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Blank Check
Inspiring young adults to reimagine public education, Blank Check is a novel about young people and a generation that is prepared to step in and re-engineer public education.
The problem with gathering the forces of educators and businesses to advance the process of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) with Career and Technical Education (CTE) education is not that it is unworthy of their attention.
It's not that it's unimportant to the future kids coming through public schools.
It's not that people do not get cheered when they champion new standards.
It's ALL of these.
STEM and CTE education need a story. Today's culture advances things through storytelling.
It needs a context. That's what happens when there is allowed incremental advances to nonchalantly lead the way.
It fails to inspire.
Blank Check is that story.
It's a fictional tale grounded in pure reality.
It is an intriguing, inspirational Young Adult novel that takes place on a fictional U.S. island, but the story that evolves could help reshape public schools in America.
So here, for the first and hopefully not the last time, there is a tale offered that can inspire people because when the destination can be seen in the distance, it quickens one's pace.
The problem with gathering the forces of educators and businesses to advance the process of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) with Career and Technical Education (CTE) education is not that it is unworthy of their attention.
It's not that it's unimportant to the future kids coming through public schools.
It's not that people do not get cheered when they champion new standards.
It's ALL of these.
STEM and CTE education need a story. Today's culture advances things through storytelling.
It needs a context. That's what happens when there is allowed incremental advances to nonchalantly lead the way.
It fails to inspire.
Blank Check is that story.
It's a fictional tale grounded in pure reality.
It is an intriguing, inspirational Young Adult novel that takes place on a fictional U.S. island, but the story that evolves could help reshape public schools in America.
So here, for the first and hopefully not the last time, there is a tale offered that can inspire people because when the destination can be seen in the distance, it quickens one's pace.
290 pages, Paperback
Published September 8, 2020
About the author
Aaron L. Smith
2 books3 followersThere is a lot you may not know about Aaron. Today, Aaron Smith enjoys active leadership of one of Virginia’s most visible and awarded STEM schools.
He leads Newport News, Virginia’s Denbigh High School Aviation Academy, with classrooms and laboratories at the Newport News Williamsburg International Airport, a school with affiliations to major business and industry throughout the region.
The magnet STEM school has received national recognition from hosting a live downlink with the astronauts on board the International Space Station to becoming a PRIME (Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education) School by the Society of Manufactured Engineers Education Foundation. Students can learn to fly, learn aircraft maintenance, airport management, air traffic control, and other aviation electives. Students are building an airplane in the terminal.
Aaron’s books reveal his passion for STEM education and workforce development.
His first book, Awakening Your STEM School enables educators and business leaders to take their current school and modernize it into an elite STEM site.
Blank Check: What If You Were Asked To Reinvent Public Education is his Young Adult novel about a quest to build the perfect public school.
A 2008 graduate of Old Dominion University with a Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Dr. Aaron L. Smith has over two decades of experience in the classroom as a mathematics teacher and administrator. His dissertation focused on comparing alternative teaching certification routes to that of traditional teaching certification in conjunction to SOL results.
Aaron has developed a passion for workplace readiness and STEM where he has shared his knowledge as an adjunct professor at Old Dominion University and Christopher Newport University.
He received the WHRO Public Television’s Technology Administrator Award and the Crystal Star Award from the National Dropout Prevention Center.
He leads Newport News, Virginia’s Denbigh High School Aviation Academy, with classrooms and laboratories at the Newport News Williamsburg International Airport, a school with affiliations to major business and industry throughout the region.
The magnet STEM school has received national recognition from hosting a live downlink with the astronauts on board the International Space Station to becoming a PRIME (Partnership Response In Manufacturing Education) School by the Society of Manufactured Engineers Education Foundation. Students can learn to fly, learn aircraft maintenance, airport management, air traffic control, and other aviation electives. Students are building an airplane in the terminal.
Aaron’s books reveal his passion for STEM education and workforce development.
His first book, Awakening Your STEM School enables educators and business leaders to take their current school and modernize it into an elite STEM site.
Blank Check: What If You Were Asked To Reinvent Public Education is his Young Adult novel about a quest to build the perfect public school.
A 2008 graduate of Old Dominion University with a Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Dr. Aaron L. Smith has over two decades of experience in the classroom as a mathematics teacher and administrator. His dissertation focused on comparing alternative teaching certification routes to that of traditional teaching certification in conjunction to SOL results.
Aaron has developed a passion for workplace readiness and STEM where he has shared his knowledge as an adjunct professor at Old Dominion University and Christopher Newport University.
He received the WHRO Public Television’s Technology Administrator Award and the Crystal Star Award from the National Dropout Prevention Center.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 26, 2020
I was intrigued to read this book by hearing the author on a podcast. With what has happened in the education world recently and educators forced to re-think their profession, this book hits the nail on the head. What if we could teach without the common, bureaucratic constraints we all experience and instead bring out our teaching game to center on the student and family? It definitely would revolutionize our classrooms. Smith's title has a little bit of everything--adventure, current, relevant theme, meaningful character conversations and development, etc. I finished the book with more resolve to better reach my students and families no matter where they are. A sequel definitely needs to be coming.
May 9, 2020
If you're serious about making a difference in education and want to show others how to make a change, this book will show you all about it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews