Moving from four decades in tech to a middle school and high school classroom taught me more than I expected. Here are three key insights from my first year at SLV.

1. Sometimes Success Happens by Accident

Our biggest wins this year - the underwater robotics team, the AP computer science community, and an unexpected dive into financial literacy - succeeded for reasons I didn’t fully plan. The robotics team thrived because we ate together, played together, and built genuine friendships. The AP class worked because I was authentic with students and gave them trust. These weren’t in my lesson plans, but they mattered most.

2. Small Changes, Big Impact

The simplest adjustments transformed my classroom: moving backpacks to the back of the room cut down disruptions, calling parents more often built bridges, checking for understanding frequently kept fewer students lost. None of these required new curriculum or fancy tools - just intentional shifts in how I managed the learning environment.

3. Slowing Down Sometimes Means Speeding Up

With my most challenging 6th grade group, I stepped back from ambitious computer science goals. We added journals, read books, used computers less. Counterintuitively, this created space for real learning. Sometimes the best thing a teacher can do is resist the urge to cover more content and instead focus on reaching every student.

The biggest lesson? Teaching isn’t just about what you know - it’s about building community, earning trust, and meeting students where they are. Everything else follows from there.

Just like in industry, it isn’t writing perfect code that creates success - it’s building connections and community that transforms ideas into reality.