My third grade daughter and I watched Big Hero 6 a lot over the snow days and in today's interview for our district IT videocast,  I compared the headset our students use in our media center MakerSpace (photo above) to a similar controller on Hiro in the movie.

It got me thinking about how Big Hero Six is a perfect maker movie to capture our students' imaginations and inspire them to create their own projects in school maker spaces.  The boy Hiro and his brother Tadashi are both makers. Sure, the "nerdlab" is pretty futuristic, but watching Hiro invent, have false starts, use a 3D printer and scanner, use a  controller, hack existing designs, code, and, above all, decide to love school instead of reject what it has to offer, sends the perfect message to budding makers in schools everywhere.

The movie illustrates maker concepts such as design thinking, critical thinking, growth mindset, positive hacking to create a better world, and above all a maker attitude and ethos. 

If you haven't done so yet, consider how to infuse maker ed into your class or school today. Here are 5 easy steps to start a makerspace from scratch in any school 
and 
Here is how to introduce a maker-friendly project in your classroom.  You can always start with a clip from Big Hero Six to set the stage.

Recommended Reading:
Gizmodo article showing the real life scientific inspiration for the movie
and 
IO9 article about the show's science and artistic inspiration to connnect to your STEM plus arts or STEAM curricula 

Recommended Viewing:

RELATED POST- Genius Hour lends itself well to schools that have maker spaces: Here is ours called Love of Learning
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/love-of-learning-at-piedmont

If you've visited the Celebrating Piedmont blog lately (or seen my Twitter feed)  you know that I've been trying to showcase what greatness happens here at Piedmont every day. I think the best way to learn is from each other.

I want to know what you'd like me to cover and share- I want to film and photograph your work, and I also want to help you if you want to try something new or "deep".

Finally, I want to give you a "badge" for your Personalized learning via Credly so you can recognize and advertise your strongest skills and tech tool proficiencies. ( I can't give you a pay raise so I do what I can!)  

A badge is a virtual sticker but I can also make you a hard copy for display in the "real" world. You can place it on your wiki, weebly or other, or just post it with pride) for the areas you excel in. Now is not a time to be modest. What tools of our craft are you good at? Tell me and I will badge you and we can all learn from and celbrate your hard work.

Students as well as you teachers can take part in this so if you have a student who's done something amazing, send them to me or to this page: Toot horn here

If you are interested in using badging within your own class for student skills (a big movement in standards based education and authentic mastery based learning) I can also set you up with your own classroom based system.

PS regarding showcasing your greatness- I want to say I know I am only capturing the tip of the iceberg and I wish I could keep up! No wonder I'm behind on posting the photos to Celbrating Piedmont- I can't walk into your rooms without seeing something worth showing off. I'm filling up my storage! 

Still not sure about this badging thing? It's the latest trend! Here is one principal's take on it at his school.

• PD IDEA:  Remember how fun it was to earn a sticker as a kid? What if we did that with Teacher PD? This school does.
  

•  USEFUL TIP:     Did you our your students forget to log out of the Chromebook or iPad or shared computer? Easy way to Log out of Google Drive remotely from anywhere

• Imagine:  the day when we can continue the lessons even on snow days
• GOOGLE FOR ED:  News via Donna Jessup -  Google has revealed their new site Google For Education.- quickly access all of Google's products in the context of learning and teaching. A few of the things you will find include:

• Training: Learn how to use Google Apps, become a Google Certified Educator, and connect with other educators using Google products!
• Programs: Discover all the innovative projects Google is working on to create transformative educational resources. You'll find things like Maker Camp, Google in Code, and Google Education On Air
• Tools and Solutions: Find extensive resources on Digital Citizenship, Collaboration, Search Services, and much more!

Congrats to Ms. Czerwinski and Ms. Suckstorff for their links worth showing off this week. Stop by their door to scan the QR code for their students' Flickr Art sets and Math blogs, respectively.