Written by 
Unicorns are our school mascot , and because it is a reminder that anything is possible….
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”-Lao Tzu
The Updated Plan in Progress:
Meet with the Nancy (Principal) to discuss my plan. Check.
Continue to research-more about makerspaces, resources, tools, ideas etc. Ongoing.
Present a mini introduction about makerspaces and my action plan to staff. Check.
Interview users – Staff. Check. + Host a “Play Café” and trick/bribe, I mean, INVITE staff to visit the space, try some activities and brainstorm possibilities for its use
Launch the first set of “Lunch and Learns” for students. To start, on a range of guided/pre-selected topics. (end of February/March)
+ Hopefully visit a couple of makerspaces at nearby CIS schools with Lara
Reflect and evaluate. Interview users (students and staff). (March/April)
Tweak. Test. Repeat.
Formulate ‘new’/revised action plan…
It’s been 3 weeks since our last F2F, and though things have been incredibly busy on the home and work front, I have been taking small but important steps to set my action plan in motion.
• I was able to share my Cohort 21 Action Plan and makerspace “Lunch and Learn” ideas to the staff at a staff meeting.
• I followed my presentation up with a short survey to staff. I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the response (see photos). Everyone has a lot on the plates, but many teachers and staff were not only receptive to the idea of Lunch and Learns, many respondents provided topic ideas (for staff and/or students) and were willing to lend their support.
• On a whim, I decided to host a ‘Play Café’ and invite interested staff to come explore the space, participate in some brainstorming, play and engage in some challenges. Planned activity centres include: Snacks! (super important and because baking is my passion, a watercolour sugar cookie painting station), Arts and Crafts (sewing, origami, doodling/colouring, modern calligraphy, balloon animal making,Valentine card making etc), Coding and Tech (explore apps and games, and our schools equipment including MaKeyMaKey, LittleBits, BeeBot etc), Building (Lego, plasticine, cardboard, playmais etc) and finally, a Brainstorming area (A chance for staff to explore available materials, put in requests for new materials/tools, plan to host a Lunch and Learn, and explore research and resources related to the makerspace movement. This is happening tomorrow, with 12 confirmed attendees (not bad considering a large group of staff are booked at an off-site meeting). Stay tuned on how it goes…
Immediate next steps:
• The plan is to launch a couple of student Lunch and Learns before March Break and maybe 1 staff Lunch and Learn, and see what the response is.
• Visit 1-2 makerspaces at neighbouring schools.
@michelleli I can feel the momentum of your action plan! Looking forward to having you over to the York School to show off our new space. Just to give you some context this space (new this year) is the result of over seven years of slowly building our MYP design programme and elevating design & making at the York School. I’m excited to share with you what I have learned over that time. @jsmith and @crussell are also doing some AWESOME things over at Branksome. I know you will come away with some great idea.
Thanks Justin. I’m looking forward to the visits as well. I feel like I have so much to learn but my staff event yesterday was a success, with about 14 attendees, and the activities were well-recieved. (Thanks Cohort 21 for pushing me to just go for it!) Many walked away with a better idea of what can be done in the space and the available materials, and how might they use it to support their curriculum goals and/or our Lunch and Learns. Or in the very least they came, and had a good time. An unexpected, but lovely surprise of this PD event, was that it was a great staff morale activity, and we just enjoyed ‘playing’ and making together.
I would love to hear your observations about the benefits and differences between the Maker programs you visit.
Hi Michelle! It’s great to hear that those small steps you’re taking are paying off in big ways! I love the quote at the beginning and I think we can sometimes get frozen by starting but you’ve started to amass your coalition of the willing and are getting great buy-in from busy people – which is fantastic!
In addition to @crussell & @jsmith, Tomas from this year’s C21 @tjohnstone runs a maker club and I wonder if he might share some insights on this? My daughter’s teacher is using BeeBot and Roxanna is so jazzed about it and is filled with curiosity about how it works – all of this in JK!
I’m curious to hear how your lunch and learn went the day after you posted. Very curious about the student involvement and if any of them are keen to be active members of your coalition?
Really looking forward to hearing more about your journey in future posts or in the Feb 28th Hangout!