Classrooms Make Space

I first heard the term “Makerspace” in a bookstore. There was an area set-up and a sign that said “Makerspace”. I just thought it was an area to keep unruly children occupied. Boy, was I wrong. Makerspace is an area where children come to explore, build, create discover and tinker. Kids are trying something new and are learning on their own. They are the ones directing the action. Makerspaces can help children find their passion and then share that passion with others. “ Makerspaces encourage students to try, fail and try again- just as the world’s most amazing innovators do in their labs and studios every day. “ (Create, 2020).

    Establishing a Makerspace into your classroom will encourage your students to explore and discover on their own. First, you need to designate a space in your classroom for a Makerspace. Next, you need to supply that space with various materials. (These materials could rotate throughout the year depending on your focus, curriculum, interest and lessons.) Setting up rules, expectations and procedures are a must. The students need to know what exactly is expected of them. To help students not waste too many materials, have them sketch out their design and label it before they go into productivity. This serves two purposes, less waste of your materials and more importantly it ensures that the student thought out and planned their project. Finally, let the creativity juices flow.
    Just like with anything new to your class, introduce and implement it in small pieces at first. You could have a makerspace set up as a station or learning center. The students would rotate in and out of it. Your makerspace could be the focus for the entire class for a certain day. You also could establish the Makerspace with a certain subject area. Giving the students a choice to use the space at their “free” time is also another option. There is no wrong or right way to set up/implement a Makerspace. This space is all about a hands-on method for students to explore, discover, build and tinker.

    Just imagine what a Makerspace can do for creative minds. “Makerspaces are a hands-on method for STEAM learning, giving students space to explore science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.” (Create, 2020). Giving our students the opportunity to explore on their own, in their own way, encourages them to be independent thinkers and tinkers. Let your students “make” and watch the creative juices flow and watch problems being solved.

References

Create a STEAM Makerspace for Your School in 5 Easy Steps: Resilient Educator.         (2020, March 03).  Retrieved from https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-            resources/create-steam-makerspace/

Papers, Papers Everywhere

   

 Papers here, papers there, papers, papers everywhere I usually chant to myself while looking for a certain paper. Sometimes I feel like I am looking for a needle in the haystack. My desk looks like an explosion happened and papers are strewn everywhere in neat unorganized piles. “When I get a chance, "I say to myself , “I will file that away.” Sometimes I remain true to my promise of filing it away; other times it remains in a pile for another day. Most of the papers are of my students' work. Low and behold Covid -19 shut down our physical school building. I, as were many other teachers, was scrambling to figure out this whole virtual schooling. My tech savvy skills were pretty limited to turn on and click this. Because my school has a wonderful support system, a site was set-up for me to use. I quickly found myself immersed in Google Drive, Google Site, You-Tube and Safe-Tube. I also had to learn how to take my hard copies and get it on my Drive.

    As the weeks dragged on, my tech skills improved. (It also helped that one of my colleagues is a gifted teacher in many areas, but especially in the elusive tech world. You know who you are and I am so thankful for you!) Now instead of having papers everywhere, I had digital copies of student work visually overloading my Drive. My Drive looked like an explosion of digital papers. I had trouble keeping organized of who did what and where it was. Eventually it came to me like a vision--- I said to myself (Yes, I admit I constantly talk to myself) , “Terry, to make it visually easier to see each student’s work, first make a folder for each grade level and then make a folder for each student.” I felt like I could have been in that V-8 commercial. (You know the one when you slap your forehead and say I could have had a V-8.) I had a V-8 moment. That one thought of individual folders stopped the tears😂 and brought on the smile😁. I now knew what my students were doing, if they handed in their work and if they needed more help. At this point in my virtual teaching I became a bit more organized thanks to Drive and folders. Hopefully, when we go back to school in September, I am thinking about creating individual folders for my students to use as portfolios. Right now most of my work is paper pencil tasks. But, I now also know how to scan papers from my phone to my Drive. (I found this wonderful app called CamScanner that saved my sanity.)  These portfolios will help show the growth made throughout the school year. Thank you Google Drive.

    Google Sheets still scares me.👀  Out of all the applications in GSuite, I find this one the most difficult to use personally. After the videos, the application of using Sheets and the readings, I know in my heart💗 Sheets can help me as a teacher. My head tells me I must be crazy because trying to use Sheets often causes mental breakdowns. (My husband, an excel guru, brings me back from my insanity to sanity. He helps me see that Sheets really isn’t that scary.) So, how can I competently use Sheets in my class without driving me personally crazy? My students and I run a monthly school store. Sheets could help me track and tally how much we spend and how much we make. Right now I don’t really know exactly how much I spend on inventory each year.😕  Another way Sheets can help me is with tracking and grading my math fact quizzes. Every week we have a quick quiz on facts. To keep track of grades, I put each result on a hard copy chart. Then, at the end of the marking period I manually figure out the average. When I saw (and actually tried it myself) how easy it is to average grades using the function button in Sheets, I had another V-8 moment. Using conditional formatting can help me visually identify who is struggling. And to top it off, I can even have a graph/ chart made to view my results visually. If I start out slow with Sheets, my confidence and usage of Sheets can grow--- leading to possible integration of Sheets within my class. It’s a good dream and a reachable reality. 

     If my future self came to me and told me that I would not only be using tech in my class, but embracing it as well, I would have thought my future self lost her mind.  My mind (not so much my memory) is still in tact. So, I was remembering that song See You in September.   Hopefully in September I will be seeing and using Google Sheets and Drive more.

