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Maker Community
One of my favorite parts of the UTeach Maker experience was learning how strong the sense of community is in the Maker world. Once a month I met with my peers at UTeach Maker cohort meetings and got to develop new skills to help me in my future Maker endeavors. There was also a lot of support for working on my showcase website and projects.
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Even outside of UTeach Maker the strength of the community was inspiring. I attended events in the Austin area where Makers of all backgrounds came together show what they had been working on and to see what others had been working on. These events showed me how powerful the Maker movement is and how big of an impact it will continue to have. What really stood out to me was that every Maker was unique and added their own flair to their projects. This is something that I hope I can take with me and use in my future classroom. Each of my students will be different and can bring something unique to their learning experience. These community events also showed me that anyone can be a Maker. There were people of different ages, gender identities, and cultures. I hope to use Making in to increase the equity in my classroom by letting students incorporate their own interests into their learning.
Maker Community Events
SXSW Create
Maker Faire Austin 2017
Last year I had the opportunity to attend SXSW Create. This event brought Makers together and allowed them to share what they had been working on. This was my first event as part of the UTeach maker cohort, but it showed me how important community is in Making. Not only was I able to hang out with a group of my peers who shared my interests, but there were also others in the surrounding area who I could learn a lot from.
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For more information on SXSW create visit their webpage.
A Maker Faire is big gathering of Makers who come to showcase their work or just see what others have been doing. The Austin Maker Faire was the first Maker Faire I have ever attended, but it won't be my last. It was so interesting to see all diversity in all of the different projects and the people who were creating them. This experience showed me that Maker is universal and there is no right or wrong way to be a Maker. During this event I helped with the UTeach Maker booth. We had circuit blocks that kids could use to create their own circuits. The kids had varying degrees of knowledge on circuits. Some knew what circuits were and put together simple series circuits, but there were some kids who knew as much as I did and created more complicated versions.
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For more information on the Austin Maker Faire visit their webpage.
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If you are not in the Austin are but would like to find a Maker Faire near you, visit the Maker Faire webpage.