Changes- Last First Day of Undergrad

Courses at the University of Windsor started on September 7th, which means that I had my last first day of my undergraduate degree. Though excited, this ending to the beginning brings me many feelings. I must have said it a hundred times in the last two days: just when I think figured out how to 'university', I have to start again. "How do I apply to teachers college?" "I have to apply to graduate?" "When does that application open?" You never REALLY, truly figure it out, do you? Just when you think you have it...you don't. Just when you get comfortable, things shift, change and grow. I feel like the experience of moving from my undergrad to teachers college speaks truth to the world of teaching in general. As an educator, we can never really 'get comfortable'. We can't just sit with what's safe and do the same old, same old. Like my four year undergrad, every school year comes to an end, and a new year begins with all new students. Every year, things are disrupted. Strategies that worked in last years class may not work with this years class. Interests will change. Learning styles will change. Routines will change. One key concept taught in DrEd is that we need to have the ability to adapt and be flexible to whatever comes at us. If a lesson is supposed to go one way, but begins to sway in another, take it. Go with it, 'YES AND' it, and see where it leads. Likely it changed for the better. Tonight I had coffee with a recent DrEd graduate, and she inspired this post tonight. She said to me that our DrEducation is more than the method. It's a spirituality, a mindset, and something we must always continue to practice. It's something that seeps into every aspect of our lives, IF we let it & if we continue to seek it. Accepting change in life and being flexible is a good example of that, and it's something that I'm working on. As things are starting to change for me in terms of my schooling journey, I'm going to go with it, say 'yes and', and see where it leads as one door begins to close, and another begins to open.

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