So I was feeling very nostalgic this weekend. I had the house to myself and planned to work on some quilting projects I need to finish and watch old movies (80's movies that is, not really old I guess). My Saturday morning started off with my VCR eating one of my favorites. I was distraught! I had my heart set on watching this particular one, bringing back memories of the first time I saw it with my brother when I went to visit him in San Diego, the music bringing back high school memories. I frantically searched Netflix, and you guessed it, not available. Oh the horror! How was this possible, in this day and age that I cannot find it online! Last resort, I went to Amazon and purchased it. It'll arrive sometime this week, but the moment has passed. I'll have it for next time I have free, all-to-me time, along with about 5 others I found, but I'm still a little bummed out I didn't get to watch it Saturday morning.
After I pulled myself together, I switched gears and found something else. This time I chose the "Back to the Future" trilogy. Yes, I watched all three back-to-back. (I have these on DVD) I love the concept of time travel. I loved the series "Quantum Leap", I own all the seasons. I became engrossed in Stephen King's book "11/22/63", I couldn't put it down and hated it to end. I love the what-if of it all. I am completely a what-if person. What-if I had left 5 minutes earlier for school, would I have hit all the green lights driving through Fairmont? What-if I hadn't moved to Iowa, then Minnesota, how many people, that I consider to be some of my best friends, colleagues and confidants, would I not have in my life today? What-if I had not gone back to school to be a teacher, how different would my life have been?
Teachers are always playing the what-if game, only we usually label it as reflection. We reflect on lessons taught, conversations with colleagues, the connections we made, or missed, with students that pass in and out of our classrooms every year. But unlike other professions, after we reflect, we make changes. If we don't like the results, we change our approach. We tweak our lessons, many times on a daily basis. We reach out to those students we didn't make a positive connection with. We learn new technologies to reach students where they're at. We spend our away from school time (aka free time) bettering ourselves personally and professionally so we can be the best versions of ourselves the next time we unlock that classroom door and step inside. I know very few teachers that are not, in one way or another, working to be better than they were yesterday.
Here's another what-if, what-if we didn't do that? There are a certain number of things we have to change because someone tells us we have to. New state curriculum to integrate and align with, new grading systems to learn, new computer systems, new student names, these all happen because the world constantly is changing. I'm addressing the things we do just because it makes us better, just because we want to make our classrooms better, our students better for having taken our class. We take classes, go to conferences and workshops, join professional organizations in our content area, join PLN's, all above and beyond our daily commitments and responsibilities. So many of these things happen behind the scenes, in fact most times staff is not aware when one of our colleagues is away at a conference or training, or that they spend evenings on Twitter sharing and gaining knowledge through a PLN chat (#nebedchat on Wednesdays, 8PM, I'm there!), or when they come in early and stay late to work one-on-one with a student. These are just things we do, for our betterment and our students.
So what-if we didn't do that? This is a what-if I don't want to think about. I don't even want to consider it. Instead I'm going to ask what-if I could find a way to inspire that teacher to do one thing more just because it might make a difference to one person? Can you find that one teacher you can inspire? What-if you could? Imagine the change that might happen...........
Oh, and for those that are still wondering, it was my copy of "St. Elmo's Fire" that was devoured by my VCR. Such a tragedy.
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