A number of people that I mentioned this trip to asked why Toyota would sponsor something like this. We have spent the past 2 days learning just why Toyota is willing to invest in this program! And it has been very interesting to learn more about the Toyota company and its philosophy! And it has been exciting to get to know other teachers from all round the country! We are from around 25 states and teach all different subjects---art, history, science, math, leadership, economics, agriscience, English, Spanish, other foreign languages.
The reason Toyota does sponsor it is because they have a strong commitment to education and a strong commitment to the environment. Being from such a small, crowded company, they have long understood the importance for conservation and preservation! I knew that they have been leaders in producing hybrid cars, but I never realized how committed they are to being a green organization! In the complete creation of a car (or truck as we saw), they have almost NO waste!! All unused portions of sheet metal and other supplies are recycled. In addition, at their San Antonio Tundra plant they use nearly all recycled water and they have recycle bins everywhere.
The trip has been great so far. I arrived in San Antonio around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb 24. We had a couple of hours before our first meeting as others were still arriving so I walked over to see the Alamo (which was just across the street from our hotel) and learned some things about Davy Crockett and the 200 or so others who fended off the Mexican army for 13 days while awaiting reinforcements. Very interesting and some really cool artifacts! I also got to spend a little time exploring the River Walk—a really neat restaurant/shopping area along the river later.
Sunday evening we heard some things about Toyota, its history, philosophy, commitment to education and the environment, and the program as well as heard from a couple of last year’s participants. It was very interesting and got us all even more excited! Although I was skeptical about Monday’s agenda, it was really great! We went to the new Toyota Tundra manufacturing facility in San Antonio—opened in 2006. We toured the plant and actually saw production in action! VERY impressive! It takes about 1 ½ hours to build a truck (yep, that’s it---from start to finish!!!). In addition, a really unique thing about this campus is that most of its suppliers are located on site. This allows them to easily maintain their “Just in Time” philosophy of manufacturing.
In addition, we participated in a couple of really cool activities to help us understand the Toyota philosophy. First we experimented with a “More is Better” mass production philosophy and then tried a “Just in Time” approach—which is what Toyota uses along with the Kai Zen philosophy. Kai Zen means constant improvement and all employees are in teams and all are encouraged to make suggestions for improvement and recognized for ideas that are implemented! We all found the team/Just in Time approach to be a much more relaxed and effective environment! We also did a really cool team building activity building lego race cars!
Finally, in preparation for departure to Costa Rica, we learned a lot about Costa Rica from the Consul General of Costa Rica. He had a great presentation and even provided a cd of important and/or popular Costa Rican music. Then it was dinner and making sure everything was ready to leave at 3:30 a.m. to catch our flight! We are on our way!!!
The reason Toyota does sponsor it is because they have a strong commitment to education and a strong commitment to the environment. Being from such a small, crowded company, they have long understood the importance for conservation and preservation! I knew that they have been leaders in producing hybrid cars, but I never realized how committed they are to being a green organization! In the complete creation of a car (or truck as we saw), they have almost NO waste!! All unused portions of sheet metal and other supplies are recycled. In addition, at their San Antonio Tundra plant they use nearly all recycled water and they have recycle bins everywhere.
The trip has been great so far. I arrived in San Antonio around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb 24. We had a couple of hours before our first meeting as others were still arriving so I walked over to see the Alamo (which was just across the street from our hotel) and learned some things about Davy Crockett and the 200 or so others who fended off the Mexican army for 13 days while awaiting reinforcements. Very interesting and some really cool artifacts! I also got to spend a little time exploring the River Walk—a really neat restaurant/shopping area along the river later.
Sunday evening we heard some things about Toyota, its history, philosophy, commitment to education and the environment, and the program as well as heard from a couple of last year’s participants. It was very interesting and got us all even more excited! Although I was skeptical about Monday’s agenda, it was really great! We went to the new Toyota Tundra manufacturing facility in San Antonio—opened in 2006. We toured the plant and actually saw production in action! VERY impressive! It takes about 1 ½ hours to build a truck (yep, that’s it---from start to finish!!!). In addition, a really unique thing about this campus is that most of its suppliers are located on site. This allows them to easily maintain their “Just in Time” philosophy of manufacturing.
In addition, we participated in a couple of really cool activities to help us understand the Toyota philosophy. First we experimented with a “More is Better” mass production philosophy and then tried a “Just in Time” approach—which is what Toyota uses along with the Kai Zen philosophy. Kai Zen means constant improvement and all employees are in teams and all are encouraged to make suggestions for improvement and recognized for ideas that are implemented! We all found the team/Just in Time approach to be a much more relaxed and effective environment! We also did a really cool team building activity building lego race cars!
Finally, in preparation for departure to Costa Rica, we learned a lot about Costa Rica from the Consul General of Costa Rica. He had a great presentation and even provided a cd of important and/or popular Costa Rican music. Then it was dinner and making sure everything was ready to leave at 3:30 a.m. to catch our flight! We are on our way!!!
