Sylvia Martinez, @smartinez, co-author of Invent to Learn, talks about tinkering today. Some teachers have a misconception that kids just pick up and play with materials and learn, but it is a little bit more nuanced than that. Sylvia does an amazing job of helping us understand the drawbacks, possibilities, and essential nature of tinkering.  Today, Sylvia teaches us: How to make time for tinkering Assessing making and tinkering The risks of using reflection as your only tool of assessing making Three of the biggest mistakes teachers make when tinkering When to let students struggle and when to step in  When to let students struggle and when to step in Sylvia Libow Martinez is co-author of Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering the Classroom helping teachers bring the exciting tools and technology of the Maker Movement to classrooms worldwide. Previously, Sylvia was President of Generation YES, evangelizing student leadership through modern technology. Sylvia also headed product development for consumer software, video games, and educational games at several software publishing companies. Martinez started her career designing high-frequency receiver systems and navigation software for GPS satellites.She holds a masters in educational technology from Pepperdine, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from UCLA. A full transcript of this show and the show notes are available at www.coolcatteacher.com/podcast as well as details on entering this month’s giveaway contests.