Beyond the What

This morning was a culmination of moments- a memory I will preserve in my mental jar of favorite teacher moments. After a lot of problem solving students finished their projects, their end goal had been reached. In watching them celebrate I let them know it was who they were during the process, rather than what they built that made me so proud.

Some background:
Every Tuesday and Thursday mornings I offer 40 minute sessions to students under different themes. Lately I have been offering "builder" sessions- students can build with Legos, Knex or Lego Robotics. The session is usually filled with third to fifth graders working on all types of projects and for some reason this chunk of 6 sessions only had three students. One student (3rd grade) started building with Legos the others (4th grade) jumped in with Lego We Do 2.0 kits. I noticed on the first day the robotics duo was quite comfortable so I raised the challenge of building some other projects during the proceeding sessions. When I presented the spirograph I did not realize there were no instructions out there in the forest of the internet and the best video is from a fantastic Russian girl who we came to be big fans of.

What unfolds:
The student building her Lego creation eventually let go of the side of the pool and decided to try out building with a We Do 2 Kit. We set her up with a kit and she built a rover by herself and figured out how to code it to go forward, backward and make sounds.When she asked me questions I would give her guiding questions sprinkled with reassuring comments in my confidence of her abilities. She built a stellar rover and programmed it to moved forward, backward and make sounds. I was proud because she went from what was safe to what was unknown. She trusted herself to take a chance and she went for it. Trusting the unknown is a big deal to some kids. Sometimes adults need to remember not all kids are risk-takers.

The two students (4th grade) building the spirograph mainly used this video from our Russian friend as their resource. Through pausing and playing the video they built, dismantled and analyzed their structure and personalized it with modifications. It took them 5 of the 40 minute sessions to complete the spirograph. We even called over the art teacher to give us some input on design during her morning set-up (thanks, Emily!).

In my memory jar:
What I am treasuring most is how each of these students started in their comfort zone and embraced a challenge. At any time they could have given up, walked away and they didn't. There was no grade or test involved to drive them. When it got hard, they voiced frustration and then figured it out. (I will admit there were times I wanted to offer a simpler project) It never became personal, they were supportive of each other and good spirited. What I am proud of most is who they were as people during the problem solving, moments of challenge and doubt not what they made that is most important.