UEN's Homeroom shares the story of Michelle Reed, the Library Media Specialist at Jefferson Jr. High. In this episode we discuss the following topics - What is a makerspace? How can makerspaces empower students? Suggestions for someone looking to get started with a makerspace.
UEN's Homeroom shares the story of Michelle Reed, the Library Media Specialist at Jefferson Jr. High. In this episode we discuss the following topics - What is a makerspace? How can makerspaces empower students? What are some suggestions for teachers looking to get started with a makerspace?
Hi, I'm Dani Sloan.
And I'm Jared Covili, and we're your homeroom teachers.
Class is in session.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So in this episode, we're going to focus on making maker spaces doable. Danni, as we've been working on our maker spaces class, we've seen all kinds of teachers come, and they want to start creating stuff.
They do. They want to start making stuff. They want their students to be makers, and I think it's really important that teachers, to, see themselves as innovators and makers, inventors, if you will.
You know, over the summer-- I'm going to share a little personal story with you here.
Getting deep.
I got super excited about a show on NBC called Making It. Did you watch this program?
I didn't.
So it was kind of some of the cast of Parks and Rec, and it was all about Nick Offerman and his hands-on-- what was that character's name on Parks and Rec-- Ron Swanson style of getting in and getting his hands dirty and doing things. But this was the coolest show ever, because it was just a reality show about every day they would have a project where they had to make something.
Are you telling me you liked a reality TV show, Jared Covili?
Yeah, but the best part of this is that the person who won, they would get a patch to put on their apron that said that they made something.
That's fabulous.
Yeah, so it's just kind of this new thing that's kind of blowing up I see not only outside of school, but really getting popular within schools. So today, we're going to be talking with our friend, Michelle, who has a lot of ideas about things that she's done in her maker space at her junior high. And let's maybe have a chance to meet her. Will you introduce us to Michelle?
Absolutely. So Michelle Reed graduated from Utah State University with a BA in elementary education and a minor in Spanish and ESL. She also received her master's in educational technology from USU and just completed her library media endorsement. She has taught sixth grade and has been a school technology specialist in Granite School District for five years before becoming the librarian at Jefferson Junior High in Kearns. She loves LEGO League and has become kind of the district's LEGO League guru. She loves playing with robots and trying new things. So let's welcome Michelle.
Hello.
Michelle, welcome to The Home Room. We're glad to have you.
Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Well, as every guest into The Home Room will quickly learn, the first thing that we do to introduce you to The Home Room is we have questions from our studio audience.
Awesome.
Do you think you could handle this?
Well, let's try.
Are you up to the task?
We'll see.
OK, we're going to go with our first question here. Let's find out.
What is your favorite Transformer?
Oh, I do have a favorite Transformer. Bumblebee is my favorite Transformer.
Oh, we might need to know why. What's the fascination with Bumblebee?
I don't know. I just-- the color is awesome, and they have a Bumblebee, like you can actually purchase the car. It has like Transformer logos and stuff. That's, like, my dream car.
[LAUGHTER]
I have a five-year-old at home that might agree. Better not put that in his head.
It's pretty awesome.
So Bumblebee for question one. Let's find out question two.
What is your favorite kind of dessert?
Ooh, my favorite kind of dessert-- anything chocolate. And if you can put chocolate and cake together, that's even better.
Solid.
Right. I don't think you can ever go [INAUDIBLE].
[LAUGHTER]
OK, and our final question.
What is your favorite animal?
My favorite animal is a flamingo.
Why a flamingo?
You can't see this out there in podcast land, but both of our eyebrows raised simultaneously.
They totally did. It was awesome.
I did not expect flamingo from you.
OK, so flamingo is because my sister and I-- a long, long time ago, I was packing to go somewhere. And she was, like, sad that I was leaving. And so we were, like, telling jokes, and we were just at that point where you're like a little bit crazy with your sister. And we found a joke that says, why does a flamingo stand on one leg? And the answer is, because if it didn't stand on any, it would fall over.
