Many years ago, I was given a chance to teach a mixed-age group of high school students in an after-school program. My official title was Lead S.T.E.M. Instructor. With my strong background in Biological Sciences coupled with my desire to build real relationships with the young people I serve, I knew this after-school gig was gonna be a breeze. I just needed to do what I do, and I would be fine.
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I made some great relationships with those young people. One is still my buddy, an aspiring baker who is returning to school again to learn about accounting. What I didn't really expect was to be the Coach of a High School Robotics Team. I knew bacteria, DNA, genetics, not 'bots, coding, and circuits.

Being the kinda learner that I am, I got online and started my research. I found out about Arduino boards and coding, which became the foundation of my day-to-day learning experiences with them to prep for the Robotics Competition. But the more I dug into the work, the more I began to read about the Maker movement, which was still very new at the time. As I dove into the Maker life, I began to learn more about the ideals behind this movement, central being access to tools and experts with agency to determine your learning and design path.

Whoa. This shit was deep. And it changed me. It changed how I thought about my students. It changed how I thought about my role as an educator. I began learning with and from the young people I served rather than trying to always teach to and at them. I believe young people can lead their learning path. I believe I can learn from and with them.

​One of the authors that helped me remodel myself, helped me to rethink my practice and embrace iteration and change and risk-taking was Gary Stager. His book, Invent to Learn, with Sylvia Libow Martinez, came to my attention as I researched and learned about Seymour Papert, the father of Constructionism. This book was a turning point for me. It grounded me and helped me think through my changing perceptions and perspectives.

When I saw that he was leading a workshop in Boston titled, "Lessons for the Maker Movement from Reggio Emilia", I jumped at the chance to learn from and with him. I was happy to find like-minded colleagues with whom I had connected online around our shared belief in learner agency and changing school - from online video chats and written discussions to face-to-face connecting.

We all started the morning learning about Reggio Emilia. It doesn't take too much imagination to realize that the approach of Reggio Emilia, meant for 0-6 year olds, can be applied to much older children. Perhaps adults, too? Reggio Emilia believes that children are competent. Teachers should be researchers, trying to learn about each child's learning progress, and thinking about how new ways approaching the world might help a child learn something new. The environment is filled with authentic and deliberate materials. Children explore authentic problems. And there is documentation of their learning, lots of it, and it tells a story about the learner.

Gary also connected the Reggio Emilia approach to the Maker movement and computing. I spent the day learning with a teacher team from an independent school in Connecticut. My friends from Mass were at neighboring tables. We explored a variety of materials and resources for making any number of things we could imagine. I made a pig mask, originally meant to be a dog, but the pig came to life as I built it, so that's what it was. The materials made my decision for me.

A good prompt is worth a 1000 words. And we got one of the best prompts I've heard, "Make a bird. Singing and dancing is appreciated." I want to be clear about this folx, we had explored materials for 45 minutes. We were given Hummingbird Duo kits to build our bird 'bots - none of us had used these kits before. We were given 2 hours to build and a small set of instructions for the 'Bot kits. And we were given feathers. Lots of feathers. Each team of 4-5 educators made some pretty spectacular birds. Not all birds worked, but all had a plan to share and next steps to make it even better. We helped each other, we laughed with each other, and we were inspired by each other. This is what learning can look like.  I believe all students should have opportunities to learn and make and explore their inherent curiosity.
(Check out the slideshow at the end of this post to see our bird creations)

This past week, I was inspired by two pieces that caught my eye.  The first was an article on Medium.con by Rafranz Davis describing why she chooses to Tweet about something she cares about (#BTSArmy) and not always about education and EdTech.  It is important to remember that educators are more than a brand or a single line of expertise.  We have interests and passions in other areas, and we should be able to explore those interests and passions.  

I also found myself perusing books on Amazon by Seth Godin.  I already read Linchpin, and I was thinking about getting another to read.  I was caught by the sub-title of Godin's Poke the Box - When was the Last Time You Did Something for the First Time?  

When was the last time I did something for the first time?  I decided it was too long, and it was time to start learning something new for fun.  Some of these forays into learning over the past few weeks have been based in my own interests and passions, others are things I thought I might be interested in, but just never took time to meddle with.

