Mr. Gray
This page is intended to give more information about myself for anyone who is interested (and way too much information for those not interested). I am not a typical teacher but I do my best to provide students with opportunities most teachers are not trained for. While other teachers struggle to make their classes real-world relevant and incorporate project-based learning and problem solving, I struggle to remember all of my students names. From my training as an architect, I am a planner and designer who is constantly thinking about how people (students) will interact with the environment I have created for them. Every student will be challenged, but not all in the same way. Some will make elaborate journal entries but struggle to brainstorm and develop their own ideas. Others will dread writing in their journal but thrive once they get their hands on the tools. Some will know and be able to do it all but struggle to work with others in a team project setting. For all of them I am here to patiently guide, support, and encourage them through their struggles.
If you want to know how to understand what I do and work with me, you need to understand one of FIRST Robotics Competition's core values. The concept of "Gracious Professionalism" was developed by MIT professor Woody Flowers. It is a way of behaving that promotes the greatest possible success for everyone involved. It starts with just being professional (student, teacher, mentor, engineers, etc.) which I summarize as been responsible for getting your own work done on time and at the highest quality possible. Then you add in graciousness, which can be explained as generously sharing of your time, knowledge, and skills by welcoming the input others and being willing to help however needed. In practice this looks like you doing your own thing, getting your work done, but when someone asked for help you happily set your work aside a moment to give them a hand. It could also be that you come to a point in your work where you need help, so you turn to those around you and ask a question. If you just sit there quietly, not letting your teammates know you have a problem, struggling and not making progress on your task your not helping yourself or the team to succeed. No matter how big, strong, smart, fast, or skilled you are, eventually there will be something you will need help with. If you practice gracious professionalism from the beginning, it will so much easier to ask for help when you needed it, and the response to you request will be met with much more graciousness.
Mr. Gray's Backstory
When I was growing up my father was an Industrial Arts teacher. He would take my brother and me to his school on weekends and in the summer where we learned to use the tools and did some of the projects his students were doing. I cut my Pinewood Derby cars on the scroll saw and hand sanded them myself. He showed me how to sand the wheels by spinning them with a drill and he helped me give it a great paint job. One year my car was good enough to win 3rd place at the state level. We had a small shop set up in the shed in our back yard and I was able to make stuff out of scrap wood. I also helped friends in the neighborhood build 'forts' and tree houses. I remember building scale buildings for my G.I. Joe action figures for Cobra to attack or defend. I helped my dad put a new roof over the porch of our house and when he renovated the inside I helped with demolition, framing walls and dry walling. When I finally got to middle school and took my first Shop class I had an advantage but because the teacher knew my dad he also expected more from me. I still have the wooden gumball machine, pencil holder, and picture frame I made in that class in a box somewhere. My mother still uses the wooden coasters I made in middle school. When I was in high school my community hired me to build a new pier at our marina. It was 4' wide and about 30' long and the far posts had to be driven into the muddy bottom of the creek. It took several days one summer, but I did most of the work myself. I think I have always enjoyed making things.
In high school I spent most of my electives in the art room and the drafting room. Art was so popular at my school I couldn't get into it until 10th grade, but I started in drafting right away. I ended up taking three semesters of Mechanical Drawing and 5 semesters of Architectural Drawing including Independent Study where I designed a mobile computer lab for the Vocational Technology School. We only had one Apple computer in the drafting room so students took turns using the CAD software. The mobile lab, built on a old trailer, provided room for an entire class to work on computers at the same time but it would have to be shared between several schools. I also got paid for designing the new infirmary for a local church camp which did get built (might still be there). I entered some competitions for my balsa wood bridge building, drafting and architecture. I was also on my school's Math Team, but not one of the best. I spent about five semesters in the art room doing drawing, painting, ceramics and graphic design. When I graduated high school I was given awards from the Art and Industrial Arts Departments. I thought I wanted to major in art when I got to college. Unfortunately, my grades weren't that good and I was not accepted into the art school I applied to.
Prince George's Community College
After high school I went to community college and because mother worked there we got a discount on all classes, as long as I passed it with a C or better. The goal was to get as many required classes completed before I transferred to a 4-year school. At this point my idea was to major in architecture but the community college didn't offer that, so I choose to take the engineering major they did offer. I took summer school classes, the highest math and science class I could and filled my schedule. I got a part time job at the college in the Media Operations Office where I helped teachers with the copy machines and set-up/delivery of audiovisual equipment to classrooms. I did well and transferred most of my credits to the University of Maryland where I started classes in Architecture.
