For many people change is hard. I get it. There is comfort in structure, familiarity, and knowing what to expect. Schedules make us efficient. Familiar faces soothe the soul. Anticipating and being ready for whatever comes at you is wise. Yet, when one shakes up the structure, seeks out others, and faces the unknown, new perspectives yield new opportunities for growth, discovery, and creativity. I've noticed this pattern in my life. It is beyond me as to why I tend toward this path of revising and readjusting when it might just be easier to stay the course on the same path. Maybe it's what David Bowie suggested in his song Changes. Strange fascinations fascinate me. Ah, changes are taking me. The pace I'm going through... I haven't had time or energy to write since September because I have been consumed by my latest change. I started a new job...same school, different job. A totally different job. I'll get to that in a moment. I just realized something. In the 32 years that I have been in education, I have had at least 13 different types of jobs in my field. This blows me away. I just put down my calculator and figured that I have pretty much averaged a new job every 2.5 years. I have always loved teaching elementary school, but changing every 2.5 years does not sound like the track record of someone who loves what he/she is doing. Every year that I taught, I fell head over heels in love with my students, whatever grade I taught. I loved creating our classroom family and the challenge of building engaging learning experiences for my students. Rarely did I recycle lesson plans. I found great satisfaction in revising them to match the interests of my kids or push the concept deeper. My move out of the classroom was never based upon dissatisfaction or burn out. It was more about an internal drive or need to push myself to do more. So, now on to the new job. I am now an Educational Technologist (ET), but my principal let me rename the position to Technology Integration Coach. I get to help teachers integrate technology into their teaching repertoires. Again, I must digress because I think it warrants a bit of an explanation. I am what is considered a Digital Immigrant, a person who was not born into a world with the types of computer technologies that have always been available to our Digital Native students. Yet, after 32 years in education, rather than riding out my remaining pre-retirement years with the familiar, I am jumping into a field that's dominated by educators that are a good 10-20 years behind me in their careers. I have had to work hard to teach my Digital Immigrant self the best way to use these tools with students. I've kept up with the research and have always pushed myself to be an early adopter of these new technologies when they emerge. So, when the opportunity arose for this job, I jumped at it. Now I am surrounded by new perspectives that inspire me, I'm getting to create my own structures, and prepare for the unknown on a daily basis. I'm not sure that I have the words to describe how this new challenge has inspired me. Over the past many weeks, the bleak realities of the Covid-19 pandemic have permeated every aspect of life as we have known it. We are being forced to change the way we live, work, socialize, and educate. At my school, we were faced with the daunting task of of getting our school of 650 students up an running with virtual learning. In a matter of 48 hours, It was my job to help create/implement an online program and support our overwhelmingly Digital Immigrant corps of teachers to change to a whole new paradigm of teaching and learning. While the timeline for getting this off the ground was challenging and stressful for me, I also found the challenge invigorating and satisfying. My husband talks about the adrenaline rush/runner's high that he gets from running. I hear that daredevils get it from challenges like rock climbing and skydiving. I think I may have just gained a new perspective on what change does for me. Strange new fascinations fascinate me! Creatively, Cathy
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About CathyI'm a wife, mother, friend, educator, traveler, creator, tech lover, (and much more) inspired by Brene Brown's call to being vulnerable and daring greatly. Archives
May 2020
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