[LAUGHTER]
So from that was--
[INAUDIBLE] joking.
[LAUGHTER]
So from that stupid little joke, flamingos have been my favorite animal.
I love it. This is why we have those questions. I now know more about Michelle.
These are things you don't get on every podcast.
Right.
Well, thank you. I didn't know that. It was a real rough intro to you, but we now know you a little bit better.
That's good.
There's no question about it. So we want to talk a little bit about maker spaces today, and Dani and I have a little bit of background on this. We've been teaching a class at UEN now for about a couple years now. Tell us a little bit about your background in maker spaces and what kind of got you interested in this term and kind of what this means to you.
So with maker spaces, I came into a library, and the librarian there was like this old guy. And he hated kids, and he hated the teachers.
Sounds great for a public school [INAUDIBLE].
Yeah, it was awesome, so, like, nobody would even come into the library. And so teachers or students wouldn't come into the library when I got there.
But the books loved him, right?
Yeah. He had some great magazines, you know, auto mechanics, stuff like that. So when I got there, I knew I needed something to draw the kids in. And I love reading, and I knew that there were kids that loved reading, but I knew that there had to be more.
And I also love technology, anything with technology, so I started looking for something that would draw kids into the library and get them excited about being in the library. And libraries are really, like, changing right now. They're not just about the books. They're about all kinds.
I really see libraries as just like a place to go and kind of meet and collaborate and learn, and whether that's on a computer or whether it's in a maker space or whether it's through a book, it's just becoming this place where you can go and learn. And that's what I wanted my library to be.
And so I started looking into different things of what I could do and found a few articles about maker spaces. I started learning about a couple things in my library media classes, and then I decided to come to you guys' class, and that kind of fired me up. And I just kind of ran with it, and we've had a lot of success with our maker space at Jefferson.
That's awesome. So what-- when you say "maker space," what kinds of beings are in a maker space? What does that even mean?
So our maker space has a whole bunch of other stuff. We have a lot of technology, and we have a lot of stuff just to, like, build. So we have little robots like Sphero robots and Ollie robots, and we have little Ozobots, and all the robots kind of do something different, so kids learn different kind of skills. I tried to get robots that you could code or you could just run them so that kids could kind of move up once they've run their robots. Then they could try and code them and do more things instead of just one thing with the one robot.
I also looked for things that could go together. Well, LEGOs, of course, we have. They go together. But we challenged-- we made a challenge last year where the kids had to-- we saw these little like chariots for the Spheros online, but they were $20 apiece, and we didn't have that kind of money.
So we made it a challenge for the kids to build their own chariot. So they used LEGOs, and they used popsicle sticks, and they used other stuff. And then we put a little LEGO figure on top of them, and we ran them at each other like they were jousting. And they had a pencil for their-- where it lands.
So you're telling me junior high kids love this idea.
Oh, yeah. I know.
Robots at each other and jousting.
Yeah, yeah. So we have-- so we tried to get things that would go together, but they could stand on their own, too. So we have-- not only do you have the LEGOs. We have K'NEX, and we have other building materials. My sister had some toys that her kids didn't play with anymore, and they're just these weird hexagon shapes and pipes. And the kids love playing with them. We have KEVA planks that are new this year that kids love to try to build different things with.
Those are kind of like modern Lincoln Logs.
Kind of, yeah. They're just flat planks, and they tried to do-- there's some way cool structures you can build, though. If you google KEVA planks and high school, there's some awesome structures that you can make with the KEVA planks. So we have those, and then we have duct tape, and we have cardboard, and we have Popsicle sticks, and we have straws, and we have yarn, and we have beads, and we have all kinds of different things that you can build.
One thing that my kids discovered-- last year, I was getting rid of a bunch of technology that was just going to be sent to the warehouse, and instead of getting rid of it, they wanted to take it apart. So they started taking things apart and started taking keyboards apart. They took apart a DVD player and recorded themselves, and then they ran back the recording and put it back together. So--
That's incredible.
