Impact of a Makerspace

One of the best parts of my day is checking in on Media Specialist/Teacher Librarian Laura Fleming as she always shares the incredible work her students are doing in the makerspace she created at New Milford High School. Whether it is pictures or Vine videos, each day I witness high school students tinkering, inventing, creating, and making to learn. She has created a learning space and environment that students truly find value in as they are afforded the opportunity to explore their passions, be creative, and take ownership over their learning.  Lately I have been seeing many pictures from a specific group of students who have developed an interest in building their own computers. Last week I was utterly amazed when Laura asked me to check out the website (NMHS Computer Designs) that these students had created. After looking it over I asked if one of the students would consider writing a guest blog post for me. Luckily for us he said yes.  I hope you enjoy this guest post by NMHS freshman Chris Pavone as he explains the impact Laura and a makerspace have had on his high school learning experience. 

My name is Chris and I am a freshman at a New Jersey High School.  I always had an interest in computers, but that increased even more thanks to my library makerspace. When I started school this year, I found out that the makerspace had a Take-Apart Tech Station where students could visit and take apart computers.  Through this I learned the parts of a computer.  I enjoyed the experience so much that my friends and I then decided to challenge ourselves and began to think what we really could do with computers.  We decided to not only take a computer apart, but also to then put it back together.  We also decided to make a new computer case to put our computer in.  

The first thing we had to do was find a working computer to take apart.  Once we did that, we carefully took everything out of it.   There were a lot of screws and parts to disassemble.  It took us about three days of working on it to get everything out without breaking any of the parts.  After the computer was completely taken apart, we then began to think of ideas for making a new computer case.  We started looking around the library and in the back room we saw some empty boxes.  This is when we decided to turn a regular cardboard box into our new computer case!

We planned out how we would arrange the computer components in the box and drew lines where we wanted all of the parts to be.  Instead of screws, we used hot glue to attach the pieces to where we wanted them to be in the box.   We cut out pieces of the box to make cutouts for all of the plugs.  In order to do this, we measured the pieces and the size of the holes we needed to cut in the box.   After that we only had to put in the hard drive and the CD drive into our case and on day four our new computer was assembled!

At that point we attached a monitor and a power supply and turned our computer on to test it.  As amateur technicians, we were not surprised that we ran into a few problems. We spent some time researching the error messages we were receiving.  After a few hours, and with the help of Mr. Caronia, a member of our school IT department, we figured out the adjustments we needed to make. After successfully booting up our computer, Mr. Caronia created a user account for us to be able to login and gain full access to our computer.  We set it up so that other people in the library could use it and test it out too.  Right away students were logging on and using the computer to play games and do their work.   They were shocked that a computer in a cardboard box could work!  My school principal even came down to look.  After a few days, we moved our computer out into the showcase in our hallway.

If it weren’t for our librarian and Mr. Caronia, none of this would have been possible. Although this project was difficult at times, it was so fun and we were proud to have pulled it off.  A few days later, we wanted to try the same thing again and this time we decided to turn an old G5 Mac into a Windows-based PC. Once again, we really enjoyed it!

At this point we decided to create a website in order to share our creations with other schools around the world. Our hope is that students and teachers all over will learn from our work.  Not only do we hope they learn from it, but we hope that they participate in it. Visitors can register on our site to receive updates, they can post messages and questions in our forum, and they can participate in our challenge.  On our site we have a challenge for students to build their own computers and put them in a creative case. Students who do this can submit creations to us and we will post them in our gallery. We are proud that we have comments from teachers all over the country on our site already.  I am also proud that a student contacted me to tell me how much my website impacted her and a project she was working on.  I was even contacted by a librarian looking for my help in setting up a makerspace for her library!  

We know this is just the beginning for us and have plans to continuing taking apart computers, creating creative computer cases and sharing them on our site.  We hope our work inspires others to do the same!

Our schools are in desperate need of teacher librarians and media specialists like Laura Fleming. Had it not been for her growth mindset and innovative spirit, the learning environment that invokes relevancy and meaning in Chris's school day would not have become a reality. This is now the case for hundreds of students at NMHS. Informal learning is just as powerful, if not more, than formal learning.  Create a space that works for kids and let them make for the sake of making. 

