Like many teachers, I am often overwhelmed by ideas, especially after perusing Twitter and Pinterest for any length of time. I become mentally exhausted. I am guilty of wanting to try it all, which sometimes paralyzes me! This past summer, I was pondering what I'd read in Teach Like a Pirate, Learn Like a Pirate, Leader in Me, and Invent to Learn- loving the philosophies and ideas but also thinking of time constraints, including my prep time! I wondered if there was some way to merge these philosophies and integrate many of the ideas into a more focused plan for the year.
That's when the idea came to me. What if I asked my students to help plan, organize, and manage a mini-museum/maker space for our school? Our principal had already given me the go-ahead to use an empty classroom, though I'm sure he has no idea what I have in mind. And I had already planned to buy some new "maker" materials, and write grants requesting others. What if I included the kids in the process of determining what it will look like, what materials and equipment we would order or request, and what types of hands-on activities and projects we could include?
Dare I do that? Well, I've done it! Even more frightening, I'm truly committing to the process by documenting it here and making it public!
Dare I do that? Well, I've done it! Even more frightening, I'm truly committing to the process by documenting it here and making it public!
During the summer, I visited the San Antonio DoSeum, a wonderful interactive museum for kids that just opened here in June, and the Hill Country Science Mill, another fabulous hands-on learning space for kids located in nearby Johnson City. I took some pictures and notes, with the thought that some of the ideas could be incorporated into a classroom space.
With fear and trepidation, I recently presented the idea to the 5th grade students in my pull-out Gifted/ Talented class. I told them this would be our secret project, and asked them to "keep it on the down low" for a while. I explained that the general idea is to create a classroom, filled with interactive exhibits and a maker space area, for a specific audience: other students in the school and any visitors. I told them the timeline was flexible (though I envision this will take us all year) and I wanted their input and ideas throughout the process.
In these first weeks, we've done two things:
(1) We used a CoRT Thinking strategy (CAF- Consider All Factors) to list every aspect of this idea that would require our planning and consideration. The students came up with factors that I'm not sure I had fully considered! You can see some of the things they listed here.
(2) Then, after giving the students a week to think about it, I asked them to submit their ideas. Understand that I told them to "dream big!" Via Edmodo, I sent them a few of my ideas for the space, with a link to this Padlet, where they were free to add any of theirs. There was a lot of excitement in the room as they typed away and read one another's ideas!
I guess I've truly embraced a growth mindset and am ready to take this risk. I've always been a big proponent of student-created products and student ownership. I admit, too, I've had great success with student-created museums in the past and that's a motivating factor. But, this is quite different in many ways!
My plan is to post "the good, the bad and the ugly" in the process.
So, here we go!
In these first weeks, we've done two things:
(1) We used a CoRT Thinking strategy (CAF- Consider All Factors) to list every aspect of this idea that would require our planning and consideration. The students came up with factors that I'm not sure I had fully considered! You can see some of the things they listed here.
(2) Then, after giving the students a week to think about it, I asked them to submit their ideas. Understand that I told them to "dream big!" Via Edmodo, I sent them a few of my ideas for the space, with a link to this Padlet, where they were free to add any of theirs. There was a lot of excitement in the room as they typed away and read one another's ideas!
I guess I've truly embraced a growth mindset and am ready to take this risk. I've always been a big proponent of student-created products and student ownership. I admit, too, I've had great success with student-created museums in the past and that's a motivating factor. But, this is quite different in many ways!
My plan is to post "the good, the bad and the ugly" in the process.
So, here we go!