March 1 - Making Makers with a Maker Mindset

Welcome to our second annual March is for Making series, where we strive to share 30 blog posts in 30 days that are filled with inspiration from our #makered community.

Last year we created a gallery of inspiration where our #makered community shared school maker space tours, classroom maker projects, and fun maker tutorials. 

This year we have even more stories of maker educators sharing how they include creating and making to help students learn.  Stay tuned throughout the month for stories of educators on their own journey of creating confidence through making.  We have some virtual tours of maker spaces coming  your way. You'll find  some helpful "how" to tutorials that  include maker projects and tips we've picked up along the way. 

As the Create Make Learn community continues to grow through our annual summer institute and through the people we create and make with throughout the year, the ideas and inspirations also grow - and we'd like to share some of our favorites in a new post each day during this   March is for Making series. 

As we gear up for another month of sharing and inspiring each other, I'd like to kick things off with a poem that reminds us  that a maker space is not a room filled with fancy3D printers, laser cutters,  and electronics.  A maker space is that amazing space between your ears!  The space where you will imagine and start to create.  It's that place where your maker mindset kicks in and becomes the most important tool in your journey of creating and making.


Last August,  during the closing of our  Create Make Learn Summer Institute when everyone was sharing their take-aways from a week of creating, making and learning,   a fifth grade teacher from Beeman Elementary held up an oversized cardboard 'A' that she had made and shared her latest creation - a  poem that captured her take-away from the week  about the value of a maker mindset! 


Enjoy her impromptu recitation of her poem in this short video.

You Need an A

It’s just an A you may say

But I beg to differ

A common A in the eyes of an untrained mind

Unwilling or able to see

The potential of an A

Anywhere, anytime, anyplace

An A can become much more..

A Megaphone

Cheering the soul

To see more, hear more, create more, be more.

Why an A could be a truss in a grandeur Bridge,

Spanning the edge of two to become one.

Or the side of a towering skyscraper

Overlooking the sea of humanity

Have you thought of a giant A

As a crutch, or a stretcher on the

Worst fall you’ve ever had?

Everyone deserves an A

When your chips are down

And there is no place else to hang your gaze.

Or better yet, two A’s

Combined to make a special pair

Of glasses to shield one from the rays

Of a once in a lifetime solar eclipse

Or angel wings when you say

Goodbye to a friend, a grandmother

Or a memory too painful to forget.

You’ll need an A

On a day when your daughter

Goes off to Kindergarten,

Everyone needs a bow to go along with

Their dimples of  joy.

Or a bowtie for the prom of your first

To be old enough to make you realize

Your days are numbered

In the best job you’ve ever held.

So an A for you can be a discarded piece of trash

Fit only for the reduce, reuse, and recycle bin.

You could close your mind to the creative urge

To make the A bigger than who you are.

Or you can embrace the A

Call it your treasure instead of trash

And proclaim to the world, “It’s NOT just an A!”

                 
                   ~ Annette Carter  (2017)