"Today was a big day in my grade 4-5 STEM class: It was our first time to start the “Maker Studio” rotation. Maker Studio is a concept I developed this past summer attending Maker Faire Kansas City and the awesome “Create, Make and Learn” week-long #MakerEd #STEM summer institute in Vermont coordinated by Lucie deLaBruere (@techsavvygirl). Last year was my 17th as an educator but my first as an elementary STEM teacher. I enjoyed developing and sharing lessons about a wide variety of topics, but as a “STEM teacher” was uncomfortable with my predominant focus on direct instruction lessons. Some of my favorite units from last year focused on the science and technology of music and sound, kitchen chemistry, and collaborative projects in MinecraftEDU involving permiter/area building challenges, coordinate grid scavenger hunts, and more. Our projects and activities together in these units were engaging, fun, and standards-based, but still relied predominantly on direct instruction. The after-school “Makers Club” I facilitated provided many opportunities for student-directed learning, but didn’t change my predominant teacher-directed instruction during STEM class. My summer PD experiences at #MakerFaireKC and #CML14 were transformative. Enter “Maker Studio.”"
Via
John Evans,
Timo Ilomäki
How do we teach students about social media when many believe they know they need to know because they use social media. This post provides 3 resources to help you out.
One of them is the interactive infographic on the History of Social Media. This infographic allows you to explore social media over three time periods, beginning with BC - 1800s. Did you know that the first postal service was in 550 BC?
The other two resources are Social Meowdia Explained and Social MEDogIA explained. Both provide a humorous look at social media that will engage students.
This blog post also provides some great ideas on how to incorporate these resources into future lesson.