I like security! I like to be cuddled up on the couch in my comfy jammies, wrapped in a snuggly quilt, and creating a safety zone around myself! I like the security of a contracted job, locks on my doors and windows, a safe neighborhood, and passwords to my private stuff.
However, I also like to experience wonderful new people, places and activities. What does that make me? An anomaly, I guess.
Here are some risks I have taken in my professional life:
• As a 27 year old divorced single mother, I went back to college to get my teaching degree.
• After teaching three years of 4th grade I was moved to teaching 1st grade.
• I piloted Saxon Math curriculum for my district.
• I changed districts after 14 years because of my desire to have a self-contained classroom and my school preferred me to teach only Reading.
• I was one of the first users of a Smartboard in my school.
• I changed districts again when I found out I could work as a school librarian while completing my master’s degree and obtaining my LMS certification.
• I taught and was the librarian at an inner city school.
• I moved from the inner city to a small country school district to be a librarian.
• I started my own company after being laid off from that little country district because of budget constraints.
My personal life is also filled with risky business, but I won’t go into that. This is just to say, risk SHOULD be your business! Take a risk; try something new, for goodness’ sake! This goes for us “old” teachers too. Deciding that you don’t need to learn that ‘new technology stuff’ is like me hiding under my quilt on the couch. Students take a risk every day learning new things; we should be able to risk new ways of teaching, too.
My favorite quote is “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten”. Change is good.
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