teched

Maker Monday and Coding Bonanza

/ gravescolleen / 1 Comment

Last year we started our Makerspace with month long programming in May.  We did a different workshop every Monday and you can read more in my article in the March issue of Knowledge Quest.  Since we did Maker programming all year, I decided to focus on one thing for May-ker Monday and really go all out.  Students signed up for Code.org‘s “Intro to Computer Science” and came to the library Mondays after school and Thursdays during Advisory.  We made Binary initial bracelets, created games on Scratch, played banana pianos with Makey Makey, skyped with a game developer, and basically had a ton of fun!

It was great to have a focused Maker workshop every week because I had the same kids come over and over again. The “challenge” of finishing the coding levels kept them coming and kept them engaged.
I also noticed the kids stayed more focused because I set up stations for them to complete.
Watch my video to learn more and hear from the kids! (Also on Youtube here)

Popcorn Maker is Maker-riffic!

/ gravescolleen / Leave a comment

My Makerspace workshops have been slowing down since we are in the throes of testing, and it is upsetting to me because I was sure that my Makerspace workshops on Garageband, Fangirl iBook Authors, and other Mac driven classes would increase participation.  Then the other day I got an email from Teen Tech Week talking about Mozilla’s “Teach the Web” toolkit and I realized, maybe I’m having the wrong type of technology workshop?  I opened up “Popcorn Maker” and began making the most ridiculously fun multimedia experience.  Soon 8th graders crowded around my desk to see why “Gangnam Style” was blasting from my laptop.  They helped me look for silly viral videos to add to my “popcorn.”  At that moment, I realized that this is the next Makerspace workshop and all I have to do to promote it is share this video with my students at lunch!  (Please forgive the lag time in the video- it is a free tool and therefore not professional quality- but OH SO FUN TO MAKE!)

Update: After blasting my popcorn style video at lunch, many students attended and they loved the Popcorn Maker Party! See video below: