If you build it, they will come, or more accurately in the case at Tom Baines School, if they build it, they will come. This year, some Grade 8 students have been exploring the world of programming, 3D design, and robotics through one of their complementary courses.

The year began with much excitement and hesitancy from the students, and me, as we investigated these domains. New equipment such as Mindstorms EV3s and a Robo3D printer forced us to constantly reflect, learn, and relearn as we worked together to plan, design, and create.

When the course started, I had no intention of running it as a flipped classroom, and although it never truly evolved into this, to my delight the students took their learning home and expanded upon it. They developed new skills and knowledge with help of online content, experts, and sometimes, parental support. More importantly though they shared this learning with their peers and me. I ended up becoming a student in my own class as my students taught me much more than I could them.

This, in turn, spread to other classes as the students took their learning there and applied their new skills to new situations showcasing their learning in those areas too. Encouraged by this, students not in my class were coming to me to use the equipment too.

However, the coolest part for me was when I had students I did not teach coming up to me asking me what I was planning for next year and how excited they were to take the class. More amazing learning will take place next year as I will be moving classrooms and setting up the Tom Baines Maker Space in the former Industrial Arts room.

Jeremy Lang (mrlang.ca and @JPLL8) is a new father, tinkerer, techno-geek wannabe, future Maker, and a self proclaimed introverted extrovert.

If Something Isn’t Working

A class that I work with is creating life-size wooden puppets for an original production at their school. The students are using scraps of wood and metal as their materials.

This week I noticed that the limbs of the puppets had been carved down significantly – in fact about half of the original wooden leg had been cut out and sanded down. I asked Jordan who busy re-attaching the bottom portion of the leg to the knee component, why he had changed the legs and arms so significantly.

He replied, “Well, it wasn’t working. We did a trial run of attaching the puppet to the puppeteer and he couldn’t move himself or the puppet. It is supposed to look realistic. Not really realistic, but you know, suggest at being realistic. So then Yazi (the puppeteer), and the other puppet maker and I figured out that it was all because we hadn’t thought about how heavy all the pieces together would be. It just wasn’t working. So, if something isn’t working, you change it, right?”

In just a few sentences Jordan very simply explained how he, having criteria, having peers to think through his problem, and the power to make decisions about his learning and the product of his learning, was able to adjust from something that wasn’t working for him, to something that would.  Jordan reminded me that as an educator, sometimes it isn’t about getting it right, but about having the courage to change something that isn’t working.

Erica, @eboycegraham is a learner, a teacher, a lover of adventures and a drifter of the fine classrooms and schools of the CBE.