Have you ever truly enjoyed something that you were doing?
It could have been watching TV…
or a movie…
or maybe attending a concert…
or even reading a book.
Did you enjoy it so much that you got caught up and didn’t realize that time had passed?
At the end of a television show, you said to yourself, “I can’t believe it’s over already!”
This is the same feeling that we should be looking for when we attend professional learning opportunities.
Instead, many of us are seeking to get out early. I’ve been there.
Sometime as an attendee or even a facilitator, I’ve hoped for a session to finish early. When presenting, I’ve even said, “If we can finish this quickly enough, we can get out early.”
But I think we are demonstrating the wrong thinking.
Why should we want to get out early?
Why don’t we want to stay as long as possible and learn as much as possible in the time given?
Sometimes, it is the topic or content being presented.
Sometimes, we have a million other responsibilities or tasks that we are thinking about.
However, we need to be present.
We need to take advantage of every learning opportunity.
We need to honor the time we are being given to continue learning.
Constantly learning.
Instead of getting out early.
Rich (@RACzyz)
Great post as always! I also fee the same way about counting down the days to a vacation or the end of the year- or dreading returning to school. Everyone loves a nice vacation, but as educators we are sending the message to the public that we have pretty much checked out and that working with students doesn’t make us happy. We have to be careful about our message, and more importantly our mindset!