Watershed

My retired life has veered in the weeks I've been away.  In fact, the other day, I marked a watershed.  

I’ve let my subscription to Educational Leadership lapse.    The professional journal that has shaped my pedagogy for decades of my career as an educator will no longer be part of my life.  I’ve closed a door.  Well, maybe I’ve left it open just a crack to accommodate occasional stints in the classroom as a substitute teacher if I’m needed.  Still, the cancellation of my membership in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, which publishes the periodical, does confirm the fork my life has taken in the past few years.

The signs have been there for a few years.  After I retired from the classroom, I kept up the professional reading as a consultant.  Now, though, since September, mostly disconnected from the education scene, I pile the periodicals, or worse, never remove the plastic.  The membership books, too, are stacked, spines uncreased, covers smooth, pages pristine.  Even worse, the titles don’t entice me any more.  Fostering Resilient Learners, or Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most, or Authentic Learning in A Digital Age—in years past, these titles would have called me until I opened them up. 

It’s impossible to underestimate the influence this periodical has had on my professional growth.  When it arrived in the mail, I would pounce on it, primed to devour the morsels that would nourish me as a teacher.  I’d sit with it during breakfast, the cover folded under, highlighter in hand, post-its at the ready.  Not without considerable guilt, I’d shear off some lesson-planning time  to integrate the wise words of the pedagogy gurus.   

Among the nuggets all that professional reading gave me, I highlight

·  assessment, plain and simple, the fundamentals of assessment for learning and sound grading practices; 

·  the characteristics of star teachers to reflect on, all the more fascinating because I’ve never considered myself a part of any such group;

·  rich tasks, meaningful work for students, authentic processes that mirror the adult world;

·  the form and power of feedback;

·  coaching know-how;

·  communication tips;

·  mathematics games (see 2048).

Membership in the organization directed me to transformational books, some of which are:

·  Summarization in Any Subject by Rick Wormeli

·  Never Work Harder Than Your Students by Robyn Jackson

·  How to Create and Use Rubrics For Formative Assessment and Grading by  Susan Brookhart

·  Learning Targets by Connie Moss and Susan Brookhart

·  Totally Positive Teaching by Joseph Ciaccio

·  Grading Smarter Not Harder by Myron Dueck

Now, though, my reading record lists Ryan Holiday, Gregory Boyle, David Frum, Chris Hedges, John Ralston Saul, as well as some fiction, in both French and English.  It’s best, then, to read between the books and understand that I’m entering a new period in my life that’s not dominated by pedagogy.  Imagine.  A world where I’m not thinking 24/7 about how to create effective and differentiated learning situations.

The suprise might be that I’m good with that.  I don’t feel regret, or wistfulness, or nostalgia. I didn’t cry as I shredded the membership renewal notice, nor as I filed away the last EL issue, nor even as I transferred the recent ASCD books from my current library in my office to the book depository shelves downstairs.   I’ve veered off in a different direction.

Time to subscribe instead to the Folk-Harp Journal.