How To Train Your Dragons

Welcome to dragon training! Today you will learn to...

As educators we strive to equip our students with skills that will enable their perpetual success. We know what works and what is best left aside. We understand that new technology developments are the thing to learn, because they will ensure that they are ready for great jobs and better futures. We try to instill in them the urgency to learn this abstract subject and provide them with structured ways and self-discovery. We create opportunities for them to understand how all fits in their game-plan, for we want them to think outside the book before even stepping out of the classroom. We want them to discover the unseen, to look at the world from a different perspective, to believe they can do anything they set their minds to do. We want them to spread their imagination and understand. “The world just got a whole lot bigger!”

We want their future employers to have a say in how we train them, so we ask them to come into the classroom and share what really happens in their universe, what they actually want our kids to know when they come to work for their companies. While many try to answer our call for reality checks, their busy schedules don’t always allow for it. Our students, thus separated from real-life examples, fail to fully understand how Math and Reading fit into the big picture. Their are growing minds with their own generation’s quests and teenage attention spans. They are enthusiastic about the concepts, but cannot relate to the unknown. Those wonderful people who do join us in the classroom, sharing with us the little time they have out of their busy lives, are our heroes. They are tangible and impressive and our students listen and ask questions. They are real people who become models, inspiring young hearts to believe they can pursue any career. They give them the tips to make things happen, the motivation to succeed, and give them what none of us educators can, the confirmation that everything they learn in school is essential to their future successes in the workplace.

In a saga that started with a call for heroes and continues to bring more inspiration, such a connection was made between T-Mobile’s Derek Casebolt and Milby High School’s Tech Squad. Over the past couple of months, a conversation with the students and school’s leadership team materialized in more visits from the Tmobile team. Last week the Tech Squad met Keith Haydon, Director of Network Engineering and Operations for T-Mobile, who talked about how to be a “5 percenter.”

Their conversations will continue at the TMobile site network and retail sites soon, where the students will intern and learn the secrets of the trade. These dragons have just begun their training but they are ready to learn and excited that their school “techieness” can be pursued with “the real-deal”. Their teachers and leaders are thrilled to see them spread their wings! If you wonder what the recipe is, it’s simple: making it real matters; and you out there are the ones who can bring the reality into the class and make our students dream the future.

“Has anyone ever tried to tame a dragon? No, no one’s ever lived to tell the tale... But everything we know about them is wrong (..) we don’t have to fight them” “So what are you going to do? “ "Something crazy!” We do have to start somewhere!