Just a little thought that I wanted to share. Not much educational value but food for thought.

So it was a rough summer being turned down for jobs I knew I was perfect for. Was very hard for me to get excited about the school year starting. When I would talk to friends or people in my PLN they would say the ol “everything happens for a reason” or “well there is a plan for you and this wasn’t part of it.” That always makes me gag.

In the end I got to teach a new course and even write the curriculum for the one thing I’m really his at, technology.

So far it’s been a lot of fun. I enjoy the classes and the kids, a lot.  After the group we had last year, these kids are perfect angels most of the time. But as class discussions and activities have started to unfold I’m seeing that so many of these kids really fit this class or seem so interested.

Here is what makes this tidbit of information interesting, this class did not exist until 2 1/2 weeks before school started. So the students checked the box marked “other” when signing up for electives. If things had stayed the same these kids would have been in ‘creative writing’ class. That’s pretty different from my class!

Few weeks ago we had a 6th grade only Open House. After our asst. principal and counselor had spoken to the group of parents (all 150 of them, which is a record!) they had chance to meet and talk to the teachers. I had many parents say their child was excited about the class, common parent meet teacher convo. But as I started talking so many had reasons why they were excited about my class. One student has always wanted to be a computer engineer or the child loves computers and apps and is always trying to figure out something on there. One said his child wants to develop software while another stuff he wants to grow up and work on computers. One said her daughter wouldn’t let her cook  dinner the first day of school until she heard about her awesome tech class. Then the robots came up many times. One parent said her son is so excited about the programming part and had been looking for ways we could fund them. Then there was the clincher, a mom starts telling me how her son was on the FIRST LEGO league at his former school and was really upset he had to move to a district where there was no robotics in middle school and how excited he is about if we can get the funding or grants he would get to do what he loves again. Huge. As a teacher knowing you are doing something that helps a new student find his place is huge.

So maybe this was not part of my plan or really may not be my path, but this class is apparently “part of the plan” for huge group of kids. Makes this class that much more important to me. Makes doing this right much more of a priority.

Also makes fundraising and grant writing a huge priority as well. I no longer can just hope I fill that wish list, but I must get the materials for these kids. The wonderful financial secretary in my school has really tried to help but the central office had shut down my suggestions of donors choose, edbacker, and an online campaign using PayPal. Apparently all unethical. I’m still scrambling for ideas but like I said before I no longer can call it a wish list but it’s now a to-do list.