Robotics Kickoff

January 3, 2015

Today was kickoff day for the 2015 Robotics season.  This will be Nicholas' fourth and final year working with the Buchanan High Bird Brains, and once again he'll be working with the fabrication team to build the actual robotic that the team will take into competition.  We're looking forward to an exciting season for Nicholas' senior year!

One of the things I think is pretty cool about the robotics team is that former members are life-long supporters of the organization.  As a matter of fact, both Buchanan's head coach and the head of the Central Valley First Lego League (the Lego robotics teams that are the precursor to high school robotics) are former Buchanan Robotics Team members, or Bird Brains, as they are affectionately known.  At today's kickoff, several former team members were in attendance to show their support and mentorship.  Many of them I was privileged to have in my A.P. Literature course over the years.  I got to snap a quick photo of some of my former (and current) kiddos:  Ned Ta, Emma Hansen-Smith, Carter Dana, and of course, Nicholas.  (Three years ago, two years ago, last year, and current, respectively.)

How to Make a Teacher's Day

September 9, 2013

Out of the blue, I got a Facebook message from a former student who is currently studying abroad in Austrailia.  This is a girl I absolutely adored--the kind of student who is full of life, love, wonder, and curiosity.  She has such a positive outlook and a generous heart, and is fiercely intelligent besides.  Imagine how completely gratifying and humbling it was for me, then, to receive this post from her:

Haley Laningham:  You should know as I'm sitting in a cozy flat at the bottom of the world, that the teaching you did and the literature you used to do it had a very important and lasting impact on my security and identity as a woman within which I find clarity and substance every day.

My response:

 
Donna:  Oh my dear, you can't possibly know how you've made my day. My job is not just a job to me--it is a calling, and it's a calling where I can only hope that in a small way I am able to make a connection with some of the kids I get to call my own for a short time. Most of the time, I can't really know how successful I am in that endeavor; these are not things that are measured on a test somewhere. If anything I did helped you even in the slightest realize or connect with yourself or the world around you, I am touched, and I am grateful to have shared in that. I have had the pleasure to have met some wonderfully spirited, intelligent, loving, curious, and beautiful-hearted individuals in my years of teaching--a handful of students who have left an imprint on me more profound than I am likely to have left in return. Please know that you are one of these, without a doubt. My very best wishes to you on this current adventure--I very much look forward to hearing all about it!

Seriously--this just may be enough of an emotional battery charge to carry me for months.  

When Robert Asks, You've Got to Say Yes

April 3, 2013

The CSF Lifetime banquet is coming up at our school in a month or so, and the student honorees get to invite an educator to be their sponsor.  The lovely Miss Cara Burgan, with a little help from Robert Downey, Jr., asked me to sponsor her this year.  I love this girl, and I'm thrilled and honored to get to sit by her side at the banquet next month.  I am quite certain Cara has very big things in her future!