Shorewood Visual Journalism Capstone Projects – wow!

Pete Reynolds Blog, Celebrate January 20, 2017January 24, 2017Shorewood, Visual Journalism

A great approach drives engagement and high quality work.

Tuesday night Joost and I attended the presentation of capstone projects by Shorewood High School’s Visual Journalism class. We were blown away by the quality of work.

The class developed by Mike Halloran and Jeff Zimpel “combines the principles and practices of graphic design with those of modern broadcast and print journalism. Students in this class explored the notion of Face Value in their community and expressed their findings telling these stories through video, audio, and online media.”

What we saw and heard on display Tuesday exemplifies an approach to learning and engagement we’d like to see Milwaukee embrace.

A school administration that asked the teachers what they needed to make the class a success.
The freedom to send kids out into the community to understand and collect stories from people from very different walks of life.
Near-peer mentorship provided by MIAD students.
Student defined, collaborative projects which engendered such a sense of ownership and passion that students were surprised by how much energy and focus they brought to the work.
Presentation of high quality work to the wider community which was a delight to hear and see.

Hats off to Mike Halloran and Jeff Zimpel and their students!

The Projects

You can see the results of their here:

Find your Cloud

How do culturally isolated individuals construct a sense of self identity and purpose?

http://findyourcloud.wixsite.com/findyourcloud

Generational Stories

Told from a personal perspective, these stories feature three different people from three different generations.
3 Tales from 3 Generations

Changemakers

How does a changemaker see the world? How does that differ from the norm?

http://paigesimenz.wixsite.com/changemakers

America’s Vanishing Compass

A look at declining enrollment in Boy Scouts

https://americasvanishingcompass.tumblr.com/

One Mountain One Story

“One Mountain One Story was created because of our passion for climbing and love of the outdoors. The film documents the influence and impact climbing rock, ice, and mountains has had on a teacher from the flat lands of urban Wisconsin.”

https://jacobburnham10.wixsite.com/onemountainonestory

South Milwaukee’s Fab Lab featured on Lake Effect

Pete Reynolds Blog, Celebrate January 17, 2017January 24, 2017FabLab, South Milwaukee, WUWM

Monday’s Lake Effect show on WUWM features a piece on South Milwaukee High School’s Fab Lab. We connected Rachel Morello, WUWM’s education reporter with Erik Wolbach, who’s been the driving force behind the effort as part of our work to raise the visibility of the innovative work Milwaukee area schools are doing.

You can listen to the story here: http://wuwm.com/post/high-school-students-learn-creating-south-milwaukee-fab-lab

Doing great work at your school you’d like others to know about? Let us know and we’ll help get the word out.

Collab Lab 6: Notes from our breakout groups

Pete Reynolds Blog, Collab Labs, Workshops January 13, 2017December 5, 2018Collab Lab, FabLabs, Makerspaces

Thanks all for a great discussion last night at Collab Lab 6 (actually, a bunch of great discussions). To recap, we framed the conversation around three questions:

What can your makerspace/FabLab offer teachers?
What problems does this solve for them?
What keeps them from taking advantage of it/how might those issues be addressed?

Here’s what we noted:

What can your makerspace/FabLab offer teachers?

Group 1

“Blood in the mouth” how do you get teachers really excited about the possibilities?
Take content & make it physical
Get students to go beyond their textbook
Learning to play → playing to learn
Relevance, rigor, application
Practicing Failure
Space designed to fit needs
Can become epicenter – pivotal point
Authentic, relevant problems to solve
Bring content back to experiment

Group 2

Additional capacities to help kids express ideas
Expands the pallet of tools & opportunities for teachers
Limited understanding of what it is
- Ideas → ideas II → ideas III
Safe place
Capture & share stories of success
Show different ways of learning
Develop and share culture of makerspace
Set up to enable students pursuing passion → no mandatory activities

