I completely agree that making needs to be experiential. I also think that the teachers that ask for curriculum aren’t actually asking for curriculum at all. They’re asking for structure—systems and routines that give opportunity for making. I think that’s a niche that Make: could fulfill. What are ways we could enhance student making experience so that both teacher and student feel supported in the inherently chaotic and unpredictable experimental process?
Thanks for this article. I was a teacher for about 7 years in Germany and now am working together with educators/teachers/princiaps etc. to implement making (or makereducation) at there schools/insitutation. I'm not very well aware about how the american school system works, but in Germany it's very divers: Tons of different types of school, each state with it's own curricular and so an...it's a mess! For what I see, one of the biggest problems is that teachers feel overwhelmed the the standards they need to meet with the time, they have at their disposal. So even if they feel like making seems to be a right fit for their students, it mostly comes down to "well we just don't have the time for that..there are tests, and our state curricular" and since there is a biiiiiiiiig lack of professional educators, there is very limited time for special classes, such as a maker class.
With that in mind, what I'm trying to do with the teachers is, to find oppurtinities for them, to implement making in their regular lessons, so it fits the regular curricular standards of their state.
Sometimes this feels like it's neither fish nor fowl, since it's way more staged than I would like some making-activities to but. But I feel like it's one way to make teachers feel more confident when trying to implement makeredu oppurtinities.
I love this piece! I believe like myself when I was a maker manager for the 650 K5 students in our building, I think a guide for possible topics/themes to explore and discover would be helpful. A structure or pacing time line for the school year was important not only for myself but teachers too. However what I always felt like when working in the Makerspace was that it was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole of state standards, assessments, data and so on, which for me is the total opposite of the essence of a makerspace! Just saying...
I completely agree that making needs to be experiential. I also think that the teachers that ask for curriculum aren’t actually asking for curriculum at all. They’re asking for structure—systems and routines that give opportunity for making. I think that’s a niche that Make: could fulfill. What are ways we could enhance student making experience so that both teacher and student feel supported in the inherently chaotic and unpredictable experimental process?
That's a great comment, Fena.
Thanks for this article. I was a teacher for about 7 years in Germany and now am working together with educators/teachers/princiaps etc. to implement making (or makereducation) at there schools/insitutation. I'm not very well aware about how the american school system works, but in Germany it's very divers: Tons of different types of school, each state with it's own curricular and so an...it's a mess! For what I see, one of the biggest problems is that teachers feel overwhelmed the the standards they need to meet with the time, they have at their disposal. So even if they feel like making seems to be a right fit for their students, it mostly comes down to "well we just don't have the time for that..there are tests, and our state curricular" and since there is a biiiiiiiiig lack of professional educators, there is very limited time for special classes, such as a maker class.
With that in mind, what I'm trying to do with the teachers is, to find oppurtinities for them, to implement making in their regular lessons, so it fits the regular curricular standards of their state.
Sometimes this feels like it's neither fish nor fowl, since it's way more staged than I would like some making-activities to but. But I feel like it's one way to make teachers feel more confident when trying to implement makeredu oppurtinities.
I love this piece! I believe like myself when I was a maker manager for the 650 K5 students in our building, I think a guide for possible topics/themes to explore and discover would be helpful. A structure or pacing time line for the school year was important not only for myself but teachers too. However what I always felt like when working in the Makerspace was that it was a square peg trying to fit into a round hole of state standards, assessments, data and so on, which for me is the total opposite of the essence of a makerspace! Just saying...
Thank you, Marilyn. I like the square peg in a round hole analogy.