Valley teachers hope tiny house training will help students

KERMAN, Calif. (KFSN) -- This week five Valley schoolteachers are becoming students once again.

Teachers from Kerman High School are hammering out the details on a major construction project and what they learn there they'll pass on to their students.

"They'll love it because once they get inside there's still some plumbing to do, electric to do so and all those kinds of things so it's just a full-scale kind of deal," Washington Union architecture teacher Warren Thompson said." It's very ambitious for high school kids."

The teachers are building a tiny house.

Anthony Ayerza of the Fresno County Office of Education Regional Occupational Program says the project will give students practical experience.

"If you lecture and tell a kid how to do it doesn't go very far but for them to actually see it and to be hands on and involved in it it enhances their learning so much more," he said.

The construction teachers enjoy learning something new and take pride in their work and they know this is the kind of project their students will enjoy.

"Build structures or buildings that later on, 10 years down the road, they can drive down the road and I say I built that," Kerman High construction teacher Daniel Ramirez said. "I worked on this."

California Tiny House owners felt the project was a good way to help kids get interested about their industry.

They can't keep up with demand right now.

"I've got over a year of work right now and then more coming," co-founder Nick Mosley said. "Other builders across the nation are just as busy as I am."

Raising the first wall marked a milestone for this group but the work is just getting started.

This is a week long project.