Toothpick Bridges

Toothpick bridges are one of my favorite projects to do. There is a lot of math involved and the students must do a lot of problem solving.

I am very impressed with one of my students this year. During the year he did very little in class, next too nothing, except disrupt the learning opportunities of the class. I tried everything I could think of to reach out to this boy but nothing seemed to work.

Our state test came and went and now we are doing my favorite project. Each class is divided into teams and they have to decide who gets what job.

This boy's team allowed him to be the architect. He was very excited about this job. All he did was talk about it. When he came to class with his design, he had to create a blueprint, he did the math and did it correctly. He also had figured out exactly how much money to spend on each item. I was really impressed.

Teaching is a thankless job. Some parents send the children and consider us to be nothing more than glorified babysitters. Other parents have 'checked out' and the children raise themselves. There are times when teachers are blamed for everything wrong with society. Then there are the students you are able to reach and they light up. This is one things that makes teaching worthwhile.