Just a
few weeks ago, the timeline of my master’s program came to an end and with it,
the even longer timeline of my formal education (for now!). With that ending,
came the end of my timeline living in Washington D.C. and the beginning of a
new timeline in Philadelphia. In parallel to those timelines, I have been
adding experiences and learnings to my professional consulting timeline, which
has become the main frame for my work in Philly. And of course within each
timeline are smaller timelines, such as Capstone projects or trips
to Senegal, and when I stop to think about it, there
is truly a lot of change, growth, and learning happening simultaneously in
one’s life!
With
that in mind, stopping to think and to reflect is exactly what I want to do.
It’s so easy for one timeline to fade into the next. For me, transitioning from
college to work to graduate school was almost seamless. There was not time (I
thought) to pause and celebrate what I had done, consider
the change I had created through various campus
projects or
to record hopes and goals for moving forward during the actual transitions. I
often take time throughout my timelines to plan in advance, reflect on my
experiences, and think deeply about larger professional goals, which has helped
me bring together my various experiences and studies in early childhood, global
education, and educational technology in a meaningful way. Yet rarely have I
allowed, in addition to that planning and goal-setting, a bit of time for
myself between transitions. Now, with the end of another academic timeline
and the beginning of new professional experiences, I want to make the time to consider where I’ve been, where I
am, and where I’m going next. I want to carve out time that in the past I have
allowed to be so easily eaten up by other priorities (because doesn’t it seem
like there’s always another task to finish, bill to pay, or idea to explore?).
Especially
in our connected society, I succumb to the pressure to constantly
check my email, chat with my Twitter PLN, finish that lingering project and
then start a new one because it’s sitting there on my to-do list or popping up
in my browser and I don’t want to fall behind. But what if we all take time to
put that aside for a little bit and just think about why we matter, about what
we’ve done and where we’re going next? As Angela Maiers says, You Matter, and by “mattering”, she suggests you should
remember (taken directly from her blog):
These eight ideas are a lot
to process, so that’s why I hope to take the next week or so to actively
reflect on each one as I mark the ending of one timeline and the beginning of
another. I hope others can take time to pause and notice their own timelines, big and small, because like me,
you matter and together we can all encourage one another to remember that and
to recognize the value of reflection in times of change.
My Response:
Margaret, congratulations on ending one timeline (your
Masters!) and taking the time to really reflect on it! Like you, I also find
myself struggling to find balance between my online and offline lives. I waver in
Stage 5: Balance of Jeff Utecht’s Stages
of PLN Adoption as I attempt to stay afloat of the most current twitter updates
and blog posts while also finding time to enjoy my garden and sit and relax. In
my teaching, I used timelines with my pre-k students to help them reflect upon and
synthesize their own learning and growth. I appreciate your post in that it
reminds me that using this same mentality with my work, whether on a larger
scale (a semester of work) or shorter (two days with my PLN), taking time to
really focus on me and my own growth can only help me with this balance.
Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment