Darwin, my eldest son, has started his new career at Wish Academy Middle & High School. Wish Academy is a charter school and both HS and MS are housed in the old Westchester HS in Westchester.
He has chosen to teach science subjects and landed a job at the High School teaching Chemistry and something called Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Bio-med.
Wednesday he had a chance to get into his HS classroom and get it set up. The school is aged and there were lots of teachers, parents, and other volunteer swarming the school getting it ready for Monday, the first day students show up.
It was fun to hang out and sense the excitement and commitment of all the people I met there. I shared time sitting on a counter pulling old staples out of a bulletin board with a woman that told me that she had written the charter for both the MS and HS.
The principal dropped in, a gaggle of students on an orientation tour passed through, other teachers, etc. It was fun. His new classroom is large, airy, and what you think a 40 year old LAUSD classroom would look like. But it is clean and something he can make his.
We went home and left Darwin to finish up. Later that afternoon he called to tell us that his job was changing shape. Evidently, the PLTW 6th grade teacher had decided that day to quit and the principal asked him to step up and accept the added job scope. That meant there was another classroom to set up.
His chance to set up that room was today (Saturday) and he left around 7am to get started. Gretchen received a text from him around 10am asking if we could come and help. We gathered some supplies and set out.
His MS classroom will be shared with both a Special Ed and a Spanish teacher. So there are 3 teachers to accommodate in the room. The stuff from the previous PLTW 6th grade teacher had been stashed in the room in boxes and piles and was quite imposing. It was easy to see why he called us.
We all pitched in and went to work. The Special Ed teacher, a volunteer father, Jeep and I, and Darwin started in. There were bulletin boards to decorate, grimy surfaces to clean, and an immense pile of clutter to make sense of.
The room was starting to look pretty good by the time we left around 2:30. It will be an interesting year for Darwin as he gets his feet under him in these new roles he has taken on.
That’s all for today. Thanks for reading this far. Have a good day.