There was a DVD stuck in it. I said, I can't get it out, and so they're like, we can do it. So they took it all apart, and then put it back together. And so that's been our latest addition to the maker spaces is old computers or old remote-- they found a bunch of remote controls in my drawer. They like to take them apart and just kind of see how they work can see if you can take this part from here and put it over here and see if it works. So we really have just a bunch of random stuff in our maker space. Anything that we can find, we just throw in our maker space.
So tell me a little bit about this, because it sounds like, at least initially, you were buying things that you were kind of seeing online or things that you had heard from other people that they were using. And now it sounds like the kids are starting to see just ideas that they want to bring to class and try themselves. So how would you describe this as a system of empowering the students as learners? It seems like they're doing a lot of this on their own now.
Yeah, they are. So when I started, it was kind of me just buying stuff. I actually got a grant through our district to get some of the initial stuff. And I started with a maker club, and so I just did it once a week after school for an hour and had kids come. And sometimes we learned how to use the Ozobots, or one time we learned how to use Makey Makeys. And one time, we learned-- we had them create a catapult, some of those little game ideas. And so I was really running it that year.
And I did that for probably two to three months and had maybe 10 to 15 kids interested that would come on a regular basis. And then the next year, I had them in a class. And so they had me for third period, which is our period over our lunch hour. So they had the maker space open at lunch, both lunches, and then in between classes, we explored new things and tried new things. And a lot of it I did have them do, because I am so busy, like I have enough on my plate, that there was no way I was going to be able to run this maker space.
So I kind of started things, and then I let the kids run with it. So we bar coded the robots and stuff, so they could check them out on a library system. And I taught the kids how to check them out, and we came up with an idea. We didn't know how to do LEGOs, because we can't barcode every single LEGO. And so I had them help me come up with an idea of what would work, and we had a couple that didn't work. And so we had them try again. And they really came up with new ideas.
And in that half hour that we had between lunches, they would go online and look for different stuff. I would really just give them-- I made a page in a Google doc that said Sphero, and said how-to, and then challenges. And then their assignments were to fill in the how-to and the challenges.
And it was really empowering to them, because I didn't grade their assignments. Their peers graded their assignments pretty much, because when they first checked out the Spheros, their how-to was place the Sphero next to the computer, and drive it. And other students came back, and they're like, what does that mean-- drive it? And so they realized that they had to go back and change their instructions to something that kids would understand.
And so it really gave them power over their own learning that, hey, this doesn't work. I have to be more specific I have to be more creative. And once they started going with it, it really was just them. They took off with it, and they started to come to me with ideas. They wanted-- they said, hey, can you get us this? And sometimes I could, and sometimes I couldn't. And they would come to me and say, hey, can we try this? And really, I feel like I had some really good kids, but it's happening again this year. So maybe it's just the idea of it.
And once they started doing stuff, they just took off, and they wanted to make more, and they wanted to do more things. And they really did find what they wanted to do. And they would just ask me if they could do it, and the answer is usually yes.
One thing I notice when you talk about your maker space and the students that you have involved is you keep saying "we." We were doing this. We came up with this idea. You really give up that control to your students. And I think that's a big reason why your maker space is so successful and why your students feel so empowered to be in charge of it is that you let them do that.
Yeah, exactly. I wanted them to be in charge of it, and yes, at the beginning, it was teaching them things. They had a lot of questions and stuff like that. But I wanted-- I really, honestly could not do it. With everything else I have to do at the school and especially at lunch, we have other kids there in the library doing other things. I really could not do it. And so I really trusted them, and I had a good group of kids. And it was a we project. I wanted them to do it and to succeed at it.
You shared some really important things, though, because you said two things that stood out to me. One is you thought, well, maybe it was just that group of kids, but you're saying, no, it's not, because it's happening again this year. So that tells me something that it's not just the kids, but it's the activities. Because they're engaging, the kids take ownership, and they kind of police themselves.
Yep.
