One More Year

Week 21 (of 38) – February 11-15, 2019

As the dust begins to settle and we approach reading week (so that I can catch up with my work), I made the executive decision with my little family to sign another one year contract with the university. It wasn’t a difficult decision. Although I am living away from my little family and enduring winter weather I have never experienced before, I am enjoying the work at the university. I am meeting a lot of great people (i.e. students, faculty, and K-12 practitioners), I am honing my craft, and I am learning a tonne about teacher education and leadership. I really enjoy working with the students and being a part of Education Club in addition to contributing to the university and school as a member of the BEd and MEd Program Renewal Committees. As I learn how to become an academic while staying very close to the K-12 system, I am gifted with unsolicited help from colleagues and opportunities that I would not normally be a part of if I was in K-12.

You just don’t know what you don’t know unless you try. This is a longstanding mantra for me. I often would give this advice to others, but it certainly applies to me. You can guess… you can hypothesize… you can anticipate and make predictions. But truth? Who really knows, unless you try? I guess you could call this a “growth mindset” or “experiential learning” but for me, it’s an opportunity for me to learn, test my boundaries, and determine what I am capable of. This is pretty exciting. The more I learn, the more questions I have. This the BEST place to be. Be CURIOUS, WONDER, and CREATE. I’m pretty sure that my very first school principal, Bev Terry, could easily tell me my potential from when she first met me in 1994. I never asked and I’m still figuring this out. Self-assessing one’s self-efficacy is challenging, but I’m enjoying the journey. JUMP and take risks. I am so lucky to teach, learn, and lead at UNBC. Looking forward to another year.