Summer time, study time!

School’s out for summer! And this year, for me, I mean REALLY out! Time to move on… after 22 years of teaching (19 of which have been spent teaching internationally in Asia!), it is time for a new adventure. I needed a shake up. A big one. So… Africa here I come! So excited (and nervous and a wee bit scared!) to be moving to a new continent! I am also super happy to be going back into the homeroom (Grade 2), and will also have responsibility of Tech Coach for the Grade 2 teaching team. Exciting times ahead.

Summer for me is a time to rest, rejuvenate and mentally prepare for the academic year ahead. As always I feel that I have a lot of learning to do! My problem (which isn’t really a problem at all!) is that I am never satisfied. I like change and embrace it. I like trying new things and get bored if I keep doing the same thing over and over again. I’m never happy with the status quo and always want to improve. Even after all these years in the classroom, I know that I still have room to grow. The way I see it, if I’m not learning, if I’m not constantly trying to improve, how can I expect my students to?

So, this summer I have a fair few books lined up to read… Probably more than I can manage in the next six weeks, but I’ll give it my best shot! I spent my first week of the holiday decompressing and generally just slowing down. Getting used to not getting up at the crack of dawn and running at 110 miles per hour! 

This week I started to read. I have time, I have mental energy. I’m ready. I’ve started with Kath Murdoch’s latest book ‘The Power of Inquiry’. It’s been on my bookshelf for some time, but I’ve been saving it for the summer as I know I don’t want to rush this one.

Already I’ve started… Thinking! I’ve just finished Chapter 4 and already I know that it’s going to be a book that I always keep with me, just like ‘Creating Cultures of Thinking’ by Ron Ritchhart. One that I’m going to be coming back to. A lot! 

The big takeaway for me, at this point in the book, is that I want to ask better questions. Significant, challenging, relevant, interesting questions that will foster my students’ curiosity. 

Looking forward to reading more, learning more, thinking more, and reflecting more here on this blog!

“Questions are at the heart of inquiry” (Kath Murdoch, 2015).