Well it’s been one heck of a year and a very steep learning curve. I hope I’ve been able to make some impact on teacher practice and student learning. I think back to this time last year when I was so apprehensive about becoming a learning coordinator and wondering if I’d made a mistake. I really liked being in the classroom. What was I doing?

This time last year, there was only one thing I knew about teaching. I liked the kids. Not all the time. Not every day. But overall, I really liked the interaction with my students and getting the feeling that in some small way I’d made some kind of difference for at least one or two of them.

But there wasn’t anything about teaching that I could say I was really passionate about. I wanted to do an action research project but I had no idea what my topic would be.

The best thing about this year is that it opened my eyes to so many things about which I am now passionate. As I go back and read my posts (or as @R_O_Y_A_N calls them, “rants”), I realize that without this year, I would have never discovered that I find adolescent literacy fascinating and that I think I now know how I could have helped those poor kids in my Work Internship class two years ago (sorry guys!). I would have never reconsidered my old ideas about assessment and evaluation. I wouldn’t have believed that differentiated instruction was really practical or necessary and don’t even get me started about technology!

In the past, I feel that I knew all the right things to say, but I didn’t have the passion or interest to stand behind those things and now I do! I decided back in December that as great as this opportunity was, I belong in the classroom. Down the road, I might consider applying for a job like this again, but I really feel like I need to get some more experience under my belt before I can do a great job supporting other teachers. I’m about to join the English department at a new school (having only ever taught in one school!) with a year of incredibly rich professional development behind me and a PLN I never had just a year ago. I really hope I’m able to apply everything I’ve learned to this new job placement. But I also hope I’m able to give myself permission to not try to change everything at once and drive everyone around me crazy in the process!