Maker philosophy
The Maker Philosophy explores the philosophical and pedagogical roots of Making, as well as my personal experiences in implementing these concepts into my learning and teaching practice.
What is Making?
This is the question I asked myself when Dr. Shelly Rodriguez visited one of my UTeach classes my last semester of undergrad. Shelly had come to share about UTeach Maker and introduced the community that was centered around bringing tinkering and problem solving into the educational landscape. With my love of arts and crafts developed throughout my childhood and my more recent affinity for technology and desire to bring it into the classroom, I felt like this "making" thing was something that I should look into. After Shelly's presentation, I quickly went up to her and asked, "I really like everything that you are doing, but I am a biology major, can I still be a part of this program?" Shelly's response affirming that anyone with any skillset can be a maker was all I needed to crack the door into a world that would ultimately form the philosophies that govern my teaching today.
As I began my journey as a UTeach Maker, I still did not have a clear understand of what making really was and how it was different from things like the engineering design process or just plain completion of projects. Throughout my time in Maker, I came to develop an understanding of making that surpassed anything I could have imagined. This website documents the experiences that have helped me answer the question: "What is Making?" but here is a summary of what making means to me:
At its core, making is based off of the idea that everybody has the ability to create. Even more importantly, we should be able to create products with personal meaning through a process of iteration and problem solving, by using cross-curricular knowledge. The maker movement is one that is rooted in the idea that individuals should use their knowledge and seek new skills to create things that excite them. Making, when brought into the educational landscape has much promise in eliciting student engagement, giving students a voice and sense of agency in the classroom, and building a Maker Mindset that instills confidence and problem solving skills that translate beyond the walls of the classroom. The Elements of Making, discusses key components of making in an educational setting. The poster show to the right highlights these elements and their roles in education.
Our students are living in a world that requires critical thinking and collaboration more than ever. With new challenges and opportunities that come with environments filled with ubiquitous technology, students need to learn how to use it, to think creatively, and to make new things that can help them adapt to evolving times. Making is a framework to help the development of students' skills and prepare them to contribute to a greater community.
Throughout this website, I specifically discuss how the making can be integrated into education and examples of how I have done that. I also discuss the importance of community in making and how a support network can serve as inspiration and collaborators. Read on to learn more about making and how I use it to give students a voice!
Experiences that Shaped My Understanding of Maker
Listed below are some key experiences that, in addition to UTeach Maker, influenced my ideas on what it means to be a maker and how to implement making philosophies to help students unlock new ways of learning and innovating.
Girlstart
Girlstart was the first place where I experienced the value of hands-on, innovative learning. It was my experiences working for this non-profit that inspired me to become an educator that changes the educational landscape with playful and interdisciplinary curriculum, as well as innovative teaching practices. Throughout my time with Girlstart, I have continued to develop how making can be used in curriculum across STEM subjects and how making gives students a voice, sense of agency, and access to new ideas.
Ann Richards School
Working at ARS Makerspace opened my eyes to the endless possibilities Making has in schools. The Makerspace at ARS is a place where students and classes can come and use the many makerspace tools to innovate products to demonstrate their learning. Making is breed into the culture at ARS and the philosophies are used across all subject areas in order to encourage their students to keep innovating. By working on many projects with both classes and individuals, I was able to gain project management skills, learn how to use many tools, and see how making opened opportunities for student growth.
NYOS Charter School
I had the privilege of working as an intern at NYOS and then also as an apprentice teacher. My work with Kira Lowery gave me the opportunity to implement making in a classroom setting and see the influence it had on student learning over semesters of time. It was incredible to see how students responded to our maker-centric science class and how the elements of making helped them grow throughout their time in our class. The mindsets that we were able to instill within to our students will equip them to face new challenges.
Read more about these experiences by visiting the following pages:
Resources that Shaped My Understanding of Maker
These articles, videos, and books have helped shape my understanding of the maker movement and the maker mindset. I would recommend any of them to those who are interested in learning about making and its value in the classroom and beyond.
UTeach Maker Publications
Dr. Shelly Rodriguez, the Director of UTeach Maker, has teamed with other maker educators to write articles discussing the pedagogical roots of making in the world of education and also lessons and ideas for others to implement making in their classrooms. Among my favorite of these are "Making as a Performance Task," which has influenced the way I
use making as an assessment, and "Making and The 5E Learning Cycle," which presents a framework for novice maker educators to use making in a more familiar 5E format.
Flourishing
Ken Robinson
This is a short video that I have used to help students understand the Maker Movement and what I am trying to do by incorporating making into their classroom curriculum. It all comes down to this: making brings education into a space that allows for their exploration and expression of self in a way that helps them develop their individualities.
Making removes constraints and gives students an opportunity to flourish in a space of diversity instead of conformity.
Why Education Needs Making, Betty Ray
This talk explains how making can fill the needs of our current educational system and society. Ray gives examples of different frameworks on how to integrate making into educational settings with the goal of increasing access to ideas and expanding the students' skillsets to make them meaningful contributors to society. She discusses the incorporation of project-based learning in collaboration with making, as well as examples of how making professional development helps student growth.
Maker Moving Forward
As I begin my life as a full-time educator, I leave UTeach and UTeach Maker with a sense of pride, innovation, and energy to take on new challenges that wait ahead of me in my future classroom. My time in these programs has taught me to be flexible in incorporating innovative teaching practices, while also focusing on giving my student a voice in the classroom and sense of agency in their learning. I want to equip my students with the tools to open their minds to new opportunities and to have the confidence to face any challenges that may come their way. Making and the Maker Mindset is the key to such successes and I cannot wait to help others find joy in making.
