It's Been an Amazing Year!

In looking back over the past school year,  I have to admit that it's been a pretty amazing year.  The biggest highlight was getting our maker space up and running.  Students learned to use the new tools to create and enhance their classroom projects.  Teachers saw the media center as more than just a place for language arts teachers.  The results of the process included collaborating with 18 teachers and over 1900 unique student uses of our resources.  

There are several ways to set up a makerspace.  Our schedule didn't allow us a great deal of free time where students could come to just explore the tools.  Unless the use was part of a project, they were missing instruction.  So that's how we incorporated the makerspace tools.  Teachers included products created using the tools as part of their projects.  3D printed items and green screen videos were the most used tools.  I'm excited that we've added a sewing machine, the Arduinos, Lego robots, a stop motion camera, Bloxels and CUE robot to the tools students can use next year.  

My most successful collaborations were with our Social Studies teachers.  Their content allows for some pretty creative projects.  My biggest challenge came with working with my Math teachers.  I do not know the content like I do for other subjects.  That is one of my own personal PD goals for this summer.  I want to become more familiar with the content so I know how to integrate the tools without taking away the from the content.  

The key piece that made it all come together was the collaboration with teachers.  I have to admit that we have a pretty unique  staff.  For whatever reason, we just gel.  That made collaborating this year so easy and fun.  I didn't have to have formal meetings or make them sit through something that didn't apply to them.  Most of the time it started with either my asking what they were covering or them saying, "Hey, I have this project..."  The end products from the students were awesome.

One other thing I need to help find balance for are the books.  I didn't do as much library "stuff" this year as I normally do.  I focused more on the tech.  We are going back to AR next year, so I have find a happy medium to ensure both get the attention their due.