About three years ago while attending the PSLA (Pennsylvania School Librarian's Association) Conference, the Makerspace movement caught my attention. What a way to inspire creativity in the library, I thought. I started collecting as much information as I could on the movement (reading books, reading website pages and articles, attending workshops and conferences with maker related topics, and following maker librarians on Twitter).
Some of my greatest ideas have come from librarians and educators on Twitter. Laura Fleming, makerspace guru from New Milford High School, New jersey was especially helpful. I began asking her tons of questions about starting a makerspace in a school. She answered all my questions, and was extremely helpful. I was lucky enough to meet Laura in person at this summer's ISTE conference in San Antonio. Laura's Twitter Handle is @LFlemingEDU.
Many other librarians have inspired me along the way. They include:
- Heather Lister @Heathermlister
- Todd Burleson @todd_burleson
- Kristina Holzweiss @lieberian
- Diana Rendina @dianalrendina
- Colleen Graves @gravescolleen
I officially began implementing my ideas for a Makerspace into my curriculum when I was teaching K-8 at School Lane Charter School. Because I was on a fixed schedule, and did not have a lot of money or space to start a full-fledged Makerspace, I decided to do centers during library time. This involved areas such as: Legos, Puzzles, K'nex, Bookmark making, STEM related projects, Ebook Listening center, and crafts. The kids truly loved their library time, but was still quite far from my vision of a library Makerspace. Unfortunately, my district did not "buy in" to the advantages of a Makerspace.
December of 2016, I accepted a position at Shamong Township School District. Since my schedule involves time in the afternoon for students to come to the library for twenty minutes after their lunch period, I began thinking about how I could implement a Makerspace into my library. I realized very quickly that some of my students were bored during this open library time, and I began creating monthly STEM Challenges. You can read about this
here. This proved to be an excellent way to incorporate basic making skills that were low tech and inexpensive. It was also a way to test the interest level for adding a real Makerspace to our library.
Once I realized our students and staff had interest in starting a Makerspace, I began writing a grant through our school district's education foundation. Since the grant was very specific to wants and needs, I polled my students on items they would like to see in our space and met with teachers to discuss their needs. Here is a link to
My Student Makerspace Survey Our Makerspace Grant was approved in June 2017. This will be an exciting school year for my library, staff, and students. Stay tuned for my next blog post on "My Makerspace Grant".
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