The Essential Question: So You Aren’t Going To Teach?

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So with only 7 instructional days left in my general education teaching experience here in Texas, I have obviously been quite busy job hunting and looking for the path that I am destined to go down next. I have taught Pre-K, 3rd, and 4th, with ESL and SpEd time in between. That comes to a grand total of 9 years of teaching in the classroom. Where did the time go? Well it went to defining me as an educator. It went to growing and becoming someone with a vision for the future, and a dedication to getting there. It was well spent time indeed. So ultimately every question asked when I say I am moving to Georgia is, “Do you have a teaching job yet?”. Each time, I explain I do not have a position yet, but that I am applying only for non teaching positions in EdTech, VirtualEd, Professional Development, and HigherEd. That leads to puzzled looks, and more questions about WHY I don’t want to teach. I assume most expect me to go into the hard times of education :  Low pay, more expectations, changing standards, but that is certainly not my answer. My answer is simple… It is time to move on and find my next challenge. It would be easy to stay in the classroom in some ways. I certainly know how to teach, and have a decent track record over the years 🙂 It is comfortable…. and we all know comfortable is good! For me, it is about pushing myself into something I haven’t done before. It is about getting experience in education that doesn’t involve going into my cozy classroom each day. I really am excited about being pushed to learn something different.

A fortune cookie I got last week said it all: One learns most by teaching others.  That can be read a million different ways… but for me, it was the message I have been thinking about for a while. When I lead an inservice, small teacher group, or just meet with a teacher on the fly- what I love is showing them something they have never seen before and the ways it can serve them in teaching their students. When they start to use it, and tell you how much they love it… well that makes it that much more rewarding! That is exactly what I want to do. I want to be mentoring students, teachers, admins, districts, and random lovers of learning. That doesn’t have to take place from 7:30-3:30 M-F.

So no, I don’t plan on teaching in the elementary classroom in the fall. I plan on making sure I am contributing to education in the 21st century in some way or another…  While I sadly won’t be at ISTE this year, I will be frequenting EdCampAtl, GaETC, and AuthorSpeak2012. I will be working with other educators in these three venues, and making sure I still am teaching someone along the way. The best part about all of those… Lots of people will be teaching me too!  Hope to see you at at least one of those! 🙂