I had just finished my Master’s degree and was doing corporate training for Executrain of St. Louis.  I enjoyed the job but something didn’t seem right and, after lots of discussion and fretting over what to do, I reentered the educational arena and went back to the high school I had left a few years earlier to teach kids.  This wasn’t an altruistic type of career change and it wasn’t because I thought that I’d enjoy it more.  My return to the classroom was for purely selfish reasons.  I wanted more time with my kids and I wanted make education better for them.  Since then, every move that I make has been dictated by that goal.  My involvement on the NCTE Executive Committee, my work with NotK12Online, my move to my current school district (where my kids will also attend) was all based on my desire for their educational experience to be as rich and productive as possible.

Five years ago that seemed like a great reason, but it was a reason that I couldn’t really see and actually picture.  I can see it now.  This fall my children will be starting Kindergarten.  They will be starting on their edcuational experience.  It makes me wonder whether, in the last year and a half, I’ve made enough of an impact on the teachers in my district.  Will their creativity be stifled by walking in single file lines or will they thrive in an environment in which they have choice and are taught to question?  Unfortunately I can’t say for sure.  But I now have a different lens.  One through which I look at every teacher I work with and ask myself whether I would be satisfied with my kids in their classroom.

My reasons for being in education today are selfish.  I want the best for my kids.  I recognize that and have come to terms with it because if it’s good enough for my kids, then, in my mind, it’s good enough for everyone else’s kids.  Would I have approached the classroom differently if I had had kids when I began my career?  Absolutely.  Now, as I work with teachers, I have a completely different (and I think better) approach than I would have had before my kids were born.  It’s a perspective that keeps me up at night, but one that makes me work harder.  Hopefully, my work is making a difference, not just for my kids, but for all kids.

Starting next week I will be offering a salary credit class (1 full credit will be earned through this class) based on the K12 Online Conference, a virtual conference with presenters from across the world.  The class will meet 3 times from 4-6.  The other sessions will be on your own with participation in a Moodle discussion forum.  Finally, participants will create their own virtual “presentation” in response to or inspired by one of the sessions that they watched.  These presentations will then be posted to NotK12OnlineConference.org to be viewed by others.  I will be available to help with the technical side of the presentations as well as working on generating ideas for them.  The idea behind the class is to engage in the greater conversation about education and look outside Parkway for teaching strategies and instructional practices.  Many of the sessions will focus on using technology in the classroom but they are not limited to that

Each participant will write reflection and keep a log of the sessions attended. The final face-to-face session will be a facilitated discussion about what was learned, the benefits of the conference, and the next steps for those involved in terms of taking their learning back into their classrooms. Additionally, participants will create their own digital presentation in response to or sparked from one they saw on the K12 Online Conference. These presentations will be submitted to the NotK12OnlineConference (http://notk12onlineconference.org) for use by others.

I’m looking forward to the conversations around this.  I’ll keep you posted.

Taken Directly from Bud Hunt’s blog at budtheteacher.com.