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…

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…

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…

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…

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…