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Where Half the School Year Went
Taking stock in the middle of a very specific moment
Having gotten my dissertation to the point that there are working drafts of all 5 chapters, the new year brings me a moment (and a bit more space) to take a look through my non-dissertation writing. For the past semester, there hasn’t been much of anything. Actually, there’s only one thing in my Ulysses inbox: A reflection document that I set up at the beginning of the school year and then promptly forgot about. When I say that I forgot about it, I mean that. I have no recollection of writing the one entry that was in it from the start of the year. Though it’s existence, and the topic it spoke to (profound unease about a distasteful pre-year coaching PD that I attended) demonstrate that it was definitely something that I wrote. I suppose this is the way that things went this past semester, with my focus being in a few other, pressing, places, than my personal writing.
I find myself looking at a new year and the remaining half of the current school year with discomfort. Much of this discomfort is due to the current global moment, as the pandemic continues to impact every aspect of life, even here in Singapore where things are as untouched as they probably could be anywhere on Earth. But that’s not all of it. Professionally, I’m happiest when teaching, and I also feel somewhat stuck in my practice. This combination makes me uneasy. On one level, keeping things status quo is precisely what any teacher who is feeling the weight of the current global moment should do to help them abide. On another level, doing things the way they have been done for the last little while is both boring and not aligned with my personal beliefs around what is best for students and for my work with them. This is true from a technical standpoint. The current way I teach is not aligned with larger beliefs around standards-based learning, culturally responsive pedagogy, or NGSS-aligned instruction. It’s also true from my more abstract belief that no course should ever be seen to be “complete” or “finished” in its development. To keep things status quo is both against my nature as a teacher, and the courses that I teach away from approaching a more-realized vision of what my teaching could be.
So, this is where I have been this past semester. Now that the final academic project of my life is wrapping up, I think it’s time to get back to the work of pursuing the kind of teaching I want to do. In as much as I have any resolutions for this new year, and this second semester, that’s it.
And hopefully, I’ll get back to writing more for me, too 🤷🏻♂️.
Thanks for reading. How does this one sit with you? What are you looking to do in your own practice here at the beginning of the calendar year, and the middle of the scholastic one? Drop a line in the various places, or leave a comment.
