"We Have Always Been Makers"

Makerspaces: An Innovation Renaissance

Based on the amount of conversation and discussion surrounding the maker movement you would think that creating spaces in our schools for students to tinker, experiment, build, create, and collaborate is something new in K-12 education. It isn't. 

I remember shop classes where my brothers built napkin holders, a ceramics/pottery class where I made an ashtray (yes, we made ashtrays for our parents whether they smoked or not), and Home Economics where I learned to sew and make Rice Krispie Treats. The maker movement and makerspaces is not a fad but an innovation renaissance; The rediscovery and reapplication of the once popular "learning by doing" process. 

Embedding makerspaces into our learning environments ensures students have equitable access to the tools, technology, and resources required to experience hands-on problem solving and is the actualization of the BVSD Success Effect: "create challenging, meaningful and engaging learning opportunities so that all children thrive and are prepared for successful, civically engaged lives." 

"We Have Always Been Makers"

Teacher-Librarians are uniquely positioned to lead this innovation renaissance:

"We have always been makers. Libraries have always been maker spaces. The tools change, but the core of who we are and what we do is the same.We are educators, enablers, equippers. We are a space to try new things, learn new things, and do new things. We are open doors and new opportunities. We are makers. We always have been. We always will be. Even when the terminology changes.  

--SLJ, 2015

We have put together a collection of K-12 aligned resources on the who, what, why, and where of the maker movement and how educators are integrating innovative spaces into their learning communities and library spaces.

Click here to jump start your maker movement research and learn how teacher-librarians and library spaces are leading this innovation renaissance.

Expanding Your Digital Collections - OverDrive

Based on the success of the OverDrive (OD) ebook pilot program (2014-2016) we want to expand adoption of the OD platform for ebook content delivery to all BVSD schools.

We know that many of you are actively building and or expanding your digital collections and partnering with a variety of ebook vendors including Follett and Mackin. OD is yet another ebook vendor to consider partnering with to accelerate your digital collection development efforts.

Working with OD, we have developed a participation matrix where schools contribute a dollar amount based on student population and commit to spending that minimum dollar amount during the 2016-17 school year. Each school will make their own content selections and share their content thus creating a combined ebook collection that can be accessed by all participating schools.

Participation is 100% OPTIONAL and will only be offered once a year. 

If you want to participate you must complete the OD Participation Form and submit it by this Friday, May 20 at 4 PM.

Important Participation Deadlines:

May 20 by 4 PM -- Complete and submit the OverDrive Participation Form

Week of May 23 -- Complete and submit OverDrive’s Participation Agreement (will be sent to you directly from OD)

Early to mid August -- look for invoice for full contribution amount from OverDrive

Participation Benefits

• Continue to access the strong ebook collection created as part of the pilot (maintain access to these resources).
• The more schools that participate, the larger and more diverse and appealing the collection which benefits students across all schools, large and small.
• Participating schools will make their own OD content selections and can continue to maintain other ebook platforms (e.g., MackinVIA or Follett Shelf).
• The collection is dynamic and titles can easily be swapped in and out to improve relevancy, applicability, and quality of OD collection.
• Schools that currently maintain OD ebook collections (non OD pilot schools) can continue to do so and will not be required to participate in this program and their OD content will not be included in the shared collection (if they so desire).
• *Participating schools can add content for just their student population over and above their participation minimum amount.
• Online collection is a catalyst for students to use their devices in a purposeful and meaningful way.

* Minimum $300 order is required to create an Advantage account. School will need to decide if Advantage content will be shared with all consortium members or be exclusive to that school.