PERSONAL POST

I am retiring.

People have been asking me: "What is your plan?"  I have to tell them honestly that I have no concrete plan.  I do have a friend in Vietnam I want to visit, but I am sure that is not the type of plan they are talking about.  The truth is there is no grand plan.

I really had no grand plan when I started in early childhood over 40 years ago.  I lived it day-to-day and it evolved.  For the longest time, I thought I would only be in my own little classroom happily building sensory apparatus and doing the daily activities with the children.   Back in July 2010, I began to write this blog.  I never fancied myself as a writer and to this day, it is a struggle to sit down to write.  If the truth be told, the blog has given me an outlet to process what I experience in the classroom.  I am just glad other people are willing to read my musings and reflections.  I do intend to continue the blog and I hope to go back to some of my earliest documentation to see how my practice has evolved.  That is a plan.

About the same time I started writing the blog, I started to do presentations and workshops for others on sand and water tables.  Since I had a full time job, I would only do a smattering a year.   Over the course of five years, I have done numerous local, regional and national presentations and workshops.  Two summers ago, I even arranged an UK/Netherlands speaking tour for myself with the help of Juliet Robertson of Creative STAR Learning in which I gave 13 talks and workshops in three weeks.  Will I continue to do those?  TBD.  That is a loose plan at best.  

Also, about the time I started to write and do presentations, I also started to reach out to connect with others in the field locally, nationally and internationally.  If I have one regret, it is that I did not start that endeavor earlier in my career.  Its is hard to keep improving your craft in isolation.  I would like to continue to entertain and expand those connections.  That might be a plan.

Like many things in life it was an easy decision and a hard decision.

It was easy because I am getting older and the daily grind of showing up for work everyday, of getting up and down from the floor innumerable times a day, of lifting children up and holding babies is physically taxing.  When I have a night class, and I have two, and do not get home until 8:30 or 9:00 at night and then get up at 5:15 the next morning for class, I am not as energetic and new aches and pains appear out of nowhere. Believe it or not, being an early childhood teacher is a physical job.

It was also easy because I am one of the few early childhood teachers that has a decent salary with benefits that includes a pension and extra medical benefits after retirement.  All that is because I work for a public school on a teacher's salary.   Some might argue that a teacher's salary is nothing to brag about, but compared to the wages in most early childhood settings, it is significant, especially when you add in the benefits.

Oddly enough, it was a hard decision because of that same daily grind that has become physically taxing.  I have been telling people lately that there is a certain beauty in coming to work everyday.  The routine gives the work shape: the daily chat with the custodian---we are often the only ones in at 6:45---the setting up, the arrival of the children and parents, the immediate plunge into play,  the daily goodbyes, the closing of the room.  That routine keeps me sharp and forces me to keep growing.  Though physically taxing, the daily grind is never drudgery.

Mostly---and I bet you could see this coming a mile away---it is hard because the children are my lifeblood.  They have guided me over many bridges in play and in life.

When I am in the classroom with the children, nothing else matters.  Time, space and materials all flow together as the children inhabit each and every moment.  And I am able to forget everything and be in the moment with them.  And for that, I will always be grateful.

My last day of work will be June 14, 2016.