Why Do You Blog? A Student's Perspective

The following is a guest post by New Milford High School sophomore Sarah Almeda. After learning about her Chemistry blog titled Avogadro Salad I asked her to share some insight on the importance of blogging from a student's perspective. I was so blown away by what she wrote below that I went against my long standing personal policy of not following my students on Twitter. Please take a minute to read Sarah's post below, share a comment with her, and check her out on Twitter. This is one amazing student!

...Um, because Ms. Smith made me?  

Lol, jk. (That’s, “laughing out loud, just kidding” in teenspeak, that fictional language adults seem scared of...?)

I’m Sarah Almeda, a sophomore at New Milford High School. Somehow, I can have twitter conversations with my teachers and my principal. Somehow, they led to Mr. Sheninger giving me the opportunity to write a guest post on the importance of student blogging. I’m a blogger at heart, as I have been since 4th grade. That’s probably why I was actually excited when my chemistry teacher, Ms. Smith, opened the year by telling us that part of our assessment in the course  would be the regular maintenance of a blog.  This included posts twice a week that connect chemistry to our world.

Image credit: http://gregmillerprincipal.com/tag/blogging/

Now, I’ve posted almost daily to a personal blog for years and I’m grateful for the decision. I’m told I’m a very good writer. I’m not trying to boast; my writing visibly improved when I started blogging and I can tell you why.  Teens turn to the internet for validation, myself included. Why? When I post to my blog, I don’t write to impress a teacher. My audience is the World Wide Web, which is literally worldwide. I attract viewers from all around the globe. When a post gets attention, some views, likes, comments, or even subscriptions, I look at the post and think, Wow; I had some valid ideas that a complete stranger could relate with. What did they like? How do I turn these visitors into regular readers? When a post gets no attention, I then think, What would be more interesting? What will lead viewers to my blog? How do I get a response? 

Rather than having a teacher hammer the importance of good writing into my head, I get to feel it in a very real world situation with immediate feedback. I don’t just learn about writing, either. Yesterday, my friends were genuinely interested to hear me talk about how one day our phones may literally be coated with nanodiamonds. I learned that from an article I blogged about. Now I’m always learning a great deal about topics that I decide are interesting to blog about, like the chemistry behind a bad hair day. Not to mention that my chemistry blog is a blessing for someone whose homework always seems to disappear rather inopportunely. I can put an assignment on my blog in the “Homework" category, protect it from copycat classmates, and email the password to Ms. Smith so she can view it whenever she needs to.  Not convinced yet? I learned HTML coding when finding ways to better format blog posts, and it’s become a very useful skill. 

A personal blog’s also the perfect place to vent my feelings. After articulating my emotions to an Internet audience, I realize I’m better understanding myself.  In an Internet world where that wretched teenspeak is the preferred language on nearly all social media platforms (bc my insta captions/ tumblr posts r like so articulate lol jk idec) blogging is a practice that expands learning way beyond the walls of the classroom. It encourages self-improvement and dedication in a way that I don’t believe can be taught as well as it can be experienced. And it's addictively fun!

So, pull a Ms. Smith move! Teach kids to blog! Start one yourself! Trust me, you’ll find the time, you’ll find the passion, you’ll find out a lot about the world, and you might even find out more about yourself.  And watch out for me! You can find my chemistry blog by clicking HERE, and I’m even building my own website with the awesome tools I learned in business class at NMHS.

Cheers!

-Sarah “Shmarah” Almeda

Please take a moment and leave a comment for Sarah. Not only is she a talented blogger, but an artist as well (see her self portrait below). She, like many of her NMHS classmates, fully take advantage of everything that NMHS has to offer to advance their learning and follow their passions.

Image credit: Sarah Almeda

EdTech Matters to Students

The following is the second guest post from NMHS student Meredith McCann.  Meredith is a senior at NMHS and plans to pursue a career as a math teacher.

