I'm Back!

I have spent the last two years focused deeply on my classroom -- on making things better, finding inspiration (looking at you, Terri Eicholz!), and creating a learning space that I would be excited and proud to share.

This year, I've dipped my toe into the next level as a teacher, (how's that for mixing metaphors?), providing professional development to other teachers. 

It's been terrifying. And thrilling.

Today, I spent the morning with a dear friend creating a pitch to present at next year's SXSW EDU. We want to take what we've learned from Making in our classrooms and translate it into something teachers can use in ALL classrooms.

To find out more, check out our video. 

And stay tuned -- Ed Remix has lots of ideas, just waiting to be shared.

Creating Makers

I already have a list of supplies I want to purchase for next fall.

Until today, I thought I was doing pretty well with the whole Makerspace thing. I have engineering supplies -- bins of cardboard and recycling (think water bottles, plastic packaging, styrofoam) that my kids can raid with ease. I have on-demand access to crafting supplies like yarn and beads. I have tools (real ones!), even a kid-sized tool bench where my students can happily pound nails in to create...whatever. I have laptops with access to Scratch and iPads with access to Scratch, Jr. I have Lego robotics. My kids could make, tinker, invent...or so I thought.

What I realized today, after reading just the first chapter of "Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom" by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager, is that I barely have my toe in the water of the Makers' Movement. See, I have all these materials, but I haven't encouraged my kids to put them together in any significant way -- yet. 

We have been dabbling in Making so far, but mostly, we have been modeling. "This is a thing I could build -- someday." "This is what my thing will look like -- someday."

What this book supplies are the ideas, materials and know-how to turn someday's inventions into today's. My kids no longer have to be limited to modeling their ideas. Next year (how I love summer -- that time when teachers can reflect and figure out how to make next year even better), next year, we will Make. 

Yes, with the capital "M."

*If you already have a robust Makerspace in your school or classroom, can you send me some ideas? I'd love the help!

Designing Experiments

I never really played with Hot Wheels growing up -- I was much more into unicorns than cars. After this last month, though, I have to say that these speedy little toys are definitely at the top of my to-give-to-nieces-and-nephews list.

Right before Christmas, a huge box of cars, ramps, loops and connectors showed up at my door, courtesy of their Speedometry curriculum. I figured it'd be good for a challenge or two, a nice break from the routine, but nothing serious.

Boy, was I wrong.

My second-graders have been experimenting with Hot Wheels for the past month -- first designing tracks to see how far they could make one go, then following the Speedometry curriculum's lesson on potential and kinetic energy. Their theme for the year is "change," so I introduced the idea of "variables" -- the parts of an experiment that can change. We did Speedometry's book/ramp experiment -- then branched out to our own.

I created this experiment design page, and my kids have been designing their own experiments with their own identified variables. Questions included "How does the number of tracks in the loop affect the car's ability to go around it?" And "Does the type of car determine the success of the loop?" (As you can probably tell, my second-graders are really into loops!) 

I'm not sure how much longer we'll be working with the Hot Wheels, but I definitely give them two-thumbs up as classroom supplies.

Celebrating a Day of Play

Once again, my classroom is a wreck -- and I couldn't be happier. This all started with the video below. If you haven't heard of Caine's Arcade, you really need to watch it.

I watched this video a few years ago, then remembered it again lately when I heard about the Global Cardboard Challenge. A day of play? Creativity? Innovation? It was an activity designed for my kids.

After watching this amazing video about the power of imagination (and a little packing tape), my fourth graders went all out with their version of cardboard arcade games. For the past few weeks, they've designed, cut out, failed, redesigned, stuck with it, and created some great games.

  It may look like a pile of boxes held together with duct tape (and, well, it is), but when you get close, the detail and ingenuity really come through. One child made his own bean bags, another figured out how to harness gravity to create a working ball return. This is the type of hands-on engineering that gets kids hooked into science and math.

Fourth grade's S.A.G.E. Arcade

Next week, we've invited the entire school to come play in their Arcade. If you have a few boxes and some packing tape lying around, I encourage you to unleash your imagination (and your kids), and create your own Day of Play.

Sure, Guys, We Can Make a Robot Dinosaur Out of LEGOs...

   A few months ago, I was having lunch with my second graders (I do this with every GT group, every other week). 
   And I asked them, "What ideas do you have for our next project?"
   "Oooh! We should do dinosaurs!"
   "Robots!"
   "Learn to blow stuff up!"
   "Basketball -- we should learn about basketball!"
   "LEGOs! I love to make stuff with LEGOs!"
   I took a deep breath, preparing to settle them down a bit, when one of the boys (it's an all-boys group), piped up. "Guys, guys -- we can make this a win/win."
I sat back in my chair and listened as this 7-year-old negotiated a project that every single kid was on board with.
   "We can make a robot, out of LEGOs, in the shape of a dinosaur -- and it can throw a basketball!" he said. (You will notice that even the 7-year-old knew the blowing-stuff-up option was a no-go.)
   "Yeah!" "Yeah!"
   Then seven sets of big eyes turned to me. "Can we do that, Mrs. Zepeda?"
   And I was so impressed at the level of conversation, and their use of Covey's 7 Habits to listen and negotiate with each other, that I said,

   "Sure, guys, we can make a robot dinosaur out of LEGOs."

   Now, to figure out how...

Managing Overload

Do you ever feel like you're on information overload? That so many good ideas have come your way that you just don't know where to look or what to do next?

That's where I am right now.

I work with some amazingly talented, creative, passionate people, who follow the blogs and read the books of other amazingly talented, creative, passionate people.

That much creativity has left my head spinning this week.  I am full of questions: What should I do next with my students?  Am I doing enough? Is that creative enough? Is that really reaching them the way I want it to? Is there enough depth to that assignment? Will that prepare them for life in our fast-paced, changing society? Will they enjoy it? Will I enjoy it? Is this important? Am I doing the important things with them?

I have these precious butterflies (I know, old, tired, rather melodramatic metaphor, but still appropriate), and I don't want to waste a second of the time we spend together.

So, what to do next?

Here are just a few of the ideas that have come my way this week.

From colleagues: Genius Hour, Engineering Mystery Bags, and the most intriguing, Traveling Differentiation Suitcases. (The suitcases are the creation of a fellow GT facilitator. Made from MacBook boxes -- our district has a surplus of the boxes at the moment following computer upgrades -- the suitcases include everything necessary for an advanced lesson for a small number of students. Novel, handouts, instructions, etc. Genius!)

From the web: Coding for kids, books clubs for GT parents, and really, anything that Terry Eichholz writes about.

I'm glad I have a weekend to ponder and digest these ideas...I'm sure something great will come out of the mix.