I am heading into more school soon, hopefully. I have decided to work on my Doctorate in Education. A teacher once told me that I could teach 30 elementary students or 30 college students that will teach 30 elementary students each. I have thought about that for 12 years. The reason I did not do it earlier was the fun I had each day working with my students and my team. I still have fun teaching. I love what I do, but I can see that I am getting to the point where I want that next step, that next challenge, the next opportunity.
When I started teaching I decided that every ten years I would reevaluate what I was doing and make sure I was where I wanted to be. 10 years after I started teaching I was at a crossroads. Should I keep teaching or look into becoming a principal. I decided to keep teaching. I still wanted that wonderful opportunity to teach and to learn. To help children love learning. I sat with my principal and looked at all she did and what she had to work with. Politics is in everything, but the politics in teaching is as far as I wanted to go at that point. I know wherever I go and whatever I do there will be things I will not enjoy, but at that time I wanted to work with students. I am glad I did. The next few ideas that came to our district and school helped me tremendously. Professional Learning Communities changed the way I taught, planned, and learned. It also changed the way my students learned and planned. The whole team structure has changed my classroom culture. Now comes the time when I am getting closer to the next ten years. I still love teaching and I will for a long time. But I am now seeing the next teaching opportunity in college. The idea of teaching college students that will teach elementary students gives me an opportunity to share what I have learned with others. To help them have a passion for teaching as I have.
I do have to say that this is a bit scary for my family and I. Starting four more years of schooling is going to be interesting. Two classes a week with homework on the off days. Summers will be short while I head to the University for summer classes. Time with my family will be short, but meaningful. Spending more quality time with them doing activities will be great. Money will always be a factor with school, but we will work it out. I am excited about the learning. I love to learn. The single greatest thing I have enjoyed has been my google reader and twitter accounts. Reading about other teachers and their ideas. Finding ideas from around the world to use in my classroom has helped me be a better teacher and my students better learners. Getting back into school to meet with other teachers and learn more about my craft is exciting.
It will be an exciting and crazy ride. My family and I are looking forward to it and dreading it. But in the end we know that it will help us down the road when my time has come to move into the next stage of my career.
