A Change Is Gonna Come

Soon I will leave my position as District Instructional Technologist to return to a 4th classroom teaching reading, language arts, and social studies. Most people are astounded when I tell them this and wonder why I would ever return to a classroom. I honestly never thought I'd be anywhere but the classroom; although, this position has been a nice change of pace - I have grown in my leadership capacity; had opportunities to see education from a different perspective; and made/helped make decisions that would affect teaching and learning in our district. Despite all of this, I am headed back to the classroom.

The reason for the change has nothing to do with discontent with my current role. I quite enjoyed the challenge; but, over a year ago, I moved out of state (112 miles from my current district) creating a 4-hour, round-trip commute. Most wondered how long I could sustain in that fashion. I lasted a full school year, plus a couple of months at the end of one and the beginning of this one. Commuting proved to be expensive and physically taxing. So after much prayer and consideration, I began to look for positions closer to home. Ironically, the new school is 66 miles away from home - exactly half of my current commute. It's not as close as I wanted to be, but hopefully, this will be a good fit and an easy transition.

I am not without anxieties. The shifts in content (CCSS and new state frameworks) and grade level will be huge for me. I will also be entering nearly two months after the beginning of the school year which presents its own set of challenges.

During the 2005-2006 school year, I taught in a self-contained 4th grade classroom; however, the standards I used were our old benchmarks. In school year 2006-2007, I taught reading only - still under the old state benchmarks. Since then, the standards for reading and language arts were merged and repackaged as a combined ELA framework. The social studies standards have also changed. Now the Common Core State Standards have been implemented. I spent the following years teaching 6th and 7th grade math and pre-AP pre-algebra and then as District Instructional Technologist since May 2011.

Pray for me as I return to the classroom and continue my travels on a shorter (thankfully) commuting!

So, I’ve joined a blog-a-day challenge...

In an effort to make writing more a part of my daily life, I have joined a challenge with other awesome educators via my Twitter PLN. I have tossed around the idea of blogging quite a bit; dipped my toe in the water once or twice; and even publicly admonished myself for not blogging more. I know I have lots to say - my problem is mostly finding the time to say it within my busy day. That's no excuse for not sharing my thoughts, commenting on the the thoughts and opinions of others, questioning, collaborating, and venting.

Posts may not always be grammatically correct or typo-free, but that isn't really the purpose of writing. My goal for this blog is not that it will be a bastion of profundity (although I may occasionally have posts that gain traction). I want this blog to make writing more habitual for me, so that if and when I do have a profound thought, it is captured somewhere. I want to have a record of my thoughts so when I want to be reflective, I don't have to chase down the myriad notebooks strewn about that currently house my thinking.

So thanks to my fellow #EdBDaily challengers. Game on! Post 1/infinity is here.