Independence

As I start a new year as teacher in my 4th year, I have to say all the hard work of the pat 3 years has paid off!

I’ve started a new year with a new classroom and a new role. I get to teach students stem education specifically in robotics in 6th 7th and 8th grade. It is the most amazing feeling to be able to create a curriculum that I know these students will absolutely enjoy. While at the same time I’m working on my doctorate in stem education leadership I get to see how making a difference in these child’s life turns into something so much more than most of us get to experience in the field of Education. Too often we restricted to the boxes that education asks us to fit into and for the first time in my life I feel free. I can teach these kids were they really need to learn to be prepared for the future. I draw on my 15 years experience as the Director of a program and show these children what really is required of them if they want to go into a science technology engineering or math type of field. It is one of the most gratifying experiences I’ve ever felt as a person as a scientist and as an educator. I get the chance to teach while learning with these students. I will be teaching them how to program how to make robots do what we want them to do and more importantly how to think. I have never felt more satisfied. I’m looking forward to a new year for the new prospects to teach these students with their really going to need to know to prepare themselves to meet the global need that we face as Americans. I feel I’m charged with a deep and profound need to educate our children to be able to perform at a level where they can actually compete in a global market. It was exciting to be able to be in a new classroom that made me feel in some respects more like a professor than a middle school stem educator. I look forward to sharing with you the discoveries that we make together. More importantly I look forward to sharing with you what education in my opinion should really look like in the 21st century. Having the freedom to be able to educate students in a way that will truly prepare them for the future and which we face, our reality, is one of the most exciting prospects I have ever felt in my entire life. To do this while simultaneously achieving a doctorate in stem education leadership is an opportunity unlike most people get to experience. This is day one. I look forward to whatever comes.