DRAFT

This is a copy so I don’t lose materials.

What image should we use?

1 + 1 = 3

These two are for the larger concept, not just repair events
Educators + Repair Advocates = Impact
Repair Advocates and Schools

Notes to self:

Add this page to:
what is CRE page, and maybe
how to start one page.

Say on tile that for advocates and educators

A consistently successful model for bringing teaching about repair into schools combines community repair events with classroom instruction, harnessing the energy and resources of community repair event volunteers to advance educators’ objectives.

This is accomplished effectively through pairing in-class instruction about repair with an event owned and led by educators, with both instruction and event supported by community repair advocates.

This model advances the objectives of both educators and repair advocates.

 1 + 1 = 3

The resource that follows address both educators and repair advocates and is about schools hosting community repair events.

For repair advocates supporting in-class instruction, go HERE.

(”Repair advocates” are community members enthusiastic about repair, typically volunteers from Repair Cafés, Fixit Clinics, Restart Parties, and related repair events.)

For repair advocates supporting in-class instruction, go HERE.

Schools and Community Repair Events

Communities' responses to repair events -- Repair Cafés, Fixit Clinics, Restart Parties and related -- is impressive for its irrepressible enthusiasm and consistency across contexts.

Neighbors helping neighbors repair their broken objects unleashes a universally-held desire to take care of our things and of each other. The abundance of goodwill, creativity, generosity and resourcefulness catalyzes into an energy that lasts far after the repair event.

Linking local educational settings with the local repair community creates rich opportunities for each to advance its own objectives, while at the same time furthering a culture of repair.

Schools hosting repair events, especially in conjunction with a repair unit in class, with the support of community repair advocates, accomplishes infinitely more than either educators or repair advocates could independently.

APPROACH #1

Benefits to Schools of Hosting Repair Events: (drop down?)

• Serve and engage with the larger community well beyond those already involved with the school

• Address environmental issues visibly and tangibly

• Offer space for citizens with different viewpoints to collaborate in generosity, goodwill and mutual respect, toward a mutually held value

• Create significant goodwill toward the school in the larger community

• Communicate the value of STEM, Career and Technical Education

Benefits to teachers of hosting repair events: (drop down?)

• Communicate the lesson’s importance through adults’ attendance

• Feature STEM / Makerspace, Climate Literacy and/or Career and Technical Education programs to the community

• Expand students’ world-view through cross-generational work with fixers

• Receive administration’s recognition and support

Benefits to Community Repair Advocates of Supporting Schools: (drop down?)

• Expand the visibility of the repair message through the school’s network and communications infrastructure

• Augment the power of the message, legitimized through the school’s authority

• Expand the volunteer pool: fixers, hosts and organizers

APPROACH #2

Educators

Repair furthers learning in:

    • STEM/Makerspace

    • Climate / Environmental Literacy

    • Career and Technical Education (CTE)

STEM/Makerspace: Taking apart and repairing broken objects calls on and deploys learning from other classes into students' real lives -- electromagnetism, complete circuits, calculating area and volume, converting measuring units. Working on objects they're interesting places the hook for pursuing STEM and design education and advanced training.

You need:

• Technical know-how

• Adults helping in the classroom

• Information about how your teaching fits into the global repair movement

Repair Advocates

Community members enthusiastic about repair, typically volunteers from Repair Cafés, Fixit Clinics, Restart Parties, and related repair events
Involvement with schools, particularly at the district level, turbo-charges your work.

Repair Cafés, Fixit Clinics, Restart Parties and related community repair events are all about neighbors coming together to help each other repair broken objects, developing a culture that values and cares for what we already have, and cultivating community resiliancy.

You need:

• Visibility

• Authority / Legitimacy

• Volunteers

Educators’ objectives in Makerspace/STEM, CTE and environmental literacy programs are particularly well-aligned with repair’s pedagogical possibilities.

Climate / Environmental Literacy

Putting objects back into working order, extending their useful lives, makes abstract envoronmental and climate concepts concrete, personally relevant and actionable.

Career and Technical Education (CTE)

Repairing broken objects invites learning a wide range of cognitive skills -- problem-solving, resourcefulness; technical skills -- fine motor, soldering, sewing, 3-D printing, woodworking, etc.; and technical knowledge -- materials and processes.

STEM/Makerspace:

Taking apart and repairing broken objects calls on and deploys learning from other classes into students' real lives -- electromagnetism, complete circuits, calculating area and volume, converting measuring units. Working on objects they're interested in places the hook for pursuing STEM and design education and advanced training.

Basic Elements of an Effective Model:

Repair events can be different forms and scales:

The common attributes across all forms are students’ repairing everyday broken objects, with the support of repair enthusiast volunteers.

• Event in class: repairing broken objects from students’ homes and/or the school — typically small, one-time, often with repair enthusiast / advocate and/or parent volunteer support

• Event after school: typically small, one-time or ongoing, usually with repair enthusiast / advocate support

• Event on the weekend: typically large, usually extensively supported by repair advocates

Finding Repair Advocates and Enthusiasts

”Repair advocates” are community members enthusiastic about repair, typically volunteers from Repair Cafés, Fixit Clinics, Restart Parties, and related repair events.

To find an event near you:
Three organizations sponsor hundreds of events in all quarters of the world. Many, many independent organizations operate in their respective communities:

The Restart Project — The UK, Europe and Virtual
Events listed here.

Repair Café — Worldwide
Over 125 in the USA, from Berkeley to the Hudson River Valley to Palo Alto to Houston to Montreal to Pasedena, and everywhere between
Events listed here.

Fixit Clinic — USA and Virtual
Events listed here.

A handful of the many, many independent groups follows.
A Google search will turn up scads more.
Search on: Fixit Fair, Repair Fair, Repair Cafe, Fixit Clinic, …

Repair PDX — Portland, Oregon USA
Community Glue Workshop — Chicago, Illinois USA
King County Repair Events — Seattle end environs, Oregon USA
Fixing Factory — London and environs
Share, Reuse, Repair — Vancouver, Canada
The Bower — Sydney, Australia
The Remakery — London, UK
Philly Fixers Guild, Repair Fair — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA
Fix-It Fair — Eugene, Oregon USA
The Goodlife Centre — London, UK

See other entries in this Educator Resource Library for materials linking community repair events to schools, some designed to meet educational standards. (e.g., Malvern Hills Repair Café, Restart at School, Club de Reparadores, Organiser Un Repair Café Dans Mon École!)

See these pages for information about the vision and experience of larger repair events, and how to start them:

Community Repair Events
How to Start One

Resources specific to starting repair events in school settings include:

Repair Cafe International’s Starter Kit — in-class
Club de Reparadores X Escuelas (Spanish) — weekend

Fieldston School and Rudolf Steiner School Munich-Schwabing are ongoing repair services offered by students on school sites.

Malvern Hills Repair Café is designed to tie standards-based curriculum to participation in a local Repair Café.

Material cut:

Make resources available for in-class instruction:

• Recruit fixers and hosts from the local pool of volunteers

• Offer technical expertise - adults in the classroom and preparing hands-on materials

• Guide to repair teaching resources: curriculum, classroom materials, audio-visual, etc. (Library with link)

For information about in-class instruction
(possible to make this a drop down with text and links? or a hover over something impermanent? [MAKER RESOURCE], [DEBBIE NOTE] [ELLEN NOTE], [BUSD CURRICULUM] [GLORIA’S NOTE]