Maker Day Today

Dear Members of the J. Turner Hood School Community,

In the past you have read some of my notes on the topic of Makerspaces and the associated benefits of employing the maker mentality when solving a problem.

I am respectfully requesting that you discuss today’s school wide maker activity with your child when they get home or over this upcoming extended weekend.

Today was an amazing day today here at the Hood School where students and staff from across grades and classes were mixed up into different settings and presented a working challenge.  For me, I was able to observe some significant community building as well as some amazing problem solving in action.

Madison and Nicole, two grade five students, shared they thought today was a great day to be with younger students from different grades because they were able to hear the other students ideas and they were able to help the younger students complete the assigned task. Blake, a first grader reported that it was cool to make a podium and work with some third and fifth grade students. Jocelyn, another first grader thought it was great and she enjoyed building and completing the challenge. Luke and Julia, two second graders reported that is was an awesome and amazing day and it was fun to meet students and teachers in other grades.  

The staff reported that is was a well-organized, educationally beneficial event. Specifically, the cooperation between different age level students was cited. Furthermore, the problem solving, cooperative learning and engagement was cited as a major success. Mrs. Wright, a first grade teacher, cited the leadership skills demonstrated by the grade 4 student that she supervised in her grade 1 classroom. Nick, the fourth grade student she raved about indicated that his group was across grades and he tried to create opportunities so each of the students had an age appropriate and meaningful task.

Today was our first school wide maker day. Sponsored by our internal Makerspace professional learning community. This amazing group of individuals was able to create a meaningful and engaging school wide activity and I am proud of their efforts.  Mrs. Cleary, Mrs. Mayuski & Mrs. Anthony’s collaboration and ability to lead certainly shined today.

Please stop by the school to look at our students amazing creations and look at the Hood School twitter account for some more amazing photos.