That "Teacher" Feeling #EdChat

As some of you know, I have been in a new position this year at such a great school, University Liggett School. I am the Makerspace Director and Middle School Technology Coordinator. That means I spend my time working with students in the Makerspace and with teachers and their lessons. I do not craft my own lessons and do direct instruction on my own anymore. I have to say, I do miss it.

I never thought I would say that because of how exhausting it can be, but it is easy to forget how rewarding it is when the lesson is just killer and the kids are super engaged. I was reminded this week because I am covering for a great teacher who is off with the grade 6 students on their camp trip. I volunteered to take her 7th grade English class and she said I could do whatever I wanted. She said she trusted me. Those are usually famous last words, but I was stoked to create a lesson and spend four days with the students exploring.

The first think I did was read up on Pernille Ripp and her writings on dealing with Middle School students in an English Class. After that, I dove into a story I love, "The Yellow Wallpaper". It is a great piece of American Gothic Literature about a woman losing her mind and sharing it with the reader through first person narration. As a reader you are not sure if the place is haunted or if she is crazy. It is a wonderful story easy to explore because of the rich imagery and the solid symbolism of the oppression of women.

I wasn't sure how it was going to go and I was sure I was going to be rusty running a class, but everything was great! The students were engaged and we had a great conversation about symbols and how women were treated and, in different ways, are treated today. Their comments were insightful and their questions were on point. They were engaged in the story and are looking forward to more discussions and the project where they are going to create their own example of a symbol that connects to a theme from the story.

At the end of the second class, I was just so energized. I had forgotten what it feels like to be "in the zone" with a group of students. I am going to make it a point to try and do solo lessons in English class once in a while to keep me fresh, connected to direct instruction, and for the fix of teaching a group of students something I love.

Why Kindergarteners Need to Learn Typing, and How to Get Them Started

As a nerdy teacher, I love it when my students explore coding, discover the joys of collaborative writing via Google docs, or immerse themselves in online research. But before they can do any of those technology-enriched learning activities, they need to master an essential 21^st-century skill: typing.

That’s right, typing. Gone are the days when typing was a standalone class where middle or high schoolers sat in front of massive machines that they had never used before, struggling to master the home row and worrying that the teacher would smack them with a ruler or put a cardboard box over their hands if they peeked at the keys.

I vaguely remember having a typing/computer class in middle school, but I'm sure I spent most of my time in that class dying of dysentery. In high school, there was a keyboarding class that was just repetition of some program that would time me on how fast I could type these insane sentences that had all of the important words with the important letters I was supposed to master typing without looking at my keyboard. The boxes over the keyboard and your hands so you couldn't see the keys was an extra special touch that made me really hate typing. It wasn't until I needed to type for myself in college that I learned to type well.

With the proliferation of Chromebooks in classrooms around the country, typing has become a language that kids need to know if they want to unlock the power of connected learning—not to mention the fact that, in some states, kids as young as 2^nd grade need to be able to type for assessments.

Clearly, we can’t wait until middle school to introduce our students to the joys of the home row. On the other hand, many kindergarteners and 1^st -graders simply aren’t big enough to type “properly” on a full-sized keyboard. Here are a few tips for setting young learners on the road to typing.  

Make it Fun

We learn to type by repetition, but it doesn’t have to be drudgery. Many of today’s kindergarteners are already comfortable playing games on tablets or laptops, and teachers can easily find typing games that feel more like recess than homework.

Start with One Finger

Kindergarteners don’t need to go from zero to 60 words per minute. Free games like the ones you can find at TypeTastic teach them letter-recognition skills that lay the foundation for typing—and they can play them on a tablet with a single finger.

Do a Little Every Day

Helping students move from recognizing letters to finding the home keys to eventually touch-typing takes plenty of practice over time. If your students enjoy typing games, you can use them as a reward for work well done, or as a fun warm-up to get those competitive juices going at the beginning of the class.

No matter how you incorporate typing into your daily lessons, you’ll be preparing your students for a world where the keyboard is king.

This is a sponsored post, but that doesn't mean I don't believe that students need to start exploring typing at a young age so they can be comfortable exploring the digital world as they go through life. 

Project Based Learning Helps Makerspaces Thrive #MakerEd

There is more to a makerspace than the tools that are in there and the pre-packaged projects for students to explore. I'm not knocking pre-packaged projects. I love them and have some in my makerspace that are perfect for students. I'm saying there is more to a space than just those projects. To really get the most out of a makerspace and the investment of time and money that went in creating it, there needs to be consideration given to the instruction that is happening in the classes surrounding the space.

I've written about Project Based Learning before (here and here) and have always been advocate of bringing it to as many classrooms as possible because of how positively it impacts the students in my classroom. When I took the leap to bringing a makerspace to my last school to enhance PBL, it was the best decision I could have made to support it. You see, a makerspace is about the tools that allow people to explore and express their ideas. That is what PBL is all about as well.

One of the best parts about the makerspace I have been helping build with the students and teachers at my new school is that it has started to make an impact on the lessons in the classrooms. It has been fun to see teachers explore the makerspace and see how it might influence their lessons. Right now, the 8th grade science students are gearing up for their end of the year project and the makerspace is primed and ready to support them and their work. It's the support aspect that I think throws some people new to the areas of project based learning and makerspaces.

Makerspaces are not designed to magically make STEAM connected to all content areas and for students to start designing using 3D software. There will be some students that are drawn to the space and will explore the different tools, but most students will not just venture to the space on their own without a specific goal in mind. Like many things that are popular in education, makerspaces is seen as a silver bullet to bring up scores in STEAM areas and create smarter and more creative students. That, of course, is nonsense. A makerspace is a tool that needs to be used to support sound instruction. (Shocker!)

To truly get the most out of a makerspace, there needs to be a culture of project based learning in the school. When you have a culture like this, having students and teachers in a makerspace will be a natural extension of PBL. With PBL, creating something to demonstrate understanding is part of the process. The Maker Mentality is already there for students and the makerspace provides them with the tools to dive deeper in different ways. Whether in Language Arts, Social Studies, Maths, Science, or a Language class, if students have become comfortable with the PBL model, they will be comfortable using a makerspace to create things that can help them demonstrate understanding in their various classes. It is tough to think about, but a makerspace is one large tool, filled with smaller tools that support student and teacher learning. It is the perfect tool for project based learning.

I made sure to have a full section on Project Based Learning in my makerspace book because it is important to get the idea out there that a makerspace is perfect to support this instructional model. There needs to be time dedicated to see how instructional practices can be be changed to allow students and staff to get the most out of the makerspace that goes beyond the pre-packaged units. When this happens, an entire school can be transformed and the culture of learning will be better than before.

The Knight's Forge Maker Show #MakerEd #Makerspaces

I'm so excited to announce the creation of The Knight's Forge Maker Show! A few students came to me and asked if they could start a show on YouTube to showcase the different things students are creating in the space. I told them they would be 100% in charge of every aspect of the creation of the content, the filming, and editing. They told me it would be no problem and got started storyboarding their first episode.

This is their introduction and they are very proud of it. If you have the time to give it a thumbs up and/or leave a comment on the types of things you would like to see them feature on the show, that would be great. Long term, they really want to do interviews with other makers, students, and inventors. I'm excited about this student created and driven project. For me, it is a wonderful example of the Maker Mentality culture I'm working to establish at my new school.

They are all in 6th grade, so I have them for a few more years. They have already started talking about how they can take on 6th grade interns when they are in 7th grade to show them how things work and have them eventually take over the show when they leave Middle School.


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