New Roads - Old Roads

A few days before Spring break in April of 2013, I learned my contract-position at The Harley School had fallen beneath the budgetary ax and would expire in June. From the day I left the Classroom to become an Educator/Contract worker, I realized I had assumed a tenuous position. Thus, the news was not a total surprise and for the past ten months I have become the 'tree-stands-alone; hi ho the forest-o" as I attempt to discover new directions. I am currently involved in a number of activities all of which suggest future possibilities and draw upon different aspects of the skills and experiences that have shaped me as an educator:

• K-12 environmental teacher/mentor for 25+ years
• technology-early adapter-consistent user
•  educational 'yearner' in the tradition of Seymour Papert - forever looking for another way to define learning, to mentor and support learning for others, to continue learning myself
•  roots as a home schooling parent (largely ignorant of what I was attempting to do) taught me early that a good teacher must be as committed a learner as the best of his/her students
• acceptance that the world today belongs to those younger than me, but if one is respectful of new ways there is still two-way learning to be shared
• forty-five plus adult years grounded in meditation and self-reflective practices that have at long last helped to temper some of my impatience with people who seem willing to float with the times rather than dive beneath the surface for deeper understanding
• a lifetime curiosity about the natural world and  an appreciation that adults can have a key role in providing children with opportunities to explore it
• desire to work with others with whom I have some level of shared interests and goals

On my own
Current positions/activities that captured my time this past year include my fall work as a College Supervisor of Science Student Teachers for SUNY Geneseo as well as the continuing development of the program, Kids Afield, I initiated in September of 2013 with two Harley school teachers (and have written about extensively in this Blog). Our intent was to connect children to nature via digital photography. With the success of the first year's work, we presented the program at the New York State Science Teacher's Convention and the North American Association of Environmental Educators Conference in the Fall of 2013.  connectchildrentonature.wikispaces.com

A half-dozen years ago, I had teacher's mini-epiphany when the cover story of the Stanford Alumnae magazine featured Stanford's d.school. Reading about this program (that was beginning to include K-12 education) was enough for me to regret for the first time in my life that I'd left Stanford after only two year. Had the d.school (dschool.stanford.edu/blog/category/k12/) been around in the late 60's, possibly I would have not been so ready to jump elsewhere for my education. However, the d.school materials did enrich my last years in the classroom where I successfully employed design thinking practices in much of my grade six curricula. As a result, I feel competent to help other teachers bring the elements of design thinking into their programs. Just how to do this, aside from workshop presentations, is a puzzle I am still trying to put together.

Now
For years, a follower of edtech/innovation conferences and discussions via podcasts, I have finally decided to become an online presenter. I presented at 'real world' conferences almost since my first years as a classroom teacher, but never considered being an online presenter.  In part, I want to do this now because I can, that is, I have the time. But, additionally, I want to develop a closer connection to the larger community of innovative educators. Perhaps then for now, my over-riding goal is simply to continue to find new ways of working with others on behalf of others and the environment. And in this way, continue the sense of generativity that made my life as a classroom teacher so satisfying.