Tag: Teaching

Zines on display in our library
Projects, Uncategorized

The Zines Project

Julie Darling

I’ve always been intrigued by Zines. The connection to feminism and counter culture is a potent, attention-grabbing mix. The Riot Grrrl movement in the 1990s, my introduction to zines, is fascinating. Current applications for zines still combine creative self-expression and providing a platform for under-represented voices. In this case the voices of kids.

Zines Defined

So what exactly are zines? They’re independently-produced, small run magazines. Before the proliferation of Internet-based blogs and social media, this was a powerful way to express ideas, particularly those outside of the main-stream. It still is.

Scaffolding a Zines Project

When introducing a zines project with kids start with some zines history. Follow this up by explaining that this is their opportunity to tell the world about something that matters to them. This could be a passion, something they know how to do, a story, or really anything else that’s meaningful. Zines can be words, images, or a combination of the two. Show them a few examples of kid-appropriate zines (or at least zine covers).

Since we made zines that were displayed to parents, sent to other schools, and to two independent bookstores, I asked students to make sure that their zines were appropriate for any age-group and didn’t include weapons or anything else frowned upon in the school setting (and I double-checked).

Zines on display during our parent night

I had them create a story outline using a beginning-middle-end storyboard. We practiced folding a mini-zine, using a template, to get the hang of it and so that they could visualize the pages and layout of their zines.

They created their zines on blank paper using their mini-zines template as guidance and I made four photocopies of each of their completed zines. Some students chose to add color and additional details to their copies before putting a copy into separate tubs to be distributed to; two schools, two independent bookstores and one copy to put on display for our parent night, (and take home to keep after). Next time we do this project, I’ll make one additional copy that they can share or trade with a friend.

Collaborating with Other Schools

Collaborating with other schools was serendipitous. One of my colleagues messaged that she was thinking of making zines with her students at the exact same time I was starting my lesson planning. She, another interested librarian, and myself shared resources and sent completed zines to each of the other schools. My students loved seeing the zines made by students at other schools.

Real-World Connections, Profits and Student Choice

The zines we sent to the bookstores were put on display. One of the stores sold each copy for $1. The proceeds were then used to purchase books for the library. The other store gave copies away and donated books to our library.

Books on display at local bookstore.
Photo Credit Meagen Kucaj – Schuler Books

The new books were chosen by the zine authors. I gave them links to a Google form to vote for the titles they wanted to see in our library, and links to resources such as the middle-grade New York Times Best-sellers list (and our online library catalogue so that they weren’t suggesting books we already owned). I made a compilation of their suggestions (with a little help from my fabulous library clerk), and had them vote for their top 3 choices.

You Should Make Zines Too!

I highly recommend making zines with kids. It’s exciting, incredibly engaging, has real-world connections, raises student voices and covers a whole host of leaning standards along the way.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Share questions, comments and other zine-related ideas in the comments below.

#zines #realworldconnection #studentvoice #studentchoice #library #makerspace #makereducation #schoollibraries

Makerspace Management, Utilizing Your Makerspace

Making Meaningful Makerspaces

Julie Darling
You can find projects like this infinity scarf, designed by fashion designer Netti Tiso, in my book You’ve Got a Makerspace – Now What? Teaching Kids to use Makerspace to Better Our World.
Publication date tentatively set for 2020.

As some of you know, I”ve been keeping a (poorly held) secret for the past year – I’ve been writing a book about makerspaces. It has been, hands down, one of the single most challenging experiences that I’ve ever had. It’s required a lot of sacrifice, most of all with my time. I’ve also gotten very comfortable with an unparalleled level of rejection of my thoughts…ideas…writing. 

However, I’ve also learned SO much. I’m a substantially better writer than I was when I started this process. I’ve also spent hours thinking about the purpose of makerspaces.

When I first started my book, it was titled Build and Manage a Makerspace for Kids. The aim of writing it was to keep those of you buildings makerspaces from having to make your way through in the dark. More specifically, to provide management techniques, thoughts about which tools work well with particular age groups, and best practices for teaching kids to use these tools. I wanted you to benefit from the thousands of hours I’ve spent figuring everything out.

By February, I was halfway through writing it, when my publisher contacted me and informed me that the marketplace was flooded with how to start makerspace books. I had to start over. I was devastated. They suggested that I write my book assuming that the reader has a makerspace already. It took me a little while to warm up to that idea. That wasn’t my original vision. I wasn’t sure that’s the book that I wanted to write. I wondered what I could contribute that would still be beneficial. 

This is when I started thinking about what we do well in our makerspace, and my immediate answer was passion projects. Which led to the next logical question – why do the passion projects get such great results? There is plenty of research out there that tells us that in order to get kids excited, engaged and passionate about school work there are two major motivating factors; choice, and some sort of real-world connection. The way that the passion projects are designed does both, which is why the kids stay engaged, and get incredible results. 

