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Big Hero 6 and the Maker Movement

3/3/2015

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"I just levitated a ball with my mind!!!!...heheh..." A student used our makerspace typewriter to type a message of glee at the real-life Big Hero 6 experience. Click the image for a real-life mindcraft controller hack for your maker space project.
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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:


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View inside a mindflex controller, a real-life piece of technology you can use with your students that works using brainwaves.
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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
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News and Links of the Week

9/16/2014

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Thank you, Piedmont staff, because YOU are This to me! Click the image to see why.
Latest Piedmont PD News includes info on National Board Certification, Discovery Place's professional development offerings for teachers, new quick PD's on handy efficient tech tricks to save you time and storage space: like the quickest way to upload to Google Docs, how to convert and embed a powerpoint, How to make a QR CODE ,chromebook and computer troubleshooting info, etc

Other Ed News from Around the Web:
  • Brew Your Own Personalized PD
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https://www.edsurge.com/guide/how-teachers-are-learning-professional-development-remix
  • LITERACY and ART_ Why older kids and adults need picture books and graphic novels http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2014/09/why-older-kids-adults-need-picture.html
  • HOMEWORK-Why Marzano's Homework Research is Flawed: http://linkis.com/buff.ly/3BoHA
  • GOOGLE CLASSSROOM-Use Google Classroom to Differentiate Assignments  http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/2014/09/14/using-google-classroom-to-differentiate-assignments/
  • MAKERSPACES - 30 Second Take: Digital Duel: Makerspaces  -    Piedmont has makerspace materials for you. Here are two teachers each speaking for 30 secs about how makerspaces are useful to you in class as a teacher and to your students.
  • Teachers' FAVORITE APPS 
  1. Twitter Chat - Storified Twitter Chat (conglomeration of Tweets) where teachers share their favorite apps and how they use them http://sfy.co/qg2W
  2. Article that includes apps remind, class dojo, and others http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/09/16/347377022/a-is-for-apps-teachers-share-top-digital-tools-of-the-trade
  • PERSONALIZED LEARNING IN CMS "What is Personalized Learning in CMS?" Video #cmsk12chat http://youtu.be/HhzGgPbcmeY 
  • BLOGGING: Student Blogger Challenge week one http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/2014/09/14/week-1-gday-from-downunder/
  • DESIGN CYCLE/ BACKWARD DESIGN HINT: http://lifehacker.com/assume-everything-you-know-is-wrong-to-come-up-with-bet-1633959227
  • MOTIVATING STUDENTS - 
  1. Start with Strengths! http://chriswejr.com/2014/09/10/start-with-strengths-change-the-lens-change-the-story/
  2. How The Power Of Interest Drives Learning  http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/11/how-the-power-of-interest-drives-learning/ "Research shows, for example, that an inscrutable poem is judged as more interesting when readers are given a hint that allows them to make sense of what it’s about. Abstract art, too, is considered to be more interesting when the paintings are given titles that help viewers understand what the artists may have had in mind as they painted. Viewers become even more interested in such paintings when they are given biographical information about the artist and background about the historical context in which it was created." 
  3. Stop Teaching Kids to Play the Game of School
  4. A new Game based site called Kahoot- it says access is free and the folks who use it seem to like it. I can look into it more for you if you let me know you are interested.  
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Big Philosophical idea of the week: 
  •  I'd love to know what you think about Dr. Zhao's position and what we teachers should do. http://zhaolearning.com/2014/09/13/fatal-attraction-americas-suicidal-quest-for-educational-excellence/ 
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On Letting the Learning Be Messy

5/19/2014

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These two links below speak to the importance of a movement in ed that I am a big fan of: maker movement /genius hour /classroom as laboratory or studo.

Both of these links talk about how important it is to let kids run with their hare-brained schemes.

I am all for teachers whose gift it is to provide security and structure. However, back in the day that was considered the ONLY way to teach. I am certain that what public school's greatest gift to children, especially poor children,  can be is NOT militaristic structure but a workshop and dream making space that they do not get at home but rich children (or bohemian artists' children, or the hyper-educated's children) do-or at least their parents ship them off to camp for once a year- if they are not like the moms in these stories who open their homes to chaos with a smile

Upshot for teachers - if you can be patient and let the learning be messy kids can achieve their dreams

http://makezine.com/2013/07/29/maker-supportive-parenting/

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

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Things Teachers Can Change

5/8/2014

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Sometimes I get bogged down with what's going wrong in the larger ed reform world.

During those times it's helpful to focus on what we have the power to change immediately as we continue to advocate for those changes others need to help us create.


Math teacher Justin Aion started this hashtag on Twitter and I ran with it enthusiastically (there's no other way I run)

Many of the ideas I shared in the #ThingsTeachersCanChange list are
directly inspired by YOU-things you've told me, things I've seen you do, things we've discussed together that matter in ed.

If you or your students are feeling demoralized and need a bit of a pick me up, click the image to read the hashtag ideas, and also please add your own ideas! (If you need to make a Twitter account, contact me and I will walk you through it.)  These are things you can change right now and you may like them. I'll be out of town on Saturday, but this is my way of helping the cause, using somethign I know how to do

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Celebrating Piedmont

3/7/2014

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New Page on this website- Check out Celebrating Piedmont!

I needed more space to show off the things you do so I created the Celebrating Piedmont page because there is always something special going on around here! Call me and I will add photos of your event.

I've only begun to put up my backlog of Piedmont amazingness. Check out the posts on Read Across America, some of the Olympics stuff, and ...

Coming soon I'll publish the great projects I see on display as I walk down the halls (like the art , math home design, science planets, LA cinquians and  industrial revolution projects, too.  I might turn it into its own website.

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    Lisa Gurthie is the PD facilitator at Piedmont IB Middle School. She specializes in tech and arts integration, interdisciplinary holistic education, and unschooling school to reconnect academia to real life. One day she will modernize her "about" page. She curates this blog for the professional development convenience of the teachers at Piedmont, but the editorial comments are her own.

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