Maker Profile: Deus Z

Deus Z's own illustration

Since I've been writing so much about my L.I.I. students, I thought it would be fun to introduce them all to you. But to preserve their privacy and an aura of mystery, I had them all select Maker alter-egos.

Boy sure plays a mean pinball

First up is the young man who goes by Deus Z. Deus Z was actually one of the students who inspired me to create this class. He's an incredibly talented artist with an interest in graphic novels. I thought it would be so wonderful if he had a time during the school day to develop his talent and invest some time into them.

Deus Z's current project is a cardboard pinball machine. He's shown a great deal of persistence and ingenuity in making all of the components, particularly the flippers.

Deus Z says that one of his creative specialties is creating well-developed characters. He signed up for L.I.I. to focus on his creativity (although his main goal for the course right now is to just make a fun pinball machine).

When he's not making something cool, he's probably playing fantasy games.

Collaboration happening

When I first started blogging about the development of what would become LEAP Innovators and Investigators, one my biggest struggles was accepting the loss of control necessary to let (make?) this class happen. I thought I had conquered my fear of losing control, but I have realized in the past couple of weeks, how much of me was still clinging unnecessarily to my own sense of order and authority. 

The thought of 50 minutes a day, every day of the school week of free, uninterrupted and unstructured work time seemed dangerous. I decided over the summer that I would schedule "whole class" activities once or twice a week: TED Talks to discuss, routine plussing sessions. But once again, I'm having to relearn how to let go. Because I've realized that I don't need any enforced class interaction to tent-pole what's happening here. 

Working together on a Google Chrome extension

For example, the idea of the weekly structured plussing/feedback sessions? Totally unnecessary. Kids are naturally seeking out feedback and help from each other. I watch them collaborate in this organic way, just as I watch them walk in the door, grab their projects and start immediately working, and it seems like magic. I designed a system to give them wings, and they are flying. Are all of them doing the kinds of projects I had imagined? Nope. Some of them, I don't even really understand, but here's to letting go and trusting, both myself and them.