I feel fortunate that the administration and staff of New Milford High School is made up of people who care for their students and are committed to education.  They are dedicated to our school, and they continue to look for ways to improve and modernize the classroom. With the leadership of our principal, the past three years have seen great improvements in learning environments, especially in the area of technology. The implementation of Web 2.0 and other new technologies by teachers has really changed the dynamic of the classroom for the better.

These new technologies have helped in so many areas of education. Presenting an oral report has been simplified for both the student and the teacher with the use of iPod recordings; videoconferencing via Skype has allowed our learning to go beyond the four walls of a classroom to places such as Europe and Israel, and the use of Google Docs has taken away the stress of doing a group project. All of this and more is embraced at NMHS.

As simple as these technologies are to use, and as accepted as they are at NMHS, they mystify teachers at other schools. Earlier this year New Milford High School hosted the first ever Tri-State Education Technology Conference. As a volunteer at the event, and a future teacher, I was fortunate to sit in on a couple of the presentations where I learned even more about the positive contributions technology can have on education. It was wonderful, not only to be a part of this very educational day, but to also see New Milford as a pioneer of what technology has in store for the teaching profession. 

As I look towards the future, to college and beyond, I know that New Milford High School has prepared me for what is to come. I look forward to learning as much as I can about technology and the benefits it will have on my future students. I feel so fortunate that I have had such a great foundation at NMHS and I can’t wait to find out what lies ahead for me.

What do you think of Meredith's post?  Why are many other schools not laying a simliar foundation that students find valuable and a major factor in their future success?

Discovering Inspiration

Last year I had the honor of sharing two guest posts written by New Milford High School Students.  I am excited to welcome senior Meredith McCann to A Principal's Reflections.  This is the first of two posts written by Meredith that I will be sharing.  Please leave comments as they will be shared with her.

Decision-making is not always easy, especially when one decision will affect how you will spend the next four years of your life. As a high school senior I have spent a great deal of time thinking about my future.  I have decided that I want to study mathematics with the hope of becoming a high school math teacher.  During this process, I have selected schools, completed my applications, and reflected on my experiences over the past three years at New Milford High School.

Upon entering high school as a freshman I tried to take advantage of all that was offered to me and get involved in many different facets of the school. As a student, I have taken advantage of the academic aspect of school, but what I have learned through my time at NMHS is that a high school experience goes far beyond the 8 periods of the school day. Because of my early participation in different activities, I now hold several leadership roles as an upperclassman, including being President of the senior class, Captain of the girl’s soccer team, and President of our music honor society. I was also fortunate enough to be selected as NMHS’s delegate for New Jersey’s Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Seminar my sophomore year. All of these experiences have taught me what it means to be a leader. Through all of these opportunities I learned that a good leader must be dedicated to inspire positive change.

When I reflect back on my time at NMHS there were many people who inspired positive change in me.  Due to my involvement in many after school activities, I have been fortunate enough to develop strong relationships with several NMHS teachers. The funny thing is that a few of them were not teachers I ever had a class with. These exceptional educators have shown me just how teachers can lead students and guide them in the right direction, in and out of the classroom. In my opinion, that is the most important aspect of being a teacher.

My freshman English teacher, Raymond Harrison, tells a story about when his college professor asked him why he wanted to be a high school teacher. Mr. Harrison began to respond by explaining that he loved the subject of English. His professor cut him off before he could complete his response and told him that a passion for a specific subject should never be the reason to become a teacher. He told Mr. Harrison that you should only become a teacher if you love to work with children. That statement was a wakeup call for both Mr. Harrison and me.

I realized that after all is said and done, 30 years down the road, students might not remember rhetorical devices or the periodic table, but they will remember the teachers who helped them when they were struggling or reached out to get to know them.  As I begin my journey toward becoming a teacher, I will always remember the lessons I learned from the great teachers I was fortunate to meet at NMHS.  I hope that I can inspire students the way I was inspired.