Group 3

Tools for:
- artists to make art;
- business classes to make a product
- community service projects to make something useful
Hands on professional development for PBL
Support for elementary school
- South Milwaukee: elementary school students working on symmetry design snowflakes. Students are then paired with high schooler who helps them 3D print their designs.
Ad hoc opportunities to put something together
Attractive for students
It acts as a “send kids here to do that” space/ a place that allows groups of students to take on work that isn’t done easily inside a classroom
Provides crafting opportunities for teachers (who are then better able to generate ideas for how they could leverage the space for student projects)
Real world relevance
Provides a platform to do different (from traditional lessons) things
Provides a chance for students and teachers to bump into something new/exposure
Helps produce a change in mindset/change of pace
Provides a way to engage kids in a different way
Provides opportunities for kids to interact with students that would interact with elsewhere in the school
Provides application/support to teachers
Is able to draw funding and resources to the school
Provides flexible space
Becomes the place to address 21st century skills development
Makerspace lead handles prep for projects (so teachers do not)
The equipment is maintained and ready to go
It a fun space
It produces engaged kids

What problems does that solve for them?

Group 1

Amature meets expert
- Promotes mentorship
Redefines learning process
- Who are the learning for?
- Learning how to learn

Group 2

A way to develop empathy
Instill a mentality/culture
- Ideation
- inquiry
Invest in professional development
- Teachers are professionals
- Lifelong learning
Incrementalism

Group 3

A way to meet requirements for PBL/development of 21st century skills
A new point of entry/cheap way to start with PBL
Allows teachers to break out of silos
Can attract outside funding which reduces pressure from budget constraints
Costs of space can be shared across multiple departments
Remove overhead from teachers (makerspace lead puts together projects and materials)
Teachers aren’t sure what they could do, makerspace lead can help frame projects
Shows teachers a path into PBL
The teacher does not need to know everything– they can rely on tech staff/students to help with equipment
It’s a way into learning (as opposed to educating)
Test scores improve among kids engaged in problem solving
Produces engaged students
Provides a change of pace
Provides an opportunity to model creative thinking/problem solving
Provides both teachers and students a safe place to fail
Teaches teachers 21st skills
Having a tech lead that can set up projects reduces stress/risk for teachers that want to take on PBL

What keeps them from taking advantage of it?

Group 1

Must provide learning outcomes/goals/assessment
Needs continued reward
Broken 3D printers
Who started it???
Incorrect definition of “maker”
- Creative Space
- Genius Bar
Not knowing what can be done
Fear
Needs a facilitator
Permission from administration
Parents

What would help address these issues?

After school volunteer club for teachers
Customer discovery
Sleeper agents → referrals
Having an Idea person that helps connect teachers (Librarian)

Group 2

Competing priorities
Lack of culture to stimulate risk taking
- What is “risk” taking
Lack of technical skills
Early vs late adopters
Lack of development of “grit”
System promotes end-point learning
Focus on experiences, not on “things”
If you can see it you will want to use it
Absence of design drivers (shared)
- Visitation later in the design experience.

Group 3

Teachers need hands on professional development
Feels risky
Lack of control
Funding
ROI on time
Teachers aren’t sure what they can give up to fit something new into schedule
Change is seen as a threat
Change is seen as “We’ve seen new ideas before, this too will go just like the rest of them”
Focus on equipment
Mentors don’t know how to work with kids — kids have kid issues
Focus on learning to use the equipment (technical skills) rather than an opportunity to learn in a different way
Self selection to participate is missing from school makerspaces, which makes it more difficult for the space to become self regulating
I already have my lesson plans set and they work for me. Why would I want to give that up to try something new.

What would help address these issues?

Visibility of student work
Visible credit given to donors of equipment (so it is not viewed as cutting into the school budget)
Shift resources from equipment acquisition to developing the mindset of teachers
Staffing — endowed mentor/tech position
Mentors — Lead off with small doses so they have time to figure how to work with kids
Figure out how to allow users of the space to come and go on an ad hoc basis (after school?)
Shift the mindset of funders from equipment to professional development

Makerspace/FabLabs Workgroup

Pete Reynolds Blog January 3, 2017

We’re planning a working session for the end of January to talk through where collaborative efforts could be deployed to make it easier for schools to achieve the goals they have set out in developing their Makerspace/FabLab. Have some thoughts on where working with others would help most, or hurdles that could be more easily overcome with a group effort? We’d love to have you join us.

Collab Lab 5 Recap

Pete Reynolds Blog, Collab Labs, Workshops December 19, 2016December 5, 2018

Thanks!

collablab5 A warm thank you to the 20+ folks who braved the cold to join us last Thursday for a rather passionate discussion around engaging with community partners. As always, it is great to see the level of enthusiasm and thought attendees bring to the room and that so many of you were able to make new connections.