And the other thing that I'm hearing that sounds really replicable for other teachers is that you are allowing the kids to make decisions, and then they're policing it, again, themselves. So you're there, and you're kind of helping if there's a real emergency, but the kids are the ones that are saying, I'll show you how that works if there's a problem with it.
And the other thing that I kind of heard was your-- not the students in your class, but the other kids, the kids checking out the Spheros and doing the challenges, they're providing the assessment, because if they come back to your kids and say, hey, you told us this challenge, but this really didn't work, or this kind of sucks, the kids are like, well, what can we do better? Like, how can we change this? Because they don't want the kids to say, no, I don't want to do this anymore, because this is kind of lame.
Yeah, exactly. They wanted kids in the maker space at lunch. And in fact, there was a time when we didn't have a ton of kids in the maker space at lunch, and they said, well, what do we do? I said, I don't know. Come up with a solution.
And so they decided that one of the reasons why kids weren't coming to the maker space was because they didn't know where it was. And so they found these fluorescent lights that we had that somebody donated to us, and they put fluorescent lights around the door frame, and they blink. And that was their idea to have more people come, because they thought, oh, people aren't coming because they don't know that we're here.
And so really, I have let them kind of problem solve on their own. The other thing I noticed, too, was at the beginning, we gave them-- we bought these silly hats, because I wanted them to stand out at lunch. And so we tried to have one out with the kids and a couple back in the maker space. And then one out with the other students is there to help if something-- like you said, if something goes wrong or things like that. And so they wear the silly hats, so the kids know that they're a maker space expert.
And at the beginning, we were fixing a lot of the problems. They were coming to me with the Sphero wouldn't do this, or the Ozobot didn't do this. And by the end, they were fixing those problems. They knew what to do. They knew how to change it and make it work. And so that was an amazing thing to see with them, too.
How'd the hats play out?
They love the hats. And I let them choose their hats, because they were the first group. So I just let them, and they chose something from Amazon. And they have-- I don't even know. They're just these weird, funky, crazy hats. And the kids love them. And the other thing is that they wanted to wear them around school for a couple of days to advertise the maker space. And it worked. People asked them, why are you wearing hats? And they would do that, too.
The other thing that they loved to do to advertise maker space was they'd make videos for our morning video announcement. And I would literally just tell them, I need a video about K'NEX. And they would come back to me with a video that was edited and says, is this OK? And I would say, yes, or nope, try again. So I really did just kind of try to turn it over to them, and it was fun to watch them grow and watch them learn and correct their own mistakes. And the other students would tell them if yes, this is not a cool challenge, or this is something that needs to change.
They need that feedback, right?
They do. Yeah. And they didn't get mad. They didn't get upset. Though I had, one time, a kid came and they said, we saw the kid throw the Sphero. What do we do? And so we sat there and problem solved with them, and they said, kick them out of maker space forever. And I'm like, you can't do that. And so that was their first solution, but then they thought about it and came up with some other ideas.
And I really let them kind of choose what should be the punishment. And the Sphero wasn't broken, so we couldn't charge. But they decided that that person couldn't check things out from maker space for a week. So they really had to work through kind of that problem solving, what do we do if someone doesn't treat the equipment correctly? Doesn't break it, but doesn't treat it correctly. So they hopefully learned some life skills, too. Hopefully.
Those Spheros are pretty sturdy.
They're pretty robust.
We accidentally rolled ours off of a second story building, and it was fine.
[LAUGHS]
It was Ollie.
Nobody heard us say that.
Those Ollies are awesome.
Justin, you're not listening, right?
[LAUGHTER]
It was an accident, and everything was fine.
That's good.
I didn't use that for a week. We problem solved ourselves as well. So it really does happen in the adult world.
Yeah. You know, Michelle, I'm curious about something. You've shared a lot about what things your students are learning. What are some of the things you've learned, as somebody who's running this program, about your kids and about trying this, something kind of new for you?
