Connecting with the Library to Get Outside Resources

Do yourself a favor and get in touch with your local library!

OF COURSE the library would have a ton of resources!!!

I regret not getting in touch with our library sooner....I wish I knew about the resources that they offer to schools and teachers!

Our local library has phenomenal resources like:

• Resource Bags - Just fill out a short form about what you will be studying...and in a week, you will have a bag of goodies (books, digital resources, and more!) all about the topic!

• STEM Kits - What!? I had no idea! In the last week, I was able to check out Arduinos, Makey-Makeys, and Finch Robots! 

• Tours/Visits - The library will host tours of its facilities OR come to your school to do book talks, story time, database demonstrations, or more!

• Partnerships - Our library has a lot of great makerspace resources like 3D printers and Makey-Makeys! A middle school teacher in our district partnered with the library to have his students learn about the different resources...then collaborated with our elementary school!

• Host Events - Ready to celebrate your kids' hard work or show off genius hour/makers' projects, see if your library would be willing to host! It would be neat to have community members and students presenting alongside each other! We also hosted our celebration of our 3D printing project collaborations there!

Contact your library as soon as you can before you find yourself doing this...

3D Printing Collaboration - Connecting with Other Schools!

3D Printing Collaboration - Elementary School & Middle School

WOW! We just finished collaborating with some 8th graders on a 3D printing project...and I was blown away by the process!

If you are at an elementary school, check out the courses offered at your local middle school and reach out to the teachers to see if you can collaborate! Or vice versa...

At the middle school level, our district offers Creative Arts options for students. These include: World Culture, Industrial Technology, and Career Connections.

We were fortunate to have our Industrial Technology teacher reach out to us to form a partnership. Four of his eighth grade students worked with four of our 5th graders to plan, design, and create 3D printed projects!

Our PHENOMENAL local library then hosted an event where people shared their projects with the community. What a great way to celebrate their hard-work and creativity!



What did our students learn from this process:

• Communication Skills: Students communicated using Google HangOuts and Google Docs. This gave students a chance to practice communicating in different ways...and to do something similar to what engineers who are working together across the world do!

• Technical Skills: Students worked with Tinkercad (a free online software program that can be used to 

 

Thingiverse.com is a great site that allows you to upload and download projects that you can then tweak.

• Habits of Mind: Designing a 3D project is hard. Really hard. It requires a lot of trial and error...and collaboration! Want to do more with Habits of Mind? Check this out!

Check out the "finished" projects. We still have some tweaks to do!

Part of a Desk Organizer
We need to re-print one of the pieces. 

3D Globe Puzzle
We still need to problem-solve on how to make it so the pieces fit on the globe.

SPARK Students' Interests by Bringing in Community Members

What better way to spark student interests than bringing in parents and community members!? 

We did just that at our school. I have always been inspired by Ted Talks, like these:

The Key To Success: Grit by Angela Lee Duckworth

Do Schools Kill Creativity? by Ken Robinson

• Success Through Effort (Okay-Not a Ted Talk but still great!)
• Why You Need to Fail

I was inspired by Ignite Chicago's version of Ted Talks where people are tasked with the following:

I decided to bring it to our school. The plan was to have parents and community members come share short presentations (20 slides that advanced automatically every 15 seconds) to spark new interests in our students (see what I did there?) for Genius Hour! Andddd....it was AMAZING! We had 11 volunteers come share their passions, hobbies, and/or careers with our students. After about an hourlong presentation, I heard gaggles of students (and teachers!) say things like, "I want to be a pilot!" and "Maybe I should be a rock star?" and "That was SO cool!"...and it was! The plan is to turn it around and have some of our students do the SAME thing after their genius hour projects. Not only is it engaging, but it's incredibly challenging!

Our SPARK event was even featured in the Chicago Tribune! Check it out here: 5 Minute Lectures Highlight Careers

Here's the quick how-to:

• Check with your principal and teachers. (We did 3rd-5th grade at our school.)
• Create a quick poster like this:

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• Share it EVERYWHERE: Twitter, School newsletters, and more! I searched local businesses and even our local mayor's office (Yes! He came!) for contact information and sent out the flyer. We had a great response!

• Make sure that all schedule changes (for Specials/etc.) are made.

• Check with secretary about signing in procedures.

• Get all the tech ready, including microphones and projectors!

• It's SHOWTIME!

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• Have kids write thank you notes afterwards.

• After students complete their Genius Hour projects, look for volunteers who are ready for the challenge of presenting this way!

Genius Hour 20 Day Challenge - Day 13: Help Wanted Board

Day 13: Help Wanted Board

When I need advice, I can't tell you how many times I've gone to Yelp to figure out which restaurant is best or if I want to spruce up a teaching unit how many times I've gone to Pinterest, Twitter, or asked my teaching friends.

We decided that this should transfer over to the classroom. Maybe Johnny Applejacks has an uncle who coached soccer who would be willing to talk to Susie Shopper about the best practices for goalies. Maybe Amy Anteater's mom is veterinarian and could give Marsha Matters tips about how to best care for her new french bulldog puppy. 

This is how we came up with an idea for an help wanted board!

We start by having every student write his or her question on a notecard or type up the questions. Make sure to include their names! 

Post things you need help with in blue- "Looking for someone with experience in X to interview. Contact Y and Z."   

As resources and suggestions become available from others, we will post them in yellow.

If students have a few minutes after completing an activity or when they first come to school, we encourage them to look at the board and see if they can offer suggestions or provide names of possible experts. (Remind students to include their names on the Post-Its! There's nothing worse than just having "my aunt" listed on a Post-It without knowing who wrote it!) 

This has been an AMAZING tool! The look on kids' faces as they get responses from neurosurgeons, veterinarians, engineers, pet store owners, and more is priceless! They feel so special that these experts are willing to help them with their projects. In addition, this sharing of resources may even provide an authentic audience for your students. We had one student design a hamster cage that better reflected a hamster's natural habitat and share it with a pet store owner. So cool!

You may even want to put this bulletin board outside your classroom and encourage other students or teachers to add their resources, too!

Another thing that we do is solicit help from parents in one of our weekly newsletters. We provide a list of questions and a short blurb like in our editable Genius Hour newsletter. 

If we get responses, we post these on our Help Wanted Board for students to use if they so choose.

We have also started to compile a list of experts on our Google Site for students to use as well. This list continues to grow year after year!