Opportunity

Isn't it funny how something simple, something you think will be over and done with just-like-that, can turn into something that changes your life?

Four summers ago, one of my co-workers offered me the opportunity to attend a week-long professional development session over the summer, free of charge.  What prompted her to think of and offer it to me, I'm not sure - I've never asked.  But I attended - and it completely changed the way I thought about teaching and learning.

By nature I am a reflective person, and, if possible, an even more reflective teacher. So having my ideas about teaching and learning challenged so early on in my teaching career was an amazing thing. I was able to solidify and give words to so many things that I knew and felt about teaching - about independence, discovery, and hands-on learning.

Four years later, after being given the opportunity to run the professional development sessions rather than just attend them, I can say that my ideas about instruction, choice, science, and teaching and learning have only grown over that time.
 
As I met with my fellow facilitators today as we reviewed changes to the program and the upcoming Summer, I couldn't help but smile looking around the table. Someone asked why, and I told them that I felt so lucky to have this opportunity. To sit around a table with people who support me and challenge me and teach me and lift me - that's an opportunity not everyone has.

So at the end of the school year, when I'm run down and out of gas and ready for the pool and the sun and anything-but-work . . . I take my couple weeks of relaxation, and then jump back in. This work invigorates me. It challenges me. It is the lifeblood that lasts me throughout the school year. Knowing that I will return to this group, this work, over and over, allowing and guiding others to have the same opportunity I had - it is worth more than I can say.