I-- the biggest thing I think I learned was that they can do it. Like, I really needed them to do it, and I had the expectations that they could do it. And they stepped up to the plate, and that was like-- I really thought I was going to have to give them more instruction on how to do videos or how to do different things. And the biggest thing I learned is let them do it. Let them try, because they'll step up to the plate if you allow them. And that was amazing to me to watch them do.
It was difficult, too, to relinquish control of it. But there were way more benefits than drawbacks from giving control to the students and letting them just kind of do it. And I was shocked. When they started taking stuff apart, I would be like, hey, I want to see what that DVD player looks like on the inside. I was like, what does a keyboard look like on the inside? So they were teaching me, too, and I learned a lot from them, too. And it makes me more excited to go and kind of tinker with things too and try new things on my own, too.
So you were saying that you started with a grant from your district. Outside of grants, where would you tell teachers who are interested in maybe bringing the maker idea to their classroom? Where would you tell teachers to-- where's a good place to start?
Probably the best place to start would be like Donors Choose. That's a great place to do-- to get grants. But you really can start small, and then build up from there. Like starts-- like you-- I'm pretty sure people get some teachers to supply money. Buy duct tape. Like, buy 15 different rolls of duct tape, and start with a duct tape project.
And we once-- to be honest, ones our district saw what we were doing and saw that the kids were succeeding so much, our district kicked in a large amount of money to our maker space and to maker spaces in all the junior highs and senior highs. They gave a maker space kind of basic kit, like starting a maker space kit, to all the junior highs and high schools in their libraries so that they could get going, because they had extra funds, and they didn't know how to use them. And so they saw this idea, and they gave these materials to all the different junior highs and high schools.
So have they replicated this, then?
They are working on it right now. I have a couple, and one of them is someone that I didn't think would be really interested in maker space. And she's been coming up to me. She's like, I'm doing this, and I got a barcode, and my kids are doing it. And so it's fun to watch them, and they come and tell me what they've done with their kits, or they'll email me and say, what do you do with these things?
We had somebody-- our theme in the library-- there's like eight or nine libraries in our district that we're doing a theme of reading is magical. So it's the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter. So we're doing that theme, and somebody went and found-- made some challenges, like build Dumbledore staircase out of the KEVA planks, or build the Quidditch pitch-- I don't know-- the Quidditch field out of the KEVA planks. And it had requirements and stuff. So they're coming up with new ideas and stuff, too. So it's fun to watch them do that.
So once our district kind of saw what we were doing, they really did pitch in and helped us out with it. So I mean, I don't know about all districts, but once people start seeing what you're doing, they're willing to donate. And honestly, we got donations from people. Like, we just asked people for LEGOs, and there's always people with LEGOs under the bed.
Like, people just have LEGOs. And we asked-- my mom donated. She had a bunch of pony beads that she didn't know what to do with, and so she donated those. And really, if you just want to ask for donations, you don't have to start with all the techie stuff, with the Spheros and the Ollies or anything. Just start with something small.
And once you get it going and once-- and their funnest thing was taking apart the old computers. I mean you can find old computers. I have two of them sitting in my house. And, you know, so I think just look for ideas, those are low cost things that you can still make an awesome maker space out of those items.
It's cool to hear how grassroots this is becoming at your school, that you're not only involving the kids and their families, but also the community, right?
Yep. And we're hoping to do like a maker night, where we showcase everything this year. That's our goal this year.
Make sure we know when that is.
OK.
Absolutely.
Well, is there anything else that you'd like to kind of draw attention to in your maker space quest that you have going on?
We also, in our maker space, have LEGO League. So we love LEGO League. You build a robot out of LEGOs. I mean, come on. Combining robots and LEGOs-- there's not much better than that. And so our kids-- a lot of kids that do LEGO League are also maker space experts, because they love to build, and they love to try new things. So we're just starting a new season of LEGO League, and they're ready to go. Hopefully, we'll get to state again this year. We'll see.
We've got to get a team together, first of all. But yeah, maker spaces is really just-- I always tell people-- I've had some people come and visit my maker space, because they want to see what it is and how they can do it in their own schools. And I always tell them, I'm just kind of making stuff up here. I just kind of take what I've learned from people and make it how I can make it work.
