“We learn better by doing… we learn better still if we combine our doing with talking and thinking about what we have done. But we learn best of all by the special kind of doing that consists of constructing something outside of ourselves…” – Seymour Papert Our approach to professional development is intentionally designed to […]
Wheel of Documentation: Workshop Takeaways
How can documentation support assessment? How do you know when learners know? What types of learning do we value, but don’t normally assess? In our recent two-day, hands-on workshop, Documenting for Assessment, we explored these questions while developing a variety of tools and strategies to make learning visible and broaden our notion of what is assessable. One of the tools we have been integrating into our workshops is a Documentation Prompt Jar. Read more…
Examining Social Justice Themes through micro:bit and Scratch
Weaving together themes of social justice with ELA standards, block-based programming with Scratch, and physical computing with micro:bit, this series of linked activities from our Approaches to Maker Education workshop showcased a learning progression that integrated all three of our Approaches to Curriculum Integration: Tinkering to Discover, Making to Learn, and the Application Project. Read more…
Institute Day Five: Equity Maps, Resources, and Final Reflections
After working all week on identifying resources around curriculum integration, program development, and assessment through the lens of equity and sustainability, we had the opportunity to share and present all of our work with each other. Read more…
Institute Day Four: Creating and Prototyping Resources
On Day Four of our summer Institute, we started the morning with an equity session centered on the Ready for Rigor framework provided in Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond. This framework outlines four areas of practice of culturally responsive teaching that enable us to support learners to become more independent: awareness, learning partnerships, information processing, and community of learners & learning environments. Read more…
Institute Day Three: Culture, Strands, and Ideation
In order to reflect on how culture impacts our learners, we started Day Three of our Summer Institute by asking participants to consider their own cultural roots through Zaretta Hammond’s representation of the culture tree. Based on this reading and our equity session on Day Two, participants created a physical representation of their own culture trees and reflected on the ways the three levels of culture showed up in their learning environment. Read more…
Institute Day Two: Tinkering, Values, Identity, and Strand Debuts
We believe that starting with an understanding of why we value maker education is important. So after surfacing our intentions as maker educators on Day One of our Summer Institute, we participated in a Values Mapping activity as a whole group on Day Two. Then, participants split up into one of their choice-based Learning Strands: Program Development & Planning, Activity/Curriculum Design & Facilitation, or Assessment & Evaluation. Read more…
Institute Day One: Introductions and Intention-Setting
Yesterday we welcomed 32 educators from 8 states to our Community Studio for our inaugural summer Institute! We’re so excited to learn in collaboration with our new colleagues for the next 4 days. Here are some photos from our first half-day of programming, during which participants got to know each other, shared some snacks, and set their learning goals and intentions for the week. Read more…
We’re Moving! Introducing Our New East Bay Home
This December, the Maker Ed team will be moving to a new location in the East Bay, which will serve as a destination maker-centered training center and event space! We envision a place where we can continue to test and iterate on our learning, deepen our own practice, train and convene educators, and build a validated, professional field for maker education together. Read more…
Engaging Maker Educators a World Away: Similarities and Differences in Singapore
In the middle of March 2017, Daniella Shoshan and Stephanie Chang criss-crossed the globe to run professional development workshops in Singapore. Here, they reflect on their experiences.