Thanks

This is my sixth year doing this website, and I want to say thank you to everyone who has made this possible! Finding people to participate in this website, and then putting it together is a lot of work (especially with trying to teach and now Covid). However, it is incredibly rewarding.

I'm amazed at the responses from various career paths and how excited strangers on the internet are to participate in helping a teacher with a project. This project has allowed me to connect with hundreds of people and learn about what they love. I've watched and read through every single interview (some a few times over) and there's one common theme in every single interview.

Passion. Every single video has passion radiating from that person's voice. Dozens of people have apologized for being cringe or awkward when they send their videos and I don't see that. I see people who are excited to talk about something they do, either for a living or for fun, and they want to share that passion with the world (or at least a class of students). 

People have asked why I'm encouraging students to be gamers or YouTubers when it's incredibly unlikely they will make a career out of being it, and that I should push them towards more practical jobs. I don't believe in that. I want to encourage my students to do whatever they are passionate in. Through perusing that passion, they will learn other skills, and maybe find a love for those skills. A child who at age 8 wants to be a YouTuber can spend the next ten years practicing, learning video production and editing, writing scripts, etc. By 18 they will be ready to go to college or a career with a foundational understanding of very marketable skills. 

So thank you. Thank you everyone who has responded to my requests for videos. Thank you everyone who has created a video. Thank you everyone who has watched these videos. Thank you for everyone involved. 

-- Maura Liccar