Final Vision Project: Design Considerations

Image by Francis Ray

 This week's post about my vision project was a struggle for me. I have written and rewritten this post so many times that I have lost count.  I think I have finally settled on an idea that I will benefit my students, my school community, myself and other teachers.  

Potential Idea/Goal: I will create a presentation about makerspaces that can be shared with my school staff and perhaps beyond.  The makerspace is one area of our school that goes unused most of the time.  I intend to present what makerspaces are along with an annotated list of articles or posts outlining the benefits of using makerspaces, such as growth mindset gains and other resources, such as those on John Spencers YouTube channel or by Brooke Brown.  I will also create several makerspace challenges focused around Canadian landmarks that could be used in June before Canada Day (perhaps with a road trip theme). In my mind, mid to late June is a good time to try things out because you know your class well, assessment is wrapping up and students need engaging tasks to work on in order to hold their focus.  One problem I have thought of is that the challenges I make for the middle grades (which is what I am most familiar with) will not necessarily be of use to the upper grades or early primary.  I am hoping that providing the ideas and editable slides, teacher will be able to modify the challenges to make it work for their students. These makerspace challenges will be focused around blocks, gears and other reusable materials we have in our makerspace.  We currently do not have consumables such as cardboard, duct tape, straws and pipe cleaners stocked in our makerspace.  I think that sticking with what is at hand in our makerspace will encourage teachers to try it out as there would be minimal prep and materials are easy to clean up.

Potential Designs: I think that I will create my presentation in Google Slides.  This can be downloaded as a powerpoint or pdf and saved to OneDrive (which is part our districts preferred platform, Office 365) or saved directly to Google Drive.  I know that I will have to make a version where downloaders must create their own copy to prevent editing of the original slides.

Your Turn - Bring on the Advice: What am I missing? Is there a better way to present information on makerspaces? I would appreciate any advice you have to offer.