and  make it easier than ever to dive into the world of 3d printing in the classroom! You can be an expert in teaching 3D printing with just a bit of practice! As long as you have internet-connected devices, all middle school STEM programs can include 3D design (and hopefully printing!). &nbsp; Follow on &nbsp; Check out the !&nbsp; &nbsp; What is Puzzle Shift Create all about? The goal is to help students become creators of any type and to develop a middle school course, named Innovative Arts, which gives kids the support and resources that they need to get started creating.

Ep8 Teaching 3D modelling

This is a big topic for Puzzle Shift Create  In every classroom, this is a very common easy topic to connect to. If we practice the language, we can help kids better understand how the world works and how to be better prepared for whatever comes! How it is in too many classrooms:  Kids see failure as terrible,&nbsp; want projects to be finished ASAP&nbsp; messed up steps usually result in kids reducing their expectations Need to be taught patience and the process of creating and failing  &nbsp; How?  Teach kids how their brains work  Connections  Repeat tasks and have kids recognize how much easier it is   Sleep is when short becomes long term memory Connections get stronger as you use them Reading is how you make general connections People with a lot of connections are able to learn things more easily   Mistakes  If you want to be amazing at something, you have to make tons of mistakes Pro athletes or musicians practice hours a day How many mistakes can you make in that time? You have to learn from mistakes as they happen, laugh at them   Failure  Failure is going to happen You learn from trying Topic comes up most days as I start class, see episode ___ I share my failures page on my website, ask kids if they think I’m afailure If you never try, you never figure how to make it better Just start   Attitude and Expectations  If you walk into a math classroom expecting to fail, you will give up sooner, try less, and accept excuses more quickly. If you expect to succeed, you'll work harder, ask questions, and are much more likely to succeed.&nbsp;   Habits  Habits are who you are Atomic Habits is a great resource, get it from a library for free    ____________________________________________________________________ Follow on  Follow on

Ep9 Celebrating Failure as Steps to Success

&nbsp; I have tried out many, many lessons and concepts during the first year of Innovative Arts. Many are still works in progress, some were complete failures, and all of them involved handing out sheets of paper. Very quickly it was clear that loose sheets of paper on a clipboard were NOT working. The paper would pile up and become less and less meaningful. Every teacher knows what this looks like – some students had them neatly organized, others had them crumpled and only half complete. We could never circle back to these ideas because some kids would be missing the work and others did not complete it. We were talking about important things! Unfortunately, the mess of papers made it impossible to focus on those ideas. Something needed to change. For months I thought that organizing the papers into a packet would solve everything. It did not. The real problem: lecture during the hands-on class It was just too much note-taking and paperwork for a class that kids love for its projects and freedom. A kid would be consumed by their project and eager for work time on it and I was slamming on the brakes, asking them to do more boring school. The “important things” that I wanted to emphasis were resented for taking up their precious work time. A better curriculum for a busy class Less is more. In this case, one carefully designed sheet of paper for two weeks of class. It is their work record, idea log, reflection space, and home to the key idea of that iteration. Everything on that page is important and after two weeks it needs to be well complete and thoughtful. What is true for each iteration: The theme needs to be simple: Each iteration has a skill that we are practicing and a mindset lesson. Iteration 1: 3D Modeling and how your brain works Iteration 2: CNC Machines and what success looks like Iteration 3: Idea Generation Iteration 4: Grinding ideas: Doing and Learning Students should know it well Too many students are in the habit of not caring what their work looks like. This is one case where sloppy and low effort work will not be accepted. Kids are jarred when I don’t accept low effort work but after two weeks they are much more willing to put the effort forward. Simular all four years Iteration one features 3D printing. Each year, we design a pickup truck, a shape that is very useful for practicing the basics and allowing a lot of detail later on. After a few years, it is amazing to see how the trucks have improved! As kids get older, we add more nuance and detail to our discussions. The really big ideas repeat each time The back repeats and is the same every iteration. It features: General Process  Define Creators   Examples, origin stories Kids find examples Kids start curating their favorites   How to think like a creator Software used by these Teams &amp; brands Idea Generator (Sparks) Action Plans (grinds)   Project proposal    Follow on &nbsp; Check out the &nbsp; Check out the

