(0:00) Welcome to the Elementary STEM Coach Podcast. I’m your host, Naomi Meredith, a former classroom (0:06) teacher turned K-5 STEM teacher and coach. With over a decade of experience teaching and a master’s (0:12) degree in STEM leadership, I’m here to coach you throughout the year to help you gain back (0:16) more time to create innovative experiences for your students.

If the thought of managing behavior (0:23) during STEM or Makerspace time makes you nervous, especially with all the back-to-school excitement (0:30) or the excitement that comes with brand new projects, this mini episode is for you. Yes, (0:37) STEM can get loud, but that doesn’t mean it has to feel chaotic. In this clip from episode 150, (0:46) I’m breaking down how I kept things structured even during open-ended building times.

I also (0:52) talk about how I group students a little bit and how I like to manage supplies like tape and glue, (0:59) which are very popular items in a Makerspace. I know that these practical tips will help you feel (1:05) more confident heading into the new school year or whenever you start your Makerspace. And these (1:11) are things that I have done year after year and continue to do.

And I think that you will (1:17) appreciate these tips. So you have an idea of how to organize your Makerspace. What about the (1:23) behavior management? Do you feel like your kids are getting a little too wild because they are (1:30) creating? It might get loud.

All of these lessons, the kids are going to get loud. I can’t tell you (1:36) that they’re not going to be loud because they are. That’s how it goes.

I got so used to it, (1:42) it is what it is. But being loud is different than not doing what you’re supposed to do. So (1:48) make sure you understand the difference with that and what’s happening in your class.

(1:54) When it comes to the behavior management, it also is about the way your lesson is formatted (2:01) and the systems and routines of that structure. When students would come in for my lessons, (2:07) and this is true for all of my lessons, and even when I teach after-school clubs, (2:12) I do not let kids get the supplies right away. That is not happening.

I am going to help them (2:18) with that transition time and teach them that mini lesson that is involved with the engineering (2:23) design process. Keep it really short, have that background knowledge, tell them anything they (2:29) need to know about supplies, and most of the time is work time. Also make sure you are leaving time (2:34) at the end to clean up.

A Makerspace project might take longer to clean up than a robotics lesson. (2:41) Keep that in mind. I would give kids about 10 minutes.

I would try 10 minutes to start, (2:48) and depending on the class, some classes could clean up in five. So play around with that time. (2:53) It might change with the class.

That is the overall structure of the lesson, but let’s break (2:59) it down throughout the days. At the beginning of your Makerspace lesson, you probably want kids to (3:07) be imagining different ideas and planning. If your kids are having a hard time planning and coming up (3:14) with ideas, especially if you have a newer program, you might need to give them more examples.

Those (3:21) examples can be things like things in real life, examples of pictures of things students have built (3:27) in the past. You might even have to build a few examples to get the ground running. (3:33) For Makerspace projects, I don’t typically teach students you have to do it this way, (3:39) step by step by step.

Now maybe for an after school program, that might be the case, (3:45) but in the classroom setting, I do have a challenge I want them to solve, but I’m not (3:50) going to show you step by step on how to do it. I might show them step by step in a mini lesson (3:55) on how to do a certain strategy. For example, with one of my STEM lessons, STEM Racecars in (4:03) STEMusement Park, there is a part in that project where students have to add a wheel and axle on (4:09) their car and allow it to move.

This is pretty tricky, and I would always get a ton of questions (4:16) on this strategy, so one of the days during the mini lesson, I just showed the kids how to do that. (4:21) It didn’t mean I was showing them how to build their car. I was just showing them that piece (4:27) of their car that everybody was going to need, and then the rest was up to them.

So those kinds (4:33) of strategies, just like if you’re teaching math, like we’re learning lots of strategies, (4:38) I would teach them those kinds of things as they would come up. It depends on the lesson, (4:43) and that was really helpful. When grouping students, this is up to you.

If you want students (4:49) to choose their groups, or you assign them for them. I did both. It actually depends on the class.

