Tomorrow I give a mid-point presentation on what I've accomplished thus far in my Fulbright experience. Some of the things I won't be saying, but that are just as important:
I've learned that life is better with Jen in it. I mean, I already knew that, but in case ya'll had any doubts, she's a catch. It has been hard to be away and I can't wait until she gets here in a few weeks. She's made a lot of sacrifices for me, making my time here easier and making it a priority to join me for the second half. I feel so lucky to have her.
I'm also feeling anxious to get home and start figuring out what our life will look like in MN. I left Utah last June, but I still don't really feel at home in MN. I need to make some friends and get beyond the point where I need to google map every place I go.
The other big thing I've been reminded of is that I can't help but want to be involved in education beyond the classroom. I don't know what that will look like or if I can pull off finding a job of that sort via skyping-from-NZ interviews, but in the near future I want to be doing more than teaching. I love teaching and I hope I can find a position that will allow me to combine it with other responsibilities outside the classroom. As of today, I think my dream job would be teaching and heading a social studies department. Or coaching teachers. Or being an assistant principal, but still teaching a class.
The schools I've been in here in NZ haven't been perfect, but they will definitely make it hard to go home. So many of them remind me of SLCSE in terms of the freedom given to teachers and the relaxed atmosphere for teachers and students. I don't know how I'll survive going back to a huge, bureaucratic, loud, stressed out school where people freak out if you need to use the restroom during class or want to use your prep period to run an errand. Or get angry if you're not standing next to your door every second between classes. Or make you write PD goals that are fill-in-the-blank, with bizarro efforts to make them quantitative. Obviously, I've done it before and I can do it again, but long term I have no interest in working in that type of system. I want to work at a school I believe in.
I've learned that life is better with Jen in it. I mean, I already knew that, but in case ya'll had any doubts, she's a catch. It has been hard to be away and I can't wait until she gets here in a few weeks. She's made a lot of sacrifices for me, making my time here easier and making it a priority to join me for the second half. I feel so lucky to have her.
I'm also feeling anxious to get home and start figuring out what our life will look like in MN. I left Utah last June, but I still don't really feel at home in MN. I need to make some friends and get beyond the point where I need to google map every place I go.
The other big thing I've been reminded of is that I can't help but want to be involved in education beyond the classroom. I don't know what that will look like or if I can pull off finding a job of that sort via skyping-from-NZ interviews, but in the near future I want to be doing more than teaching. I love teaching and I hope I can find a position that will allow me to combine it with other responsibilities outside the classroom. As of today, I think my dream job would be teaching and heading a social studies department. Or coaching teachers. Or being an assistant principal, but still teaching a class.
The schools I've been in here in NZ haven't been perfect, but they will definitely make it hard to go home. So many of them remind me of SLCSE in terms of the freedom given to teachers and the relaxed atmosphere for teachers and students. I don't know how I'll survive going back to a huge, bureaucratic, loud, stressed out school where people freak out if you need to use the restroom during class or want to use your prep period to run an errand. Or get angry if you're not standing next to your door every second between classes. Or make you write PD goals that are fill-in-the-blank, with bizarro efforts to make them quantitative. Obviously, I've done it before and I can do it again, but long term I have no interest in working in that type of system. I want to work at a school I believe in.