Never Stop Learning

This week I celebrated a major milestone in my life - convocation for my Doctorate of Education degree. It's been an amazing, frustrating, fantastic, exhausting, wonderful learning journey. There were days when I was excited to be engaged in such rich learning and discourse and days when I wondered why I was doing this and why didn't I quit? I retired from our board in June 2016, so this degree would have no impact on my employment or my salary.

The speaker at our convocation was Dr. Charlotte Fischer.  She was born in 1929 and received her degrees in Mathematics and Chemistry in 1952.  She went on to study at Cambridge, was the first woman to win an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, has authored over 300 articles in her 50+ years of research. She currently, at age 89, is the Professor Emerita at Vanderbilt University's School of Engineering.

In her convocation address, Dr. Fischer reminded us that with today's modern medicine and health care, we can expect to live very long lives and we must endeavour to fill our lives with meaning far beyond the usual retirement age.

So, even though I have retired from full-time employment with a school board doesn't mean it's time to stop learning and growing. I'm not sure what the future may bring, but I know that my intention is to keep reading, reflecting, learning and writing for many years to come.

Congratulations to my fellow graduates!  It's been a pleasure learning together with all of you for the past three years and I can't wait to see what the future holds for all of us.

Official program from Western University

My bedazzled mortarboard from our pre-convocation reception

The Power of Saying 'No'

When I was thinking about my One Word for 2017 I decided on 'yes' as a reminder to myself to say yes to opportunities and I wrote about in several posts - Saying Yes,  One Word Challenge, and Stay Afraid.  But after having a few weeks to reflect on it, I decided that Yes doesn't accurately reflect my newfound philosophy of challenging myself to stretch out of my comfort zone and try new things that, in the past, I would have avoided due to my own fear.

After reading an article in Psychology Today by Azadeh Aalai I realized that always saying yes isn't really what I want to do.  There is power in saying no to requests and opportunities that aren't a good fit for me or that come at an inopportune time. She writes that "when you're stuck, stressed or resentful a firm  'no' can open up your life." 

In my post yesterday, Retirement Buffet I noted that there are so many things that I can say yes to now that I'm retired - creative endeavours, going to the gym, taking courses, writing, and presenting at conferences.  I also want to spend more time with my girls, my dad, my extended family and of course, travelling with my husband.  But in order to say yes to all of those things, I have to say no to some things or I'll be stretching myself too thin and not enjoying any of them.

So instead of yes I've decided that my One Word for 2017 will be stretch. I'm stretching myself outside of my comfort zone academically by submitting writing proposals to journals and publishers and submitting presentation proposals to conference committees.  I am stretching myself physically with a renewed gym membership and I've already signed up for a 10K in the spring and the Detroit International Half Marathon in October 2017.  And I'm making time to stretch myself creatively with new things like knitting and sewing.  I may even start painting again!

How is your One Word for 2017 working for you so far? If you'd like more information about OneWord2017, you can search Twitter or follow the links in this post. 

What's in a name?

Previously this blog was titled Leading In Education but, after some reflection, I have changed the name to Opening Doors for Learning.  Why?

When I started this blog, my intended audience was other 'leaders' in education - teachers, ECEs, librarians, administrators, professors - anyone who guides and supports others in their learning.  But that hasn't really captured what my learning has been about and the title didn't reflect where I am currently in my learning and practice.

Since retirement, I've spent time volunteering in a Grade 3 classroom and I'm learning so much from the teacher and from the students.  Recently, I've been invited to participate in a collaborative inquiry project with some kindergarten teachers who are looking at ways to support Syrian refugee children who have arrived in their classes.  I've also been taking online courses for my Doctorate program through the Western University (formerly the University of Western Ontario) and learning so much from the other participants in my classes as well as from the professors and the readings.

In addition, I'm taking an online course on Self-Regulation through the MEHRIT centre and learning so much about self-regulation in the five domains.  Again, learning from the videos, the reading, the supplementary materials and discussion with other participants has been amazing.

So Opening Doors for Learning is about other educators opening their doors, deprivatizing their practice and allowing me and others into their classrooms to learn alongside them and their students.  It's about opening our minds to the idea that we don't have it all figured out and that there is always something new to learn.  And the door also represents that this new learning may lead to someplace new and unexpected.  We never know what might be behind the next door.

(image from http://antiquesdiva.com/antiques-diva/a-door-to-provence)

Next steps

When writing report cards for students, we conclude each subject area with 'next steps.'  The Ministry of Education in Ontario has recently released Growing Success: The Kindergarten Addendum which addresses Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting and it states that  Next Steps in Learning refers to ways in which the child can move forward in developing knowledge and skills, in relation to the overall expectations, both at school and at home. Developmental stage, learning trajectory, and/or other individual processes of learning should be taken into account when determining next steps in learning.

Since we believe that as educators we need to think about next steps for learning for students, I think we also need to think about our own next steps. At different times in my career, I have had to reflect and determine my next stage and learning trajectory.  Staying at the same school in the same grade assignment doesn't fit my restless nature.  I've been fortunate to teach a range of assignments in a range of settings - from open concept school to a classroom in a portable out by the parking lot.  I've taught in urban, suburban and county schools; in small schools with barely 200 students to large schools with over 800 students.  I've had my own homeroom classroom, taught 'rotary' when I was the primary literacy teacher for 14 primary classrooms, and then moved on to work at the board level.   I worked as an instructional coach for primary math and primary literacy - travelling from school to school supporting teachers and administrators with implementing balanced literacy, small group instruction and hands on mathematics. 

Taking a group of educators to Fighting Island for Outdoor Education 

Facilitating conversations during in-school collaborative inquiry

After school math workshop - doing the math!

At the end of this month, I will be retiring and moving on to my 'next step.'  Only 7 more work days and then I will be moving forward to new learning and a new stage.  I am only one year in to my studies at UWestern on my Educational Doctorate, so there will be that new learning and I intend to continue to teach online for Queens.  I wonder what other new learning will be part of this next stage?