(4:57) Some groups do a great job choosing their partners, and some don’t. If you have classes that (5:03) get out of control really quick, you might need to keep them in groups of two. This is really rare.

(5:10) Some might need to be in just in groups of one. I’ve only had to do that a couple of times, (5:14) but it happens, and it is really sad, but at the same time, your job is also as the teacher to (5:21) keep kids safe and help them be successful, and if that’s where they’re at, that’s where they’re at. (5:25) I wouldn’t do more than four kids.

Three is my favorite because I feel like everybody can get (5:30) involved, but no more than four. It just gets too crazy, and at that point, you should just have (5:36) partnerships in any way. What’s also going to help them in that building process is really giving (5:42) students that time to plan.

This is going to help them in that creation. They may or may not (5:48) build everything exactly how they drew the picture, but this is going to help them get the ideas out (5:55) of their brain and have a starting point, and if you do add in maker space money, which again, (6:03) go back to episodes five and six. I explained that whole process, but if you use that system, (6:08) that’s also going to help students critically think more about what supplies they are using (6:13) and why they are using them.

The more you give specific tasks in these creative projects, (6:21) kids are going to stay on task a lot better. If there is a problem they are trying to solve, (6:27) that’s going to help a lot better, so if you are doing roller coasters and you are wanting them (6:32) to time how fast the marble goes through the track and keep track of the time, they’re going to be a (6:38) lot more motivated to do that project instead of just build a roller coaster, have a good time. (6:44) If you have those specific challenges they are trying to solve, that’s going to help (6:48) so much with behavior management, and that is going back to engagement.

Are they being engaged (6:54) in the project? Do they have a purpose? And so these things really blend together. You might (7:00) need to rethink the lessons you’re teaching. That sometimes can be a problem when it comes to the (7:05) behavior management.

For some specific supplies, I also have rules set in place. A big one is with (7:14) tape, and if you follow me on Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore, I talk about tape a lot (7:19) because I think it’s actually really funny, and it is a weird thing that STEM teachers (7:25) have in common. I’m very specific with tape.

Tape is not a free-for-all. You get one foot of tape, (7:32) I wrap it on a popsicle stick. I’ve also seen people put it on a ruler, and that is all the (7:37) tape you get.

And I do have part of the budget. You could buy unlimited tape, but it’s like more (7:42) than half of their budget. Most kids don’t actually buy that one.

And so I’m very specific about the (7:48) amount of tape. I am not very strict on glue sticks. They’re pretty cheap.

I am actually (7:54) trying to get more into glue sponges, and I’ve always seen it. I’ve never tried it, but I am (8:02) going to test out glue sponges with some makerspace clubs that I’m going to be running in my community. (8:08) And if you haven’t heard of glue sponges, I did ask my husband if he knew, but he teaches high (8:13) school Spanish.

He’s like, what are you talking about? So I don’t know. I just wanted to see if (8:17) all teachers knew. But a glue sponge is, you just have like a sandwich Ziploc container, (8:23) and you put a sponge in there, and you pour liquid glue on top.

And when kids are wanting to glue (8:31) pieces of paper and smaller things, you dab your paper on the sponge, and it gets it all sticky on (8:38) the back, and then you paste it where you want it. This is an older technique. I’ve never done it, (8:43) but I really want to try it because the one thing that really bothers me about glue sticks is the (8:48) kids won’t put the caps on.

And so I’m going to try it. I’m going to let you know. Follow me (8:53) on Instagram.

I’ll let you know what I think about them in a STEM space. But I actually don’t have (8:59) any limit on glue. I just, that wasn’t a battle I wanted to fight.

With hot glue guns, it depended (9:05) on the year if I wanted to use hot glue guns. I like to use the lower temperature hot glue guns. (9:13) One thing with that, sometimes they do get clogged over time, and it could be because you might have (9:18) the wrong glue sticks.

