Quotes to Inspire Your Students

If you ask any of my students that I have had over the past 40 years about what it was like to be in my classroom, there are always some common themes...

• Where The Red Fern Grows. 
• Mr. Hoefs was CRAZY. 
• And you'll almost always have someone mention a quote that has stuck with them through the years that I had hanging on the wall and drilled into their minds.

For many, many years, I had written the quotes and sayings on white tag board sheets with black permanent markers. Then I got fancy and had my students help me create some more colorful signs to hang in our Maker Space.

Jolene has started taking some of these favorite sayings and quotes of mine and turning them into beautiful and classroom-worthy posters. We've come a long way, baby (don't worry, that's not actually one of the posters!). Watch our store as she adds some of my favorite "-isms" and words of wisdom in ways I never expected to see these quotes in print - and you can print them yourself! 

I can't believe I didn't ask her earlier to help me with these...what a TRANSFORMATION!

Plus she's created them so that you can send them to a print shop or print them on your own. Check them out here! 

All you need is love...

Since my retirement last summer, I've picked up small teaching job and am volunteering at our local high school ag department. This week I met with five students and we have two IBC containers that we're getting aquaponics started in for the semester. If my experience is anything like in the past with aquaponics, that number of interested students will grow quickly!

However, the latest craze we have been exploring are using SMD LEDs to create holiday cards. We created a few for Christmas...but with Valentine's Day on the horizon we wanted to do something a little more impressive {if you're going to give your Valentine something, it's worth the effort to look good, right?!}. Check it out! Our technology experience is growing, too.

We even made a GIF.

For real.

We're getting pretty savvy around here...

via GIPHY

To make this card yourself, you can get our step-by-step directions by clicking here, or I can give you a rough breakdown. Basically you need three pieces of paper or cardstock, some SMD LEDs, (we used four in our example), copper tape, a coin battery, and some creativity!

Decorate your paper in any card style you'd like. On one piece, you'll need to decorate the "outside" to make a card, on the other, you'll decorate the "inside" and leave the back side blank. These will be fitted together at the end.

Run your tape to create a parallel circuit. Place your LEDs and battery in place, testing your LEDs as you go along. Take your third piece of paper, cut to fit over the copper wiring. Punch holes on that third piece of paper so that you can see the LEDs. We also cut a heart out of the middle so the lights really shine through! Tape the inside message to the outside message, fold, and send to your love. Full step-by-step directions can be found here.

Makers Space Tour - Illinois Children Museums

Last weekend we took a mini family vacation to Moline, Illinois. Our grandkids are crazy about John Deere and it's the perfect place to take them for big JOHN DEERE fun!

While in the Quad Cities, we visited the Family Museum a small, but fantastic place for children to learn through play. I combed for ideas for organizing our Makers Lab while we were there!

The Family Museum in Bettendorf, Iowa had an elegant way to lay out their workbenches where children could come in and build from materials that were provided. Just look at these work sites! They even have multiple heights to accommodate various heights of kids.

This museum was geared toward younger kids, which we witnessed with our younger grandchildren (those under 5) feeling right at home. The older two kids, 6 and 11, still had a good time and were able to make and create.

Our second museum stop was a detour on our way home. We stopped at the Discovery Center Museum in Rockford, Illinois which was amazing! We were visiting over Halloween weekend so we were lucky to participate in a Pumpkin Chuckin' special event where kids launched pumpkins using a large and a small scale trebuchet. Inside the museum, we couldn't get the kids out! This time we only had our two older grandkids, the rest had headed home. The older ones enjoyed themselves and I think our younger ones would have had just as much fun.

There were great opportunities for the kids to create and make. Our two kids designed their own woodworking projects and built upon their skills.

The following two photos are some of the items on display. The atmosphere was inspiring.

I saw some wonderful examples of organizing and establishing the Makers Lab that I couldn't help but comb for our Makers Lab. Check out the materials storage below. These are 3 and 5 gallon buckets set into crafted plywood shelving units. Holes are cut into the plywood and the buckets rest neatly inside. Duct tape in colorful patterns is placed across the bottom one-third of the buckets to help keep items contained. For any of you in a Makers Lab or Makers Space, you can imagine what this collection can bring to the chaos that is a Makers Space!

These are larger cardboard barrels with various pieces of wood, styrofoam, cardboard, plastic... essentially junk! But this junk can be treasure when sorted and stored so children can easily begin imagining and creating. And when the time is up, it's easy for the kids to sort their items back out.

If you're looking a creative way to spend an afternoon in the Midwest, I'd recommend both the Family Museum in the Quad Cities area and the Discovery Center in Rockford, Illinois. Your kids will thank you for it...and you'll probably have fun too!

Makers Lab: Magnetic Soccer Game

This is my last post from my visit to the Makers Lab last week. I'll be back to post updates on all of the projects in the next couple of weeks!

The enthusiasm of the kids is rubbing off on me as I hurry from group to group. I am nearing the end of the 45 minute class period and I hurry to the table next to Tyler programming and writing code, where Artie and Luke are creating a magnetic soccer board.

They are using cardboard for their prototype, but they explain that plywood conducts the magnets better so that is what they will use for their final product. They were using a hot glue gun and various magnets and metals to determine the smoothest playing. It was so fun to watch these two as they worked. They were a great team. They worked together and bounced ideas off of one another.

They were so happy to show me their work. Once they get their players glued onto their magnetic "skies" and moving smoothly on the board they will begin to move towards their final product. I can't wait to show you an update (and hopefully play a round or two! Seriously, who wouldn't want to play this game with these little magnetized-LEGO people?!). 

I can't wait!

Friday Fun!

Oh, sweet Friday afternoon. I'm sitting down to post this blog and drink some tea. I almost spit out my tea when I read the tag...so maybe I laughed harder than a normal person might have, but when the school year begins, we look forward to Fridays even more than the summer! My niece and nephew have gone back to school so it's just me and The Boy (the three year old boy). The days are a little longer.

This week, we started some mini lessons in the morning. Finn and I are beginning to study some sight words. Anyone have any suggestions for teaching a rambunctious three year old?! He is excited to learn, but as a non-educator myself, I am stumbling along with the actual "teaching" portion. We end up doing some reading and follow up with some sort of craft project (because that's what I'm good at and Finn likes to do!).

Jerry has had a busy first week back to school! He took his eighth graders on a field trip to learn about glacial deposits. I'll be posting some photos in the coming days. His kids were really excited to have a field trip during the very first week of school!

In the mean time, for some more Friday Fun, check out this incredible infographic demonstrating the distance from Earth to Mars. It really puts space in perspective! I think I'll use it in "Finn School" next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

-Jolene