Middle School Maker Journey: First Month’s Reflections

It's been a heady first month in Northfield Community Middle School's Technology, Engineering, and Design program. Kids are raving, parents are beaming, and it was a great start. But . . . what assumptions have we made that were valid? Or not? What's going well? What could be better? What adjustments are we making now that "Design Experience Zero" in Digital Shop has wrapped up, and our gamified learning management system, Black Mesa, is in full swing? Finally, what's ahead for the program longer-term?

Back when our fantastic new learning space was still all gleaming and ready for kids to experience, compliments started rolling in, but I reminded people that creating the space and even building our LMS had been the easy part. The hard part would be (and is!) creating authentic learning experiences that purposefully engage the kids in mindful exploration (the Manifesto, remember?). Our goal: make the kids "life ready" by challenging them to take charge of their own learning -- something that school had never really asked them to do.

Assumptions Validated and Disproven

Using the Rose, Thorn, Bud Technique, we collected student feedback to learn that, while some of our original assumptions about the program had panned out, others had not.

Physical Space

We assumed that the kids would love an inviting, unique workshop unlike anything they'd ever seen, a space with tools and high- and low-tech resources where they could easily move around, collaborate, and learn. Evidence suggests that we were right.

Online Environment

We assumed that kids would immediately gravitate to the LMS because, after all, they're "digital natives," We designed Black Mesa to be inviting and easy to use. We were largely right about that, too, but the feeling is less unanimous than for the physical space.

Motivation

We assumed that the sheer uniqueness of the program and space, the ability to collaborate with friends, and working from any device, anywhere, at any time, would create an experience so compelling that kids would be hyper-engaged, even outside of school. While we have anecdotal evidence from parents that most of the kids remain highly motivated, it's not true for everyone. Work on projects outside of school is still homework, no matter how cool adults may think it is.

Time and Schedule

With only 40 minutes of daily time available per grade level, we felt constrained. The five-day Experience blocks help a lot, but 40 minutes are barely long enough for any significant work, especially when factoring in transit times, assemblies, and fire drills. We need more time!

Afternoon Open Lab

Opening Digital Shop in the afternoons and by teacher reservation has been incredibly successful. We currently have seven or eight active, interesting, challenging projects under way, all competing for the space, our equipment, and my guidance.

Paradigm Shift

Perhaps our biggest assumption was that students would instantly, magically accept responsibility for their own learning. This has largely proven not to be the case. Despite inspired work by some students, the majority still expect to be told what to do, when, and how. We've got our work cut out for us!

What's Going Well

5-Day Rotations and Multiple Iterations

The first five-day Experience was a wild ride -- it's extremely difficult being unsure what works pedagogically, where the pitfalls are, the supplies that we'll need or use, etc., for five days and four grade levels. Second and later iterations allow me to reflect, revise and refine, which has proven invaluable.

Maker Pass Fridays

These have been huge! We have the photos to prove it. Administratively, it's a bit of work to gather all the permissions, but having ten-plus kids in the lab on Friday afternoons, working on different projects, creating, making, and learning, has been powerful for everyone. Kids have started reflecting on their experiences on our dedicated blog.

Community Support

We are blessed with a fantastic community of parents that provide never-ending support, resources, and advice. Our Parent-Teacher Organization and Education Foundation do a fantastic job of marshaling resources and supporting our program. We love them!

Staff Support

This has been the most powerful part of the experience for me. My colleagues are on fire! Not only do they get what we're trying to do, they also dive right in and help during sessions. It truly is a team effort!

Lunch Bunch

I was terrified of eighth grade kids initially. Some are physically larger than me, all have more complex social lives than I do, and school means more to me than it does to them. So imagine my surprise when a small army of them decided to stay in my room to eat lunch, design things, program drones, and use the 3D printer. Lunch Bunch has restored my faith in humanity and allayed my fears of being eaten alive.

Writeable Table Surfaces

Our worktables, the best design element of Digital Shop, are supercharging kids’ creativity -- check out this super-cool time lapse of students working away.

Black Mesa

Though I've been publishing with Wordpress for many years, I'm still in awe of the power, flexibility, and extensibility of our LMS. Black Mesa came together quickly, works beautifully, is simple to maintain, and remains, for the most part, easy to use.

What Could Be Better

40 Minutes Aren't Enough

As mentioned above, we are seriously constrained by our schedule. Transit time and other interruptions can reduce our 40-minute blocks to as little as 30. We simply must find a way to schedule this class in larger blocks next year.

Following Instructions

We should have seen this coming: kids struggle with following instructions, orally or written. We assumed they'd easily interact with materials and navigate any challenges. The reality? Not so much. Which leads to . . .

Infrastructure

While our district provides campus-wide wifi and we have a BYOD program in place, we've still had issues with wifi speed, slow logins, problems saving work, access to network shares, printing, etc. We love our IT department, but they're sometimes overwhelmed, and all we can do is patiently wait for our help tickets to be addressed.

Kids Hate Documentation

As an elementary teacher, note taking wasn’t a big part of my program. Moving forward, we'll implement engineering journals that I hope will become important to kids developing a lifetime passion for creating.

Dry Erase Wall Surfaces

The Sherwin-Williams Sketchpad coating has been somewhat problematic. Our writeable walls don't seem to erase well, even though we're using new and correct dry erase markers. (On the desks, however, the coating is outstanding.)

What’s Ahead

We're just now finishing up our first five-day Experience. As you read this, we'll be into our second Experience, a design sprint intended to get teams of kids actively thinking, planning, creating, and iterating. With one full Digital Shop cycle under my belt, I've now seen every middle school student once. They know what to expect. They're on board.

And since we'll soon end our first academic quarter, another group of students will start experiencing Mrs. Kennedy's class and our Black Mesa LMS. We're adjusting the curriculum, revising and adding challenges in response to student feedback.

Next month, we'll look at technologies and tools, how work gets done in Digital Shop, and students' project work. Thanks for reading!