Ep10 Helping kids become creators

Show Outline: &nbsp; The apathy that we see in students has many causes. I am able to experience part of the problem first hand every August. On in-service days we have to sit for hours and play the role of students. Those days leave me tired, sore, and uninspired. That is what most days look like for our students and it is no wonder that they aren’t enthusiastic about school. In my classroom, I have posted the creator spectrum below. Kids can recognize instantly that most of each school day is spent on the left side. Getting from the left to right side takes deliberate steps and preparation. It takes determined to practice and preparation to step from the left to the center and reflection and desire to move to the right side of the spectrum. Kids cannot be a passive part of this process. They want to get to the right. The most determined kids will get there no matter what. Most others will need our help to set them up for success. &nbsp; Teacher In Charge This category is the default mode of most teachers, myself as a science teacher included. It is a necessary evil in our world of standardized tests, siloed subjects, and subjective grades. Teachers have had their hands tied by being told what to teach and when kids should fit the same mold. The only way a class can work is for the teacher to be in charge. Grades become the motivation. The long term development of a student’s interests or abilities is ignored for a bottom-line letter grade. Teacher-in-charge was born with school itself. There wasn’t any other option but to obey the teacher and learn what they knew. When school was a new idea, this was a great way to get people the basic skills we all agree we need. That was long before the internet and smartphones. There is still a role in the teacher-in-charge part of school. It’s overuse, however, is making our students bored, apathetic, and uninterested in learning. That is just the way it is now. Every student that I have met says the want to move to the right from the ‘Teacher in Charge’ category. Their reasons for saying this are not all the same, however. My first year of explaining this spectrum to students was telling. Most 5th and 6th grade students wanted freedom to learn how to use the machines and make some cool stuff. They were eager to break out of the ‘Teacher in Charge’ category so they could do the interesting things they saw the other kids doing in past classes. 7th and 8th grade had a different attitude though. More of them saw the potential freedom to break out of their seats and be with their friends and socialize. The behaviours are developmentally appropriate but as a whole they were less ambitious and excited to do something new or different. Years of living in ‘Teacher in Charge’ school mode them less willing or able to strike out on their own. The attitude of a lot of the older students made it clear that they would only do the bare minimum without exception. Shared Responsibility At my best in middle school science I was able to share responsibility for learning with students. I would give them topics and resources and they would use them to learn and show their learning in a unique way. In Innovative Arts, the ‘Shared Responsibility’ start in 6th grade. They are the open ended projects that they choose and customize. Being creative is sometimes difficult for middle school students. Customizing a skeleton project creatively can be a big shift from what kids are used to. It is a battle between two attitudes. On one side is the reflexive “What do I have to do?” attitude that students develop when they have no control. On the other side is kid who is excited to do something impressive. This side is also scared, especially if they haven’t tried to do something unique in the past. This is a very important moment! Does the kid play it safe and complete a project that they know that will be easy? Do they try something new and risk failure or mistakes or having to spend a...

Ep11 The Creator Mindset Spectrum

I have been trying to help my students create portfolios ever since I started teaching. Every attempt was a failure. Paper Portfolios A paper portfolio sounds like a great way for students to showcase their work. We can imagine students working diligently to keep their work organized. It never worked out that way. Each year I found that it was too difficult for . Online Portfolios We started online portfolios on  The idea was that kids would be able to document each unit and all the cool stuff that we were doing in class. Here is a picture of the template:  Google Sites online portfolio that students were to copy and customize My students were not able to easily digitize their work for their online portfolios and it was not worth entire days of work time. Tried for On to what works. Hello, Trello Boards  is a different take on a collaborative productivity app. It is based on boards, lists, and cards. Since Puzzle Shift Create has such an  there needs to be a way for students to access a lot of information easily.  is where I store links to resources for our class.  The cards can be sorted, moved, and copied to class boards. When a student starts learning a new skill, they are to copy a card to our class board. They use their cards to documenting their progress on skills or projects as shown here.  Each group has a card that they update. In this case, each Trello card has a checklist (from when they copied it from my board) to help them remember their next steps. I wander around the room during worktime and take pictures of groups working with my phone. I do this in the Trello app and each picture becomes an attachment in their card. Kids are impressed when they have access to the photo on their devices a few seconds later! &nbsp; Portfolios Here is the best part – if students are using Trello cards to show progress and document projects, then they can keep a copy of each of their completed cards on a personal portfolio board! Boards can be set to public and submitted with college applications.  Follow on &nbsp; Follow on

Ep12 Trello as a Classroom Portfolio Tool

This week: Creator Type #1 - Engineer &nbsp;After learning the CNC machine, 3D printer, laser cutter, and vinyl cutters, Innovative Arts students start working on becoming a creator of their own types. "Engineer" is one of the six options! What Engineers do: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Solve problems and improve lives by building, redesigning, and inventing. &nbsp; See more in future episodes! Follow on &nbsp; Follow on &nbsp; Follow on &nbsp; Check out the  &nbsp;

Ep13 Student Creator Type: Engineer

Getting our students to value failure is a tough sell. I have a few ideas that I have implemented in the Innovative Arts classroom that I hope can help you in yours! Follow on &nbsp; Follow on &nbsp; Follow on &nbsp; Check out the

Ep14 Embracing bad things - Talking failure with students in the classroom

We all can see that technology is going to change education but that vision hasn't come to fruition yet. This episode goes into my vision for how we need to think big and realize that everyone can be an authentic creators, not just consumers.&nbsp; See more @  Follow on  -&nbsp; Follow on  Follow on &nbsp;

Ep15 Everyone can be a creator

We, as teachers, need to do a better job helping kids understand how their brains work. WHY homework can help, WHY studying a little each night is best, WHY your expectations become reality, WHY habits matter, and more.&nbsp; &nbsp; Follow on &nbsp; Follow on &nbsp; Follow on

Teaching kids how their brains work

In this episode, I go over the various harms that standardized testing brings to students, teachers, and envision a world with less testing.

Peter Johnson

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