Unfinished 'Bots and Builds

I have a bad habit of starting really cool projects to build, and then working on "contractor time" to complete them.  I have been building a Raspberry Pi photo booth for about a year (as written about HERE, HERE, and HERE).  More recently, though, I was inspired by one of my favorite 'bot builders, Simone Giertz.  I wanted to build a ridiculous robot.  I asked my colleague, toni, "If you could have a robot to do any stupid or ridiculous task for you, what would you want it to do?"

"I want it to unroll toilet paper for me while I'm in the bathroom."

YASSSS!  That was exactly the kind of ridiculousness I was looking for!  Of course as soon as I heard this idea, ideas for a robot came flooding into my mind.  And so began the conversation, planning, sketching, and prototyping of the Pussy Cat Toilet Paper Pusher.  

While this is unfinished, it gets me thinking and reading about things I normally might not venture into learning.  I wasn't super interested in creating a feline form, but the Ridiculous Challenge hooked me.

Tuning In My Inner Artist

I have an apartment full of random supplies for making a variety of things in life, from sewing to robot building to painting.  I decided it was time I tried my hand at being a painter.  I selected a picture from the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam.  I got most of the background in place, and my next step (probably tonight) is to get the flowers on the canvas.  (Picture of actual flower below, not my painted version.)

First, I no longer want my walls as bare they are.  I want pieces on the walls of my apartment that represent my ridiculous tastes and interests, and then I want them spread through the apartment along the ROYGBIV color spectrum on the walls.  

Beyond this, I have been thinking about the process for my first efforts into the painting world.  I am going to try again to paint this same picture, hoping, of course, to improve upon my first attempt.  I will add pictures of each attempt to paint this flower after each is finished.  

Baker Maker

I spent this weekend diving into the world of baking.  I am trying to cook more for myself so I can stop eating all the processed foods that are shoved into our faces at the grocery stores.  So with flour, water, some oil and a lot of time, I took a chance and tried to bake my first loaf of bread.

I love the connections between cooking and science.  And baking takes the cake in science connections (see what I did there).  Watching the dough bubble away with the fermentation of sugars by my yeasty friends made me really happy.  My kitchen smelled great.  I used some whole wheat flour in my flour blend, and the bread came out a little dense, but it came out, friends.  Warm, with a crunchy crust, chewy interior.  I'm pretty damn proud of that loaf.

Circling Back

Balance in your personal life is important.  Sometimes educators forget that they are more than their classroom selves.  I did for a long time.  Exploring new ideas can help you get unstuck from yourself when you're in a rut.  It can help you learn something new about the world and about yourself you might not have known was there.  

I enjoyed doing these new things for the first time.  I am going to enjoy circling back to the Pussy Cat Toilet Paper Pusher.  I hope toni can deal with my delayed completion time as I play with other new skills and ideas.

And thanks to Rafranz and her passion for the Bangtan Boys, I enjoy listening to BTS now.  I'm not necessarily BTS ARMY material, but more than a few of their songs have a thumbs up in my playlist.  I'm always happy when they come up in a random shuffle of music.  

When is the last time you did something for the first time?

I was worried on Day 2 that I might not be that into Python coding.  I just wasn't able to engage myself in the work of practicing the code.  My frown has been turned upside down.  All that I was missing was my Raspberry Pi!

After a few missed days of learning, I reinvested in the process and decided to spend some extended time on the project to see if I could get into the learning flow.  I spent almost 2 hours hooking back into my Pi, reading through some of my older screenshots, and then continuing the Instructables Class on Raspberry Pi (see my previous post for the link).

I learned a lot of new code.  I learned about connecting the Python Shell to the Linux Shell in the Raspberry Pi so that I can code in Python and affect the overall system.  I pushed the "Conversation" code to interact in Linux, and I launched a video stored on the Pi from the Python Shell.  I was feeling excited again.

Now I'm pumped!  I was feeling energized and wanted to do more.  I was asking myself questions to learn more about the code structures, and I used my resources to find the answers to most of my questions.  I still don't know what stopped me from accessing the pygame.mixer to play sounds, but that is a task for another day.  I was able to access the Pi Camera through the Python Shell and take a few pictures.  I even coded for increased brightness.  It wasn't always a perfect code, but I learned a lot from practicing.

I'm already thinking of ways to use this setup once it is done.  Of course I will create a photo booth as the class shows, but I also am thinking about a portable document scanner to document learning from around my district.  

