“”
A parade of students exit Hamilton Elementary School. One by one, the students file out, each carrying a board more than twice their height. The group makes their way to the front of the school, pile the wood, and huddle up. Discussion starts. The beginnings of a plan. Together, they are about to build a bridge. A bridge with no nails, glue, or fasteners of any kind.
“We’re doing a little project and combining engineering, architecture, and science,” said SOTA I teacher Mike Lawrence. “This will be a Leonardo da Vinci bridge. The biggest thing they’re learning here today is teamwork. They’re learning a lot about building a structure, but when you’ve got twenty-two kids working together on a project it’s going to take teamwork, and they’re learning that’s the most important thing. The big motto in our classroom is ‘We love failure’. I thrive on it as an adult and I’m teaching my kids that you learn from failure. Don’t think of it as a negative but we also teach them that if failure becomes a habit then we need to switch things up, and they believe in that.”
It’s day two, and communication has improved, the tone of the students’ voices is much lower than day one, and they’re working together. Yesterday was a learning experience. During day two, they are talking about the previous day’s missteps and take the positive from it.
“Every idea is shared, everyone’s ideas have potential, we all have an equal part,” said SOTA I fifth-grader Heber Faucheux. “Thomas Edison said ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work,’ so we had to be able to talk and share ideas with each other and learn from our mistakes. This is a project you can’t do on your own so we had to work together to succeed.”
“I just want parents to know that they’re kids are learning and having fun in school,” said Lawrence.
“”””[vc_gallery type=”flexslider_slide” interval=”0″ images=”11832,11827,11828,11829,11830,11831,11833,11834,11835,11836,11837,11838,11839,11840,11841,11842,11843,11844,11845,11846,11847,11848,11849,11850,11851,11852,11853,11854,11855″ img_size=”625×417″]””””[vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/P7NnFediNuQ” align=”center”]””
