Endings and Beginnings

So, here I am at the end of my 32-year teaching career. It seems odd to type that. No, it seems bizarre to type that. At the end of this calendar year, I will be retired. Can I afford to be retired? Oh, heck no. I'll have to work; more on that in a minute. But my span as a full-time teacher will have come to an end, with all of the planning and data and testing behind me. I still plan to hang around. I'll be in classrooms substituting. But I won't have the day-to-day responsibilities that make the job work instead of fun.

I offer on this blog reflections on my career. Things that have come and gone, and things that have come back again; things that worked, things that didn't, and things that never will. One of the myriad impressions that I wish to change is the idea that older, more experienced teachers are all burned out; not all of us are. Some of us are still working all the time to improve and adapt to changing times. And from long experience, we have knowledge that just might be valuable to younger people just entering the profession. Don't worry, kids, we already know you think you know everything. We knew everything once too! And the more experience we got, the less we knew everything.

As I make the transition into professional development both as a former educator and a comic book creator, I also offer reflections on my life in general. I have led an interesting life, and a colorful one. I will include passages that may be troubling for some to read. I suffered from child abuse, and one of the things that helped me survive was comic books. I will write a lot about them, and what they have meant to me personally.

Come follow along as I stroll down Memory Lane on the path to Future Street!