Sometimes I just sit for hours and let the ideas percolate. This happens when new paths are being forged and new ideas are taking shape. I can feel them working in me, and it's hard to relax and rest when this is true. Generally this idea percolation takes place prior to big events such as the start of school, holidays, travel or milestone events such as birthdays, graduations, wedding, and new babies.
So as I try to bring the percolation to fruition, I'm thinking way ahead beyond the holiday season and well into the new year. What ideas are brewing?
It's more of the same, a time for deepening and enriching craft, team, trust, and practice. Unlike a shiny new car, this is similar to a favored painting that becomes more dear over time. In less than a decade when I leave my practice, I want to leave on top which means providing the best possible service to families, students, and colleagues--as I've written about this is a period of pushing in, going deeper, and getting better at the most critical aspects of the teaching profession which are all about engaging, empowering, and educating children so that they continue to develop with strength, confidence, positivity, creativity, and a solid foundation in the basics of literacy, numeracy, knowledge, and life skills.
To reach this crescendo is all about efforts to quiet, build character, listen, observe, read, research, and practice, practice, practice--that's the path toward this desired momentum, and then, perhaps, after that I'll write about it, use what I've learned in a different setting, or venture in other ways--only time will tell.
I've bought a few good books to read as I journey in this direction, and as with any new or renewed journey there's a sense of curiosity about where this path will take me.