“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley,
An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!”
English lesson aside (I can’t help it; I’m a former and possibly future English teacher.), I was thinking about this poem earlier. I am in the midst of writing a lot about professional development; in fact, the next 30 or so posts on this blog will likely make up a short, serialized book on the topic. However, as someone who tries to always be transparent, I felt the need to interrupt the planned sequence to let you who have devotedly followed this blog know what is going on.
I rarely get very personal on this blog; I usually try to save the space for my more professional writings. As many of you well know, I do not have a teaching job at the moment. Most schools in NJ start between tomorrow and Thursday, which really leaves me a three day window, after which time I will examine my other options.
There is a very real possibility that I will taking a sabbatical from education of undetermined length. There are a few options that I am considering, including one that would take me away for 6 years and pay off $65000 of my student loan debt.
Over the last year and half, I have become so enthralled with education; with trying to improve my own practice and with helping others, both students and teachers, grow. It is what I live an breathe. I check Twitter when I wake up between 4 and 6 am. After work, late at night, and on weekends, I am constantly interacting about education on social media, reflecting on this blog, reading professional literature, or planning what I want to do with students.
It seems that this has produced a somewhat unhealthy balance. I still believe in the priorities explained in my About Me page, but I have not been living them completely because of how wrapped up I have been in education. Education is still my driving passion, but if I do not get another job in education right away, then it may be for the best. I still plan to stay relatively active on social media and would like to continue working on my writing projects, like the professional development book and my previously started book on techniques for technology integration. So, I will keep my skills as sharp as possible and help educators whenever I am able as I feel that it is so important to support the educators; in doing so, we are supporting our children.
I should hopefully have more information about which direction I will be heading in the next two to three weeks.
* View the poem by Robert Burns in its entirety here.
