Rubyists,
I am teaming up with Ezra Zygmuntowicz and Amy Hoy to teach a two day Ruby on Rails workshop May 20th & 21st in Washington, DC. The material will be geared toward persons with some experience with web design (html/css) and a little programming (Ruby or another language). At the end of the two days you will be ready to start developing real Rails applications.
Obviously many of you are already digging into Rails, but if you're a here-to-fore Ruby purist wanting to check it out or know someone who'd like an introduction to Ruby and/or Rails, please consider our workshop. The two days, including lunch, are priced at $400. The twist (the "for Good" in the name) is that all the proceeds are going to benefit the small public high school where I teach computer science. The instructors are not taking any pay and the expenses are being minimized.
My goal is to raise $10,000 to increase access to and integration of technology across our curriculum in ways that our regular budget can't possibly afford. We want to start a pilot program for "digital design" (requiring hardware, software, training materials), use technology to promote literacy (audio recordings of texts, etc), start small "language labs" for use in teaching Spanish & French, buy special simulator software of the science department, and dozens of other ideas to improve the education of our students.
We are also searching for sponsorships to the workshop or to one of these specific school projects. For the workshop donations of goods for one, some, or all of the attendees (hosting packages, books, mugs, etc!) would be fantastic. Cash sponsorships for portions of the workshop (lunch, happy hour) or directly to any of the mentioned project would of course be amazing. The school is a tax-exempt non-profit, so donations can be made tax deductible.
Lastly, we're really trying to "get the word" out about this event. If you can help out by posting a blurb to websites, blogs, mailing lists, or whatever it would help us out.
If you or anyone you know would be interested, please check out our website or send an email.
URL: http://www.workshopforgood.org
Email: jeff@casimircreative.com
Thanks for your time,
Jeff Casimir