CTEC's first freshmen class works on team building skills at Scout Island

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Students at a new charter school in Fresno spent the day out of the classroom and learning to work together.

Jonathan Delano, who is the director at CTEC (Career Technical Education Charter High School), said the school has 65 freshmen.

"We are a brand new charter high school. We opened up to our first freshmen class just about a week ago," he said. "We focus on two areas, advanced manufacturing, and commercial construction. So one of the great things our kids get an opportunity to really apply their English, their Math, their Science out in the industrial fields. So they get to experience what some of the skills that they learn about manufacturing and how it applies to a math class".

Since CTEC is a new school this is their first freshmen class and on Friday, the freshmen broke up into groups to learn more about one another.

"They are in their cohorts and they begin to really develop those relationships where they support each other, help each other, and they are learning and really have a great opportunity to do education in a different way," he said.

Students went canoeing, did a race with several hands-on challenges, and learned to trust each other through various activities.

"Each of the kids has the opportunity to support each other and encourage each other, help them along with some of the skills, some of the kids are catching on to some of the skills and some of them are not so they can start giving guidance and what that looks like," Delano explained.

Leilah Hunt, 14, said she has enjoyed getting to learn more about her classmates while being at Scout Island.

"We get to figure out what our skills are for our group, like who is going to be the leader and who's going to be a contributor before we even get into class," she said.

Hunt's group quickly made it through the first two challenges.

I think we are doing pretty good. We got a really good archer back there and now we are just figuring out how to build a base to support a ball," Hunt explained.

Their third challenge took a bit longer but they worked as a team to complete it.

CTEC plans on making the team building exercises a tradition for incoming students.