Day 3

As previous posts have indicated I am on a glorious journey of being the caretaker of a new library learning commons.  The latest aspect of the journey is to develop a makerspace and immerse myself in the current conversation about the maker movement. I have been gathering multiple professional resources, talking to colleagues and making great use of the “Twitterverse” to connect with bloggers, authors and other makers.

These Twitter connections include:

• Diana Redina @DianaLRendina
• Laura Fleming @NMHS_lms
• Mr. Pamayah @Mister_Library
• Mr. S @MrSchuermann
• Melanie Mulcaster @the_mulc

The next step in my process is to develop a professional learning community with fellow educators at my school where we can explore the resources and dialogue about the makerspace movement and its potential. Informally this conversation has begun and already the excitement and mindset shift is brewing.

Hopefully, once we have a vision for the how, the key to a successful makerspace as suggested by Laura Fleming and her book Worlds of Making: Best Practices for Establishing a Makerspace for Your School, will be reaching out to our students for the what. If we allow student interest, curiosity and passion to guide us the long term engagement and learning impact will ideally stand the test of time.

I love the idea of co-creating the space and the vision with our students.  We often speak of student voice and empowerment but the constraints of the “system” can get in the way.

What we are already wondering is if our school is moving less towards one defined makerSPACE and more of a makerCULTURE?

We have a fully equipped space for woodworking, tinkering, pottery and other creative tasks. We are in the process of setting up a technology lounge which may serve as an ideal space for robotics, coding and other tech-based creation.  And our library learning commons space is designed to be flexible, fluid and student-driven which may be a great place for our vision of a Lego wall and other artistic creations. So I wonder if perhaps the school wide mindset of a Makerculture is within reach.

It is thrilling to wonder how far this open-ended student-driven creative vision might go.  It is also scary to take the leap into the unknown and for many of us to relinquish “teacher” control over the planning of every detail and our need to feel like the “expert” in the room.

No matter what the outcome I cannot wait to see where this journey takes us.