Why #MakerEd?

Now, more than ever, people need to find things to do with their time. There is a whole generation of people that went through school without learning to build and make things as part of learning. I imagine that these people are restless with the various lockdowns across the country. 

For me, and many others out there, making things has helped pass the time. Building things out of wood or coding items for a Raspberry Pi, micro:bit, or something else has given me an outlet while stuck in side keeping my family and strangers safe. Knowing how to make things and sharing that with my son and with people online is important to me because I want people to learn and create. 

As a teacher, it is so important to me that students leave my class with the sense that they can make things on their own if they have to. Whether it is coding a game through MakeCode or building in Minecraft, I want to empower them to build what they want, when they want. MakerEd is so important because it is giving a generation of students the tools to create. We have a world filled with consumers and we need more creators. MakerEd is how we, as teachers, help shift the dynamic. 

Please consider exploring what MakerEd and Project Based Learning looks like for your learning environment and make some moves to embed it into your classes. These are not just skills to master a curriculum, but skills that will help student be well rounded people.