Notes from the session:

Why do you want to partner?

Schools

Real world validation of content and essential skills
Students get authentic experience
To teach what students can’t get from Google
Showcase what K12 does
Create a spark
Develop career related skills
Foster a symbiotic relationship with community
Change perception within the community
Establish an ongoing relationship
Stop brain drain from Milwaukee
Develop awareness of career options
Learning gets replaced
Offer a diverse set of experiences
Facilitate learning adaptability
Reconnect teachers with industry

Industry/Organizations

Synergy-community-establish makerspace community of practice
Avoid training recruiting costs
Offer real world problems to students
Offer real world validation of kids’ work
Stimulate re-thinking education

What stands in your way?

Timeline perspective of business
Next quarter job needs
Focus is too narrow – What is success measurement
Focus on “doing” not “thinking”
Legislation – political views
School board control
Parent perception of learning
Knowledge of how to build relationships as a teacher
Constraints on teacher time/skills

How will you move forward?

Sharing – Community
Connect
Open your mindset
How do you redefine “Ready”
Begin in your own social circle
Building relationships
Ask “the customer”
Learning how to “let go”
Create showcase events for community
Have a plan for involvement
Allow them to help you with the plan

Pewaukee’s Insight program featured on WUWM’s Lake Effect

Pete Reynolds Blog, Celebrate December 14, 2016January 24, 2017Entrepreneurship, Pewaukee, WUWM

This morning’s Lake Effect show on WUWM features a piece on Pewaukee High School’s Insight program. We connected Rachel Morello, WUWM’s education reporter with JJ Hesche, who runs the Insight program as part of our efforts to raise the visibility of the innovative work Milwaukee area schools are doing.

You can listen to WUWM’s story here: http://wuwm.com/post/wednesday-lake-effect-suicide-awareness-insight-course-alices-tea-party-exhibit . The piece on Pewaukee starts at 16:00.

Doing great work at your school you’d like others to know about? Let us know and we’ll help get the word out.

Collab Lab 5: Engaging with Community Partners

Pete Reynolds Workshops November 21, 2016December 7, 2016

How do you engage community partners to create authentic experiences for your students?

Join us on December 15th for a conversation to share ideas and experiences on the effective engagement partners in the wider community. This workshop is an opportunity for you to learn what others are doing, and share what you’ve been working on, have seen working well elsewhere, or would like to try. More importantly, we’ll connect you with others on a similar path and those may be of help along the way.

Among others, you’ll get a chance to talk with:

Jay Flores – Rockwell Automation, Global STEM Ambassador
Focused on further diversifying and strengthening the technical talent pipeline through STEM education and outreach; engaging Rockwell Automation employees through volunteerism in STEM advocacy; and developing continuity in the STEM talent pipeline from high school to post-secondary education to early career.

Tom Hermann & Stacey Duchrow – Union Grove High School
Tom Herman is the principal of Union Grove Union High School and Stacey Duchrow is the Career and Academies Coordinator. Both have created deep relationships with business partners after being charged by the school board to create academies and pathways for students in IT, Healthcare, and Engineering/Manufacturing. Through this process and listening to the needs of the business community, the school culture was changed to shift the focus on increasing student college and career readiness while helping to fill in the skills gap in their community. They have created unique experiences utilizing their 100 business partners such as the Bronco Business and Career Expo, teacher externships, and business partners breakfasts.

Sylvia N. Wilson – MKEGrind
Sylvia N. Wilson, PhD is the CEO and Co-founder of MKEGrind, a youth-focused career development company. She is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in the School of Education; regularly teaching courses in leadership, organizational change, non-profit management, adult education theory & practice, and youth-service work. Being rooted in both the community and academia, Sylvia believes that it is her duty to build and to be a bridge between the two; assisting in the creation of critically sound and contextually effective programming practices. Her research includes inquiry of life transformative processes; from which she developed a model for urban African American males who desire to transform out of a life of street violence.

Agenda

5:30 – 6:00 Grab something eat and drink, say hello

6:00 – 8:30 Let’s learn from each other

Food and beverage will be provided. There is no charge for participation but space is limited.

The Workshop will be held at Ward 4, 333 North Plankinton Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. Space provided courtesy of The Commons.

