Our school has invested in a pedagogy of creativity, student ownership, and innovation. We strive to make learning personal while cultivating curiosity and a tenacity for learning in students. The taxonomy pictured above represents a summary of my experiences and thinking around “making.” It is a continuum designed to elicit reflection and support the push towards increased student ownership. One of the strategies we’ve used to increase student ownership is a fleet of Mobile MakerSpaces. Last time I counted, we had more than fifteen carts capable of transporting high-tech, low-tech, and no-tech tools to nearly every nook and cranny in our building. Tools range from 3D printers and robotic dr
Sharing the books we love alongside the people we care about is a powerful practice. Join us in an interactive summer reading experience! Record a short video booktalk and share it to #FamilyBookTalk. After you've posted your short booktalk video you can tag a friend, extended family member, colleague, or author to share their favorite book & family with others! Feel free to connect with any of the educators in the podcast if you have questions. This is a collaborative effort co-created by people who really inspire me to be a better literacy leader and father. Allow me to introduce you to the rest of the team (in order of appearance in the video). Julie Kirchner is the Media Specialist at Me
I’ll acknowledge the “elephant on the screen” by confirming there’s a large hexagon pictured above. We’ll get to that in a second, but first I want to reflect on a concept I’m learning about called rapid prototyping. I recently attended an impactful parenting seminar on creativity. During the seminar, Dave Zukor provided attendees a handout that contained a couple dozen plain circles. He gave attendees a minute to invent as many new ways to alter or enhance the circles as possible. This exercise was for the express purpose of demonstrating how quick and early failures can lead to greater creativity. Coincidentally, this is also a concept that Bob Johansen writes about in his book, Leaders Ma
