Crypto is providing supplies for my students

We’re all tired of hearing life stories, but this story isn’t about my life; it’s about the lives of my students.

A little background: I am a science and technology teacher in a rural part of a developing country. This job is extremely rewarding, but almost equally as frustrating, especially when it comes to budgeting for our students’ education. This hits my classes particularly hard, being that they are technology-focused and require hardware and software that eats away at the school’s budget. When I ask for something as simple as new mice for the computers, it’s often met with a sigh of exasperation from the administration.

No teacher wants their students to be at a disadvantage just because their classroom doesn’t include the latest gadgets and technology. Paying for supplies and equipment with my own salary was not practical (fellow educators, you know what I’m talking about).

That’s when I decided to do something. I’ve been taking gains off the top of my own crypto earnings during the March/April runup and, if the market stops crabbing, I’ll take some more.

These profits will be used for buying some much-needed equipment to be used in the classroom. Some things that I’ve already been able to procure are electronics/robotics kits! This is so very exciting, because we have been doing either virtual circuits (thank jeebus for Tinkercad!) or cobbling robots together with literal shoestrings and cardboard (which also has its charms).

Here are the new kits ready for the students when we go back to onsite learning:

Left: electronics kits with Arduino microcontrollers Right: finished robotic car with ultrasonic sensor / Arduino and breadboard

Next on the list are mice/keyboards, a 3D printer, and hopefully some new GPUs. If Moons moon, I know what we’re getting!

We return to school in October and I can’t wait to show the students what we’re going to be working with, all thanks to cryptocurrency!

These kids might not have much, but I hope that I can at least give them the knowledge and experience to go out and be competitive in this world.

And before you ask; yes, I do also teach a little about cryptocurrency/blockchain technology in one of my general computing classes. In addition, we have been using [a certain crypto] as class rewards and doing activities like virtual marketplaces.