I only give them two rules; they can’t do anything that involves money, or weapons. I also ask them to figure out who is going to benefit from their projects – themselves (which is completely valid), their school, their community (neighborhood, sports team, place of worship or however they define that), or the whole world. This scaffolds them to think concretely about that real-world connection. From here, the kids take off. Some projects they’ve done include making and donating blankets to animal shelters, inventing a vending machine with food and supplies to help the homeless or people in areas that have been devastated by natural disasters, coding games, presenting plans to make everything in school more inclusive to a wheelchair bound friend, building working snowboards and designing and making clothing for their pets. You can check out photos and videos of some of these passion projects on my Twitter feed @julielibrarian or Instagram @growingmakerspace. 

Kids want to do good in the world. Giving them a way to do this, through the use of a makerspace, is the best way to utilize a makerspace for kids. I strongly urge you, if you have access to the incredible tools that makerspace provides, help kids learn to use those tools to better our world. If you want some suggestions on specific ways to do this, although I don’t yet have a firm publication date, my book You’ve Got a Makerspace – Now What? Teaching Kids to Use Makerspace to Better Our World will hopefully be out in the world at some point in 2020. I’ll keep you posted on that through this blog. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts or ideas to share on the topic, feel free to comment on this post. You are also welcome to shoot me an email at growingmakerspace@gmail.com .

Until next time!

Makerspace Management

The Argument for Teaching Kids to Make Things Bad on Purpose

Julie Darling

Working with kids isn’t simply about walking into a space and teaching. It also requires navigating the invisible baggage brought in by each kid –  from friendships going sour, to bullying, and other issues that you may not be aware of such as homelessness, food insecurity and abuse. You can’t look at kids and tell what their lives are like. Which is why I believe that it’s critical to be kind, and to try and make things less stressful, whenever possible. Adults are in a position of power over kids, and that’s an important thing to remember. As an adult, you have to be cognizant about how your words and decisions might make kids feel.

Maya Angelou said it best: 

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. 

-Maya Angelou

Several years ago I started teaching kids how to put together loops in GarageBand to create a unique conglomeration. I was pretty excited about this. It seemed like a great way to teach some solid skills and have fun in the process. Once we had a couple of sessions, the students were required to share 30 seconds of their piece with the class. Naturally, some of them were a little nervous. It’s scary to share your work with a group of peers.

However, one of my students was several steps beyond nervous. He was petrified. He was so worried about how the other kids would receive his piece that it was spilling into the rest of his life. He was having trouble sleeping. He was practicing with GarageBand during all of his free time. He wanted to come in to spend extra time outside of his regular class. Normally, kids wanting to come in for some extra time, to learn something, is a good thing. This wasn’t that. This kid was practically in tears when we talked about sharing his piece.  When I checked in with the class, he wasn’t the only one who was worried. Clearly, I needed to do something to help.   

When I talked with him about the way that he was feeling, what I garnered was that he was trying to make a perfect piece of music, which he perceived to be an impossible task. I think that a lot of our kids feel pressure to be perfect at everything. I recently attended a professional development workshop given by the author of At What Cost , a book that addresses this overall perfectionism trend (and is very a worthwhile read). The objective of the GarageBand lesson was not to create perfect music. It was simply to learn how to use the software, and hopefully have some fun in the process.  I came up with a solution to try and alleviate some of the stress – what if I gave the kids permission to make their music bad on purpose? 

When I presented this as an option to the class, the relief was visible on their faces. Some of them were even delighted. Making things bad on purpose feels subversive, which is appealing to some kids. From that point forward I’ve always presented this as an option – the students can experiment, make their music bad on purpose or try and make something beautiful. When they play their piece for the class they can opt to share which way they went with this, or they can simply leave it up for speculation.

Once the students were given permission to make their music bad on purpose, not only did they seem to be having more fun with the project, they also started trying out everything. Giving them permission to make a bad piece of music made them explore GarageBand more thoroughly, and learn more about the software, than ever before.  Obviously, not every assignment should have a – bad on purpose – option. But it worked very well for us, with this.

In fact, I think this has wider applications in the realm of makerspace, and teaching in general. For some kids, especially those prone to perfectionism, giving them permission to make things bad on purpose gives them a reason to explore things more deeply than they otherwise would. It allows students to not worry so much about making mistakes, which in turn leads to taking more risks. Risks are really important in school and in life. Taking some calculated risks allows innovation to flourish. If you are teaching, or running a makerspace, it’s critical to get students to a point where they are comfortable taking some risks and making some mistakes (assuming it’s not compromising safety). I would encourage you to find ways to give kids the option of making things bad on purpose.  You never know what happy accidents will result.

A Student’s In-progress GarageBand Piece