Contents
The Maker movement: A learning revolution
by Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager
We need to be creative!
by Erahm Christopher
Create STEM Experiences for Middle School Students to Master!
by John Hunt
Growing Up Digital
by Renee Hobbs
Taking Care of Teacher
by Kevin Hawkins
Special Guest Columnist:
Elizabeth Schroeder
My Child Was Doing
WHAT?!@
What to Do When You Learn
Your Child is Viewing Pornography
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Welcome to ELMLE’s Bridge in the Middle.
Each year we are fortunate to feature
articles and resources by today’s
preeminent middle school leaders and
practitioners. As we prepare for our
Warsaw Conference in January 2015, this
issue offers insight into some of the work
and research by our guest speakers and conference presenters. We are very excited about our theme this year, Create! We are experiencing an emergence of an interest in our students and schools in working with our hands to create, recreate and be productive through both explicit design and generally tinkering. The Maker’s Movement has been very active the past several years and Google’s Summer Maker’s Camps have inspired many educators to look back at our own education and the opportunities we had to build, learn, experiment, and discover how to things really work. I remember always tinkering on an old Ford truck we had as well as building things out of scrap lumber. I never thought of planting seeds for food or pruning trees as anything other than work. These days students have little idea of where food comes from, what is needed to make something grow or how to take care of and make repairs to items we use daily. There is a sense of wonder and tinkering that is often missing in our students and we hope to explore this idea this year with our Create inspired conference and the articles presented here by our invited speakers.
Derek Harwell
ELMLE President