I am going to post this today if it kills me.
Long story short, after 24 years of being a classroom teacher in the same school district, I accepted a new position at the district office in a neighboring district over the summer (lots of prepositions and the word “district”, please forgive me). Now I get to immerse myself in the skill set I developed working with kids, professional development, instructional improvement, and standards implementation–but full time.
In the last few years I began blogging the instructional reflections I had working with students and teachers in an environment that was very comfortable for me. Over the last 10 years I had the opportunity to work with and learn from amazing instructional minds, some my colleagues, some PD professionals. I was also in the classroom to practice what I was learning.
When I accepted the district-level position over the summer, I knew it would take me away from working with kids on a daily basis. I knew that I would miss my kids. But I didn’t know that it would make me lose my voice.
Over the summer, the new team I am working with created a very aggressive plan to train teachers and administrators in Common Core implementation. When the planning ended and the training actually began, I had the opportunity to reflect, and I wrote a lot in my own journal. But whenever I tried to blog, the devil on my shoulder told me, “You aren’t actually working with kids anymore. You sold out. You lost all credibility.”
Assuming I ever had any credibility, today I am calling BS on the devil on my shoulder.
Over the last 3+ months I have had the opportunity to work with some amazingly committed and talented educators in my new position. Over the last 24+ years I have been lucky enough to work with amazingly committed and talented educators who helped me become qualified for the position I have now.
But the reality is that most of that training and experience was gleaned from kids between the ages of 13 and 18, not adults with Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees.
I’m not in the classroom on a regular basis anymore, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a giant roster of 24 years of students who are the basis for my voice. I lost sight of that for a few months. Sorry kiddos…we’re back!!!
In medias res... 