Why I can now see the wood from the trees

I have now been without my 'own class' for 18 months*. Having been in the classroom for 8 years prior to my break, I worried I would miss the craziness of never having enough time, the constant interactions with people and deep down I worried I may 'lose it' and slowly exit out of the education world for good.

I do not think I have 'lost it' - in fact after 18 months I finally feel like I have the inspiration, networks, skills, vision and inquisitiveness every teacher should come out of university with. 

*I should clarify I have not been on an extended holiday - just taking a step out of the classroom to look after our 2 little ones for 3 days a week and work 2 days at school :)


Here is my list of things I have discovered that inspire and challenge me.

1. TED talks. I stumbled across TED when our bank gave us a new TV with very few apps (hint - if you live in NZ - buy Samsung TVs - not Sony). One of the few Apps was TED. For close to 6 months I had TED talks on in the background for some part of the day during my time at home. I did not exclusively listen to the Ed talks - though a Growth Mindset talk by Carol Dweck set me off on a self-discovery voyage about Mindsets that has become a new passion. 

2. Twitter. I heard of the educational possibilities and signed up for Twitter at a uLearn conference in 2009. In November 2014 I finally got round to writing a Tweet. My favourite discovery has been the #Edchat discussions, using Twitter to search (true story - I had never used anything but Google) and building some connections with like-minded educators.

3. Podcasting. My wife reintroduced my to Podcasts on a recent road trip when we listened to show after show. Like TED, I listen to a variety of shows outside of education, including technology and politics (what else influences education more?) though I now religiously listen to the ITSE #epicYEN podcast's.

4. VLN. Again, the virtual learning network was something I have known about for years but never contributed to. The importance of the VLN is in clichés like 'no man (school) is an island' 'two brains are better than one' and 'If you see a path that you want to follow, first talk to those that have walked it'. I guess what I am saying is the VLN gave me a place to learn from other school's that faced similar challenges to our own and help other schools who now face challenges similar to what we have overcome/learned to deal with!

5. My Own Project-based Learning. During my part timing I have kept busy with numerous projects, some successful (building a school website) some not (attempting to build a school App). Some of these projects have been implemented school wide (Digital Citizenship curriculum) while others have yet to see the light of day (watch this space..). All of these projects have had one thing in common - I have had to be the learner - reading, asking questions and taking risks. All things I did not have enough time for when dealing with a classroom.

I would like to think I have created some habits that will stick when I get back into full-time teaching. In reality I know paperwork will bog me down, but at least I will have 'inspirational vehicles' to go back to so that I can continue to grow my mind.