Creativity and the Discovery of Self

BURCKHALTER MAKER IDENTITY: CREATIVITY AND THE DISCOVERY OF SELF

AN IGNITE TALK BY 2017-2018 AGENCY BY DESIGN OAKLAND TEACHER FELLOW CICELY DAY

"Maker Lunch. Coding Club. Mouse Squad. Maker Wednesdays. Maker Recess. Students CRAVE informal learning spaces to learn about themselves, each other, and about technology."

In her ignite talk "Burckhalter Maker Identity: Creativity and the Discovery of Self!" Cicely Day described the power of making and technology during her time as a Teacher on Special Assignment at Burckhalter Elementary. She describes these making experiences as moments when students are empowered in their learning process while also learning about themselves and their agency within their community.

"Maker-centered learning is a great way to have students create and learn from their mistakes and collaborate with others."

Cicely A. Day
Fab Lab Coach, West Contra Costa Unified School District

Cicely A. Day is from Oakland and went to Oakland Public Schools. She loves tech, coding, art, and making, and is currently the Fab Lab Coach at West Contra Costa Unified School District. During her time as an Agency by Design Oakland teacher fellow, Cicely was a Teacher on Special Assignment at Burckhalter Elementary. Cicely describes Burckhalter as an awesome school with great learners and creators.

Thinking Routines Work - If Used Routinely

THINKING ROUTINES WORK - IF USED ROUTINELY: AN IGNITE TALK BY 2017-2018 AGENCY BY DESIGN OAKLAND TEACHER FELLOW ED CRANDALL

“The students will RESIST. One student told me, ‘This isn’t science. Mr. Crandell, this is a cult.’”

Ed Crandall is the Science, Making and Robotics Teacher at Lighthouse Community Charter School. During his fellowship year, Ed spent his time focused on the Agency by Design thinking routines by consistently incorporating them into his classes. In his talk entitled, "Thinking Routines Work - If Used Routinely," he described thinking routines as a powerful tool for shifting the way our students engage with ideas. 

“Thinking Routines are a strategy that will change your students forever.”

Watch Ed's insightful Ignite Talk below!  And follow the #PictureofPractice hashtag to see more Ignite Talks and leadership from our 2017 - 2018 Teacher Fellows.   

"[Maker-centered learning] provides students who need hands on learning a concrete way to learn, solve problems, and see success."

-Edward Crandall
9th grade Science Teacher and High School Making and Robotics Teacher, Lighthouse Community Charter School, Oakland

Edward Crandall is a relatively old (55) new (8 yrs) teacher who spent most of his adult life as an engineer before becoming a teacher. He teaches 9th grade science, making, and robotics. He teaches all grade levels of high school at Lighthouse Community Charter School. The students are predominately low-income English language learners.

Letter from Paula Mitchell, Agency by Design Oakland’s New Fellowship Director

Paula Mitchell

Fellowship Director, Agency by Design Oakland

Welcome to a year of maker-centered learning!

I am thrilled to be returning for another year of deep inquiry work with Agency by Design Oakland this time as the Fellowship Director. I have worked with Agency by Design for the past two years, first as a teacher fellow, then as a Senior Lead. However, my love of hands-on learning started long before my work with Agency by Design Oakland.

When I began teaching In the Oakland Unified School District over 25 years ago, I decided I would bring more project based learning into my classroom. Over the past decade, my interest in arts integration and maker education has grown and I am delighted that my passion has allowed me to bring maker-centered learning to the Oakland community that I love. In addition to being Agency by Design Oakland’s Fellowship Director, I am also a Teacher on Special Assignment for Maker-Centered Learning at Grass Valley Elementary School.

As I believe in fostering equity and providing access to high-quality educational STEAM programs to historically underserved and underrepresented populations, I greatly appreciate Agency by Design Oakland’s focus on nurturing and promoting the development of environments where teacher and student agency can flourish.  Agency by Design Oakland’s fellowship is a year long professional development program for teachers, by teachers.  In May, we welcomed our newest cohort of 28 teacher fellows from 12 Oakland schools. In September, we kicked our work into high gear with our first daylong meeting. Throughout this year long fellowship, the Senior Leads and I will support Oakland teachers as they expand and redefine the educational model in their classrooms and at their sites through maker-centered learning.

At our first daylong meeting of the year, I was inspired by the focus, creativity, imagination, and dedication to learning that the fellows displayed.  We jumped right into working with Thinking Routines and examining real world issues. Teacher fellows participated in a playful activity where they took apart wind-up toys and looked closely at their mechanics in order to gain a greater understanding of design.  We also dove into systems thinking, looking at systems through the lens of repair, and explored its complexity by examining the role of repair in our consumer society. Through both literal and figurative repair work, we experienced the truth of iFixit’s Self-Repair Manifesto: “If you can’t fix it, you don’t own it.”

Agency by Design Oakland fellow Jane Lee uses a soldering iron to repair her phone.

Jane’s successfully completed repair!

Using the Parts, Purposes and Complexities thinking routine, Agency by Design Oakland fellows Chantel Parnell and Shraddha Soparawala take apart a wind-up mechanical toy and look closely at its inner workings.

Looking back at these activities, I am once again struck by the value and universality of the Agency by Design framework, strategies, and routines — they encourage an holistic view of teaching and learning. These activities show how Agency by Design’s thinking routines can be used in subjects as diverse as mechanical engineering and the humanities.  

This year, the fellows have the opportunity to work intensively within specific focal areas of maker-centered learning through participation in two inquiry cycles. Our fellows may choose to do action research in any number of areas, such as, thinking routines, maker capacities, strategies that help facilitate student empowerment, maker identity or assessment. Last year’s cohort worked with some fascinating topics that deepened our knowledge of maker-centered practices. I am eager to continue the work with this year’s fellows as they contribute their own Pictures of Practice to our growing field of maker-centered teacher research.

If you are interested in learning more about maker-centered learning and the work of Agency by Design Oakland, I invite you to come to one of our events: the mini-culminating event for Inquiry Cycle 1 on December 11 and our year-end grand finale on May 4, 2019.

We have had phenomenal fellows’ presentations at past events. I look forward to seeing the innovative ways in which our 2018-2019 Agency by Design Oakland teacher cohort integrates maker-centered learning into their teaching practice.

In Fellowship,

Paula Mitchell

[Editor’s Note]  To learn more about Paula Mitchell’s work at Grass Valley, see this video.