Throughout my career as an educator, there have always been decisions to make about the direction I would be heading. Did I want to be a high school teacher, a middle school teacher, an ESL teacher, a language arts teacher, a Spanish teacher, a reading teacher, a dual immersion teacher...? As I started to gain more experience and completed my coursework for a reading endorsement, I started to think about my next step for academic growth. After debating about whether or not it was the "right time" yet, I ended up deciding to begin coursework for an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Boise State University.
And questions still linger. What do I want to do long term as an educator? I thought about literacy leaders such as Nancie Atwell, making me think that maybe I would want to be a language arts teacher for the rest of my career. I love watching videos of Atwell interacting with her students. I thought about others, such as Kylene Beers, and thought about how I might want to be a professor or researcher. Leaders such as Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz came to mind, so I thought about the power of being a coach/in a support role position. Penny Kittle made me think about the possibilities to blend a variety of aspects. And all of them made me think about wanting to eventually write my own professional development books.
Thinking through multiple possibilities, it finally hit me that there are so many ways to make an impact in education. For so long I was seeking the "right" decision, but I have realized that there is more than one right decision. It is about embracing whichever position I am in and making an impact.
Along my journey to this realization, I would often read the background of authors of professional development books. Yet, I was left wanting to know more, wondering how they chose their current positions and what they loved about their career. From these thoughts, I got the idea to start a series on my blog, Celebrating Educators.
The purpose of Celebrating Educators is for various educators to share about their journeys, as well as highlight what they love about where they are at right now in their careers. At this point I am not sure how long I will be able to run the series. I will post on Tuesdays; however, there may be weeks when I do not have a new post yet. I am very grateful to all of the contributors who took the time to share their powerful stories.
Enjoy!
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