And I think that's probably the biggest thing about maker spaces is take what you can from other people, and make it work with what you've got, whether you've got a small space or whether you've got a large space. Just do what you can. We were looking at elementary school plans for new elementary schools or for rebuilds in our district and they actually have a maker lab on both floors.
Really?
In their building plans. I know, it was awesome. I was super excited with my supervisor. We were looking at it. So it's catching on. They're putting it in the new schools. So I think it's awesome, and it gives kids a chance to just explore and learn and build and all the other things that a maker is.
Well, and I think one of the things that I've seen when I've gone to your school or different schools is this gives all kids an opportunity to explore and grow and develop. It seems like so many of the activities that happen in schools are for a certain kid. You know, it's a kid who's really extroverted or a kid who likes to get on stage or a kid likes to do certain things. And that's not every kid.
Yeah.
And this stuff really kind of caters to kids that like to do stuff with their hands or likes to get in and see how things work. And sometimes that's the kid that's kind of behind in the system.
Yeah.
And I'm sure you've probably seen that with some of the kids that you've worked with.
Yeah, I've noticed that.
Is that you're skills out of them that you might not have seen in that typical classroom setting.
Yeah, it's skills that they can use throughout their lives, that they can draw on. And yeah, we have all kinds of stuff. We have some things that are more high tech and some things that are low tech. And my kids that love the robots were super excited when I opened a box, and it had 20 rolls of different patterned duct tape in it. It was like, you're just excited about the duct tape. OK.
And so yeah, it's really catering-- you have kids that want to do the LEGOs and some kids that want to do the robots and some kids-- you know, they don't have to be on stage all the time. They can just kind of do their own thing. We also have saved the boxes that Chromebooks come in, so if they have a project that they're working on, they can't get through it in the lunch period. They can save their stuff and keep working on it other days
That's a great idea. I love that.
Although I had to tell you, how many classes are there where you're just as excited for the Chromebook as you are for the box?
I know.
[LAUGHTER]
We love the boxes. We'll take the boxes.
Well, Michelle, we appreciate you coming into the home room. Thanks for dropping by and visiting us.
Sure, thanks for having me.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So Dani, do you want to give our audience a tech tip today?
I mean, do we have to?
Well, I mean this is a podcast kind of about technology.
I'm tired. Do you have a tech tip for today?
I mean I guess if I have to, I can come up with one.
I mean all right, I guess I'll do on today. All right, my tech tip for today is, do you need an easy way to bridge the gap between home and school? Well, parents, generally, these days, in 2018, are not taking smoke breaks, thankfully, for their lungs. When they need to check out from work or just their daily lives, They. Are probably scrolling on Instagram. So an easy way for you to keep your parents in the loop of what is going on in your classroom is to have a class Instagram account.
Take it from a parent who trolled three different preschools before they decided which one they were going to put their kid in. If you can just have an Instagram account, it's easy to take a picture. You can even outsource the job to your students. And then let them post it. Trust me, it's way easier than a blog. Just a picture a day will keep your parents very happy and in the loop and give them something to chat with their students about. Doing nothing at school is no longer an acceptable answer.
Pretty impressive there, Dani.
Thank you. I am the lazy teacher.
So if I start posting pictures of what I'm doing in class, will I get more than six followers?
Yes, and if not, just delete your account, and hide your head in shame.
Oh, my goodness. OK.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Well, that was great to have Michelle here and talk about maker spaces today.
She is an expert, and I just love how she has given this idea to her students and let him be in charge. I think that's something that every teacher can relate to, because the idea of maker spaces can be overwhelming, but outsourcing it to your students can definitely be a way to make it a little easier for teachers to grasp the concept.
Yeah, I hope teachers listening to this really felt like you don't have to be an expert in everything to get started on this and to let the students kind of take the lead on some of this.
Absolutely.
Well, there you have it. There's our homeroom for today. Get out of here.
[MUSIC PLAYING]