Teaching is the kind of profession that seeps into all aspects of one's life which means that educators have to strike a good balance to both teach well and live well. I write about this regularly since that balance is always one I'm reaching for, and changes in both my personal and professional life mean that balance continually changes too.
As a young mom, it was particularly difficult to strike that balance given the extensive time-on-task with children at home and at school. There was rarely a moment to myself in those days, and fortunately my husband and I were able to support one another to make the time we needed to do our professional work and care for your young children too. Now with grown children, I have a lot more time, but not quite as much energy as I had twenty years ago. Though I miss that young mom stage, I love the time I have now.
With good time and a focus on digging in deeper with regard to the daily work I do, I find I am more discerning with my time. I don't want to commit to committee work, organizations, or efforts that are not well designed or directed. I've served on too many committees over time that seem to go nowhere or that are not a good fit for the specific teaching/learning goals I have. Instead I want to spend my time on initiatives and efforts that matter--effort and endeavor that positively impact the work I do with and for students, colleagues, and family members.
That work includes considerable reading, research, re-designing, and refinement. This is a betterment stage of my career--a time when I'm improving the day-to-day efforts of teaching well. While these efforts aren't glamorous or ground breaking, they are efforts that significantly improve what I can do with and for students, and they are efforts that do take good time and effort. Hence my professional work now is more singular as I make better with regard to the daily routine, lessons, units, student help, room set-up, and more.
The balance means more dedicated collegial and classroom time while at school, and more energizing, supportive work at home. With regard to outreach, that work includes a lot of online study and connection now, more than real time conference work, yet I will continue to reach out to the local math organization, ATMIM, for good math support and study. I also plan to continue to work with people in district and outside to think about how we might improve systematic patterns and structure to elevate teacher leadership, voice, and choice too as I do believe when teachers are well supported and able to lead their professional work, schools thrive. Onward.