University of Maryland, College Park
Even though I had most of my core classes completed, I wasn't able to enter the University of Maryland School of Architecture when I arrived because of some architecture prerequisites. I spent a year completing the prerequisites and any other required classes I could. The result was that in my last two years all I had to take were my architecture courses. I needed a new job, so I sent out my resume to every architectural firm in the area. One firm called me, gave me a tour of the office, and advised me about being an architect, but they did not have a job for me. The other response I got was because I said in my cover letter that I would do "any job" in their company. They hired me as the receptionist where I opened the mail, answered phones and filed papers and drawings of all of their architectural projects. It actually was a great job for a college student and I learned a lot about how architects worked and the kind of problems they face on a daily basis. Architecture school taught me about the design process, structural systems, mechanical and electrical systems, and about working efficiently to get work done on time. I enjoyed designing houses, buildings (school, library, museum, apartments) and public spaces. By my senior year I realized I was not going to be able to make architecture a career. There were many other students in my class who were more flamboyantly creative then me and, because of a bad economy, the company I was working for was laying off architects not hiring new ones. So I changed my plans again and with help from my father talked to people in the education department at the college. I took one teacher preparation class before I graduated and started applying for teaching jobs.
Howard High School
I was hired by Howard County Public Schools with a temporary teaching certificate and began the required college classes through University of Maryland Eastern Shore. My first year of teaching was very challenging. It was an over crowded high school so I was teaching drafting and architecture in a portable classroom behind the building. I don't know where the drafting tables had been stored but they needed cleaning and repairs to get them ready for the students. They only gave me 28 tables for classes as big as 34 students. The administration's solution was to bring in some folding chairs but the extra students found it easier to just sit on the floor. At least I was teaching subjects I know and was able to teach without any teaching experience. Still the stress was high for me and I think I lost 20 pounds that school year. The district redrew the school boundaries to lower the population and I got transferred.
Patapsco Middle School
I was transferred to a middle school where the Industrial Arts teacher had just retired. This was a different kind of challenge because the shop was very old and not set up for teaching the new Technology Education curriculum. I cleaned out and got rid of all the equipment that didn't work or didn't fit anymore. I created a classroom seating area on one side, installed whiteboards and set up computer stations. I refurbished and reorganized the tool cabinet to facilitate the understand of the purpose of types of hand tools as well as making them easily access maintain. I designed and built a drafting board cabinet to allow students to easily access drawing tools and to store their drawings and project. Developed activities with K'Nex to teach structural and mechanical technology. Purchased Lego Mindstorm kits to bring update and enhance the existing but antiquated robotics unit. I was very pleased with the program I was able to create at Pataspco Middle School, but a growing family lead me to new opportunities and a new school.
Bonnie Branch Middle School
My next school provide a different but equally rewarding challenge. I was assigned to a brand new middle school just before the school year began. No equipment or materials had been purchased for the technology education program (only furniture), so I got to design the layout and equipment of the lab myself. Being a newly built school, the technology lab had plenty of space for material and project storage and separate rooms for design and fabrication. I wished the two room were more equal in size, but as it was already built, I decided it was best to make the smaller room the fabrication area and used the large room for the classroom seating, instruction, design, drawing and testing area. I was again able to purchase Lego Mindstorm kits for classroom use and found support to form my first robotics team what competed in the Botball robotics competition. was also where I first applied the concept of the Core Technologies to the organization of the storage cabinets and as the major organizer of the units of the courses. Bonnie Branch Middle School is also my answer to "Where were you on 9/11?". I remember that we spent the second half of the school day signing out students to parents who wanted their child with them (some who had parents that worked at the Pentagon). I was able to professionally care for the students that day, but the next day I was not able to teach and spent the day crying and taking the time I needed to make sense of the world. I realized my emotional response was partly due to the connection I had with the Twin Towers from years of students doing reports about it in my technology classes. That marvel of engineering brought it world recognition and sadly made it a target of terrorism. Its unique engineering could not prevent it from falling, but that design still doesn't get enough credit for minimizing collateral damage in what conspiracy theories describe as a "controlled demolition". Sorry for allowing that event to size track the story of my career, but it was a major event for me.
University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
Centennial High School
After taking a year off to take care of a young family and allow my wife to start a full-time career, I found myself for the first time working my local high school (next door to the middle school where my brother was teaching tech ed). It seemed like a great situation but a new principle and other factors made it my worst work experience, comparable to my first year of teaching. On the bright side, this was my first opportunity to teach in a computer lab and interact with Business Department teachers. Teaching Software Applications greatly improved my proficiency with Micro Soft Office. This also meant that I was splitting my day between two computer labs that I was sharing with other teachers (so I had no control over their set-up) and an old shop that was in almost as bad of shape as Patapsco Middle School's. The difference this time was that I was the junior tech ed teacher and was not free to reorganize or purchase the equipment needed to make it an effective teaching space. The shop had no classroom seating area and no computers for the students to use. The curriculum was heavy on general technology content that needed to be taught before using any of the power tools that the students had to just sit and look at, wishing they could use. The lighting was insufficient and never warm enough in the winter. The administration made me clear out on of my storage rooms so that they could give half of it over to be used as a security office. The general impression, which the administration did not work to hide, was that they wanted to eliminate the tech ed program so that they could convert the shop into a dance studio. The next year there was worse as they had me teaching part-time at two different schools, commuting daily between both. I was able to get parental support to create and run a successful Botball robotics team each year which was sustained after I left. When the administration wanted me to commute between the two schools again, I told them I could not do that again. This was all for the best because it lead to my best teaching experience.