I also learned about dealing with my frustration and boredom.  Finding new ways to engage int he work helped me.  I think I might have also been helped if I were learning this with someone.  (If anyone want to join me on this journey, feel free to reach out.)  

I have also been very aware of mental downtime (AKA Distraction/Off-task) and how it helps processing of new information, as well as providing some needed breathing room to alleviate frustration.  Do we do this enough for students?  Is there something that can change about a classroom's culture to account for the need for mental downtime and percolation time? 

I spent time today introducing myself to the programming language Python.  After only about 30 minutes of reading and trying a few lines of code, I'm definitely still unsure of my python-ability, but it seems pretty intuitive.  Bear in mind, years ago I did use the Arduino microcontroller for a variety of projects in an after-school physical computing class.  I feel like this experience has made the reading of Python code much easier for me in this early stage of learning.

My plan today was to bring my Raspberry Pi gear to the Saturday school where I was serving as a substitute Site Director for the day, and try to find 30 minutes to continue the Instructables Raspberry Pi Class that leads to my project goal of the Photo Booth (see Blog Post Day 1).  As is par for the course when I try to function without enough coffee, I completely forgot to pack my Pi.

I had my personal laptop with me, and I logged into the course to see if I could continue the learning process sans-Pi.  It really only required the use of the Python Programming language, so I went to work finding the software for download.  I also wondered if I might find more engaging tutorials outside of the Instructables Class.  Through my search, I learned about the history of Python (began in 1985) and that it was actually named after Monty Python, not the snake.

I also learned a bit more about myself as a learner.  Tutorials that are step-by-step guides on teaching Python through learning basic code do not engage me.  I learned how to get basic things to pop up like, "Hello, World!" and how to code for a basic conversation with formatted answers in response to inputs from a user.  I also learned how to write a basic mathematical formula calculating interest.  But it was SOOOOOO boring to me.

I'd like to say I know myself as a learner, and I like to learn by doing.  Let me jump into the mix.  The more abstract the task, the less I like it.  To cook something new, I will read a little, and then try the recipe.  When I was a teacher, I wanted to put stuff into practice.  I wasn't afraid of trying new things, and learning from the experience with my students.  We

With Python, I need to do more than recreate code with inputs and outputs.  I know, technically, that is "doing" something with code.  I'm sure that works for some folks, but it was frustrating me because I was boring myself.  As I'm writing this, though, I'm wondering if I would have been as bored if I weren't in a room alone trying this out.  Would the experience have been different if I were learning socially?

I am going to try and find more interactive, physical computing projects, or maybe I will breeze through the Instructables Class Python Intro Lesson and jump into the next one which involves coding for physical computing.  I feel like I need to see more than just a few lines on a computer screen.  I want to build something. 

I'd love to hear about your process.

• Do you know any great sites or YouTube channels that might inspire my learning of Python? 
  
• Do you have the same issues when learning code? 
  
• How do you combat the boredom I felt?  Or do you fight it at all?  Switch to a different project?  

I said I would try again, so I"m going for it!  I met with a group of Assistant Principals from around my school District this week.  We discussed our beliefs around learning, what it means, and what conditions are best for learning for our students and ourselves.  This prompted me to bring up again the 30 Days of Learning Challenge with them.

30 Days of Learning Challenge

Basic Challenge Rules:  Thinking about the discussion we had about conditions for learning, make one simple change in your school community or classroom that will bring your closer to living your beliefs.  Try this new condition for 30 days.  Document your journey in whatever way works best for you.  Share with colleagues during and after the 30 days for feedback and reflection.

Step Up Challenge:  Expand your learning journey by stepping up the challenge intensity.  Document your journey through a blog or other online posting to share your learning journey for feedback and reflection with a global audience.  Actively seek feedback from new readers, leaders, and learners.

Step Out Challenge:  Forget about school and education.  Learn something new you have always been curious about an interested in learning.  It could be a new cooking style, an instrument, a mindful moment, creating, coding... anything, really.  Practice this new skill for at least 30 mins a day for 30 days.  Document your journey for feedback and reflection. 
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And so I begin again, with some new colleagues, on a learning journey.  The last 30 Day Challenge for me, I attempted to improve both my questioning technique for coaching (Basic+Step Up) as well as trying to learn American Sign Language (Step Out).  Scroll through my previous posts to see how that went.  It was definitely a fun experience.

