Lewis and Clark Learns

For the second year, I offered a weeklong summer MakerCamp for 3rd, 4th, & 5th grade makers. We tinkered, built with cardboard, designed video games (three of our makers also sat down and taught Ryne Dittmer, a writer for our local paper how to design a video game using Bloxels for an article he is writing), we gave feedback, failed and fixed, made new friends, tried new things, learned the art of green screen, made Non-Newtonian fluid (slime), learned all about polymer clay, built marble runs and tracks, spent a lot of time on choice projects, and at the end of the week we  presented our learning to parents and siblings at a mini MakerFaire . It was a great week of making! Special thanks to my new principal, Mitch Hiser for stopping in each day of camp to sit and chat with the kids about themselves and their projects.  Also, thanks to Mr. Hiser and Mrs. Ferguson, our assistant principal for taking time out of their Friday to attend our mini MakerFaire. Check out ou...

I was very fortunate to be asked to present at the NEKLS [Northeast Kansas Library System] annual school librarian conference in Lawrence, Kansas.  My presentation was centered around Integrating MakerSpaces into School Libraries .  I am really glad that I attended the entire day as I learned a lot as well.  In the morning there was a great presentation about teaching students to recognize fake news and a really good session on new books for elementary library collections.  Following a really tasty lunch, there was a crowd sourced book talk for secondary library collections.  I then shared my info about MakerSpaces and the day ended with a public librarian sharing her MakerKits that rotate from library to library.  It was probably one of the most organized and informative one-day workshops that I have ever attended.  Anna Foote was in charge of the event and she did an amazing job! Part of my presentation was a bit of hands-on learning.  We...

I recently returned from my first ISTE conference...it lived up to ALL my expectations!  For years I have heard about what an amazing learning adventure ISTE is and I am so glad I got the chance to experience it first hand with friends.   San Antonio was a fabulous city.  I loved visiting the Alamo and seeing the River Walk in person.  I loved spending time with 4 other librarians from my district and I loved trying a couple of new things that pushed me out of my comfort zone. We participated in a Global Collaboration Network Scavenger Hunt.  The first part took us all around the convention center (we totally rocked that part) the second part took us out onto the streets of San Antonio (we totally didn't rock that part) but we did have fun, made it to the final destination, and we didn't come in last! We also attended (not participated in) the Ed Tech Karaoke event at the beautiful Aztec Theater just off the River Walk.  It was so fun just watchi...