Welcome to my first post ever!

Well, here I go and I ain't taking any hostages except you, the readers!

I am not new to education and education is nothing new to me. I began my teaching career as some of the latest and greatest technologies were about to be relegated to the Smithsonian. Does anyone remember you could make copies by simply turning a hand-crank? The crank was attached to a spirit duplicator. I remember it was as much fun as my mom's old fashion ice cream machine but instead of a frozen dessert you would end up with beautifully blue inked copies. I also remember breathing in the lovely smell of a freshly minted page, it would take me back to my days as a third grader, when after lunching our wonderful teacher passed out worksheets for us to complete. We would all settle down into our chairs, taking deep breaths of the aroma wafting off the paper. I am not sure what was in that spirit, but it did the trick, calming us down so we could refocus and start into our afternoon writing assignment.  Smelling it for the first time after all those years as I began my new teaching career was like a rite of passage for me. Like my 3rd grade teacher, I now had the privilege of making the dittos and it was me who was handing them out to a room full of rambunctious kids transitioning from lunchtime recess.

After 12 years of teaching, I left the classroom to pursue life outside of a school building. I wanted to live in the world that we busily try to prepare our students for. For the next 10 years, I had very little to do with education. Instead of using my creative talents to educate, I used them to renovate old houses and in turn, sell them to renovate my bank account. Things went splendidly well for me but after a while, I started thinking about what real impact I was making in the world. All my home renovations would one day be tired and someone new would be coming along to demolish and replace all that I have done, just like I did to the worker before me. I wanted to begin making lasting change again, you know, like that time I was a teacher . . .

Someone said to me that I belong in the classroom and three years after jumping back into teaching, I have to say I agree. Every day for me feel monumental. Everyday seems feels like I have written a new symphony. It is exhausting work. Gone are the 2x4s whose only communication with me were the occasional splinters. Now I have the privilege of working with young human beings who enter my classroom and, in this classroom, you will not find one lightly scented blue inked ditto, not a one! Instead, my students are greeted with a blueish glow of the new ditto master, a computer monitor, from which they can access endless content that could never be replaced with dittos no matter how fast I cranked!