Explanation:
Few things are more important in life than our relationships. How we communicate and interact with others defines a large part of who we are. We must teach our students about compassion and empathy, respect and caring. The relationships we create with those around us inspire us, educate us, and drive us. People often feel that digital relationships are false, and it’s true that students must be careful about the relationships they create online. However, that being said, some of my best friends are people I’ve never met in person, or see only a few times each year. Online communities have given us an opportunity to find those with similar passions, and nurture parts of our personalities that may not always mesh with those in our immediate vicinity. On the other hand, human connections with the people we live with are just as important. Communicating and forming relationships in all walks of life is part of growing up. Networking brings new learning, new resources, and new opportunities. Learning to appropriately navigate, build, and utilize your networks are skills that greatly benefit global citizens.  

Components:

• Relationships & Communication
  
• Including everyone
  
• Being compassionate
  
• Respect
  
• Caring

In the News:
Business value of social networking
8 Secrets from Power Networking Pros
Learning from your network
Jefferson students on Twitter

Challenges:
Challenge 1:
Discuss good character and the importance of relationships, respect, and caring within a network and community (physical and digital). Challenge your students to identify and award one (or two or twelve!) of their peers with a good character award from Character Counts!

Challenge 2:
How are you modeling a network? How are your students networking? Try this classroom example of teaching students about networking for their future. Try talking to students about how to connect for learning and creating a Student Learning Network! Need to know more? This webinar from PBS LearningMedia’s “Get Your Tech On” series discusses social media in the classroom.

Challenge 3:
Part of being a good citizen includes connecting and communicating with people in a respectful way, regardless of background, opinion, or platform. Anonymity on social media can be a tempting way to leave hurtful or rude feedback or comments when you don’t see eye-to-eye with others. It’s important to remember that being respectful of others is an expectation in all walks of life. This Digizen resource explains what you need to know about using social media for positive purposes, provides reports and data for sharing, and offers activities to practice positive networking. Have students try one or all!

Monday I visited a couple districts and realized I already own many of the items they were thinking of buying or had just bought for their Maker Spaces. So I decided to clean out my office (which had become a giant mess of storage) and turn it into an at-home Maker Space for my kids. So after some rearranging, digging through boxes, and organizing the last couple days, I present to you the Keehn Maker Space! 

In the picture with Rylee (left), you will see the Chromebook hooked up to the MakeyMakey (although she's doing some design work in this photo), Squishy Circuits, MakeDo kits, markers, giant supply of cardboard, some other crafting things, etc. Then in the Aaden picture (below) you have the art supplies and more craft supplies, legos, laptop, and 3Doodler. In the last photo (below), because he was mad that there were no free computers, I let Easton paint on one of our "mess boards" which are the shelving pieces that came out of a closet we bought from Ikea that completely fell apart the second we built it. We repurposed the pieces as boards as portable hard surfaces for the kids to make messes on (painting, playdoh, etc). 

With Christmas just around the corner we'll be making many new additions, but the kids and I are so excited about the start we have here! They even helped clean (willingly) to get it set up, and spent about 2 hours after dinner in here playing. 

The Breakdown:
For those thinking "classroom applications" I would say that what you see here (minus the computers) cost under $500. It's a little hard to estimate, as many of the things we already had and I collected around the house. But a rough breakdown includes:
1 3Doodler ($100)
1 MakeyMakey ($60)
1 Squishy Circuit Kit ($25)
2 MakeDo Basic Kits ($50)
2 MakeDo Creation Kits (Play house and space ship) $40
Assorted legos (we already had)
Scrapbooking materials - stickers, paper
Cardboard (free from other stuff, obviously)
Fingerpaint/Paints ($40ish - we have a lot of paint)
Sharpie Markers ($10)
Assorted craft resources - tape, toothpicks, glue, cotton balls, plastic cord
Rubber Band Loom supplies ($50? - we have gotten several looms and refills over time)

Next Steps:
I feel short on robotics type materials. That may be the next place I invest some money. 

The other thing I need to create a better space for is animation - stop motion, claymation type stuff. Our room is pretty full, but I think being creative with the space is one of the most important parts of a Maker Space! I also have a sheet hung up on the back wall as a "green screen" - but my sheet is blue, so I'd also like to invest in something that would allow us utilize that a little more fully. You can see some of the shortcomings of a "blue screen" in this video we made last fall.