5/1/08, GreenHouse for the Gingerbread Man

Without a doubt, I learned way more about teaching yesterday than the 5th, 6th, and 7th graders did about sustainability. The first workshop didn’t go so well, with one group just playing around and eating candy, and the other group doing exactly what we wanted them to do. We (Quinn, Cole, Manny, and I) realized that it had less to do with the children (although it did a bit) than with our actions. Cole prepped one group, going down the list we had given them and giving them certain tasks, while the other group was immediately given a house and started working. They were floundering, and in the end, barely ended up with a house. Some part of it was definitely due to the children, and apparently they annoyed other groups too, but I definitely learned a bit. For the second group, we talked to them both individually before hand, and had two people with each group throughout the workshop. Another thing I learned was that if something doesn’t go as planned, you have to accomodate quickly. Originally it was planned for each workshop to be working on one house, and so only two were built. Somehow, the first workshop ended up with both, and each group (one meant to be working on the outside of one house, and the other on the inside) worked on one whole house. With no houses for the second house, Cole had to create a haphazard nightmare of a house to work on in under 10 minutes, and we had to scrap the house of the group that didn’t work and make it new again. In the end, both groups pulled through better than we had ever expected, and I think they enjoyed the workshop. If Victor and Janis hadn’t monitored the kids and helped out a tremendous amount, it wouldn’t have ended up nearly as well.
In reflection, I thought that although the Day of Learning was good, it could’ve been much better, and things like the film should’ve been better organized.

-The Rob