Professor Sharon

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53 and a duck

April 9th, 2014 · 100 Days Project, College students, Education, family, Grandparents, Musings, My Goals, retirement, Work

Now that the announcements has been made of who has earned the title Professor Emeritus at my college, I have to admit I am disappointed that one of them is not me.  I knew it wouldn’t be; even if simply that it requires 15 years of service, and I only have 14 years in.  I guess I was dreaming that someone would write a heartfelt letter that I was responsible for the accreditation of our department, and for the work I did with students.  It was a dream; and as we all know, many dreams never come true.

Yet, as I feel disappointment, I  am proud of the work I’ve done on behalf of those students.  A constant devotion and time spent in one to one meetings, negotiating deadlines because I knew they could do it, but with a pregnancy and another young child, a single mom sometimes  just can’t make that deadline for that assignment.  The stories of these students trying to better their lives is endless.  I know I’ve made a difference.

In the end, it is my own heart and soul that reward me for my life’s work.  Like gramma said, “It’s water off a duck’s back, honey.  And you’d rather be dry anyways.”

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54 and inspiration

April 8th, 2014 · 100 Days Project, Musings, Quote of the Week, retirement, Work

“I always say, ‘Don’t retire — inspire,'” Rooney said in an interview with The Associated Press in March 2008. “There’s a lot to be done.”.

Great inspiration this morning!

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59, 58, 57, 56, 55 and a cold…

April 7th, 2014 · 100 Days Project, Musings, My Goals, retirement, time, Walking, Work

Somewhere these past five days flew.

It might have been the spring finally arriving.  After a really cold, cold winter, the weather is slowing warming up, and I found myself enjoying the outdoors with lots of walking to town to run errands, see art, and just walk.

It might have been the cold – in my head that is.  I found myself fighting a cold starting a few days ago.  I spent the time in between time walking and being outdoors trying to get extra rest and even took a nap (something I’m not inclined to ever do by choice).

It might have been the amazement my brain is experiencing about the fact that I have free time.  I took what is called Work-Life Balance this academic year – some weeks it’s been obvious I have more time, but actually, most of the time, it hasn’t felt like it!  But this past week it really did give me space  and time – both to enjoy other activities away from my desk, and in my brain.  I’ve been thinking and talking alot about what will I be doing my time when I am retired?  I have lots of ideas.  We shall see what the answers will be.

It might have been that I’m getting better at not focusing and worrying about meeting deadlines!  This blog is, of course, a deadline I’ve set myself.  Thinking about retiring has already taught me that there will be deadlines, and many of them, that will be different, if they even exist.

It might have been I just wanted to do what I wanted to do for five days…

 

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59 and tiredness

April 3rd, 2014 · 100 Days Project, Musings, retirement, time, Work

I’m looking forward to being tired for a different reason.  ‘Nuf said.

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60 and teacher education

April 2nd, 2014 · 100 Days Project, Children, College students, Education, Musings, My Goals, retirement, Teaching & Learning, time, Work

Today, as I stood on a playground (thank goodness I chose my winter coat and gloves today) observing a student teacher, I did feel sad at this part of my work that I will no longer do.  I estimate that I’ve been part of upwards of 125 early childhood teachers educational journeys.  It’s certainly more if you count all the students with early childhood at their major; I’m just counting those students who were in my capstone course at the end of their Associate’s degree program.

I’m proud of that.  One of the reasons I gave for pursuing my doctorate was so that I could have more impact on the world of young children.  I reasoned that I could stay working with little ones, and impact a couple of dozen in a year; but that if I went into teacher education, I could multiply that by hundreds.  And, this semester, really has demonstrated to me, often and in large and small ways, that that reasoning did come to pass.

And, I will miss that, a lot.  I’ve really been inspired by these pre-service teachers dreams and aspirations for their lives and the lives of the children they will work with over the years.  I’ve asked them endless times to reflect on who they are in the lives of children, and ways they can become advocates.  I’ve been frustrated and angry, more times than I can count, about the state of the industry and the fact that policy makers don’t give a damn about what research says about young children’s needs.  But, somehow these young teachers give me hope to rise above the frustration, and keep going.

I will keep going.  I already have in mind a number of ways to continue to try to improve the lives of our youngest citizens – I shall miss very much this particular way of doing that work.

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