There wasn’t a design club at my school, so I wrote a proposal, found a teacher to sponsor it, and started recruiting before the year began.
I was going into eighth grade. I had no idea whether anyone would sign up.
Most of them were sixth graders. Forty had never opened a design tool in their lives.
Before the first meeting existed, the club needed to look like something worth walking into. I made all of it.
Across twelve presentations, sixteen meetings and one school year. I wrote every one of them.
The lowest score in the entire survey was mine.
I asked my students to rate how clearly I explained things. They gave me a 3.59 out of 5. The Photopea unit did worse still, at 3.36. Nobody would have known if I had quietly left both of those off this page.
Here is what I did about it instead.
The last meeting, March 25. Every one of the seventeen students who answered the final survey said they would recommend the club.
“One of the most outstanding student leaders I have had the privilege to work with.”
Talton Edmond Sr.
CTE Instructor and Digital Design Club Advisor
Fort Settlement Middle School
Cutting the lowest rated unit buys back the one thing my students asked for most. A DMS faculty sponsor would hold supervision and approval. I bring the curriculum, already written and already taught once, and student officers trained so the club runs on the weeks I cannot be there.
All I’m asking for is a short meeting.