Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Makerspace Beginnings

What is a Makerspace? 

A makerspace is a physical location where people can invent, create, explore, and build. These areas come equipped with materials in order for them to do such things. 

Why am I talking about a Makerspace

Our campus is now in the beginning stages of creating one in the library!

My principal approached me several weeks ago and we had a discussion on Makerspaces and some really awesome things she had seen and heard of that were taking place in school libraries. I was all in. I had been looking into Makerspaces here and there, learning what I could about them, seeing how they worked, what they included and so much more. 

After having that conversation it was something I wanted to keep looking into, but to also formulate a plan on bringing it to life on our school campus. 

Not long after starting that plan I was able to attend our annual state library association conference in town. One of the sessions I was able to attend was one on Makerspaces. I was hoping that I would be able to gain more knowledge from listening to an experienced Makerspace librarian than I was doing all of the reading that I was doing.

It was very helpful! (If you're looking into Makerspaces, start asking around, looking at different ones, gain knowledge from those that are already doing it.) Going to that session was the best thing for me to do because it did help me clear up some misconceptions that I had going into the planning stages.

After attending the conference I took some time to process and do some more research. Then, I jumped in with both feet!

I wrote my first Donors Choose project (as talked about in my previous post).

It was funded in less than 24 hours! WOW!

Thanks to some great people in the school district, a few other donors and J. Crew, my project was funded and in a couple weeks, my stuff was here.

This is just the beginning of our Makerspace! I can't wait to see where it goes next. I have some more ideas and hope to get some more funding. The students are excited and so am I!

I've attached a picture of the cool items we now have to start our Makerspace.


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