We just had conferences for Eli down at Open School. Glowing reports from all quarters- with one side note. He's working on a history day project with 2 of the 3 boys he knows quite well at the school. The third boy, Sam, was the only one wise enough to go it alone. When we asked Eli's teacher what he thought about how it was going with Eli's group he said, "Well, one thing I know for sure, Sam will have 3 good friends at the end of the history day competition." Which is pretty much what I had been thinking. Tension is growing between Eli and his parnters. Different expectations, different styles- add to that poor communication and you got yourself a volcano simmering on high. Eli doesn't seem too concerned, but he has noted that next year he will opt for a single person project. So something has been learned, anyway.
We saw similar teamwork issues at Theo's recent Lego League State Meet. In that case, there was a group of 10 5th and 6th graders trying to work together on a multi-faceted, high stakes, project. Or it was high stakes in Theo's mind. Winning at the state level meant a trip to Lego Land and the national competition in San Diego. He wanted that. Badly. He also wanted to further show up his older brother, who had never even made it to state. The team did not have any sort of success- their codes broke down and threw the whole thing off. They scored the lowest score they had posted all season. Luckily, Theo seemed to be one of the most relaxed players in the mix on Saturday. There were a few others who were brought to tears, after some classy swearing and yelling. Theo later pointed out that the two boys most upset had slept at one house last night, despite Theo's trying to warn them against that plan. He was suggesting early bedtimes for the whole team. It became clear not everyone listened.
Working with people is hard. But I think the boys are learning good lessons around it this year. The trick now is to use what they've learned in future opportunities. Here's hoping....
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