Introduction

Dear Friends, Family, and whoever else may be reading this,

I am writing this blog for three reasons: firstly, I would like to keep people about the progress that I am making on a journey that I am about to undertake; secondly, my experiences with Teach for America have taught me the value of reflection and writing these posts will be a perfect opportunity to stop and breathe amidst what is sure to be a challenging endeavor; and lastly, I need to hold myself accountable for making progress and I think that the watchful eyes of those who believe in me will do just that.

So, by now you are probably wondering what all of this is really about. In about two and a half weeks time, I will have just finished my first year of teaching math at Bryan Adams High School in Dallas as a Teach for America corps member. I was drawn to Teach for America by a yearning for engaging in a form of public service and a strong desire to challenge myself in new ways; TFA has delivered on all counts. Prior to TFA and during and before college, I was involved in a number of entrepreneurial ventures driven by natural tendency to build and create. Now that I finally have confidence in my abilities to teach and lead my students, which I can assure you did not come easily, I am fully ready to do what I do best and start a new project that I will be working on this summer and during my second year of teaching.

I was inspired about a week ago during a conversation I was having with an old friend from high school, Anirudha Balasubramanian, who is currently involved with some exciting projects himself. As I was updating him on my last year our conversation veered between my own experiences and exciting projects that others were working on. At one point, I mentioned some of the pain points of the lesson planning process that all math teachers creating TFA-style lessons face on a day to day basis, which was when it hit me: I could create an app or program that would ease, simplify, and streamline that process.

So here I am - this blog's title is a bit of a misnomer as I would not say that I have a startup of any sort yet. What I have is an idea for how to streamline and ease the lesson planning process for high school math teachers. As of one week ago, I have begun the early stages of designing and building this product and this blog will chronicle that journey. Here you will find my excitements, frustrations, disappointments, successes, and general the general musings I have along the way.

Happy Reading,

Prashant