Standards, assessments, and skills dominate conversations in and around schools. These topics stick with us even when we get together to socialize outside the school environment. As we have continued to research how to help students “get it,” we have extended our conversations to things like engagement, relevance, and even rigor. We do all this in the name of preparing students for their future.
Certainly, there is a place for such conversations. We are well intentioned professionals that only want the best for students. We live and breath learning. Many of us are so addicted to education that it consumes our every waking minute, but I would pose that we have missed the boat! That ship sailed from a different port, in the middle of the night, and we did not see it leave. But never fear, that ship has lights and many of us have it in our sites. All that is left to do is to turn our heads toward it and chart our course.
The paradigm shift for educators will be great. Being a maker does not fit inside a nice little box or within the context of a 40 minute period. Making is an exciting, cross-curricular approach that must rest within the passions of the students it serves. Teachers and administrators will have to step aside and let creativity run rampant in the classroom and building. It may be loud or quiet, neat or messy, tiny or huge.
With making, the sky is only limited by the vision of the maker and the question that is posed. As schools embrace the “Maker Movement,” how questions are worded to students will be at the core. Instead of “build a sled,” the question becomes “design something that will transport me down a snowy, icy hill. I’d like to go fast because I’m a little bit of a daredevil.” This type of open-ended question allows students to think beyond a sled and allows them to be creative. Isn’t that what we want for all our students? I believe we all want this type of success and passion for all our students—to be able to think, to create, to do, to make!
*Doughtery, Dale. “Making Is Learning.” Maker Education Initiative. MakerEd, 15 May 2012. Web. 16 June 2015. <http://makered.org/making-is-learning/>.