Collab Lab 4: Making room for innovation

Pete Reynolds Workshops October 19, 2016October 28, 2016

How do you create room (space, time, autonomy) to innovate within your school?

Join us on November 10th for a conversation to share ideas and experiences with others looking for ways to innovate within their school. This workshop is an opportunity for you to learn what others are doing, and share what you’ve been working on, have seen working well elsewhere, or would like to try. More importantly, we’ll connect you with others on a similar path and those may be of help along the way.

Among others, you’ll get a chance to talk with:

JJ Heesch – Pewaukee High School
JJ is the Director of Pewaukee’s Insight program — a cross disciplinary program that gives students hands-on, real world experiences immersed in a professional setting. The program started as an experiment within JJ’s Business Management class and now offers three separate strands which students may focus: Global Business, Innovation, and Pathways to Teaching. They are also planning to launch two additional strands next school year: Healthcare and Journalism.

Mike Kornacki – User Experience Director at Johnson Controls

Mike is a user experience leader who has successfully built User Experience (UX)/design teams from the ground up in three separate companies. He defined the UX discipline for Johnson Controls, building a culture that nurtures creativity and a user-centered approach in engineering-centric company–no small feat. In 2010, Mike co-founded mkeUX to get the user experience conversation going in Milwaukee. They now have 450+ members and have hosted presentations from local and national UX professionals.

Jump to minute 19:00 to hear Mike’s advice on how to make room for innovation:

Agenda

5:30 – 6:00 Grab something eat and drink, say hello
6:00 – 8:30 Let’s learn from each other

Food and beverage will be provided. There is no charge for participation but space is limited.

The Workshop will be held at Ward 4, 333 North Plankinton Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. Space provided courtesy of The Commons

Collab Lab 3: MakerSpaces/FabLabs

Pete Reynolds Workshops September 12, 2016September 15, 2016

How and why could a Maker Space or FabLab benefit your student?

Join us for a conversation to share ideas and experiences with others on the same journey. This workshop is an opportunity for you to learn what others are doing, and share what you’ve been working on, have seen working well elsewhere, or would like to try. More importantly, we’ll connect you with others on a similar path and those may be of help along the way.

Among others, you’ll get a chance to talk with:

Adam Pautsch – GE Healthcare
Adam was the founder of, and currently manages, the GE Healthcare Makerspace, a lab for conceptual development and prototyping which tests new technologies and ideas to add value and innovation to products. He received a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from UW-Madison, with a minor in Medical Physics.

Tuan Tran – Design Fugitives
Tuan has a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Wisconsin -Milwaukee. He brings a high level of design experience and project management expertise to DF. In addition to design activities, Tuan is the in-house expert on Digital Fabrication, Parametric Modeling and manages New Product Development.

Erik Wolbach – South Milwaukee High School
South Milwaukee High School is researching a new Fabrication Lab as an extension of their existing shop facilities. They have new partners in architecture, aquaponics, and urban agriculture. Students have created a scale model of their existing space and are researching a building expansion to house a new green energy fab lab is ongoing.

Program

5:30 – 6:00 Grab something eat and drink, say hello
6:00 – 8:00 Let’s learn from each other

Food and beverage will be provided. There is no charge for participation but space is limited.

The Workshop will be held at Ward 4, 333 North Plankinton Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. Space provided courtesy of The Commons.

Using the Canvas Workshops

Pete Reynolds Workshops July 10, 2016July 24, 2016

These workshops present a hands-on opportunity for you to experience the use of Design Thinking and the Business Model Canvas. We’ll explore how to apply these approaches to the education environment. We’ll discuss underlying concepts, the process for using it effectively, as well as review some derivative versions developed for organization with a social mission. Equally important, we’ll connect you with others who have a similar interest in exploring concepts and tools to innovate differently.

Finally, the process we’ll work through is designed to draw out feedback on how well this could work in Milwaukee area schools and modifications to make it even more effective.

Session 1

Tuesday July 26, 2016
9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Session 2

Thursday, July 28, 2016
9:00 am to 12:00 pm

Both sessions will be held in the Ward 4 Innovation Space, located at 333 North Plankinton Avenue, Milwaukee, WI. Light snacks and beverage will be provided.
There is no charge for participation but space is limited.

Space for the Canvas Workshops provided courtesy of

Parking Options:
CommonsParkingDirections