Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Who Knew There Could Be So Many Definitions of Love

It is February and Elizabeth O'Neal has sent out the email with our February Genealogy Blog Party. Writing Assignment. The topic is LOVE. Hmmm, where will I go with this. Happily she has offered suggestions and allowed us to make the definition of LOVE verrrry broad.  Two of her suggestion struck home with me and so here I am. I am going to combine two of her suggestions that, for me, work well together in telling my 'love story', love of helping others and love of a career.
Additionally there is another kind of love involved and we will come to that shortly. I first began my teaching career in Chicago in September of 1954. I taught at 5thgrade at Nettelhorst School for several years and then retired in December of 1956 to begin my family. In 1967 I returned to my profession. My three children and I all attended daily in the Glencoe, Illinois public schools. They were in elementary school and I joined the middle school staff teaching Social Studies and Language. It was a great place to teach and wonderful teachers as colleagues.

About a year later something new began to creep into the world of education. The idea of Learning Centers or Library Learning Centers. The library was not going to be a books only place. The concept of students working alone or in teams on particular project topics. They would use classroom resources and also come to look for additional materials. Teachers would work with the library staff to find new kinds of resources. Shortly opportunities to help teachers and/or librarians develop ways to implement this kind of learning environment. An age of looking at a new learning environment was just dawning. As we all know few areas change more slowly than schools. I found the idea exciting and started taking courses that could lead to my becoming more involved in the interactive learning environment.



As a result I left the classroom and moved into the newly developing (in our school) Library Learning Center. Moving into the center was an opportunity to work with teachers as they planned opportunities for students to experience independent learning opportunities. By 1973 colleges were developing programs to help teachers and librarians work with newer forms of instructional media. Not just films, filmstrips, books, and overheads. The addition of computers into the schools added another component.

At that point I was back in school again. Learning how to integrate new tools would take a great deal of professional development as teachers look at how the instructional environment was going to change. At this I found one of my true loves; the satisfaction in of helping students and teachers become successful in using these new tools, being a resource person to many. Changing technology made this even more important throughout my professional life.


And so it began. Illinois, along with other states, realized that new development opportunities must be made available to teacher trainers, Opportunities that made them more able to provide local help to classroom teachers. Those of us fortunate enough to become adopters were able to take these classes and taken them back to our schools and also to begin teaching the program to others wanting to move into this area.

And that takes us to the second love on the list.  I loved my work. I loved working with my students. I loved working with my professional colleagues. I loved the chance to work professionally with other organizations designing standards for use of Instructional Technologies.  But the third love come along at this time as well. Technology and the ways it could be used in the learning environment! It was a love affair from the get go. And it still is today.

In 1989 I left the K-12 environment to work at a university that had a Technology in Education. By belief then, and still is today, that you impact more students when you work with teachers. And then came 2003 and 2004. One does begin to realize when it is time to leave the classroom. Unfortunately that also means leaving the professional relationships that come along. I missed my colleagues and the work we did together. I taught online, I introduced my grandchildren , holding them on my lap, to using computers properly. But something was missing.  I had lost my place where I could help others, work with students who were teachers, and work with the new technologies. But then.....

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a moment came where the excitement of learning new ideas, new experiences, and talking with others from whom I could learn and share happened. That moment was my first conversation Bruce Brown, a young man involved in genealogy.  Bruce found me through my father's obituary. He wanted to know why his relative, Rachel Nathanson was buried next to my grandmother and my great-aunt. Life was, and is, good again. I am learning new things all the time. I am working with people with whom I can share ideas and learn from. This February I feel that I am one lucky lady.

PS After about seven years the secret of Rachel Nathanson and my family was solved just a few weeks ago.  But that story is for another time,

 


2 comments:

Linda Stufflebean said...

Congratulations on all your years of teaching. You made a difference in the lives of many students. Congratulations, too, on finding your new love - genealogy. It's very addicting, isn't it?

Marian B. Wood said...

An inspiring story of reigniting your motivation and the love of learning. Thank you for sharing during this month of love!