"Explore" .. Walking Down Memory Lane

Walking down memory lane can bring you so many emotions from pure joy and happiness to utter desolation. As I was taking a walk down memory lane to the time or high school and college, I remember the anxiety and stress over researching and writing research papers. Researching anything meant hours spent in a library with plenty of dimes for the xerox machine. Card catalogs, microfilm, microfiche , encyclopedias, hard copies of journals, newspaper articles, typewriters with correction tape and plenty of index cards/paper to write and organize your thoughts and research bring back so many memories and not good ones. If you were born before the 80s, you may recall the “typewriter”.

At times I really hated that piece of equipment. Re-typing papers at least 7 times before the finished product was the norm for me. That stinking correction tape did not always correct and white out made your paper look “unprofessional”. Those were not the days. Then the invention of the word processor happened. That made student life a bit more bearable. Finally if you could afford one, personal computers became available. So typing a paper (keyboarding) was so much more convenient and easier. As a side note, computers were helping the environment by less paper waste. The actual writing of the paper became easier, but you still had to do most of your research at the library. Some of the research could be done on-line but information was not widely available for educational researching purposes.

Google has given us an abundance of information at our fingertips. One tool in particular that makes researching online easier is Explore which can be accessed in Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets. The Explore tool in Sheets helps answer questions about your data, it has automatic chart creation and it can write formulas (Google, n.d.). In Slides, Explore adds value by helping with elements of design after you create your slide. Explore within Google Docs can make suggestions about what is in your document. It may suggest topics to search more in depth, provide additional images to add, and offer research about what is in my document (“Exploring ‘Explore’”, 2017). Not only can Explore give you quick access recommendations for your document, it also can search your drive, the web, find images and make footnote citations in MLA, APA and Chicago format (Bell,2019). Thank you Google for Explore!

What’s great about Explore especially in Docs is it is like ‘One stop shopping’. You can research your document without leaving Docs. Images are easily added and if you need to footnote -consider it done. Explore even offers you suggestions to add to your research. Explore is like your own personal assistance. I really only explored Explore in Google Docs. The one thing it is missing is citations for the end of your paper. It will gladly put in a footnote and add that citation at the end of your paper, but if you remove the footnote, the citation is gone. You need to have another citation tool to help you with that or you can do it the old fashion way writing it up yourself. (Personally, I prefer the add-on citation tool.)

All is all Explore is a great tool addition from Google. It makes researching so much easier. I would highly recommend using Explore in the classroom. Think about all of the benefits Explore offers to our students. Students today can literally complete the whole research process in their own home (or at school) at any time of day and no money required to access or copy documents. Our Students have no idea about microfilm, microfiche, card catalogs or searching for books or journals on some dusty shelves. Technology has definitely given our students an infinite amount of information at their fingertips. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong time period at least when I think back to my school researching days. Then again, I wouldn’t change anything. Taking a walk down memory lane reminds me of who I am and who I became because of my experiences. Now, if I need to do any type of research I can do it at home using all the great searching tools. I find great comfort in that because I really don’t like dust and xeroxing paper can put a dent in my available coins.

References

Bell, K. (2019, January 15). BLOG. Retrieved from https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/5-ways-to-use-the-google-docs-explore-tool/

Exploring 'Explore': How Google works for you and your students. (2017, April 13). Retrieved from https://ditchthattextbook.com/exploring-explore-how-google-works-for-you-and-your-students/

See and use suggested content in a document - Computer - Docs Editors Help. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://support.google.com/docs/answer/2481802

Blah, Blah, Blah Blogging

Blogging for education, blogging for your classroom and blogging as an educator sounds like Blah,Blah, Blah. Actually that Blah,Blah, Blah blogging can be a valuable tool to use for/with your class and students.  Blogging for students could take the place of individual

journaling.  Each student could have their own Blog site.  The site could be made private.  This way they could share it with only people they allowed. (Of course, they would need to share it with me.) This Blog would be their own, their own voice, their own style and none of the worries of others seeing it.  Going forward, the student could keep their blog for forever if they like.  It could be a school and personal blog.  They could see how much they have changed and developed over the years. Their blog becomes a tangible piece of evidence of their individual growth.  How awesome is that!

On a classroom blog that I would name “Daily Thoughts”,  a question,quote, thought or statement could be posted and the students could respond. Students should be given an option to either respond directly on the Blog or respond in their

personal journal.  All of my students are special needs.  Some of them despise writing (either because writing and the process is difficult, they have difficulty expressing themselves, they lack the confidence in their writing ability or fear rejection or criticism). I could also have a classroom blog that I share about the happening in the class. Parents would be able to view the blog and read about, see pictures and comment on our class.  

    If I wanted a Blog site as an educator, I could share stories, tips and daily life as a teacher.  My colleagues and I will often joke that we should write a book about the crazy things/anitcs😁 that students do and say.  Of course, no real names would be named.   Those stories would be an interesting read.   Perhaps I should talk to my colleagues about this.  

As with all things, a Blog comes with risks and potential problems.  Students are not always mature.  I could see some students commenting with inappropriate things and my boys would definitely add a lot of potty talk.💩  With words comes DRAMA. Words written could be misconstrued. My older students especially the girls love to talk, share, text, and participate in all other social networking stuff. Many times they would come crying to me and telling me that so and so said this.  I do a lot of mediating and role playing to help the students deal with the drama. A Blog could potentially have the same issues and DRAMA will happen.  I would also be concerned about bullying especially on the students’ individual sites.  Even though I work in a Christian school, our students can be mean and hurtful. It is definitely a heart issue with them. The students will need to be taught and reminded of proper blogging etiquette. It a wonderful thing that I can openly share Jesus with my students. What better way to help your students learn to blog when you can mold your students from a Biblical perspective!