What I Learned Because of School

Last month I unveiled the first ever guest post on my blog written by one of my students.  The success and impact of this tiny experiment motivated me to seek out other students whose stories and reflections could provide an inspiration to educators from all over the world.  It is my honor to introduce Diane Montecuollo, a senior at NMHS.  Diane not only accepted my invitation to write this post, but she wrote it during the most hectic time for any senior just days before graduation.

As my high school career winds down to only a few short days, I am forced to reflect upon my last 4 years at New Milford High School. Lately I have been asking myself questions such as what did high school really mean to me, what did it do for me, but most importantly, what did I learn? For me high school was a stepping stone, a four year experience filled with numerous opportunities and life lessons that have prepared me for college and beyond. And while most high schools are set up to give you the basic skills necessary for higher education or the workforce, I feel that New Milford High School presented me with so many unique opportunities and experiences that went above and beyond what other schools provide.

One of my most rewarding experiences was my involvement in the Peer Leadership Program. With this program I was able to comfort frightened incoming freshmen during orientation, raise money to assist victims of the genocide in Darfur, and attend inspirational seminars about leadership and ethical issues. Through this program, I was able to develop and utilize my leadership skills. As a future Business Management major at The College of New Jersey, I know that leadership is going to be a very important aspect of my life. I hope to eventually own my own company, and without leadership skills my dream would not be feasible. Leadership is an integral part of my personality and character, and I credit my leadership abilities to activities like Peer Leadership, Business Club, and Mock Trial, all of which were offered to me by NMHS.

A major life lesson that I took from New Milford High School is that you need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. In the fall of 2009 I went on a field trip to Wall Street with my AP History class. The trip consisted of a tour of Wall Street, a visit to Alexander Hamilton’s grave at Trinity Church, a stop at The Federal Reserve, and then lunch at the historically significant Fraunces Tavern. Everything we did that day was thanks to Adam Leitman Bailey, a powerful Manhattan lawyer and New Milford High School Alumnus. However, Mr. Bailey’s generosity did not end with that field trip. When it was time to get on the bus and head back to New Milford, Mr. Bailey handed me a business card and said to keep in touch. During the trip, Adam had mentioned that he offered a high school internship every summer, and that he was planning on continuing to reward a student with the Raymond “Hap” Harrison Scholarship, so I knew that I would be wise to hold on to his card.

New Milford High School presented me with the opportunity to meet Adam Leitman Bailey, Mr. Bailey then presented me with the opportunity to add him as a contact, and I then took advantage of this opportunity by e-mailing him regarding the trip and summer internship. The next day I was called into Mr. Sheninger’s office, put on speaker phone with Mr. Bailey, and offered the internship. Not many people can say that they ever worked on Wall Street, let alone at only 17 years old. As if the internship was not enough, I was a co-winner of the Raymond “Hap” Harrison Scholarship this year. This experience showed me that you need to be able to recognize unbelievable opportunities and then act on them.

What other principals and educators should take from this is that you can’t just hand your students everything. You need to teach your students the importance of leadership and taking charge, and then let them figure out the rest on their own. If you give them the skills and opportunities to do great things, and then allow them to seize opportunities on their own, you are giving your students guidance while allowing them to take responsibility as well. Independence and responsibility are two necessary skills for college students, and by building these characteristics in your students, you are setting them up for future success.

Education must be about facilitating and guiding students in a way that empowers them to make decisions, provides support as needed, and encourages risk-taking.  A school culture that is established based on these principles as well as those mentioned by Diane assists in ensuring the success of all students.   I can't thank Diane enough for clearly articulating how NMHS made learning meaningful and provided her with opportunities to take charge of her education.  Her thoughts provide invaluable closure to a wonderful school year. Please share your thoughts as Diane will be reading the comments!

Inspirational Follow Up From Filip

Students never cease to amaze me.  Late Thursday afternoon I looked at my Blackberry and saw an email from Filip Piasevloi, the student who wrote the amazing guest post entitled "A Student's Perspective on Leadership".  Attached to his email was a document that contained his well  thought out responses to comments on his blog post (see below).  When I came up with the idea of inviting students to guest post on my blog I never could have imagined the profound impact that it would have on me.  Filip has helped to validate the efforts of NMHS staff and students in regard to embracing change in order to create a school culture that fosters success.  I don't know about you, but I have learned  much more about leadership from Filip and am further convinced that there is not a more rewarding job in the world than that of an educator.  I would like to thank Filip for extending beyond his comfort zone and blogging spectacularly on a topic that many in the field of education have yet to master.  The remainder of this post contains Filip's responses to reader comments.

