Maker Month Madness

As the month of March draws to a close, so does one of the most unique experiences I've had in education thus far. Our last week of class dealing with 'Maker Spaces' was incredible! We got to spend the majority of the class period playing with virtual computer games that were controlled by the movement of our hands instead of a mouse and these crazy little things called 'Makey-Makey's' (pictured below) which allowed us to hook up random items like marshmallows to your keyboards to control certain keys. From there, we were able to do crazy things like play a virtual piano or a game of Tetris with said random items. It was so amazing! The entire class period sparked an interest that I didn't even know I had, and I found myself learning things through exploration rather than direct instruction. Nobody told us how to use these things, and as a result, everybody had different outcomes (none of which were more or less correct). It was a great lesson on the importance of curiosity and the value of new technology in the classroom.

I would love to try and incorporate these kinds of things in my classroom someday. However, at this point, I'm not entirely sure how I would do it. A lot of the things we learned through the process were more science related, and I have been having a hard time thinking outside the box enough to come up with an idea for how to use these things in an ESL classroom. I think that integration between subjects is very important though, and I would love to try and do something that helps students learning English to better understand the science concepts embedded in these games. This may be a lesson on the vocabulary associated with electrical circuits followed by class time that lets my students play with something like a Makey- Makey, or trying to create a virtual game/ world that allows the students to learn the vocabulary through exploration as well-- I don't know yet. Regardless, I think the possibilities are endless and this activity once again shows the importance of trying to incorporate various technologies into any classroom setting, even if it is not something that directly ties to the subject you are teaching.