Well hello there, and you could say it's been a while - August 2012 to be exact! and whilst there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then, MrsPotts is back in business. So it's 'on with the show' as Miranda would say.
Term two is already two weeks down and in the library it's been business as usual with lots of issues, Duffy book selections, Info Lit lessons, showing kids EPIC, Te Ara, AnyQuestions etc, using You Tube, The Literacy Shed to watch v cute animated stories (http://www.literacyshed.com/) and trying to manage computer-game-crazy boys to name a few. Then there are the new initiatives. MrsPotts has a very short attention span and has been known to rearrange the furniture quite a lot :-) so these new initiatives are code for 'let's do something interesting and exciting to get me on my bike and racing to school every day'!
We've been talking for a while about giving kids the opportunity to be creative and be given the opportunity to explore making 'stuff'. Lots has been written about creativity and I'm a believer in giving kids heaps of opportunities to explore and create and play and make. To be frank there haven't been many opportunities with our very- timetabled-overcrowded-timetable and as we all know some teachers are better at getting the creative out of kids than others. (Our Art specialist being the major exception and that is another story).
The idea which had been bubbling along was for a Mad Inventor's-type club of some sort and I volunteered a space in the library for this and call it our makerspace (of which there's also quite a lot written about). As with all these things my friends, it depends on the people, the people, the people... so imagine my delight when the opportunity arose to employ the ultimate Mr-Maker-Space-Cadet himself. We've known Calvin for a while and he is the perfect man for the job. He's set himself up in a sunny corner of the library with bits and bobs and wire and batteries and things that go whirr! right next to the boxes of lego and the train set. Already I can see and feel a change. There are more children coming in the door each day... new faces too.They meet me at my car in the morning, grab my keys and open the door. Lights, Action, Music as they say in the movies! (Yes, there's going to be a movie too but more on that another time).
Kids are sharing and talking about their creations, they are staying after school to explore and play in the makerspace. This week I've issued books on electricity and inventions and how to make models.
Fantastic stuff.
