But why leave the classroom? Hint…it wasn’t retirement!

To my class of wonderful students; juniors in high school just awakening to the reality that “adult life” is just around the corner. It was a joyful moment, as you can hear on the video below.

I also taught the seniors. Since we were a new school and had few seniors, I taught all but a very few.

I promised them all at the beginning of the year that I would help them to see the possibilities for that “adult life” that would soon be upon them. I would offer them a curriculum beyond that of “American Literature” and “British Literature,” beyond what the county and the state had in mind for them, and, probably, beyond what they would find in any school in the country. I would carefully construct a bridge for them, from the sheltered life of home and school to the more impersonal and less-forgiving real world.

We had an exciting journey. At the end, they agreed that I had fulfilled my goal. They saw a different reality than the one they’d grown up with and a different possibility. Life as an adult no longer frightened, but presented them an invitation to live their dreams.

(I’ll soon post an article about those “bridge” lessons. Check back…)

Buy why leave the classroom?

I didn’t retire. I’d been in too many school systems for too few years to collect. From middle school to high school, from seashore to mountains, from snow to sunshine. Wanderlust.

But, no. Not wanderlust. Searching.

Where is the right place for me? Where can I really have an effect? When will I feel fulfilled?

I bet you’ve had those questions, too.

Well, I don’t have all the answers. But I can share my journey.

First, I took out plastic boxes of crayons and markers and colored pencils I’d collected for my students and a big, big piece of paper…

Then, I began to draw my life. In detail and technicolor. A vision emerged. And a purpose.

The walled classroom, with whatever old or new technology, curriculum, or teaching strategy, could no longer contain me.

This is my new classroom. This new technology of computer and Internet. This new strategy of connecting through blogs and articles and video. Wow!

I’ve awakened to the life that’s possible for me. I invite you to share my journey.

Judy

www.wildwealthwoman.com