First, the BusinessThrough months of sleep deprivation and more (I even yakked in front of a class two weeks ago!), we made it. The students put up with a teacher rocking 4.5 average, intermittent hours of nightly sleep all semester and came up big. Grades, like sta dardized tests, may be subjective garbage, but if you're going to play the game, play it well! PreCalc crushed it with one of the highest performances I've seen, despite plugging numerous gaps in knowledge from the past three years of ongoing pandemic. Our "side quests" were plentiful this year, but we got there! Kids are now ready for Trigonometry, Calculus, or an easy A if they back up to College Algebra (I highly recommend, as most majors only require that and Statistics). Our Intervention Algebra (a course I have long fought to keep outside the core curriculum so students can either get their diploma and bail, or have the prerequisites for Geometry and the Accuplacer test at tech schools) did what it was designed to do: get kids their credit and foundational skills so they can either hop back into the main curriculum path or graduate ready for the workforce. I'm proud to say that, with one exception, everyone got their Algebra credit- also a new record. |
Next, The BittersweetFor 8 years, Game Club has been more than games and nerdy stuff. The Nerd Herd is found family, a mutually-supportive group of those kids that often fall through the social cracks of high school. We are neurodivergent, LGBTQIA2S+, infodumping, hyperfixating, happy-flapping goobers who accept others as they are and revel in it. Jocks, workaholics, drama geeks, rich, poor, plural, aro-ace, autistic, straight-laced Presbyterian, or loud-and-proud anarchist... I have never seen such a group as this. We. Just. Game. These kids practically live in my room, more during lunch than most of my classes! Whether we discover a new obsession in Magic, a new friend group in D&D, or just a safe place to go off about Godzilla lore, Game Club has been home to (I can accurately say now) hundreds of kids over the years. I have been honored to watch them flourish year after year, finding a crew that accepts them for who and what they are. Without exaggeration, it is our huge group of recently graduated seniors that kept me at Spearfish this year. I couldn't bear to leave them without finishing the ride. And what a ride it was. I love you dorks, and you will be missed. |
Finally, the ExodusAfter 8 years at Spearfish High School, the past three incredibly turbulent, I am off to bigger, better, and safer adventures. The simple reality is that, as a disabled parent of disabled children, our rights are increasingly in question in South Dakota. I am just one of many teachers leaving a state with a record shortage for numerous reasons, and you either understand those, or agree with what caused them. Either way, my family no longer feels safe living here or raising our children in this environment. Particularly, Spearfish's implementation of ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis, abusive conversion therapy for autists), is a direct threat to my children (every autistic child in the district) and was the final insult. It is but one example of ableism rampant in our administration and I am not the only person leaving because of those decisions and unspoken policies. |
Rather, I am moving my family to a place where we can feel more secure in our rights and protections under state law. I have accepted a position as a special education mathematics teacher at an educational center that specifically serves students who are autistic and/or have emotional/behavioral disabilities, students who have been failed by their home districts and need specialized services outside the conform-or-fail factory. My conversations with administration there have been revitalizing in a way I haven't experienced in years and I am truly excited, hopeful, to begin anew in a space that promotes equity for all systemically marginalized populations.
I will miss my students from SHS, my Game Club kids (proud to have many call me "dad"), especially. I will miss those staff that quietly fight the good fight, working to provide a space for students that is safe and welcoming. You are all more deserving than you will ever receive, and I'm sorry I can't stay in the trench with you, but my family comes first. Good luck to you all. I leave you with some of the truest words I have ever read in gaming, ideas that can (and must) coexist for the future.
I will miss my students from SHS, my Game Club kids (proud to have many call me "dad"), especially. I will miss those staff that quietly fight the good fight, working to provide a space for students that is safe and welcoming. You are all more deserving than you will ever receive, and I'm sorry I can't stay in the trench with you, but my family comes first. Good luck to you all. I leave you with some of the truest words I have ever read in gaming, ideas that can (and must) coexist for the future.
"You are not alone. You never were." -Lyra Dawnbringer | "If the system is broken, break the system." -Domri Rade |