At the beginning of the school year last year makerspaces were a foreign concept to me. My first district wide librarian PD I attended, one of the topics was creating a Tinker Tubs cohort to rotate maker materials between participating libraries. I could kind of gather what this concept was but I was still just guessing. I joined the cohort because I had a feeling this would be something great. We had 3 meeting throughout the year and Heather Mooresfield-Lang from USC led us through the concepts and aspects of makerspaces. By the middle of the year I really started to understand what went into a makerspace and its purpose in the library. Last year I created a maker cart by painting an old book cart. I keep low tech maker materials on this cart at all times in a corner of my library for students to create and make. I also have a bin I keep in the storage room with some medium tech materials for students to use to create and make upon request.
I am now a part of the Tinker Tub cohort for a second year where I have access to many more materials and I am collaborating with a 6th grade science teacher each month in different maker activities. I am super excited for this opportunity to bring these district materials to my library for short periods of time, but I am still hesitant about how to create and implement a maker program in my library. This week I decided to look at blogs focusing on the different elements of getting makerspace going to help me gather more ideas and gain more confidence in developing maker activities.
A T&L Advisor blog titled 10 Tips for Launching Your Makerspace is extremely helpful. This blog helped me realize I am doing somethings to work towards making a maker program, but there is much more that needs to be done. A successful makerspace is launched by:
1) Picking a project
2) Finding your tribe
3) Taking stock
4) Finding a partner
5) Enlisting the community
6) Expanding your network
7) Keeping it simple
8) Telling your story
9) Failing forward
10) Propagating a maker culture
A makerspace is not just the space and not just the materials, but how the materials and space are used to create an innovative and growth mindset culture. There are so many great benefits makerspaces bring to the learning environment. I am going to continue to work towards cultivating a bigger maker mindset in my library as the year continues and I get to further explore everything available to myself and my school through my cohort.
Chun, Tracy. Lowe, Bobbie. (2018 July 27). Top 10 tips for Launching Your Makerspace. Tech & Learning. https://www.techlearning.com/tl-advisor-blog/top-10-tips-for-launching-your-makerspace
Makerspace & Literacy. (2016). Explorations in Literacy. Image retrieved from https://explorationsinliteracyblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/maker-space-literacy/
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteI sounds like you are a school librarian with a makerspace already in the library! :-) The fact that you've put together small mobile elements for your students to utilize, that you are a member of a cohort, and that you're collaborating with teacher colleagues says a lot about your willingness to incorporate makerspaces in the school library. Dr. Moorefield-Lang reminded us in her lecture that there are various types of makerspaces. Some are small (like yours) while some are vast (like the Orlando example she gave). Great job!
Ashley Binette
I totally agree with your statement about "A makerspace is not just the space and not just the materials, but how the materials and space are used to create an innovative and growth mindset culture." I think that when I get a chance to create a makerspace in a library I will take the same slow approach that you are. I am definitely going to save the 10 tips for lunching a makerspace.
ReplyDeleteI am part of the Tinker Tub cohort in my district and I love it. The thought of creating a makerspace in my new-to-me library is daunting, and the rub makes it possible for me to see what would work (we need Ozobots!) and what wouldn't (the VR glasses were cool, but our kids don't really carry their devices). I also can see what kind of space makes sense in our school - the teachers are reluctant to send their kids for long periods of time, so your mobile cart sounds perfect for getting into the classrooms, too. Thanks for sharing!
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