Current Course Schedule

Making: One Way to Create More Inclusive Classrooms

Project-based making starts with students' interests and skills, allows them to be seen more dynamically, and bridges home and school learning. It allows students to see themselves as people who, through tinkering, can have an impact over systems and objects in their world. This course will help you create the conditions in which your students can explore their individual talents in order to design their own projects. Participants will explore ways in which projects can be facilitated with accessibility (low floors) and possibility (high ceilings) for all students and how to identify the benchmark skills that are being taught and learned within each project.
  • Course Number
    TEWS861N
  • Focus On
    Grades K - 5, Pre-School
  • Category
    Childhood / Elementary School, Early Childhood
  • Registration Options and Cost
    $295 5.0 CTLE or 0.5 CEU

Sections

Fall 2023

  • Section 1:
    Date(s)
    December 12 and 14| Online
    Day and Time
    Tuesday and Thursday, 6:30 PM–8:45 PM ET
    Registration Deadline
    Dec 5, 2023
    Register
    • Kelly Bird
      Kelly Bird
      Dr. Kelly Bird is the Director of the Beginning School at Renbrook School in West Hartford, CT. In addition, she serves on the faculty of ISM and teaches a continuing education course at Bank Street College of Education in NYC called "Creating Classrooms that Embrace Difference". Previously, she served as a Coach for Teaching Apprentices in the Urban Teaching Apprenticeship Program at UPenn. She has also worked as a teacher (Packer Collegiate, Little Red School House, the Town School, NYC), Director of Enrollment and Financial Aid  (The Hewitt School, NYC), and Division Director (Friends’ Central School, PA). While working at Friends’ Central, Bird founded their innovative “Light Lab” a 2600 sq ft building that housed a comprehensive maker program and placed children at the center of their learning. She also has extensive experience facilitating diversity and inclusion conversations, reflecting her belief that children thrive in an environment in which they feel they belong. This fall she graduated from UPenn's Graduate School of Education with her EdD in Educational Leadership. Her dissertation focused on teachers' perception of choice and participation in maker education in independent schools. Bird earned a MSEd from Bank Street College of Education in elementary education and a BA in psychology/sociology from Wesleyan University. She is the President of Making Space, LLC and consults with schools on creating more equitable and interdisciplinary learning environments that promote student choice and participation.