Fáilte go hÉireann

Welcome back to Ireland! I arrived back in Ireland on Thursday, June 21. It was my first time in Dublin, and Delta did not lose my luggage. All around, so far so good. I packed considerably more than last year bringing with me a big luggage along with a carry on luggage plus my backpack. I...

MAETy1 Final Project

Plans are for Wusses For our final Year 1 project, we were tasked with creating something, anything really, that reflected on our learning and time in Galway. We were given a lot of leeway in exploring what we were interested in but also asked to do something https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue0gygmNICI Creating Something New I've never made a...

A Wicked Problem: Scaling Innovation

What makes a problem "wicked"? No good deed goes unpunished? No one mourns for the wicked? What is this feeling? Defying Gravity? Oops. Those are songs from the musical Wicked.   Okay, onto serious matters. Wicked problems are those problems that cannot be solved through a straight-forward solution. The settings that created them were an...

Who are “Makers”?

What is a Maker? Well that seems obvious, Bernadette, it's someone who makes things. But what kind of things? A maker could be a carpenter who makes beautiful furniture. A maker could be an artist who gives form to intangible ideas. Or it could be a carpentry artist who works with wood to shapes to...

GREAT 17: SIG Global Competence & Technology

Every year, the MAET hosts an educational conference. The Year 2s are in charge of organizing it, but everyone contributes to it in someway. The Year 1s are split into "Special Interest Groups" (SIGs) to research a particular problem, topic, or learning paradigm. Once we've familiarized ourselves with our topic, we have to design and...

Asking Better Questions

Too Many Questions vs. No Questions At All For Year 1 of the MAET program, we've been reading A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger. It's a fascinating read that's made me question a lot of my own mindsets and not just those I hold as a teacher but as a person. For instance, the very...

How to Catch a Star

The International Galway Arts Festival 2017 Today, MAET took us on a field trip to the O'Donoghue Theater located on NUI's campus. The theater was hosting a children's puppet show as part of The International Galway Arts Festival.  I've only heard great things about the festival, but sadly, the festival really gets going when our...

Team Teach Reflection

On Friday, July 14, Kathryn and I co-taught a mini-lesson based on the 2016 Horizon Report.Our topic was the idea of "Students as Creators"- "Learners [explore] subject matter through the act of creation rather than the consumption of content" (p. 18). Some things can't be taught through direct instruction, readings, or group discussions. Some things...

Medieval Siege Engines – A History Maker Project

History can be a loaded subject. There is no such thing as neutral ground. If you think you're neutral, than you might be worse off than the person committed whole heartedly to their ideas. Yet, we must always strive to find that neutral ground. History is a struggle to understand all the angles, not just...

Maker Project [Entry 3]

Prototype & Testing Stage I had originally brainstormed a few other ideas for my maker project before finally settling on the catapult, so my project came together a bit later than some of my classmates. Supplies in our Maker Space were limited at this point, so I had to put together whatever was left. Part...