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It’s Finally Here! After a five year journey -Social-Emotional Learning Using Makerspaces and Passion Projects hits the shelves today.

Julie Darling
Book - Social Emotional Learning Using Makerspaces and Passion Projects

It’s been quite an adventure! This book went through title changes, three different publishers (before landing with marvelous Routledge), and several times I believed it might be scrapped, altogether. I did my best to make it practical, useful. My greatest hope is that some of you, out there in the wider world, are able to utilize the tips, projects and reproducibles to help kids spread a bit of brightness.

You can get your copy through Amazon or on the Routledge website use FLR40 for a 20% discount * Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount and only applies to books purchased directly via the Routledge website.

I’d love to hear what you think! Feel free to comment below, or shoot me an email at growingmakerspace@gmail.com. Happy reading!

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Why Do Makerspace?

Julie Darling

Today during our professional development we talked for a little bit about why we teach. This led to an interesting discussion about how teaching is the hardest thing that most of us have done and how the day to day can be really rough. If you are in the profession, you already know that it’s not for the faint of heart.

However, making a difference in kids’ lives is hands-down what makes it worthwhile. Some of my colleagues spoke about how they’ve heard, years later, from kids who told them about the difference they made. We also watched this video (make sure you have tissues close by)!

All of this got me thinking about why you would want to create a makerspace for kids. If you do it right, it truly is a labor of love. I’m not gonna lie – it’s work. But it’s also a space that reaches the kids that don’t do as well in a “traditional” classroom. Hands-on activities make the kinesthetic learners’ eyes light up. The freedom to choose their projects gets all kids excited. The variety of materials and tools allows kids to really push the limits of what they’ve tried before. It gets them exploring. Dreaming.

After watching how excited they get – the 100% engagement – how could you not want to build one?

LizardFriend

Photographs are something I like to make. This little guy was peeking at me when I was talking on my phone.
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Back At It

Julie Darling

The Summer is rapidly drawing to an end and I am SO excited about what this school year has in store, for myself and for all of my students.

Summer is such a lovely time to step back and allow space for ideas to brew…and develop into plans. Goodness do I have some plans for this school year!

Sneak peek: More makerspace how-to YouTube videos, lots of detailed blog posts chock full of helpful information (and personally experienced pitfalls) free downloadable forms and more!

Stay tuned here to see how it all unfolds.

“Makerspace is interesting, surprising and FUN!” – Second Grader