Reflections on a Career

I spent a five day weekend recently at the Red Cliffs Lodge on the Colorado River up stream from Moab, Utah. It was an outstanding get away from the sometimes hectic day-to-day school life. The lodge was exceptionally quiet...not many people around because of the time of year, and the fact I stayed over through Monday and Tuesday...school teachers often enjoy perks the average working stiff doesn't, so it's hard to listen sometimes when some teachers bitch about their lot in life.

In any case, a nice, quiet time to jog, bike and sit in the sun and meditate and reflect listening to the soothing sound of the river a stones throw from the back patio. I didn't take my laptop because I didn't want to be seduced into working or surfing the web and checking up on e-mails (I had 89 when I got home, mostly spam...). I sat all one afternoon, tossing back a few CFO's and reflecting on my 33 year (34 if you count my student teaching...) teaching/coaching career at Brighton High School. A nice trip back through 'educational technology' time.

When I first started, everything was 'hard copy'...roll was taken by hand, grading and scoring in a notebook, scores added by hand, and grading done in written form and turned in to be processed. Copying of classroom lessons was done on a mimeograph machine...the one that printed everything off in a smeared, bluish color...and that's when you could get to it, because we only had two in the school. Classroom media was confined to overhead projectors, film strip with accompanying cassette audio, and 16 millimeter projectors (when you could get one...we had four for a staff of 80...) that often broke in the middle of a film, if they hadn't already 'eaten' the film...and the films had to be 'ordered' from the District Office media center a week in advance...and if available, you often got them at the wrong time for the unit you were on.

Fast forward to the age of the computer...I bought a used Macintosh SE30 from our then Media Coordinator, and carried it back and forth to my classroom in a huge carry bag...no internet yet, but I COULD use it for some rudimentary methodology and planning...fast forward again when some Health Science funding allowed me to buy a PowerMac for the classroom, our school was laboriously wired for the 'net. It took my computer 15 minutes to bring up the school's rudimentary website and about that much time to access anything on the web...when it was up, which was not often, and not long. We're STILL using 16 millimeter projectors for most media, although the VCR is making it's debut...

Fast forward to today, and our rooky teachers have no clue how easy they have it...computers in every classroom, PowerSchool and PowerGrade, VCR's and TV's in every room, most have laptops and wireless internet connection and Eiki-style projectors for virtually unlimited media access and flexibility...a lot of the veteran teachers won't use because of their fear and distrust of technology.

Well, the learning curve is getting steeper, the technology advancing exponentially, and the stakes getting higher...old dogs are going to have to learn new tricks. As the sun set on the red cliffs and the Colorado, I had to shake my head in wonder...after 34 years, what else is in store in my career...I can't wait to find out.