First of all, I’d like to extend my most sincere thank you to everyone for giving their time to read my post and for giving your touching comments. I never would’ve guessed that my words would elicit this kind of response, but it’s both humbling and reassuring to see how many people share my views and passions. I’d like to respond to a few questions that were addressed to me.

Aaron Eyler- How do we "nudge" teachers into cultivating the type of leadership skills you have in every one of their students? How do we "nudge" administrators into changing their idea of what learning should look like with the advent of Web 2.0 tools like YouTube and Facebook while also realizing that skills are transferable; not medium-specific? How do we "nudge" our society into realizing that making these tools costs money up front but also leads to a prospering economy and innovative workforce down the road?

Unfortunately, a lot of people are reluctant to change and abide by the cliche “seeing is believing,” and education is one of the areas where change is particularly hard to bring about because of the reluctance to gamble on the education of children with new methods. In order for a teacher to impress the value of leadership onto his/her students, he/she has to have a passionate understanding of the understated value that leadership has in “the real world”. Having this realization alone has molded the curricula of some of my teachers subliminally so that the values they present within a class feed directly to the greater picture of developing self-confidence and leadership skills. From here, leadership’s capabilities follow a ripple effect. With a devoted core of teachers and students who are cognizant of the value of leadership, the administration cannot ignore an heightened desire to expand the mediums through which we educate our students to a bigger scale. In turn, these students will venture into society with the skills and mindset necessary to make change and be part of an innovative workforce.

Ann Etchison-You describe a learning environment where teachers facilitate student learning, opinions are welcome and shared, and real world applications of content and skills are valued. Was that type of learning environment in place four years ago, and if not, can you articulate significant ways it changed over time from your perspective?

Not all of my teachers have had the fervor for molding the upcoming generation that I describe in my post, but it’s the experience of having several of those teachers who inspire me to bring about change and follow my bliss. From the beginning of my high school experience, there have been multiple teachers that have been open to using new teaching methods, but there weren’t obvious applications or a general confidence in “Education 2.0”.  Progressively, Mr. Sheninger introduced some simple gadgets that teachers could use just to present a different learning experience to students. I’d say that by my junior year, Mr. Sheninger had “2.0 fever” and was the biggest proponent one could find for the movement. His fervor and confidence exuded from him and in turn gave more teachers the confidence to venture into this new type of teaching. No change comes overnight and no change is greeted with whole-hearted acceptance. It’s the passion of the administration, teachers, and students who are enlightening to this new frontier that carry change through the roadblocks and into their final place as an established instrument of education.

Deron Durflinger-My question for you as you reflect on your schooling is, how do you think schools need to change to meet the needs of all students today? or do they need to change at all?

I don't think there's any one change that should be applied to all schools because, as I learned through a series of exchange programs with similar sized schools of different socio-economic backgrounds within the area, the composition of a school and how it's run cannot be generalized. However, what can help all schools and all people in the world is just having an open mind and not being afraid of change.

Bill Ferriter- How can we encourage more people to take the steps that leadership depends on? So what key behaviors and traits are necessary for leaders---and how can we develop those traits in more people? Or better yet, is leadership something that can be learned, or is it an innate trait that some of us have and others don't?

I think leadership is the culmination of a lot of other qualities interacting with one another; some being self-confidence, pride, perseverance, open-mindedness, humility, ambition, affability, and a few other intangibles that a leader embodies. That being said, I don’t think there could be a class to teach leadership because most of those traits are developed through personal experiences and interaction with the people around us. No one is born a leader, but responding to failure and just going through daily events are a study in leadership in itself.

