Teach In 2005

WEBMASTER'S NOTE: This page is dedicated to the students, faculty and staff of Riviera Middle School. Sadly to say, Riviera Middle closed its doors in June 2008 as a result of budget cutbacks by the Pinellas County School District. This page will remain here at EdwardRingwald.com as a memory, especially for the students and many of the faculty members who benefited from my web design presentation.

A part of American Education Week, the Great American Teach In is an opportunity for professionals from all walks of life to go into the classroom and share their experiences. Such experiences can be what a professional does in their work or sharing a hobby - the possibilities are almost endless.

So, I decided to give it a try this year for the first time. Instead of taking the usual route on Interstate 275 to the office in downtown St. Petersburg I took 4th Street North southward to 62nd Avenue North, then eastward for almost a mile to Riviera Middle School where my "teaching assignment" would be to give a presentation on web design to a number of 6th, 7th and 8th graders throughout the school day.

I arrived at the school sometime after 8 AM, a little over an hour before the first bell at 9:40 AM. Once I arrive I check in and shortly thereafter I was directed to the teaching auditorium where I would be conducting my "class" for the day on web design. Once settled I had set up my laptop computer that goes with me virtually everywhere and connected it to a projector that the school had provided me for my use.

9:40 AM came with the sounding of the bell, the sound which reminded me of the familiar Southwest Airlines "ding" sound but not too close. Once I heard a class reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in an adjacent classroom the school day was underway.

For the students at Riviera, 16 November 2005 was just another school day. After all, the students know the normal routine of a typical day but on this day the students were about ready to get some instruction in web design - this time, not from a teacher the students know but from a different kind of teacher - and the teacher would be the one who brings you EdwardRingwald.com and Interstate275Florida.com. This time, it would be a teacher who actually brings you these two fine web sites!

There are six periods in a day at Riviera. So, I got my first batch of students from first period. I gave a good presentation of web design which I tried to package into an easy to understand format, which included a brief introduction to Hyper Text Markup Language (abbreviated as HTML). Sure there are software packages that let you concentrate on the actual web design but a rudimentary knowledge of HTML is highly recommended. After all, what's web design without HTML?

After first period came second period. Then third period. Then it was lunch period and I decided to have my lunch in the school cafeteria, where I would commingle with the students while I had my lunch. Lunch in the cafeteria is the standard school fare but I noticed a nutritional item that was missing from and I believe not part of a school cafeteria: Soda pop and high calorie snacks. Besides, school is also a place to learn not only what you need to know for tomorrow but also to learn healthy lifestyles. In fact, on the chocolate milk I was drinking that was printed on the carton, it even emphasized healthy lifestyle tips.

After lunch, it became fourth period and back to the presentation. Then fifth period and I had my biggest audience ever throughout the school day. And finally came sixth period and a smaller audience to round out the day at Riviera. Just after I gave my presentation during the break after fifth period an eighth grade student stayed behind and I had a chance to speak to him after my presentation; he told me that his dreams were of being a zoologist but he was struggling with his grades and he didn't like being in school due to the apparent peer pressure. I offered him some words of advice as he was in the eighth grade and next year he would be headed to high school: Stay in there and bring up your grades so that you can graduate from the eighth grade and be on your way to high school to get that coveted piece of paper in four years, a high school diploma.

Besides, according to my presentation a high school diploma works a lot of wonders. It opens up doors to a lot of opportunities, including going to college and studying what you want to be. There's a web site called Operation Graduation that will give you more inspiration to stay in school and get that high school diploma and go on to college.

No web page about my web design presentation at the Great American Teach In would be complete without a few slides from the presentation for your enjoyment.

Not only I participated in the Great American Teach In at Riviera Middle School, I am also proud to be a mentor to not only one but two students as a part of the Doorways Scholarship Program. The Doorways Scholarship Program is a program where students can get a scholarship to attend college simply by promising to abide by certain conditions such as maintaining high grades and resisting peer pressure, among other things. If you would like to know more about the Doorways Scholarship Program, you can do so by following this link to the PinellasEducation.org website.

First of all, I would like to thank Leslie Chrisman of the City of St. Petersburg's Human Resources Department for supplying me with the reference material to make this web design presentation work.

Additionally, I would like to thank Riviera Middle Principal Al Bennett and all of his wonderful staff, especially Ms. Mortensen, for providing me with the tools I needed to make my presentation at the Great American Teach In at Riviera Middle a success!

08/23/10