With the demands that are placed on educators, a good routine is a necessity to stay above water in many of today's classrooms.  I can personally remember what my classroom routine felt like and how I worked through each day.  I would get feedback from a few people visiting my classroom, spend time exchanging an idea with a colleague at the copy machine and attend training sessions offered by my district.  Looking back to those years, I worked hard, loved the students that I taught, but I did not grow much.  I grew through experience but not through active learning.  I learned in moments and gained experience, but I wasn't curious and I most definitely was not seeking the answers to questions that I had. In fact, I don't think I even took time to reflect and identify questions that I should find answers to. 


Sitting at the closing assembly or our freshman orientation and listening to the principal of our school speak, the words that were meant for our incoming freshman and their leaders left me thinking. "Time is like money, and money is like time...." From a very early age, we hear about investing our money. And why it's so important to start investing at an early age, so that our resources can grow and eventually if done wisely, sustain us in retirement. This lead me to think about the investment of our time.  Specifically, the investment of our time in our own learning and growing. Spending some of our time each day or week, reflecting, asking questions and seeking answers to those questions. Doing this as educators for our own professional growth, but helping our students learn to reflect and question as well. Over the last several years I have found that finding the answer to a question that I have come up with on my own makes the learning personal and relevant.  And the things you stumble upon along the way through collaborating with others generally leads to new questions and learning paths.


I am grateful for the educators on twitter that pose questions, share their stories and resources and help me. I see how the time that I invest continuing to seek new answers makes learning, in general, exciting. 
. 

Last year I started a "notebook" for the year, not a binder but more of a journal of the ongoing projects, to-do lists, professional development notes, and "ideas" for my job.  It's full....it is actually very full.  As summer comes to an end and we begin to gear up for a new year, I realized that it is time to start a new "notebook".  The funny thing about having a "notebook" is that I am one of the most digital people you know.  I have everything on my devices and in the cloud in multiple places. (Sometimes too many places to be honest.) Having all of this information in a format that I simply can flip through and see the progression of thoughts and actions is a neat experience.  Something that I can't really see in the same way on my devices. It's my handwriting, my doodles, my crossouts and it is personal.  I realized this week that it was time to start a new "notebook".  No big deal, right?  Wrong... looking back through my notes, lists, learning moments and to some extent "hopes" over a years period has been very interesting.  I can see things,  tasks that were accomplished, things that flopped, items that I never got to, and ideas that I never acted on. Reading notes from blog articles and personal pd journeys brings back knowledge that I acquired and found interesting and then never used.  The resources that my PLN have led me to are all organized elecronically in Evernote, but my handwritten thoughts are what exist in the "notebook".   The time to reflect and look back through the year has been a gift.  It's full and the year it has served has come to an end. It's time to move on.

My new "notebook" is out and I am  ready to start a new journey in the 2015-2016 school year. I hope to add a section of unfinished business to this new "notebook".  I am excited to see where this year's journey takes my school, my learning, and my growth.