Wings and a Wand

4/21/25 – Losing a loved one during the Easter holiday brings a deeper meaning to what we celebrate on this special weekend. My dad made such an impact on my life from the moment I was born to my last kiss upon his brow with his last heartbeat and breath on Saturday. Today, I want to celebrate his influence on me as an educator. Learning was a way of life in our family and getting at least a college education was non-negotionable for me and for my brother. Dad (and Mom) made sure it happened. They valued learning inside and outside of school especially on family vacations. One area that was always a thread throughout my life was our ties to NASA. Dad was one of the first aerospace engineers before it became an actual degree major. He started there in 1962 with the Apollo program going thru the Skylab program, the Shuttle program, and ending his career there with the International Space Station – watching his work on the Italian sponsored Cuppola (where they take the beautiful pictures) go up on the shuttle to be put in place. Thus, STEM was a way of life to him and he was always working on something around the house that needed those skills. In turn, his “bookworm” daughter soaked up all of this from her childhood, to have a love for STEM and how STEM activities engage students in the learning in every age group. In the past five years, I have become the unofficial “Science/STEM” instructional coach on my campus bridging what I know as an Emmergent Bilingual Instructional Coach with Science/STEM. Thank you, Daddy, for what you shared with me as I grew up so that I can be the educator that we need for the future.