When I consider my purpose as an educator, I consider my immediate and long-term purposes – to teach my students according to the standards for the course, to support their learning have to think outside the walls of my classroom.  How will my teaching impact this student and how will my role as an educator in a southern town in southeast Georgia make a difference in the lives of future students?  Our school district’s mission statement is to prepare students for success and enhance community value through three strategic goals:  college and career readiness, stakeholder and community support, and resource optimization. 

Our school district is the 38th largest in Georgia.  Our public schools serve more than 10,500 students with fifteen campuses and two alternative learning centers.  The three high schools are very different in size and makeup of the student body (student populations of 250, 850, and 1650), attributed largely to their location within the district.  Our area has a large agricultural base which influences many of the elective course offerings for our students.   Our county has a fairly large university with a student population of 20, 673 with an acceptance rate of 63% and a technical school with approximately 2,800 students.

What I’m hearing from friends at the university is that students are not “data savvy” and are not proficient in the computer sciences – they don’t have a basic knowledge of what is needed in the job market and what future employers are looking for.  As a teacher, I see this as one of my responsibilities – being aware of the changing job market, the needs of employers and how to help my students make good decisions with their course selections in mathematics and related subjects.  At one time, I taught introduction to statistics and AP Statistics.  Neither of these courses is offered in my school, but we do have precalculus, AP Calculus, and regular calculus.  We do not offer a computer science course, but we have CTAE pathways for accounting, culinary arts, construction, technology, child care, logistics and agriculture science.  Our course offerings are varied, but computer science is a missing piece of the STEM course structure.