After finishing looking through the comments again to make sure I didn’t miss any questions, I just wanted to say again how thankful I am for your comments and your time. Thank you to my teachers who have influenced me, inspired my dreams, and in general have been part of what made my four years of high school as meaningful as they should be. Thank you to all the bloggers whose compliments are truly heartening and whose comments have in turn  made me think even more about leadership, a topic that can never be exhausted. Thank you Mr. Sheninger, who has reshaped New Milford High School and who has presented me with this invaluable opportunity to get my thoughts into the world and start a chain reaction of responses that I never could have imagined. Finally, I would like to thank my parents who are the biggest factor of who I am today. Please feel free to email me with any other questions at nmgamer@msn.com. I really do love having these conversations.

A Student's Perspective on Leadership

It is with great pride and excitement that I present a guest post on A Principal's Reflections by a New Milford High School student.  I approached senior Filip Piasevoli last week and asked if he would consider taking the theme of my blog and writing his own thoughts on leadership, technology, and student-centered learning.  Filip was recently featured in the April 2010 edition of Honor Student Magazine.  He is a member of the National Honor Society, French Honor Society, a three sport athlete, and President of the Senior class.  I am fortunate that he graciously accepted and wrote this powerful piece below. 

New Milford High School has presented me with more than enough opportunities to develop my leadership skills. From the humbling and eye-opening experience of the Holocaust Study Tour to the American Legion Boy State retreat to even something as simple as our school’s Peer Leadership program, NMHS goes above and beyond in developing the character, integrity, and leadership capabilities of students across the board. What stands out to me in particular is the way in which kids throughout the student body can take a stand on issues that they are passionate about, looking to bring about change. Two years ago, peer leaders set up a table at the Hackensack Street Festival and held a pasta night with a volunteer doctor from the Sudan as the guest speaker. Each activity was designed to spread awareness of the genocide in Darfur. Our efforts and fundraising was a way of domesticating a foreign problem and aiding the fight against it. A problem closer to home for us is the increasing number of kids smoking cigarettes. Our REBEL chapter, led by a student assistant counselor, functions through the actions of the student body and looks to greatly reduce the number of high school kids that smoke. My time here has truly defined my idea of leadership as the power to unite people with similar emotions and incite meaningful change.

However, leadership within the High School extends beyond those striving for a diploma. Looking back on my four years here, I realize that my stay at New Milford High School has been a milestone in the district. I’ve witnessed a small, suburban school literally upgrade into the epicenter of technology integration within a school setting. In my eyes, this would not have been possible without the pioneering mindset of our principal and an administration that was open to the changes after seeing meaningful integration. The actions within our school district have embodied the motto of one of our society’s most ideal role models, Peter Parker (Spiderman), “With great power comes great responsibility.” Our Principal, who was once responsible for blocking YouTube within the district, grew to embrace the World of 2.0 that often has a stigma within schools. However, the true leadership exudes when looking at the manner in which this revolution was introduced within the school. Mr. Sheninger often says to us students, “Here are the tools, tell me how you want to integrate them so that you benefit most from them in our school.” A leader can have his ideas, but change cannot be adopted through the actions of only one person. My message to other principals is that you can’t be afraid of change, nor can you force a change like ours onto the student body. Leave it to your students to find the uses that they see as most beneficial because that leads to passionate use and a more holistic learning experience.

The Peter Parker motto of power and responsibility falls on the teachers more so than anyone else in the school system. Each teacher has almost seven hours a week to mold our future interests and to teach us to think transcendently. Their tone and attitude towards their respective subjects can change the way each student in the class sees the topic. For example, math should be taught as a practical skill and not as forced memorization, and viewpoints in history should be presented from both sides of an argument, leaving the ultimate verdict on history’s most ambivalent topics to the growing mind of the student. True teaching extends beyond indoctrination and into the facilitation of educational discussion. This is where the true skill of teachers and their own leadership abilities are left to give us the most meaningful high school education possible.

Filip's piece contains many important lessons as well as practical advice for schools that want to empower and engage students.  Please share this with your colleagues.  Filip will be reading your comments so please let him know what you think of this piece and some of the points that he has made.