I am starting to hit my stride  with my new reflection category (Ruminations).  The reasons I began recording some of my personal and professional reflections on this site was so that I can serve as a model for my students.  Part of my mission for students is to instill in them a desire and passion for lifelong learning.  One of the quotes on my site says, “If you stop learning, you will become irrelevant.”  I really like that quote and believe it is totally true, for all of us, no matter what it is that we do.  So how better to demonstrate and model my pursuit of continued learning than sharing my reflections on my class website.

I was driving home from the cabin today; side note –  I do my best thinking while driving.  I should call this post category Front Seat Reflections or something witty.   Ruminations will do for now.  Anyway, I was thinking about the path my career has taken over the past several months.  Last August, I acquired my Administration license and was fully intent on spending my last year in the classroom during the 10-11 school year.  I had prepared dutifully and had psyched myself up for moving ahead with my career.  It turns out that I had a really tough year last year, I was ready to quit education altogether.  (Intriguing sidebar for future reflection – Did I make the year extra tough on myself because I was certain it was my last year?)  I spent a tremendous amount of time searching for administrative jobs over the spring and summer.

As the 11-12 school year approached, I was still without a new position.  I was getting very frustrated with the whole process.  I never lost faith in myself, my skills, or my ability to be an effective school leader; I continued to grow cynical about the bureaucracy of the establishment.  The frustrations I experienced were the exact reason I wanted to get into educational administration in the first place.  Long story short, while I had an administrative position lined up for this school year, things didn’t work out and I am back in the classroom.  It was a quick turn around for me to “reset” my mind as a teacher for another year.

I was able to reset quickly and found some peace in my situation, so much so that I am looking forward to this new school year with great anticipation.  I think I might be anticipating this school year more than any other.  I spent some time thinking about why last year was so rough and decided that I needed to make a concerted effort to be better.  I need to be better so my students can be better.  I realized a couple of things while driving home from the cabin.  The first was the quote mentioned earlier.  I had told my students this quote countless times but never felt the gravity of it until now.  If I don’t learn new skills to utilize this year in my classroom, I will be an irrelevant teacher.  I hope my students this year aren’t skeptical of the year they will have; I should say that I am regarded as a very good teacher but I can be better.  I need to be better.  I need to be better for my own sanity and the benefit of my students.

I was fortunate to attend some training seminars this summer where I learned some new strategies.  I am really looking forward to utilizing them this year and feel as though they will have a transformative effect on my classroom.  I can already tell that this is going to be a great year.  I can’t wait to meet my students and get to work.  I know that each of my students will experience adversity throughout this year, and the rest of their lives.  I now have a very real experience of my own to share with them.  In order to achieve our dreams we all have to persevere and work to overcome that adversity.  We need to continue learning so that we can avoid irrelevance and achieve our dreams.  I am stoked for the year ahead.