One of the odd realities of my job is that I do much less teaching now than when I was a classroom teacher, however, that allows me to more deeply appreciate those opportunities to immerse myself in teacherness.

Yesterday I had a terrific opportunity to gather together a small group of kids to launch a special project.  Earlier this year, we bought 2 drones and have been thinking of the best way to use them in our schools/programs. Eventually the plan was devised to bring together a group of grade 8 to 10’s to train, and then have them provide support and leadership in schools to provide drone-flying experiences.

The students for the group were hand-selected by their teachers, in particular these are kids who are high-achieving, map out as “gifted”, and have a particular penchant for technology.

In short, the Nerds and Geeks of tomorrow.

The afternoon progressed from talking about what we wanted to develop, how the program would be run, to unpacking and assembling the devices.  Next meeting, we will actually fly them…

We talked and listened to their ideas, recorded their plans and thoughts, fed them pizza and rootbeer, and watched a few inspirational (from a technology-point-of-view) videos of drones in flight.

It’s easy to think “Oh, it would be great to work with gifted kids all the time, so easy to teach the best and the brightest, who just want to learn!” and there is some truth to that, but I would disagree with two bits in the previous sentiment:  Not Easy, and they don’t necessarily want to be “taught”, but they do want to be challenged. And challenging.

We started the afternoon with a couple of videos on design thinking and the pursuit of excellence (see “Austin’s Butterfly”, below) Right out of the gate the first hand was flung up and the comment “I wish they had taught us that when we were in grade one” and then the question “But what does that have to do with flying Drones?” and I admit, I do love that spunk– the natural BS detectors that kids are, especially centred in a quick brain and a confident being.

My second favourite moment was at the end of the night as we were cleaning up and the kids were waiting to be collected by their parents, two of the younger boys asked for a tour of the Tech department I work in. Now, it’s really just a series of offices, a server room and one workspace (granted, the bench in there is pretty cool– gutted computers, spare parts, monitors and cables and switches and wires). But they had a comment or a question for every room we poked our heads into. Naturally curious, fully engaged, wanting to know how things work.

And all I have to do is show them how to find the answers.

Austin’s Butterfly