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| Last day selfie with one of our "veteran" campers! |
One of the highlights from this summer was the production of our Second Annual Wild West STEM Camp. Because we fell in love with our campers last year (now incoming 6th graders), we decided to invite each of them back for another year along with a new group of incoming 5th graders. Again this year, we asked each Fourth Grade teachers in our district to nominate one "at-risk" student whom they believed would benefit from the opportunity from their class to attend our camp. When it was all said and done, we ended up with 39 campers, and we needed every bit of our resources to accommodate the large group!
The camp was full of success stories, and I could write a book with all the stories we learned and shared with our campers; we had another amazing group, and each one of them have their own heroes story. However, there was one little boy who caught my attention, and I'd like to share his story.
A few days before the camp started, he sent me a friend request on Facebook. Curious about the young man, I did a bit of research to find out his back story. It turns out this young man comes from a bit of a troubled background, but he's pretty bright. In Fourth Grade he found the principals office more than his fair share, and he had even punched his teacher. As I checked out his Facebook page, I couldn't help but notice his most recent post. In it, he declared that he was thinking about his future. He said that he was thrilled to be chosen to participate in the upcoming STEM Camp, and he couldn't wait to learn more about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. He went on to personally thank 39 of his friends and family members for helping him get to this point in his life. As I read his post, I knew that this young man better have his seat belt on because he was in for the ride of his life!
On the first day of camp, I watched this young man from a distance. I watched him tinker, problem solve, plan, and create. This kid jumped in head first and was doing some extremely high level thinking from the moment he walked through the door. One of their first challenges was to create a hot air balloon from a garbage bag, some string, straws, candles, and tin foil. Although his team didn't get their balloon off the floor, they were highly engaged, and they re-engineered and tinkered to try to solve their proclaimed problem of their design, the heavy weight of their "basket."
At the end of the day this student approached me. He wanted to know if he could bring his tablet to camp the next day. When I asked him why he wanted to bring his tablet, he informed me that he wanted to record everything he was learning by taking pictures. Then, he wanted to create a video with music using his pictures to share on his YouTube channel (keep in mind that this student just finished Fourth Grade). I could hardly contain my excitement because he shared the same kind of entrpreneurial spirit as me, but I also thought that it could potentially cause some problems. So, I told him that he should leave his tablet at home because I would hate for it to get damaged or stolen. That's when he said, "Mr. Coffey, I'm pretty sure I'm the worst behaved kid here, and not even I would steal someone's tablet."
I was heart broken. I replied with, "What do you mean?" Hoping he would elaborate.
He said, "Mr. Coffey, I'm a bad kid. I get in trouble a lot. I have the worst behavior out of all the kids here. I don't think anyone else would steal my tablet."
More heartbroken then before, I exclaimed, "I don't know what you're talking about. I watched you all day, and I didn't see you cause one bit of trouble. In fact, I would say that you were one of the BEST behaved kids in this camp today."
That's when he proclaimed one of the most profound statements to part the lips of a fourth grader, "That's because I was busy all day long."
Bingo. You've got it. I think if he knew the word, he would have used the word engaged instead of busy. Because I've seen "busy" kids find trouble, but I rarely see "engaged" kids find trouble. But, he's right. He was too engaged to even consider finding trouble. He couldn't keep his eyes, hands, brain, or heart off his projects. He was too busy designing, building, testing, problem solving, re-engineering, re-testing, analyzing, and creating. He wouldn't have even glanced at trouble if trouble was dancing on the table dressed in a tutu. These students were that engaged and passionate about their creations. They had too much pride in their concepts to allow for distractions. And, this focus didn't come from any extrinsic motivation. They weren't playing for any prize or trophy. They were engaged because they wanted to rise to the challenge. Like their balloon filling with hot air, they wanted to feel their heart fill with pride when they watched their balloon hover above the tile.
That's when it really hit home. This experience shouldn't be limited to a week long camp during the summer for 39 elementary students; this is what every student should experience on a daily basis at school. Our campers were racing to the school to give themselves a few extra moments to tinker with their creations. They were trying to stay late to make one last adjustment to their designs. They couldn't get enough. That's what school should look and feel like.
To get to that point, we have to move away from our obsession with everything being fair and equal. Listen, a great education doesn't have to look and feel the same for every student. Let students direct their path. Allow students to make some choices, to have some say, to use their voice regarding their education. If a kid is infatuated with volcanoes in Third Grade, let the kid learn about volcanoes for goodness sakes! Who cares if volcanoes aren't in the curriculum until Sixth Grade. Throw some logs on that fire before it goes out!! That doesn't mean every student has to learn about volcanoes, let them explore and find something they are curious about or passionate about.
In addition, we need to get over our other obsession with content. The point of school (at least in this day and age) is not to memorize as many facts as possible. We have moved beyond this point in education. Our students have access to facts and content in their pocket. Today, it is important that we focus on how to think. Now that we have all this knowledge in our pocket, what can we do with it? How can we analyze it? How can we interpret it? How can we use it to problem solve? These will be the skills necessary in tomorrow's world (heck, even today's world)! So, rather than focusing on learning content, we should focus on using content to teach thinking skills. When you look at education through this lens, suddenly the content become less important. You can teach thinking skills through any content. Am I saying we abandon all our standards and the Common Core State Standards? No, I'm simply asking us to think about what's important. In my humble opinion, thinking skills are most important, and our content should play a supporting role in the goal of creating independent thinkers.
This week long STEM Camp about brought me to the point of exhaustion. The planning, development, budgeting, logistics, purchasing, scheduling, and caring for the details brought me to the edge of my sanity. There were many things that I can improve for next year. In fact, our theme for next year is "Raise the Bar." But, for the second summer in a row, it was the most rewarding aspect of my summer. By the last day, our campers were literally coming to each of us begging to be invited back next year. It has been so fun to watch them develop, and I hope to get to track them as they grow into young adults. Exhaustion is a small price to pay for the hope that you had a positive impact on one of these beautiful learners. As they thanked me on their way out the door, I hope they heard my thank you; because it is them that have the impact on me.
