Teacher to Teacher Initiative

As a stay-at-home mom, I continue to worry sometimes about my passion for the career that I have put on hold. I've written about this before, but with my daily routine now, I have little time to really even think about teaching. And this scares me, because I LOVED teaching before. It wasn't easy, and there were times I hated it, but as a whole, I adored my students, loved creating exciting lessons and delighted in my students' progress. But right now, I feel so far removed from that.

However, the past two days I spent my time at a teaching conference. It's hard to explain the feeling, but the moment I walked into the conference room filled with hundreds of teachers, I just felt a bit ecstatic, energized, and in awe of everyone. I almost felt like I was back "home" again, and I know I wore this goofy grin throughout the day.

When I first signed up for the conference I was very wary about what I might be attending. It was put on by the Federal Department of Education..and their website has that No Child Left Behind symbol posted prominently, so I feared it would be all about how "wonderful" this mandate is and everything would pertain to the "boxed programs" you should be using to raise test scores . Except for the speech given by the Federal Secretary of Education (who brought her own entourage), it wasn't focused on No Child Left Behind at all. It was really just about good teaching, and the workshops were given by some amazing teachers, who created their own units and developed materials to meet the needs and interests of their students. (For any teachers out there, you can access the same workshops via video, for free, and receive profesional development points by going here ).

Throughout the day when people asked me where I teached, I would explain that I taught for 8 years, but I'm staying home right now with my 3 kids, at least for another year. And if the teacher was older, they always told me how great it was that I was with them...that they grow so fast, etc., etc. And I know this, but still......learning all of these new teaching strategies just made me want to run right into a classroom and try them out!!!

And yet, I'm at peace now, knowing that I still have at least one more year before I try to return to a classroom...somewhere. My friend Libby reminded a couple weeks ago that staying at home is not forever. And it really is just a short time when you look at the whole picture.

So I'll continue to love on my kids daily and appreciate the time that I do get to spend with them. But I'll also start making more time for professional reading and workshops as well. So send along your professional recommendations, and I'll add them to my Summer Reading List!!!