When Teachers Stand Back, Students Step Up

For a while, I have been telling the stories of how the Maker Movement changes everything for kids, teachers, school leaders and communities. I love to write about these things and share them personally, but I’ve felt for a long time that I could do more to increase the impact of this work.

Part of the Champion of Change in Making nomination came with a request from the White House to hear from us what commitments we can all make that will continue to grow a #NationOfMakers. I chose to create and publish a new podcast as one of my commitments and it just went live today! I am excited to share this as yet another avenue to broaden awareness and access to the magic that maker education brings to our schools and our children.

The first episode is an interview with teacher and true education hero, Phil Mishoe, who just finished his first year teaching in the makerspace at Maywood Middle School. Phil used the plan that we created as his guide to teach 180 days of making and the results were incredible. It’s important to me that people get to know about this program, not just from me, but also from the teacher who was there every single day doing the good work. Phil shares his insight, advice, and authentic take on what making was for his kids in Corning, California and I think you’ll really enjoy hearing him speak about what happened.

I love telling these stories because it’s the human outcomes of the work I am so passionate about. In the coming weeks, we will be sharing more of these stories with new episodes, so stay tuned! In the meantime, you can find Phil’s interview here: https://soundcloud.com/user-752555821/interview-with-teacher-phil-mishoe-on-the-impact-of-making-in-education

These stories and the resources we created for this program are being published in a book, 180 Days of Making, this summer! Check out the Kickstarter campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/buildthefuture/building-kids-futures-through-180-days-of-making