speaking event

A few weeks ago, I noticed a tweet from Amos Blanton of LEGO, that intrigued me and reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Here’s his tweet.

Children learn to read by trying to read, learn to ride a bike by trying to ride a bike, learn to be creative by trying to create things.

— Amos Blanton (@AmosLightnin) August 11, 2018

What I liked about it this is that it ties in nicely with the thought of “maker fluency” and “invention fluency.” One can only begin to get really innovative with making and creating if they are given TIME to create. Just as one must cook a lot to bake great things, our students need to make things A LOT to build their invention fluency.

Also, we as teachers (and learners) we need to be making things a lot too. And let our students see us making things AND running into problems, researching, brainstorming, etc. So I posted this sub tweet:

It’s important to note that children also learn from parents ( and teachers) that model: reading, making, running into problems, problem solving, persevering, taking risks. 🙂

— Colleen Graves (@gravescolleen) August 11, 2018

What followed beyond that was a lively discussion on kits, what makes a kit, what is the difference between a “open ended kit” and a “one and done kit.”

We really got into thinking about some of the things we call kits and asked if we should consider some of these “kits” instead as “tools” or “materials.”

The conversation grew and expanded. The thoughts were getting too big for 140 characters. Then Bud Hunt, posted this:

A good kit is a collection of constraints that still provide a universe to explore – it's just a smaller universe than ALL OF THE POSSIBLE THINGS.

— Bud Hunt (@budtheteacher) August 14, 2018

The concepts and conversation continued to grow. In fact, Bud ended up writing a whole post about boundaries, constraints, and kits which made me (and the others) want to continue our convo and unpack these ideas in a slightly more formal setting.

We found a time when we can all chat. Thanks to Mark Schreiber of Year in the Making, you can eavesdrop while this lively klatch of educators talk about: kits, tinkering, and making.

The Full Klatch