Atholton High School
My next teaching experience was at a high school that had already experienced the decline of a once great Industrial Arts (tech ed) program. Atholton High Schools shops were almost all gone when I arrived. The drafting room was now a home economics classroom. The electronics room was little more than a storage room for the county's computer tech support. The auto shop was a dance studio and storage for the athletic department. The metal shop was now the weight room and the wood shop had been cut in half to make a business department computer lab.
Luckily, I arrived with a new principle who valued career & technology education and again I found support from parents and industry to allow me to revitalize the program. The computer room was much better suited to the curriculum and I had full control to clean out and reorganize the shop and storage rooms. The county had also just committed to putting Project Lead the Way into every high school. This gave me formal training and my first opportunity to really teach engineering. I formed and continued to coach a Botball robotics team but I was also fortunate to have a Booz Allen Hamilton employee volunteer to help me start a FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team at the school. I had known of FRC for years but know it was a big undertaking to start a team. With help we were success in finding sponsors and mentors and the team grew each year. With Project Lead the Way we expanded the enrollment of the program and reclaimed the electronics room. The county paid for new furniture, computers, equipment and materials for the engineering classes. In my third year there we had enough students to hire a second full time engineering teacher. While the successes were wonderful, family again pulled me in a new direction (Colorado) and I start yet another challenge at a new school.
West Jefferson Middle School
I was luck to find another middle school where the tech ed teacher was retiring, but this time I found a shop, lab, and storage area what had been wonderfully maintained for decades. The shop was fully equipped will most of its original machines still working well. The classroom/lab was well supplied and I inherited a surplus of money in my account. I was able to rearrange the lab to match my teaching style and purchase Legos and KNex to add my best activities while respectfully continuing many of the student's favorite projects from the old teacher. Students built KNex bridges, wooden catapults, and model rockets which we launched from the baseball field. Students did CO2 race cars, metal toolboxes, and turned candle stick holders on the lathes. We also made Lego robots and participated in the FIRST Lego League (FLL) competition while I mentored and supported the Conifer High School FRC team and helped start the FRC teams at STEM School & Academy where my son was in high school. I left WJMS to take the new engineering teacher job at Highlands Ranch High School.
Highlands Ranch High School
With the retirement of their original technology education teacher, Highlands Ranch High School advertised the open teaching position hoping to hire an teacher to replace their architecture classes with an engineering program. The engineering classes would be taught in a large but under-used computer lab with a back room that had just been used for storage. The principle also had secured $30,000 to purchase equipment to get the engineering program started. This was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up, especially because Highlands Ranch was less than a mile from me home.
I was hired and began cleaning up the lab and storage area right after Memorial Day. There was great, sturdy, furniture in the lab purchased for a technology program years ago that never got off the ground. I rearranged the room to have all of the computers on one side of the room facing the far wall, where the LCD projector would soon be projecting. The remaining tables lined the walls in the back half of the room and formed are work table in the middle. There were also lots of drawing tools, books, and materials to move over from the old architecture room. I put shelves along the back walls to hold/display all of the architectural and engineering books. The back room has been used for storage and some computer/robotics independent projects, but it did have a nice large window to the main lab space. Once cleaned out, that space would become the fabrication area.
My first year at HRHS I continued to mentor the STEM Academy FIRST Robotics team. I recruited four HRHS students to participate on the team as well. The next year we created a new FRC team at HRHS and those four students became the team leaders. We attracted sponsorships from Lockheed Martin and Comcast who each provided mentors for the students. The team won the Rookie All-Stars Award and went to the World Championship in St Louis.
In the following years I also hosted a Minecraft club and helped with the Video Game club.
Dakota Ridge High School
After the retirement of their long-time technology education teacher, principal Jim Jelinek hired me to revitalize the DRHS robotics and engineering programs. I also took over as coach of the FRC Robotics Team #1799 Wire-Up. The technology labs were well equipped but most of it was aging machines in need of repair/replacement. The first purchase was 24 Lego Mindstorms Robotics Kits to be used in the four robotics sections that year. Otherwise funds were very limited that first year, so I did the best I could with what was there.
My first year at DRHS the robotics team consisted of 4-6 students who all were new to FIRST robotics. They made a valiant effort in the BEST Robotics Competition in the fall and then jumped into FRC in January. We obtained the sponsorship for Lockheed Martin and Comcast NBCUniversal who also provided mentors for the team. Several parents also volunteered and supported the team to make it possible for us to attend the Denver Regional FRC Competition. The robot barely worked but the students were persistent and represented the school well. The team won the Rookie All-Star Award but was not able to attend the World Championship.
Beginning in my second year at DRHS we reinstated the PLTW Engineering program and received a 3 year $3500 grant from Toyota. Because I was already trained in several PLTW classes, we were able to offer both Introduction to Engineering Design and Principles of Engineering that first year. The grant allowed us to pay the annual registration fee and purchase much needed materials and equipment. Each following year we added a new course until we offered a full 5 course program in 2021. The Capstone project students do in PLTW Engineering Design & Development allowed students to earn the STEM Endorsed Diploma.
Teaching From Home 2020
Chris Gray & Woodie Flowers @Denver Regional FRC 2018
