It is interesting the way life reminds us we aren't in as much control as we thought. We forge ahead with predictability and comfort, and hope of meeting self declared expectations. Then you get blindsided and everything you thought and hoped for gets totaled and has to be thrown out. Or, the mess can be recycled for a different look altogether, and in the end redeemed.
Before our little family moved to New York City my wife and I came on a scouting trip to find a place to live, a place for our son to go to school, and a place for me to teach. We were fortunate and found all three, months before we actually moved our lives across the country.
After a couple of blindsides our son is at a new school and so am I. Without getting into details, my practice of teaching has taken a different look...a very different look. But in the spirit of redemption, this opportunity for recycling hopes and expectations has in a way allowed me to "pimp my ride". There are new and exciting opportunities for education coming into view around every corner.
The first being an interesting idea a friend of mine, Tom Layton, and I have been talking about for several months. You can read a little bit about this new journey at World School. With demand on my post classroom time diminishing, there is the opportunity that only extra free time can allow. Taking a closer look at distance learning and the elementary school student has accounted for my current wonderings.
Another is classroom collaboration that takes advantage of the immediate access to opportunities that only living in New York City provides. Podcasting interviews with authors and illustrators or videocasting dinosaurs from the Museum of Natural History offer fun and interesting enrichment for elementary schoolers. Being an outside resource has many educational advantages to all who participate. We will have to see where this road leads.
The dust is settling quickly now and it is becoming more clear how this wreckage is being redeemed.
Comments