Tempus Fugit!

It came to me this morning, in one of those "Where did that come from" moments, that I'm entering my fifth year of retirement! When I had first made the decision to retire, one of the things that concerned me was, of course, what do I do now? How does my role in life evolve as my personal circumstances change? The main thing, for me at least, is how my time is used now compared to five years ago. For thirty-three years my almost daily question was, "What do I do with the kids today?" Now it's more like, "What do I do today?"
One positive change is that I'm now free to pursue my interests in technology and professional development for teachers, without worrying about budgets, comp time, personal days, PO's, sub plans, and all those other things a full-time teaching position carries with it. While teaching, I was able to do one conference a year, not unreasonable, since I took an entire school week for that conference. That has certainly changed since retirement! Last school year I presented at five different educational technology conferences, and this year it could be as many as seven! And, by the way, only two of these are paying propositions. I do it because I enjoy it and I believe it has value. It may sound trite, but yes, it's a way of giving back to a profession that has been a major part of my life.
At one conference a young teacher told me she thought "it was cool that an older teacher was so into the tech stuff." My reply to her was that the "tech stuff", as she put it, was simply another set of tools and that in any undertaking, you don't last long if you don't keep up with the "tools of the trade."
And that's why I continue to do what I do. Retired? Only from the junior high classroom!

I think this post falls into my category of "musings."