A Year of Change

2018 was a year of changes for me - and for us.

This year our first grandchild was born in August. As one might expect from a new Nana, she is, to quote Kevin Henkes, absolutely perfect*. And I say that without prejudice.

Along with new grandparenthood is the realization that child-rearing has changed, considerably, in the past 39 years. Learning new ways of doing things can be disconcerting because my Mom muscle memory has proven to be a bit unreliable. And that is okay.

Which actually brings me to this blog and some changes in my (former) professional life. I have been retired for active teaching for nearly four years. Over the last few weeks, my decision to not renew my treasured teaching license - which I have held since 1974 - has been made. While I am a little hesitant about doing this, I know my time as an active educator is gone and that in my new phase of life, I will not be in a classroom.

Classrooms are different in many ways now. Although I am often sorry to hear that education has morphed to be what