It is an interesting turn of events that has kept me from posting here the past few months. Will Richardson pegged me correctly at a regional conference in Evansville, IN when he said, "You have a blog, but you don't write regularly, and you feel guilty about it." Guilt as charged, Will.
I haven't made this blog a place to discuss personal matters, and yet personal matters have come to affect my focus and content. In this past three months I have moved from a position as a middle school administrator at Scottsburg Middle School to the Director of eLearning at Five-Star Technology Solutions, which is a technology integration and management company in southern Indiana. In addition, I am the Strategic Partner to the Indiana Department of Education's Office of eLearning. Yes, my world has turned upside down, but in a good way.
Yet, as I sit here the evening before school begins again for my own children and former students, I feel quite a tug. This will be the first August in many many years where I haven't followed suit with millions of kids and started my first day of school for the 30th time. This year I am missing the new clothes, new shoes, new backpack, stress pimples, and terse Hellos and How was your summer...s. I am missing them and also missing them. It is the greatest and worst time of year, and it is thrilling and devastating to watch it as a spectator.
My efforts to live vicariously through my own children were dashed when they told me I would NOT be walking them into their classrooms on the first day of school. If this is the attitude at six, then I fear for 13. My last hope is to live through my wife's wonderful descriptions of new students, sore feet, and heavy eyelids at the end of the first student day.
If you are an educator, then as a spectator I cheer you on, and might even try to follow you to your desk with my enthusiasm. Just politely close the door before I make it into the room. I get it. My six year old has already put me in my place.
I share this not to downplay my new role and efforts. They are grandiose in scope, and I have the opportunity to shape the educational system in Indiana through my work with my company and the IDOE. There are initiatives I am working on this year that I couldn't be prouder of or more excited by.
Yet, I won't open one jammed locker, or comfort one sniveling 6th grader, and for that (this evening at least) I mourn.
I haven't made this blog a place to discuss personal matters, and yet personal matters have come to affect my focus and content. In this past three months I have moved from a position as a middle school administrator at Scottsburg Middle School to the Director of eLearning at Five-Star Technology Solutions, which is a technology integration and management company in southern Indiana. In addition, I am the Strategic Partner to the Indiana Department of Education's Office of eLearning. Yes, my world has turned upside down, but in a good way.
Yet, as I sit here the evening before school begins again for my own children and former students, I feel quite a tug. This will be the first August in many many years where I haven't followed suit with millions of kids and started my first day of school for the 30th time. This year I am missing the new clothes, new shoes, new backpack, stress pimples, and terse Hellos and How was your summer...s. I am missing them and also missing them. It is the greatest and worst time of year, and it is thrilling and devastating to watch it as a spectator.
If you are an educator, then as a spectator I cheer you on, and might even try to follow you to your desk with my enthusiasm. Just politely close the door before I make it into the room. I get it. My six year old has already put me in my place.
I share this not to downplay my new role and efforts. They are grandiose in scope, and I have the opportunity to shape the educational system in Indiana through my work with my company and the IDOE. There are initiatives I am working on this year that I couldn't be prouder of or more excited by.
Yet, I won't open one jammed locker, or comfort one sniveling 6th grader, and for that (this evening at least) I mourn.
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