There is always a reticence within me for writing about myself. For the purpose of this site, it’s important to put myself into it if others are to trust the ideas and work that this has to offer.
My small bio gives a great outline, but doesn’t offer a strong idea of who I am. So…
I am an ex-teacher in the UK. I taught children from 5-11 years of age, with a stop gap in tutoring 15/16 year olds and teaching college students in computing and, eventually, apprenticeships. I left teaching to look after my late-wife, in 2017.
Since then, I looked after her up until her passing in December of 2021. I now parent my autistic daughter with the aid of my new partner. This has become a support network that has been more than welcome in the past couple of years.
My interests are vast and shows why STEAM is so important to me. It encapsulates so many areas of interests all wrapped up in one title. A rough idea of my interests, are:
- Gaming
- Lego
- Outdoors
- Building
- Woodwork
- Photography
- Writing
- Lego
- Film
- Star Wars
- Fallout
- Nature
- Sailing
- Paddling
- Cycling
- Lego
- Tools
- Invention
- Innovation
- Toy Repair
- Fabrication
- 3D Art
- Oh…and Lego!
This could go on for pages and pages. I used to believe that being interested in everything was a curse. As a way to vent all of it, this site was the key. In 2017, I created a site, called BeingSTEM. This was my original foray into making a STEAM site. As time has changed, I have embraced Art, a lot more, thus, ‘steAm’.
As you might have guessed, by now, Lego is my biggest love. I aim to add all of my Lego to this site, and show off the tremendous things that it can be used for. As a man in my 40s, I can say that Lego is a toy, first and foremost, but a tool, secondarily. It is an important factor in my interests, that will form a large part of TSE’s future.
The idea is to express the love of all things and find ways to include those that are similar to myself. I think back to being a child and notice the errors that befell me. Even though I would eventually become an accademic, I have never truely been so. I am hands on, and love to learn through kinaesthesis. To feel as I observe, creates more of an idea of what I am working with and how I may fix or use it.
To me, intrigue is what is important. To learn new things, meet new cultures and absorb notions is a gift that keeps giving. In the late 2010s, education would lean towards ‘applied knowledge’. Not to say that it has entirely gone, but it was suddenly left behind for new policies. I am a keen ambassador for this and believe that life works through it. Everything that we do is aided by what we have learned, before. We can forecast what will happen next becuase when we have seen it before, we know what normally happens. It is all knowledge that is applied from what has come before. You will see much of it in this site.
For now, that’s enough rambling. Keeping STEAM available, as an educational tool, is the key for many. I hope one day to return to helping those and remind them of what they are capable of.
Gavyn.
