The Makerspace Maker

Hi there! Welcome to my blog! My name is Ellen, but my students know me as Miss Schafer. I am a middle school science & engineering teacher in Minnesota. I'm entering into my 7th year of teaching and I have been teaching STEAM curriculum all those years in the makerspace that I designed for my school.

The purpose of this blog is to inspire and help other educators build their dream makerspace and share engaging STEAM content to add to your curriculum. My goal is to provide a space for educators to find everything they are looking for in one place. So without dragging this on, I'll STEAM right ahead and share how this all got started.

I graduated from the University of St. Thomas - St. Paul (UST) in 2014 with a K-6 Elementary license and a 5-8 Science & Math Endorsement. As an undergrad, I was able to take an Engineering for Education course that really inspired me to pursue it further in graduate studies. After my first year of teaching, I started planning how to build a makerspace and went back to UST to earn a Graduate Certificate in K-12 Engineering for Education. 

With the help of my STEAM team, my makerspace opened in the fall of 2016 with roaring success. This fall will be the 5 year anniversary of its opening and I have learned a lot about what it takes to run a makerspace and how to build a curriculum for it on a budget.

Follow The Makerspace Maker to learn how you can build a makerspace at your school with whatever budget you have and build an engaging STEAM curriculum that will leave your students with wanting more. New blogs will be posted every Monday in correlation with #MakerMonday.