The Tortoise and the Hare

Quotes are cool.  Or, at least, cool quotes are cool.  Take this first one as a case study.

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."

-Alan Cohen

I love this quote.  I feel that it sums up my first twenty years as an educator.  When I think of the teacher that I was in those first few years, I cringe at what I naively thought was good teaching.  I suppose we all do this when we reflect back on our humble beginnings.  With a lot of mistakes, reflection, and the good will of my students, I've managed to evolve and (I sincerely hope) become better at what I do.

But, man, oh man, has it been a slow process.  Everything I embrace today as a teacher, I rejected upon my first encounter.  At times, I feel like I must be moving at a snail's pace.  Annually I confess to my students that I'm not a fast thinker.  I like to take my time.  I mull over ideas.  They get put on the back burner of my mind and left to simmer.  I guess that's just how I process.  And so, the quote above really does frame up my journey as a teacher.  The transitions are sometimes scary, and I'm not always sure where I'll land when I make that leap.  But it's also exhilarating every time I make the jump.  The energy I get from these moments of transition are valuable fuel for me as a professional.

I was fortunate enough to hear Dylan Wiliam speak a few years back, and he talked about teachers and the moral imperative to improve.  I had never heard it phrased in such a way, but as soon as he said it bells were going off in my head.  Change is not always easy, but it IS necessary.  As Dylan Wiliam said that day, do you want to be the first year teacher in your twentieth year of teaching?  

What I've come to realize is it doesn't matter if I am the tortoise or the hare in this race, as long as I'm still in the race - that's what matters.  A teacher who is too busy to change won't be a teacher for very long.  

And so, tonight, as I type my first blog post I have realized something important.  Am I too busy to start a blog?  Honestly, yeah - I probably am.  Should I do it anyway?  Yeah, it's time.

I better wrap up with a cool quote.

"Ideas are useless unless used. The proof of their value is in their implementation. Until then, they are in limbo." 

-Theodore Levitt