Tonight I attended my very first class in my doctoral program. Even on the drive there, I asked myself, “What in the world am I doing?” I think part of me felt like the photo I have to the left. But here I am. I expect excellence every single day in my classroom. I teach and model mistake making and how important it is to learn from your own errors. I expect my students to take on challenges. I expect them to learn with and from each other. It seemed only logical that if I expect this level of work from my students, I had better expect it from myself. As I look toward narrowing down a research project for my dissertation, I am excited. I don’t know that the whole “writing a 100 page paper” part excites me. But, the part that thrills me is to think that all of the research, all of the reading, all of the note-taking, all of the hours thinking and reflecting about gifted education will mean improvements in my own teaching, my school’s program, and the education of students who come through it. So, I will choose instead to focus on the power of change in the future and not the 100 page paper that lie ahead.
100 pages….. kids getting the education they deserve…. yeah, it is absolutely worth it.
