Week 1

The board I am using is the arduino. The project that I was trying to complete is an ultrasonic sensor so that it senses movement when things are close to it. It creates a response by indicating with an LED light. 

1. It is rather easy to bring multiple disciplines together during my student teaching. For example during a lesson in science where students were identifying the differences and similarities in offsprings and parents students wrote in complete sentences describing how they felt during the activity and what differences and similarities they saw. I also had the chance to collaborate with our music and arts instructor to align with our science lessons when were were learning about placing different shapes and objects in the path of light. Since we only saw the music and art instructor every other week for 30 minutes I reached out to her and asked if there was a way that we could create some puppets during her time and she loved the idea and students loved that they could use the puppets they created during their science lessons. The opportunities for collaboration are sometimes a challenge but I think that they can be successful if they are planned well in advance but that is also a challenge they have to align in order to collaborate. 

2. Since I currently do not have a classroom of my own I will envision a makerspace at the school I did my student teaching at. The school that I did my student teaching at has a computer lab that has not been in operation since covid and I believe that would be the perfect space for a makerspace. I think that the school would benefit from having button makers, 3D pens, two 3D printers, and a laser cutter. I also think that the makerspace should have access to a ton of consumables: popsicle sticks, cardboard, construction paper, pipe cleaners, paints and so much more. I believe having access to all these things would allow students to tap into their creative side and have an outlet where they can explore digital fabrication. All students have access to chromebooks and 2nd and up take their chromebooks home. However, I think these students needs more hands on aspects of digital fabrication. My vision of the makerspace is an open concept room with tabletops in the middle of the room that allow for small groups to sit around and collaborate and all the heavy machinery is on countertops on the walls. 

3. After learning the definition of comupational thinking I would say that I kind of used that thinking in the 1st grade classroom without even thinking about it. Oftern times I would look at the standards that I needed to cover and would break them down into clear steps on how to teach students the whole process, then I would recognize patterns in the way that students were learning such as their phonics and see that there needed to be adjustments. I absolutely could take advantage of computional thinking because one of the things that I struggled with in my student teaching was being able to break apart my instructions in a manner that was clear for students to understand. If I used computional thinking then I would be able to break down my thinking and make it visible for students that way the concepts were more clear. I think that computional thinking can also be used in a makerspace by implementing a plan, working on said plan, and then revising when adjustments needed to be made.