For this 30 Days of Learning, I'm only going to focus on a Step Out Challenge.  I am going to spend at least 30 mins a day for 30 days learning with a Raspberry Pi.  I have a project that was started and never finished, and I have been wanting to learn more about these boards for a long time.

For Day 1, I am reflecting on the progress I already made with my Raspberry Pi photo booth project and planning next steps.  I already did a lot of coding in this one, so for today, I recap what I have already accomplished in my Photo Booth project.

I haven't decided if that is going to be the only focus of my work during the next 30 days.  I have been reading MagPi magazine and getting lots of new ideas to try.  I am also reading Lifelong Kindergarten by Mitchel Resnick, and I want to dig into Scratch programming.  Hopefully finding a way to connect Scratch and Pi together.  I also have a Raspberry Pi Zero to try out.  I am excited about what I can create and what I'm going to learn.  Looking forward to Day 2 tomorrow.

If you have ideas or projects to challenge a novice maker like me to build, please share with me.  And be sure to give me feedback on the work I do as I progress over the next 30 days.

I had an amazing day with young people at the District 1 Make-A-Thon at PS 15 Roberto Clemente School yesterday.  Families from the host school and others within our District were shown a student made video about pinball machines.  They were also given a brief description of the Design Process, from Planning to Presentation.  And then they were set loose.

I watched these young Maker families create plans for their design of an arcade machine.  Some chose common machines like pinball and skeeball.  Others tried to combine ideas like skeeball with a special basketball hoop.  Some created their own new game.

The young designers took their plans to the supply table and found cardboard, used plastic water bottles, duct tape of various colors and designs, and other miscellany to bring their ideas to life.  I couldn't believe my eyes!  In three hours, we had a cardboard arcade.  It was pretty magical.  I have shared some of the magic in a slideshow below.

Experiences like this always have me wondering.  

• If we give students a big question, some parameters for their thinking process, a little guidance when needed, and some time, can't we expect that they will be able to come through with powerful results?  
  
• What stops us from releasing our control of a learning path to those that are doing the learning?  
  
• How do we fight that fear and celebrate their ability to forge their own path of learning based on interest and passion?  
  
• How do we still incorporate a shared, co-created, learning path knowing that young people don't always know what they don't know?

Saturday morning, dragging myself out of bed around 5 a.m. so I can be in East Harlem by 8:30 was no easy task.  But then add to that the need to get three 16-17 year-olds out of bed and at our meeting place on time...  I should have just slept in.  To his credit, [BN] made it on time.  We got some coffee, waited for the other two to arrive, and we were finally on our way to the World Maker Faire in Queens by 9:30 a.m.

This will be my second time visiting with some of my crew. I taught these guys when they were like 10 and 11 years old.  I embrace every opportunity to remain connected to my former students.  I had a particularly strong connection with this cohort of students, specifically these young men and few others from their class.  Continuing our learning journey together is one of the highlights of my days.  Add to that a day of Making and Idea Brainstorming, and I was in heaven!

And there was nothing wrong with them playing around, reinforcing their relationships with each other.  Even though I haven't been their Teacher for about 4 years, I had to learn to stop being a teacher in that moment.  I had to learn to be with them, not try to make them subdued, quieter, less fun.  I let go, and really just took in the experience of being with these young men at Maker Faire, one of whom was having his first Maker experience.

But Making wasn't the only thing he was experiencing, and it became another moment of learning for me.  As we walked through the booths, [MH] said, "Yo, [JD], nobody here looks like you."

"I know," [JD] said.

I stopped staring at circuit boards and took a moment to look around.  A few things hit me at that moment:
1.  My being a white male usually means I don't look around and notice things like that, even when I'm with young men of color.  
2.  Why were there so few young people of color?  
3.  How do these guys feel now?  How can I try and understand their perspective?

But my learning wouldn't stop there.  I watched as one of the guys took a seat in an empty seat on the side of a booth, just resting.  The booth employee walked over and said, "Excuse me, sir, that seat is only for people filling out this form.  You can stay there if you want to fill one out."

