The Opportunities of Early Retirement

When I retired as an elementary school librarian in December, I was looking forward to leisurely days of reading, gardening, learning and writing of all my experiences. I wanted to sit by the wood stove with a cup of hot chocolate and watch the snowfall.

 I intended to continue working 19 hours a week at a public library, handling social media,writing newsletters and creating adult programs, but in no way did I imagine I would be doing what I am now:

• Working almost full time at the public library, informally supervising teen and children's programs, and being an event coordinator, in addition to my other responsibilities;
• Teaching short-term classes in technology at the adult education center;
• Teaching productivity software professional development at a Fortune 500 company; and
• Creating or revising courses for online teacher professional development.

I have a couple additional projects (job opportunities)on the horizon, and I have been nominated as secretary of our state library association.

While I didn't plan on any of this, I am extremely excited about all the opportunities that have come my way. It has been interesting viewing librarianship and teaching through these different lenses.  I am very proud to see that my degree and skills are indeed marketable in other areas than the school library.  It is gratifying that my curiousity about all other work experiences are being sated.

By doing this,  my growth as an information professional continues. Professional growth should be an ongoing goal for all of us. I believe these opportunities have opened up for me because of my ongoing professional development experiences.

To my colleagues contemplating retirement, I would say that other opportunities are available, if you so desire, but to be offered these experiences and opportunities, one must step out of his comfort zone and be seen and heard as an information professional, a change agent and a leader in your present position.

One has to believe that his professional opinions have value. One must articulate these opinions and take the lead in negotiating change. Choosing to be a leader opens many doors of opportunity.

As a colleague told me, don't wait to be asked to the table.  Grab a chair and sit down. Get your name out there.

As a school librarian, I did not advocate to call attention to myself.  I advocated for best practices in school libraries and for equality among the counties in my state.  I would like to think this is what got me noticed.

Probably in three to five years I will really retire.  In the meantime, I am learning more everyday and enjoying these opportunities.  If the snow falls heavy one day, I most likely will have the flexibility to sit by the fire and enjoy that hot chocolate.  I hope you can, too.

The Value of Becoming Information Creators

For all we have learned about Bloom and Marzano, we are reluctant to employ higher level thinking skills in lesson design.

Call it assimilation or application of knowledge, or content creation, students show true understanding of content when allowed to create a product of their own design as a formative assessment.  Yet it is a rare thing for teachers on a regular basis to let students design their own assessments.

There are many reasons for this - time being a main issue.  To groom students to be able to work independently or in groups to produce content requires great patience and persistance.  Many might feel they cannot spend precious time of activities that are unorganized.  But organization takes time and practice.  I assert by a third attempt using a consistent approach, students would be well on their way to managing themselves appropriately.

I think another key reason teachers might refrain from this method of assessment is personal lack of understanding of all content creation might entail.  Technology advances quickly, and while most teachers are trained in integration, few practicing teachers have experimented in tools to create unique content for their students. Teachers expect to be the experts and know the how-tos of tasks required of their students.  Teacher professional development is falling behind.

Ironically, in the early days of web integration (ca. 1996-2000), web design for teachers was an important piece of professional development.  But technology moved faster and before teachers were comfortable in designing their own platforms, content providers with premade platforms came along, and the teacher training changed from creation to integration.  Now we must change back.

I firmly believe that teacher-made materials are better for students understanding, because the teacher is the expert in her content area and knows how to deliver that content to her students.  Just as I dislike the end of the textbook test, I feel most commercially produced content only grazes the surface of content a teacher hopes to cover.  By creating their own teaching products and assessments, students are bound to know more.

I am thinking about this because I am in a unique situation: I teach Office 365 classes for teacher professional development and also for corporate staff development.  The demands expected of the corporate clients are much higher than for school personnel.  The reason?  School personnel rely on reusing the works of others within the bounds of fair use (a terribly misunderstood concept), while the corporate world takes no chances and requires original work.  Would it not ultimately be to teachers' benefit to insist that they only use orginal content in their Sways and Mixes?  

In a world that is awash in multimedia, we should ensure that teachers have the skills to best model their expertise.