Maker Philosophy
Making is all about learning while creating something you really like. Things aren't always easy, but when you have an interest in what you are doing it is easier to tackle obstacles and turn those challenges into learning experiences. Along the way there are always people who can help with these challenges and make the process even better.
Meaningful Making
I participated in a summer book club with the rest of the UTeach Maker cohort. Together we read Meaningful Making. This book explored Making in education through the perspective of several FabLearn fellows.
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""At its core, the maker movement is about sharing ideas and access to solutions with the world, not for money or power, but to make the world a better place."
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This quote from the book really stood out to me because it really speaks to what the Maker movement is all about and is also very important considering the time we are living in. With all of the negativity currently going around regarding people of other cultures I think that collaboration is at an all time importance. Everyone needs to realize that we can't fix the world's problems on our own and that sharing our ideas with people outside of the USA is crucial. We can't just be focused on making our own country great again. It makes me so happy and hopeful for the future that there are Makers all over the world who are ready to work together to help make the world a better place.
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Two articles from the book that I really enjoyed reading were "STEAM, the Trojan Horse for Making Inclusivity" and "Making in California K-12 Education". One point that both authors of the articles mentioned were the importance of the A in STEAM. In the Trojan Horse article the authors say that "we get to decide and define for ourselves exactly what A means". As we have seen previously in this book, one of the great things about Maker education is the flexibility it gives students and this quote really shows how we can make this even more flexible by incorporating STEAM vs STEM. The authors of Making in California also bring up STEAM by questioning why "making" is left out of education if it is something all students experience in their childhood.
The Trojan horse article focused more on how minority and female students specifically can benefit from Making/STEAM so it really spoke to me. As an educator my biggest goal will be to help get more students who belong to underrepresented populations to be more interested in exploring their interests in science so this was interesting for me to read. The Making in California spoke to me less since it focused more on logistics, but it will be a great resource when I start thinking about how to implement making into my own classroom.
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On the topic of equity, I think that underserved populations will greatly benefit from Maker Education especially if there is a focus on collaboration. Not all schools have access to really high tech maker spaces so sometimes teachers and students will have to get creative to find alternatives to something that may not be feasible cost wise or from lack of equipment. Working with the community could help students gain access to tools outside of their schools or to find possible solutions they hadn't thought about!
Overcoming obstacles
My biggest take away from the UTeach Maker experiences was in how I learned to overcome obstacles. The entire process was fun, but it was not without challenges. One of the main challenges I faced during this time was coming up with a Maker lesson to implement during my student teaching placement. There was some resistance to the idea of giving students something too open ended which really limited the sort of lesson I could develop, At times I thought I should just give up and wait until I was in a situation where I had more control over how I taught, but through working with my UTeach community I was able to come up with something that fit in with the philosophy of the school as well. I learned the importance of exploring more options and trying different ways of tackling a challenge.
Another big obstacle I faced was the entirety of my Maker project. It quickly became apparent that of the skills required for putting it together were skills that I didn't have. The entire experience was a kind of reality check on how things are usually more complicated they seem and I got overwhelmed pretty early in the process. What really changed my mentality from negative to positive was realizing all of the new skills I had learned. UTeach Maker has taught me failure isn't anything more than a learning experience. This is something that really shaped my philosophy and is something I hope to share with my future students.
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Throughout my life my Maker philosophy has experienced many changes whether or not I realized it. My family introduced me to Making at a very young age. I say unofficially because no one ever called it Making, but looking back on it that is exactly what it was.My dad was a self taught wood worker and was always designing and building something. He's made benches for our house, patios, and so much more. Together we would work on smaller projects like building birdhouses and we would frequently go to the kid workshops at Lowe's and Home Depot. My mom and grandma were both avid knitters and crocheters. They taught me the most basic stitches but that was all it took. I would look at books and other resources to learn more stitches and pretty soon I was making my own patterns. Without my family I would not have become a Maker.
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As I got older and more busy I stopped Making as many things as I did when I was younger. When I tried to get back into it I would get frustrated when things didn't come as naturally as they used to do. I still liked the idea of creating something, but I was more focused on the final product being a specific way. This was pretty discouraging because things didn't always go as planned.
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When I joined UTeach Maker I was super excited to have a group of people to Make with. The idea of creating a final project and showcase was slightly overwhelming, but it seemed very far away. Throughout working on the project I faced a lot of failure. It was very discouraging at first, but having a support system was what helped me take those failures as learning experience. Reflecting on my journey as a Maker I realize how important community and collaboration is. Whenever I had people to go to for help, I was able to learn from my mistakes and learn something in the process. Now Making is more about the journey than just the final product.