The comments he made led with a you-don't-belong-here but I guess you can stay if you'll do X.  Why could he not say something like, "Hi, my name is Blah Blah, if you take a moment to fill out our form, I'd like to share some information about our booth with you.  It's okay if you're not interested, but would you mind giving up the seat if someone comes by to give their information?"  How hard is that?

I spoke with my guys later and made the point of asking questons for all of us to think about like...

Overall, we had a good day together.  But there were some big questions that came up.  I'm still reflecting and thinking about what I saw that day.  Thankfully, these guys are thinking about it, too.  They want to start their own "club" with a few more friends that are interested in learning about Making, Creating, Coding, and Design.  I have agreed to be their adult mentor.  I want to arm them with a design-thinking mindset, intense curiosity, and a drive to look at problems and find solutions.

Now we need to find our space.  But they are ready.  I am ready to join them, learn with them.  The work for our crew continues...

On a very typical Saturday morning in my new neighborhood in Brooklyn, I was out early to meet with friends and shop for fun things to grill at our picnic in the park.  It was a beautiful morning, not too hot, sun shining brightly, a cool breeze - everything to make for a great day.  And then I turned on 17th St to head down to the grocery store...

Lo and behold!  A street filled with kid-constructed contraptions for coasting downhill!  A soap box derby was being prepared.  I could not have been happier to see these young people working on a team with a crew of friends and family to help with last minute construction.  Kids whizzing down the street to get the fastest time.  There were smiles on everyone's face, especially mine.

The varied designs were whimsical and created by the young drivers.  The parts were spare with tires from kid bikes and trikes and from luggage and skates, all co-opted for long ride downhill.  I watched young people explaining their designs with pride, using power tools with skill, and asking their peers for help and about their own creations.

It was my first and South Slope's 10th Annual Soap Box Derby that made this day special.  Organizations like Koko NYC make these events possible.  Experiences like this need to happen more in our schools, not only during the summer!  How do we get students out of the building, surround them with spare parts and tools, and provide a mission to create something from nothing that never existed before they imagined it was possible?  

Get outside, explore your inherent curiosity and creativity, and Make.  

Do you have spare parts for events like this?  Do you want to be part of events like this?  Are you a grown-up kid that also wants to build a soap-box racer?  Do you have space for parts and storage?  I'd love to hear about and explore ideas.

I was happy to see young Makers Do It Together in a friendly, fun competition.  Yes, Yes! to the sign - All Power to the Imagination!

While I am still a devoted educator, I no longer serve students as a teacher.  This year has been a really tough transition for me.  I love working with young people.  As expected, I was able to share appreciation of teachers with whom I work, but I do not get any of that teacher love myself, not anymore.  

I ended my week and headed out for an IPA with my buddy, Dwight, and read the cards his students made for him.  They were funny and touching.  The clear message from those cards was that Dwight is appreciated and loved by his students.  Such a great thing to see, but so bittersweet.  I don't get cards and thank you letters.  Don't get me wrong, the work I do is very rewarding, but I miss the love of my students.

I called my former student MH at the end of Friday to confirm our Saturday plans for us to visit a college campus downtown.  We chatted for a few minutes, then he asked me to hold on a second, and he passed his phone to someone.  "Uh, hello?  Who's this?"

"Hey, Mr. Glover.  It's [JD].  How you doing"
"Holy crap, it's great to hear your voice [JD]!  What's up?"
"Listen, Glover, I was hoping to come hang out with you and [MH]."
"You want to visit the college? I already have [MH] and [BN] going with, it's gonna get crowded..."
"No, G, I mean I want to hang out with you when you and [MH] go to make stuff.  I want to  learn how to make circuits and stuff."
"Of course you can come!  I'd love to work with you, too."  And the smile begins to broaden on my face.
"OK, G, it was good to talk to you.  Hold on a sec..."
"Yo, Glover, what's good?"
"Uh, who's this?"
"It's [RG], dude.  Can I come, too?"
"You want to learn to build electrical circuits and use Arduino?"
"Yeah.  I always wanted to learn about that stuff.  Can I please go with you?"
"Of course.  I'm happy to have you all.  Can you pass me back to [MH].  Hey, [MH], dude, we have a LOT of planning to do with our group growing like this!  I'm really excited, though, and I'm glad you told them."

