Teachers Make Too

I posted this tweet on my personal Facebook page and got some pretty funny responses from my teachers.

In my mind, I told myself that it was because they were jealous of the students getting to come to makerspace and learning and playing with new things.  We thought it might be fun to have a Teacher Makerspace Faculty Meeting and so that happened yesterday!

At first, I was nervous about it.  My teachers, like any other, are strapped for time and have a million things to do.  I was a little worried they would think it was a waste of time and not be receptive of the idea.  So I did what any good presenter does when faced with having a meeting with teachers...

I brought snacks!

I had a handout waiting on the tables when they came in from dismissal and number 1 said

1.  MakerSNACK at the snack bar.

I had put out bowls of cheerios, raisins, chocolate chips, goldfish, nuts and pretzels for them to create a snack of their own (get it... makerSPACE - makerSNACK).

Once everyone had their snack, I put on the projector a list of the 5 activities (one for each of our STEAM areas) with a brief description of each one.  I told them briefly about each one and about the materials needed (I had materials set up all around the library) and how to get to the resources on my library page.  Then I let them go.  

I gave them the choice of 

Science - Balancing Act

Technology - Augmented Reality and Stop Motion(I couldn't decide)

Engineering - Pipe Cleaner Challenge

Art - Finger Knitting

Math - Fraction Pictures

There was a lot of chatter and a lot of creating going on. Surprisingly the teachers reactions were similar to students.  Some were frustrated with the finger knitting.  Some picked it up right away. Some were competitive about building the tallest pipe cleaner tower.  Others were trying to make the weirdest structure.  Some were very serious about their Stop Motion video.  Some were being extremely silly.  All were super excited when their augmented reality picture came to life.  

And then there were these...

Yep the off-task ones!
There's some in every group, right?

Actually, I very rarely see kids off task when they come to makerspace.  But these teachers were creating something... just not what I intended.  Maybe they are the G/T ones?

Here are more teachers engaged in the different activities...

Finger Knitting

Augmented Reality

More Finger Knitting

Pipe Cleaner Challenge

            

             Stop Motion Video

All in all, I think the teachers enjoyed themselves... a little stress relief goes a long way this time of year.

Technology Tuesday: Badges for Teachers

I am not sure when I first heard about digital badges, but it is something I keep coming back to as something I'd like to try.  And I think the time has come...

I know the power of being a connected educator and I want more people on my campus to experience the spark that a PLN can ignite.  I think they just need a little push so here I go jumping into something and flying by the seat of my pants again.  Many of the teachers on my campus are taking baby steps out of their technological comfort zones and I would like to find a way to acknowledge and encourage them.  I think digital badges might be a fun way to do this.  

I had a few articles saved in my "pocket" about badges and it has come up a couple of time in Twitter chats that I have been in this fall.  Back in October after one such chat, I emailed my teachers and asked who might be interested in earning badges for different technological tasks or achievements.  I gave them a couple of examples of badges I had created on credly.com

I told them they could earn these badges and then print them out to display in the classroom and/or post them on their blogs and I asked them to email me back if this is something that might interest them.  I received quite a few "Yes!" responses and so it was something I had on my "to be continued" list. 

Recently in an #edtechchat over the winter break, Shawna Ford tweeted

which got me thinking about it again.  I went back and reread the articles and tweets I had saved and got to work.  I reread "Building a Better Badging System" by Marc Toner and Alice Keener's  "Creating Badges with Google Sheets" .  Then Shawna Ford tweeted out a link to her blog post about "Professional Learning Options" and badging which pointed me to more models.  

So I think I have a working (in-progess) system to offer teachers.  I have created a page on my library website where I will post the different badges they can earn and a link to a google form they can fill out to request the badge.  I will receive an email when a form has been submitted and then through credly.com, I can "send credit" to them where they can then print and/or display on their blog by following these directions.

I am going to cross my fingers and hope I have thought this through.  Lucky for me my teachers are pretty flexible so if I screwed something up they will patiently wait until I can figure it out.  I am excited about this and am looking forward to seeing how badges might fuel growth at my campus.  

I would love to to hear any ideas about badging or how you have used digital badges with students or teachers.