Note I am not currently teaching. I expect that it is likely that I will be a teacher again someday though. In the mean time I maintain a Computer Science Teacher Blog. This is where I blog on a regular basis about things I think would be helpful and/or useful for computer science teachers.

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For a number of years (18) I worked in the computer industry, most of it working for computer manufacturers. For the first few years I really liked writing software for a living. But the last few years I wasn't having much fun. I was bored and the company I was working for was changing in many ways that I didn't care for much. I'd been involved with schools for a number of years in various capacities. I'd been on a (private) school board and a (public) budget committee. These roles, plus being the father of a school aged child, brought me into schools on a regular basis. I liked being in schools. I liked it a lot.

Schools have a sort of energy. An excitement. Something important is going on in them. I decided that I would like to teach one day. I went back to school and got my Masters in Computer Science. I figured I'd stay in industry until my son finished college and then I'd try and get a teaching job, probably in a college. God, it seems, had other plans.

If the spring of 1994 the company I was working for told me that my services would no longer be required. I was part of a multi year series of layoffs that would reduce a company of 135,000 employees to about 60,000 as of this writing. I was in shock. I was also glad. I knew in my heart that I wasn't working where God really wanted me but I had been afraid to look elsewhere. Life was just too easy. Though not a fun place, any more, my job was a short commute from home, the pay and benefits were good, and I did have a lot of friends in the same company.

All that was over. That option, staying put, no longer existed. I spent the better part of that summer trying to figure out what to do next. I sent resumes out, half heartedly, and talked to recruiters. Mostly I found excuses not to go on interviews. I really didn't want to go back into the same thing I'd been doing.

Late in August, 1994, the principal of the school my wife worked at stopped me in the hallway. My wife was running a summer program in the school and I was there regularly. He told me that the schools computer teacher was leaving and that they needed someone to take over. He said that the money wasn't much but at least I'd have some coming in while I looked for something permanent. He said that if I found something full time, he would let me out of the contract at any time. So I applied.

I was offered the job at a small fraction of what I'd been making in industry. Still it was something and it only required two days a week. I figured I could use the rest of the week to develop software that I could sell on my own. I would be working with children from grades 4 through 8. I figured that I could handle those ages so I took it.

A week later the principal of another Catholic school called me. She had talked to the principal of another school who had heard about me from my principal. It seems that this other school found themselves in need of a new computer teacher. Their previous one had left in the spring and the person they had hired to replace her found something better and was leaving them short handed. So I interviewed with this second school. Infant Jesus, this second school, was a K through 6 school and they needed someone to teach computers to all those grades. With some fear, probably on the principals part as well as on my own, I took that job as well.

Now I had four days work a week at about a third of what I'd been making in industry. My wife, bless her, supported my decision and we gave it a try. I never did get any software written to market but I did learn a lot that year. The kids in both schools were wonderful as was the support from (what I considered) real teachers and administrators. More about that year is grist for a separate story.

At the end of that year I was offered a full time job, with medical benefits and a better pay rate, at a high school. I think I'm better suited for high school then the younger grades. I'm in my second year of teaching high school and loving it.

But I will never forget that first year of teaching and the wonderful principals who gave me a chance. And I will always be convinced that all three of my teaching jobs were made possible by God working in my life. I couldn't have done any of it without His help.

Update: Since June 2004 I have been back in industry but I expect to be back in the classroom one day. I would love to teach as an adjunct faculty member part-time while I continue at Microsoft.