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That's it.
Jul. 15th, 2011 05:29 pmToday I taught my last class for the Silicon Valley Tech Academy.
It was a great run, 5 years, teaching engineering at San Jose State with some great people. I'm going to semi-publicly thank Elise Englehardt, who got me the interview, the late Jay Pinson, who gave me the job, Jim Freeman, who gave me the Robotics course, and a PILE of assistants and students.
But...My goal of being a teacher hasn't worked in the current school system, and it's clear that things will get worse before they get better. I see wonderful new technologies that cost too much to deploy to schools where everything gets vandalized; I see engaged students, and students engaged in escape from the system. I have dealt with 14 year olds who can build amazing robots, and 15 year olds who get pregnant and work to trap me with complaints about inappropriate behaviour.
Done. That's it. And it's a complex thing, but...done.
Greg Garcia: you are great. Dawn: You made it good. Jen: Thanks for taking the chance, sorry for the mess.
I'll still teach things, but I don't think I'm formally a teacher any more.
It was a great run, 5 years, teaching engineering at San Jose State with some great people. I'm going to semi-publicly thank Elise Englehardt, who got me the interview, the late Jay Pinson, who gave me the job, Jim Freeman, who gave me the Robotics course, and a PILE of assistants and students.
But...My goal of being a teacher hasn't worked in the current school system, and it's clear that things will get worse before they get better. I see wonderful new technologies that cost too much to deploy to schools where everything gets vandalized; I see engaged students, and students engaged in escape from the system. I have dealt with 14 year olds who can build amazing robots, and 15 year olds who get pregnant and work to trap me with complaints about inappropriate behaviour.
Done. That's it. And it's a complex thing, but...done.
Greg Garcia: you are great. Dawn: You made it good. Jen: Thanks for taking the chance, sorry for the mess.
I'll still teach things, but I don't think I'm formally a teacher any more.
