The Maker Mentality - Order Today! #MakerEd #ISTE18

Book Birthday!

After over a year of writing, editing, designing, and re-writing, my new book, The Maker Mentality is on sale today!

This book is designed to help schools change their culture to one that is more supportive of Making in general, but also creativity, innovation, the Arts, and so much more. Here are some of the very nice things other educators have said about The Maker Mentality. 

Ayah Bdeir

Founder and CEO, littleBits

The single most important aspect of The Maker Mentality for me is learning fearlessness. Not irresponsible fearlessness, but fearlessness with humility. You become fearless about failing, fearless about admitting you don't know something, fearless about trying something new, fearless about combining ideas or materials that have never been combined before, fearless about sharing, fearless about making. All the most exciting things I have learned have come from embracing my fearlessness and I believe we can do great things if we empower our kids to be fearless.

George Couros

Author of "The Innovator's Mindset", Innovative Teaching, Learning, and Leadership Consultant

Nick writes a book that is not only practical and has tons of ideas you can implement in your classrooms, but he does it in a fun way that makes this book far different from the traditional education book, with funny and inspiring stories throughout the text.

Jennie Magiera

Author of Courageous Edventures

Nicholas has done it again! He has written another funny, engaging, and practical book that is perfect for all educators looking to improve their learning environment for students and staff. Filled with pop culture and personal stories, The Maker Mentality is the perfect book to explore what it means to be a school dedicated to the Maker ideal.

Amber Teamann

Principal at Whitt Elementary in Wylie ISD

Knowing the energy and effort that Nicholas has put into this book, I am confident that any level of Makerspace explorer will benefit from his guidance and support. Knowing that he is actually DOING the work allows me as an administrator to share his resource and feel like my team will be able to hit the ground running. That's a gold mine as a principal!

Diana Rendina

Media Specialist, Tampa Preparatory School

The Maker Mentality is about more than just makerspaces.  It is a culture, a concept that is made up of qualities that you will want to cultivate in your teaching practice, whether or not you have a makerspace in your school.  This book is full of great advice for ALL teachers and administrators. It includes enough witty pop culture references to keep you entertained throughout.

Adam Bellow

Co-Founder, Breakout EDU

Nerdtastic! This is a wonderful and practical exploration of how to become and to help foster the mentality of Making! Nicholas Provenzano has taken his expertise on the topic, experience as a classroom teacher, and truly rich and quirky sense of humor and love of pop-culture to craft a book that is perfect to the beginner and those who might not yet believe that they can. It is fun, full of great ideas, and all-around great! Now you know - and knowing (er - Making) is half the battle.

Steven W. Anderson

Learning Evangelist, Web20Classroom

As Makerspaces continue to invade learning spaces it will be important to understand their purpose, their limitations and all that is possible. Nicholas is a leading expert in helping all educators understand why having a “Maker Mentality” is more than just allowing students to use 3D Printers or learn coding. It’s a mentality that needs to be fostered in every student (and adult) so that they understand where true innovation comes from. This book isn’t just for those exploring Makerspaces. It’s for every educator and leader.

Heather Lister

Maker Extraordinaire

The Maker Mentality is real. In addition to being chalk full of ideas and support for makerspaces in schools, it addresses the very real obstacles educators face head on. Acknowledging that this shift in learning is not easy, Provenzano drives home the “why” and gives practical strategies for adopting the “maker mentality” systemically.

Joe Mazza

MakerDads

Inspiring and motivating! Nicholas empowers ALL teachers to activate and harness their inner artist to model the maker mentality inside all of us.

Nathan Stevens

Maker at Large

This book opens up the education world to dreaming to create your future. Anything can happen when you let your students explore. Like any episode of the A-Team, give the students materials and let them explore. This book will guide you through the process of becoming a maker and developing the mentality to push your student like a Sith Lord pushes their apprentice.

I'm super honored to have had Colleen Graves write a foreword for the book as well. If you are interested in getting your copy of The Maker Mentality, head to Amazon quick while supplies last!

Hugs and High Fives,

Nick

Where is @TheNerdyTeacher at #ISTE18?

I thought it might be cool to use Adobe Spark to create a list of my sessions, playgrounds, and other things I will be doing at ISTE for those that might want to stop and connect during the conference. Take a look and reach out if you want to chat!

Codey Rocky in the Makerspace

I've been using Makeblock since I picked up the mBot a couple of years ago. It was such a fun robot to build. This is why I was excited to hear that Makeblock had launched a Kickstarter for their next robot, the Codey Rocky.

It is very easy to be skeptical of the videos posted by companies showing all of the amazing things their product can do, but I can tell you that Makeblock is not exaggerating what the Codey Rocky can do. Here are some of the standouts from using it in the Makerspace at school and seeing students interact with it out of the box. 

The mBlock 5 is their software that is based on Scratch and can interact with Scratch made programs. Block based coding has become the standard for entry level coding for beginners and it is nice to see Makeblock continue that trend. The cool part is that you can switch to Python coding with the click of a button. I love this option because it is perfect for instruction as students move away from block coding and gain experience using text based coding.

I was able to quickly download the software on my Mac and start dropping the code in with the blocks. The code is quickly uploaded to the Codey Rocky through the USB connection so you can see what you coded right away. I did a quick blinking code to get eyes opening and closing and it worked great! You can have the Codey Rocky move and use the sensors on the code and all you need to do is code, upload, and get started. Using the buttons on the Codey Rocky is the easiest way to test the code you have written and then move on to the sensors once you have a strong understanding of how the code works as written. 

Makebklock also provides 16 lessons for students and teachers to explore to help guide them on their journey exploring the Codey Rocky. The lessons run the full range of sensors that the Codey Rocky has and really gives the user a full experience of what the device can do. 

I mentioned the sensors above and they are sweet. Of the 10 sensors, the sound sensor, light sensor, and IR color sensor were the most fun to play with for the students. All of these sensors are accessible through their app that is available on all mobile and desktop platforms. 

The thing that stands out to me about the Codey Rocky that makes it a great addition to a Makerspace is that it allows students to be creators, not just consumers. They can write the code and direct the Codey Rocky to do what they want. As they become more comfortable adding sensors and working with Python, I can see students in the Middle School transitioning to Raspberry Pi and starting to build their own robots and use sensors with those creations. 

I highly recommend that parents and teachers give the Codey Rocky a look over when they are considering great tools to help student learn and create with code and hardware. I'm excited to see what my students have in store for the Codey Rocky next year when they have more time to create.

Students Share The @WonderWorkshop Cue and Sketch Kit

Good morning everyone! Today I am sharing the last video of the school year from the Knight's Forge Maker Show. The students spend a few weeks learning how to code and draw with the Wonder Workshop Sketch Kit and the Cue robot. I had so much fun watching them problem solve the code and trying to get the Cue to drive and use the markers to make objects. Here are just a few shots I shared on Instagram.

A post shared by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on May 11, 2018 at 9:47am PDT

A post shared by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on May 15, 2018 at 3:27pm PDT

The students worked very hard on understanding how the Cue works with the Sketch kit and figured out how the Cue was able to move the pen up and down. The spent extra time on the video and this is really well done.

It has been awesome to watch them grow over the past few months as they have explored the different tools that are available in the Knight's Forge Makerspace. They have started talking about a mentor program for incoming 5th graders to help students interested in joining the team next year. I'm very proud of all of the hard work they have put in and can't wait to see what they come up with for the next school year.