DocAndersen
One of the things that were important to me as a person that I tried to convey to the kids in my various classes was to not care about the “role rules.” Girls should love to play sports as much as boys should love to do arts and crafts. That is running around on a playground or playing baseball is good for every child. One of the things I did for many years taught kids about the wonder of model rockets. The picture today shows that from now more than 30 years ago. Every child in the pictures is now an adult. But back then we were a rocket building, rocket launching crew. We also decorated the rocket with as many different colors as we could. The kids had a blast both making, decorating and launching the rocket!
I have kept in touch with a few of the kids from that first class of mine over the years. I’ve also kept touch with one of my co-teachers. For the most part, thought that time is now gone. I still talk to and see my best friend who was also a teacher there at the school. But not many other people anymore. Time passes, and we forget the places we were. It is part of the evolution of who we are. I was once a school teacher, wound around the ethics of presenting information. One of the things I loved about my wife from the very beginning was that she never believed in talking down to children. Present information to children and if they don’t understand, help them get there.
As a computer person now I advocate STEM (Steam and CSteam) education. A couple of years ago I did some IoT presentations to various schools in Maryland. Not IoT, connection but IoT possible. It was a blast creating the slides and then, the demonstration of what IoT does. The line of kids after my presentation wanting to ask questions was, well past the bell that ended school that day. I ended up having to come back to each school a second time to talk further and answer more questions. Not that I am the greatest speaker, just that the topic was incredibly interesting to kids. The world and the things we see are shaped by how wide we cast our view!
I do not miss the rules applied to teaching. I do miss the kids.
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