Post reply

Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.
Name:
Email:
Subject:
Message icon:
Verification:

shortcuts: hit alt+s to submit/post or alt+p to preview


Topic Summary

Posted by: Journey
« on: July 21, 2018, 11:40:25 am »

That's so interesting! Good for him! You know, I began teaching the summer after my high school graduation under similar circumstances. :) I hope he has fun!
Posted by: Zyngaru
« on: July 21, 2018, 09:56:44 am »

It will be interesting if this unexpected opportunity ignites a desire to teach.  Robotics is an interesting field of study and while going to college he might get opportunities to teach middle school kids.  This experience might become a desire to teach robotics instead of working in the robotics field.  We never know how random opportunities will change our future path.
Posted by: Jack
« on: July 21, 2018, 07:04:14 am »

It was kind of shocking for me to realize that I'd never started a new bio for Ethan.  After I thought about it a bit, I realized it probably wasn't really that surprising.

While Ethan got into his fair share of trouble - and maybe a little more - when he was younger, he's never been a bad or troubled kid.  As he's gotten older, he's remained a bit geeky.  He reads comics, likes sci-fi and fantasy, does role playing, collectible card games, and still plays Heroclix and the variations on that game. He's also big into robotics, which is his intended major in college.  His closest friends (his brother Parker, Connor Joyce, Jake Ames, and Mike Reasoner) are all into pretty much the same things with enough variation in interest levels to keep the group interesting.  The only one of Ethan's close friends who's not heavily into all those things - Bruce Joyner - still shares a lot of them, and he and Ethan have been friends since Ethan changed to go to school from my house, nearly 7 years ago now.

So yeah, it's no big surprise that he doesn't show up often enough to demand I start a bio for him.  That's especially true since he's so helpful, and he tends to be mentioned in other posts a lot, so I probably feel like I'm keeping up to date on his activities.

In this case, there was something specific that I thought had to be mentioned.

Somehow, Ethan managed to mark that his college orientation was in July, not August.  Because of that, he decided to stay home from summer camp this year, so he could spend more time with his friends.  While his brothers were gone to camp, he had some small parties for his friends only - gaming overnights, using our theater, pool parties - as well as trips to Hurricane Harbor, Six Flags, and checking out a few other events and exhibits that interested them.

So, while he enjoyed the time he spent here, I still felt bad for him when we found out that he'd messed up on the orientation thing.  I looked into the chance of him attending a different camp, but he wasn't that interested in going by himself, where he wouldn't know anyone.  I did check to see if maybe I could find a robotics camp.  While they're around, all of them were already full.

Then I thought of BCA's Summer Learning Series. 

No, Ethan's not attending there - he's teaching one of the courses: Lego Mindstorms.

This actually kind of blew up, certainly more than I'd expected.  Lego Mindstorm sets are not cheap.  I thought that would put a pretty tight limit on it.  However, last month, when I approached the staff about adding this class, they were really excited.  It turns out they had some STEM money that they hadn't been able to spend, as well as some discretionary funds.  When they got word out about it, we ended up having to have a lottery for the scholarship students who were interested, but we also got a LOT of interest from families paying full rate, as well as some kids who hadn't been involved before.  They were wiling to roll all the profit from those kids into increasing the number of scholarship students who could participate, until Ethan ended up with three full classes.

This past week was his first week teaching what's going to be a two week course, and he's having a great time.  Because of his age, Ethan has been working with one of the science teachers at BCA, who's helped him organize his classes and develop a lesson plan.  He's also taken a couple of his STEM friends in with him every day to help answer questions and help specific kids with problems.  They're working mornings, and usually home by 12:30 or so, so he still has plenty of free time in the afternoons.  He's teaching kids from 12 to 14, and I think he's made a few new friends.