Some of the hot glue gun sticks are made for lower temperature. And so if (9:25) have a station for hot glue guns, I would use them second through fifth grade. Make sure that the (9:30) station is at waist height and they’re not on the ground because that can be a little bit of an issue.

(9:37) So I do have specific procedures in place for hot glue guns. I have some posters in my TBT shop you (9:44) can grab. I think it’s Kelly Hogan.

She actually has those in her classroom. She put them in frames, (9:49) which I thought was such a cute idea to hang up posters. So that is something I might do at a (9:55) maker space.

But again, it depends on my budget if I have enough money for the hot glue gun sticks. (10:02) And honestly, if I want to manage it or not. And it depends on the class.

Usually it’s just tape. (10:08) If I’m feeling nice, we’ll do hot glue guns. But it’s not very often that we did.

(10:12) When it comes to the projects, I make sure that their projects are smaller, that they can fit (10:18) in a grocery bag or a gallon size Ziploc bag. A few exceptions to some projects like rollercoasters, (10:25) those are going to be a little bit bigger. But I do make sure their projects are smaller because (10:29) they’re going to finish them a lot quicker.

When you have limited time, you want the projects to (10:34) be a little bit smaller. That’s definitely going to help. And then with that cleanup time, I have (10:39) seen teachers have specific jobs where you need to do certain things.

I don’t do that. Again, (10:45) I didn’t like managing all of that. So I would say, okay, here’s all the things you need to (10:51) do to get cleaned up.

When you’re cleaned up, you’re sitting at your clean table. (10:54) When everybody was sitting down, I would walk around, just make sure everything’s good to go (10:59) before they could line up. So it kind of maybe looked a little bit chaotic, but everybody is (11:04) putting things away.

Sometimes I would bribe them where whichever tables clean up first, (11:09) I’ll give you a prize or you get some sort of incentive. So that can really help too, (11:14) just to make sure everybody’s doing what they’re supposed to do. With those projects, (11:18) I would have them store them in those grocery bags or Ziploc bags.

And I had those big fabric (11:23) tubs and just binder clipped their teacher’s name on it. And they would put all of their plans and (11:29) their projects in that bucket. And then I had a shelf in my classroom.

If anything needed to stay (11:34) standing up, those could be sitting on the shelf. At the very, very, very end of the unit, (11:40) you can have students take a picture or take a video of their work. I loved using Seesaw for (11:45) this purpose.

So everybody gets to take it home. And then maybe one student can bring (11:50) the project home. And if nobody wanted to bring the project home, I would actually have them (11:55) destruct the project where any pieces that can be reused would actually go back in the makerspace (12:02) and have a new life.

I hope these tips help you with some common makerspace management systems (12:08) that definitely need to take place in the classroom. Whether you’ve started them, (12:13) or you had an idea, or you just need to start from scratch. If you want to grab the hot glue gun (12:18) safety posters that I mentioned, I’ll link those for you in the show notes, or you can find them (12:23) in my TPT shop, Naomi Meredith.

If you’re looking for more support when setting up your entire STEM (12:29) space, systems and routines, and how to plan lessons, check out my STEM Teacher 101 course. (12:35) You will get all of the lessons, resources and checklists and can finish everything at your own (12:40) pace. There’s even a private podcast feature, which I think you will love.

For being a podcast (12:47) listener, you can get $30 off my signature STEM Teacher 101 course using this code podcast BFF, (12:55) all one word, no spaces, podcast BFF. And if you’re enjoying these bite sized episodes, (13:01) let me know. I’d love to keep creating quick wins that help support you in your STEM classroom and (13:07) help you get going on your way.

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of the (13:12) elementary STEM coach podcast. I would love to connect with you over on Instagram at Naomi (13:17) Meredith underscore, or send me an email to elementary STEM coach podcast at gmail.com. (13:23) Also make sure to check out my website, Naomi Meredith.com to see all the show notes from (13:28) today’s episode and shop my K through five STEM resources. Any questions you have, (13:32) needs for resources or ideas for episodes, get in touch.

I’ll talk to you soon.