Myth: Creating a MakerSpace is expensive.

Fact: Nope. Creating a MakerSpace is about changing the opportunity for possibilities in your classroom, and THAT you can do with rearranging, opening the space, and designing a space that inspires kids to design.  But ONLY if you are willing to change what YOU do as a teacher.  Ready?  Let’s go… and above all, see step 10.

1.)Pick a color scheme of 2-4 colors. Keep it simple. Here are some examples.  The colors will simplify the room and tie it all together, making it more about student creativity than about “the decorations.”  Clear the walls of anything you don’t need.  Open wall space freshens up the room and gives a feel of a blank slate to kids ready to create. Balance a dark color with a light, airy color.    If the furniture you have to work with is already black, or red, or blue, make that one of the colors.  If you’re lucky, you can find a complimenting color of Contact paper to cover the sides of a file cabinet for a magnetic surface, shelves to tie everything together, or even self-laminated wrapping paper is cheap and easy.

2.) Get a cardboard box and fill it with… cardboard scraps.  Print a sign that says “CAUTION: CONTENTS MAY CAUSE EXTREME CREATIVITY.”

3.) Move your desks. Vary the heights.  Un-assign the spaces. Create cozy corners, make floor space, and make standing height desks along a wall.  Consider your desk repurposed as a student networking space. Especially if it’s big.  Cover it with laminated bulletin board paper or shower board to make the surface dry erase.

4.) Get some 5 gallon buckets and make some stools.  Lowes has them for about $4.00 in blue, Home Depot the same in orange. Or, like the video, you can paint any color scheme. Here’s a video of how to make them.  The bonus is they are also storage.  Ottomans also make GREAT seating and are often available at thrift stores.

5.) Add some low mobile tables. Ikea’s Lack Table for $7.99 is perfect. 4 of these together make a big group floor table, and move apart to create seating around the room.
6.) Get blank canvas from Joann’s with your teacher discount, or one by one from Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon.  4 or 5 16×20 canvas for the wall could spell out “MAKE” or “CREATE”  Use tape to create funky letters and paint each canvas a different color of your scheme. Paint over the tape, and when it dries, peel it off.  Don’t try for perfection, try for creative.   I had these robots on my classroom wall many years ago, and every year, I would recover these same four canvas in a funky new color scheme. 

7.) Storage can be cheap. Go to a home improvement store and they have buckets and small storage containers in bold colors or the Dollar Tree does, too.  Of course, thrift stores offer great baskets and storage tools if you are willing to spraypaint.

8.) Seek out the “trash” furniture your school has hidden.  Those old giant AV tv carts? They are perfect to create mobile stations in your classroom. Add some contact paper and spray paint, and they become creatively inspired masterpieces.

9.)  Don’t have a 3d printer? Not necessary. See step 10.

10.)  Make your teaching more about their learning.  Open the possibilities up. Use open questions like, “How might we…” or “What would happen if…” and get kids collaborating.  Mix up groups and instead of “assigning chapters,” ask kids to create products that are meaningful to them and explore content.  Sure, this change is a big one and it cannot happen overnight. Start small, one assignment at a time. The real MakerSpace is in the minds of your students, and you need to create the environment that will draw that out.  It’s not just aesthetically or architecturally, it’s a feeling.  And when you draw it out? The kids will inspire you.

So what are you waiting for? Move some desks and change up your lessons.  It might totally fail. But you know what? That’s how we learn.

 

Some free art to get you thinking and get you started. Happy making!