Big Monday with New Teachers, Doggett, and Obama!

What an amazing week! I've been so busy this week that I haven't had a moment to blog all about my BIG Monday. 

The best part of my Monday was getting to meet our 550 new teachers. We were all packed in a ballroom together for lunch. The karma was fantastic! Yes, I played the "That's Me" game again. The results were pretty impressive: our new teachers come from all over the world, several actually speak at least five languages, and many of them were born and raised right here in Texas! 

 

We were honored to be joined by our Congressman Lloyd Doggett. Many of you know him well from his long service to this community — as a Texas State Senator, a Texas Supreme Court Justice and now as our Central Texas Congressman.

Congressman Doggett grew up in the Austin public schools and was one of the first graduates inducted into the AISD Hall of Fame. He has worked closely with the District to seek federal dollars for Central Texas public schools and in securing significantly more federal financial assistance for students to attend college. Since both his wife and daughter are educators, he personally understands our important mission. He shared with us his recent work on the "Edujobs" bill. Lots of big news about that in today's paper.

Later, I joined hundreds of college students at UT's Gregory Gym to hear President Obama address the importance of education. His message: Education is vital to our nation's economic recovery, and to its economic well-being in the decades ahead.

It was a message that resonated with me because schools are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented, to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet! That's a powerful statement that can really make you think! Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.

National Public Radio recently reported that our national security is threatened by a shortage of cyber warriors. As cyber attacks aimed at our nation’s security information and systems continue to increase, we will need more cyber technicians and engineers to meet our national security needs. The story reported that right now, there are only 1,000 people in the entire United States with the skills needed for that frontline cyber defense, and that 20 or 30 times that amount may be needed.
 
Now, let’s imagine an AISD elementary student and let’s say his name is Sam. Sam has excellent computer skills. And let’s say Sam decides he wants to be a cyber warrior. Can we honestly say that AISD, or any other U.S. school district for that matter, has the systems and supports in place to help Sam develop the skills that he needs to achieve success in this field? We must strive to get to the point in Austin that our unequivocal answer to this question is “yes.”

Here are a few examples of other jobs of the future that our students today must be prepared for:

• Bio-informatician
• Custom Implant Organ Designer
• Biorefinery Plant Manager
• Frankenfood Monitor
• Data Miner
• Genetic Counselor

Yes, folks. The 20th century is long gone, and we are literally speeding into a very new world. Will our students be ready to contribute, to compete, to succeed? Our answer to this question must be "Yes!", and that brings me back to President Obama's well-timed message, along with my feelings about meeting 550 new Austin teachers earlier that morning.

These educators — some young with shiny new teaching degrees, some with experience under their belts — are taking on this challenge of the future with determination. Their careers will span several decades, and their impact on thousands of children's choices and achievements will be what shapes this century. I thank them for choosing AISD to carry out this important work, and we welcome them to our schools!