This past weekend, I had the honor of serving on a panel at the NoVa Maker Educator Meetup, a new part of the annual Maker Faire NoVa. I represented middle school making and spoke along side public educators from elementary school, high school, and higher education; we were joined by maker facilitators from private school, community spaces, the public library, and a children's museum. It was very cool to be part of these conversations, the first of hopefully many more coordinated efforts of this group.

​​This week, I ran across an interesting perspective on using graphic organizers for writing, a cool project to encourage student mural creation, advice on differentiating whole group instruction, pointers on developing growth mindset, and a great book list.

Plus, there are a few extra resources in today's Take5 -- a great web site, an audio recording tool, and some posters you can use in your classroom or library. Enjoy!

Happy November from BubbleUp Classroom!  We know that despite the Fall leaves and crisp autumn air that this is a time when teachers and students can start feeling burned out. While everything is shiny and new in September, now kids and adults are feeling the grind and in need of a break. As educators, we all have to work hard to keep ourselves grounded in our practice and positive so that our students will reflect that back to us in their learning. We hope this Take 5 will help inspire you in the weeks to come to try something new. Remember to breathe; you aren't that far away from a very well deserved Thanksgiving Break! ​

We are closing out on year two of the Kilmer Library Makerspace. Ours was one of the early library makerspace initiatives in FCPS and it is incredibly exciting to see makerspaces become more common additions to school library programs in our district. I believe passionately in our maker effort -- it allows our students to build their critical and creative thinking skills, to collaborate and communicate as they work together. It is in direct alignment with the 21st century skills we talk about so often in education and meets the student needs that we were not previously addressing. It serves as a safe haven for many students and brings others in who have not been traditional library users.