, crayons, clothes pins

D     duct Tape, dowel rods, drafting tables, Dot and Dash robots

E     Elmer’s Glue, Energizer batteries, egg cartons

F     felt, foam core, feathers, fabric, food coloring, First Aid Kit

G     greeting cards, glue sticks, goggles, green screen

H     hangers, hammers, hot glue guns,

I      index cards, iPads, Instructables

J      jars, jewelry-making supplies

K     K’Nex, Kleenex boxes, keyboards, keys

L     Legos, LED lights, lab coats, label maker, leaves

M     markers, magnets, modeling clay, Makedo tools, Makey-Makey

N     nails, needles, notebooks, newspaper

O     oil pastels, Ozobots,

P     pipe cleaners, playing cards, pencils, popsicle sticks, Play-Doh, pliers

Q     Q-tips, quilting squares, quarts (containers)

R     rulers, rubber bands, ribbon, recyclable materials

S     sandpaper, screws, scissors, Snap Circuits, Strawbees

T     toothpicks, twine, tape, three-hole punch

U     unifix cubes, uncooked pasta

V     Virtual reality headsets, Vex Robots, vinegar

W     wrench, wallpaper, wax paper, wool, wood, weaving supplies, Washi tape

X     X-acto knives

Y     yarn, yogurt cups

Z     ZipLoc bags, zip ties

OK, so maybe they're not all must-haves, but some of those letters were tough!  What items would you add to the list? 

5 Yard Sale Finds For Every Maker

While it's not officially summer yet, most of us are finishing up with the school year and planning to take a well-deserved break.  Some people will spend the time relaxing by the pool, others will binge on trashy novels at the beach, and others may plan a "staycation" right at home.  

Wherever the summer may take you, there is surely a spot in the back of your mind where you are already thinking and planning for next school year.  For some, that comes in the form of planning a new unit of study, reading a professional book to prepare for an initiative at school, or working towards your Level II Google certification.  

There are other educators who get ready for the fall spending their summers strolling flea markets and garage sales buying things for their classrooms.  They pride themselves on an awesome find at a rock-bottom price.  A teacher texted me last summer with a photo of a huge box of treasures--"only $2.00!" she wrote.  She returned to school in the fall and shared that box with her students who found all sorts of uses for the variety of items she scored.

With innovative learning spaces finding their way into many schools, summer is a great time to find new things to stock your shelves and bins and make any space into a makerspace.

Books

A set of encyclopedias printed in the 1970s.  Piles of picture books with broken bindings and a few torn pages.  A stack of discarded magazines from Better Homes and Gardens or Reader's Digest.  

Books and other reading materials are at every garage sale.  Many teachers take advantage of 25 cent book bins and stock their classroom libraries.  Those with a Maker Mindset look at books and see an opportunity for a design project.  Disclaimer: I am a former reading specialist and book fanatic and hate the idea of ripping up books, but have you seen what some people can create out of old books?  http://www.bigdiyideas.com/35-unique-and-creative-vintage-book-crafts/

Origami, bookmarks, wreaths, sculptures, and even purses are being crafted from old books. Folding, rolling, tearing, carving, gluing, and rethinking the paper from recycled books is a great makerspace project. 

Flexible seating

Classrooms are transforming with new seating options, giving students more choice. Check out Kayla Delzer’s classroom pictures at http://www.topdogteaching.com/ for some flexible seating ideas.  Mismatched chairs, industrial stools, or vinyl bean bag chairs might be at your neighbor’s yard sale, and all make for inexpensive seating options in the classroom.  

Be on the lookout for yoga balls, porch furniture, and seat cushions which can all find a second life in the classroom.  With a new coat of paint, benches or wooden furniture can serve a new purpose in a reading nook or collaboration area.

Broken toys

One of the most popular spots in our school makerspace was the "deconstruction zone".  Students took apart broken toys and electronics--some just to satisfy their curiosity but for others it became a challenge to repair or re-purpose the items.  One 5th grade student took apart a transistor radio into a million pieces, then put it back together again, in complete working order!

Picking up used board games, card games, or puzzles (even with possible missing pieces) also represent low-tech opportunities for young makers to hack a game and create one of their own. 

Building blocks

Wooden or plastic blocks in large and small sizes will be put to good use in a makerspace.  Be on the lookout for bags of loose Legos © or other brick-type toys that can be used for designing structures.  Lego© accessories, base plates, and storage cases are also great finds at a garage sale.  Many makerspaces are equipped with Lego walls or tables for students to make their building multi-dimensional.  Connect your 3-D model to a mini-motor and make it mobile or link to a robotics kit like Hummingbird http://www.hummingbirdkit.com/ and see what your students come up with!

Hand tools

Family garage sales are often overflowing with kids’ stuff, but don't overlook what dad might be getting rid of.  Hand tools like hammers, wrenches, and saws or small power tools may have a cheap price tag at a neighborhood sale.  Odds and ends from dad's workbench might also be for sale.  Small items like brackets, hooks, gears, or wires can also be put to good use in your makerspace.  Students will love the opportunity to tinker with tools and embrace the idea to take their vision and make it a reality.

Summer is the perfect time to recharge your battery and restock your classroom.  Well-loved makerspaces are always in need of replenishment.  Local yard sales and flea markets may have the items your students want at price your budget can afford.  So, get out there this summer and grab some treasures for the makers in your school!