Recycling this blog for the 2024/2025 School year
One year to imagine, create, reflect and grow.
I believe that there is this magic that can happen in that dynamic space between teacher and student. It is an a-ha moment that takes both by surprise. It is a trust in the other’s ability to lift and willingness to be lifted. It is an unexpected outcome, a satisfying solution or a negotiated agreement. It is difficult to define and often hard to even recognize, sometimes presenting itself years later, where upon reflection it dawns on you that that was a special teaching/learning moment.
That space, though is not just a meeting place in the middle. It is a threshold…a liminal space…where teacher becomes learner and student becomes teacher. Here, that distinction dissolves and allows both teacher and student to hold space for each other, to experience authentic connection, open curiosity and deep learning. This is especially interesting to think about this year as many teachers and students are meeting in the virtual classroom, fostering connection in a new and novel way.
I am both teacher and student this year, straddling that line, occupying that space and exploring how to be better at being both.
This is my blog…my journal…my thinking space.
I have several areas of focus this year:
🌀 I will journal my thoughts and experiences as both teacher and student.
🌀 I will plan and think through engagement with my students.
🌀 I will pursue a healthy lifestyle while doing it.
Journaling
Blogging publicly is only just a little terrifying, but I trust the public to help me grow…cultivating seeds while culling weeds. My goal is to accumulate a written record of my self-reflection and growth this year as both a teacher and a student.
Teaching
Teaching online is not the same as teaching in class. Learning online has new and different challenges and opportunities. Testing approaches, techniques, methods, ideas in class this year is the only way to see if they are viable approaches, techniques, methods and ideas for me as a teacher.
Integrating
I am a career shifter. I’ve spent the past 20 years as a personal trainer, trainer of trainers and first aid/cpr instructor on the international scene. I’ve spent the last year sitting at my computer. This ends now. Finding work-life balance, or more realistically, work-life integration is a priority for me this year. Join me?
From 1998-2020 I was a fitness professional residing in Kenya, Madagascar, Egypt, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines via my husband’s UNICEF career. It was certainly physically challenging to teach Spinning(r) classes and train for races, but nothing has been more physically challenging than heading into grad school as the world headed into a pandemic. I discovered sitting…and have kept sitting since! I’ve never been more sedentary than I have been since March 2020 and it is taking a physical toll on me.
This year…I’m reclaiming my stamina, my strength and my health.
Get in Touch
Do you want to share your teaching stories or wellness journey while teaching with me? I’d love to include you!
If you’re a teacher outside the United States, let’s chat! I have so many questions.
Learning is why. 