I have four young men from East Harlem asking to give up their free time to spend it learning something new, with me, just for the sake of learning and hanging out.  What better way of being appreciated?  That's more than enough of the love I was missing.

​Now I just have to find a place where we can work.  Open to ideas for multi-purpose rooms and learning spaces - any space where we can brainstorm, research, and build together. 

 I decided to do something I haven't done in a LONG time.  I gave myself a #MakerSunday day of building and learning.  It has been a while since I put things together and wrote out some code.  And I wanted today to be a challenge, so I took out a #RaspberryPi and started downloading the Operating System.  

I am working on a project outlined in the Instructables Raspberry Pi class.  I knew I wanted to build today with some guidance, and I knew the end product was a photo booth.  It sounded fun, and I had all the parts - no more excuses, get to building!

The biggest part of the day was spent exploring and learning about the Raspberry Pi.  The instructions allowed me to learn about what the code meant that I was typing in, something I never got from some of the "gaming" code learning in my Pi-Top.  I learn by doing things that happen in the real world, not on a game screen.  I'm sure there are others that learn through gaming, but it's not my thing.  (To be clear, I do love the Pi-Top, just wasn't the right tool for me.)

​I did learn the basics of Raspberry Pi set up, including a few screw ups with formatting the disc and uploading the Pixel OS.  I worked through them, fixed my formatting, uploaded, and got into setting up.  In minutes I was online thanks to the Raspberry Pi 3's built-in WiFi.  I quickly learned basic command lines, file making, and getting program packages for operating the camera module.  

Next thing I know, not only am I able to capture screenshots of my work, but I'm capturing selfies!  By the end of my Raspberry Pi time for the day, I had merged 5 pictures into an animated GIF of myself (appears at the end of the post).  Oh the time I'm going to waste with this new function.

Like many students, I learn by doing.  I need to interact with new information, make something with it, and play a little, to make the learning stick.  I will continue my work on this project, and then try to create my own program once it is all done.  I have a goal for the completion of the project, and a goal to make something new using what I've learned.  

I also have been anxious to share this experience.  I caught myself HUGELY smiling as I executed the program that caught my image.  Even more after moving the program to a new file, and then typing the correct command to find and execute in the new directory.  I feel accomplished, and more than a little geeky happy today.  

This experience must translate to schools.  Students, like I did today, find instructions online for anything new they really want to learn.  They are adept at sharing their learning through video posts and now even Live Video.  Having the space and time to make something from scratch, program it to do what you want, and then share with others - it is immensely empowering.  How do we set the stage for more experiences like these?  It doesn't take a programmable piece of hardware to make something new and with purpose.  Embrace the curiosity and creativity inherent in our little humans and let them make.

I attended my first Edcamp yesterday - edcampNYC.  I was able to interact and learn with educators from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware.  We came with elementary, middle, and high school backgrounds in public, private, and charter schools.

I enjoyed learning from Kelly O'Shea who shared her classroom experience that revolves around student discourse and the $2 whiteboard.  I can't wait to get to Home Depot to make some for myself.

Had a great time with BreakoutEDU, both the physical puzzles and digital puzzles.  There are so many ways to use these kits.

But I am most inspired by the ideas that were shared by educators during our session on Maker Mindsets.  My big takeaway from this session was the idea that a MakerSpace can be anywhere.  It is a place to let ideas grow.  Put an index card on a table with MakerSpace written in bold letters, and you are ready to go.  MakerSpaces are not defined by equipment or materials.  Participants think about themselves as a Problem Finder, not just a Problem Solver.  

After this great day of idea-sharing and educator-led learning, we then got to visit the Skill Mill NYC, a new MakerSpace on the Upper West Side.  What a great space for bringing ideas to life.  I can't wait to sign up for a class (or two, or three).  Feeling inspired this weekend!

I have been using Codebender.cc to store my Arduino coding for about 3 years.  I introduced my students to this cloud-based coding tool, also.  Sadly, they are shutting down their service.  They will be sorely missed.

I spent time this morning searching for a new cloud coding server.  I have signed up for GitHub and for Arduino Create, but I'm not sure if either of those platforms will be the right answer for me.  If anyone has a cloud-based platform they use, please Comment below or go to the Contact Me section of MakersDIT.com and let me know what you use.  I want a platform that will work for multiple board types, but that can be easily accessed by novice users.